Alt-BEAM Archive

Message #04139



To: beam@sgiblab.sgi.com
From: Bob Shannon bshannon@tiac.net
Date: Tue, 01 Jun 1999 22:38:35 -0400
Subject: [alt-beam] Re: Another BEAM Creation...



Chiu-Yuan Fang wrote:

> I think you mean a D1 solar engine.

I think the D1 has a problem here...(have not tried the PM1 though...)

>
> Chiu
>
> Evan Dudzik wrote:
> >
> > um i would be using another SE because the PM1 would charge in the day
> > and the photopopper would run during the day. at night the PM1 would
> > discharge back into the photopopper's cap, just like the solar cell
> > would usually do, making the robot move for a few hours after dark.
> > _________________________________________________________

To do this you will need to charge the PM1 cap to a voltage that is higher
than
the photopopper's trigger voltage, or the photopopper will lock up. (Using
seperate
'feeder' cells for this is easiest, but you loose some of the emergent
behaviors...)

This is why I used an NPN phototransistor and PNP switch on Vore-n-more,
which
does exactly what you describe. I lost less voltage between the big energy
storage
cap and the photopopper SE's with the PNP than with the 2N7000 circuits.

If you want to run for hours after dark, your going to need a much higher
voltage
in reserve, and/or very large capacitors (>10F).

Sorry about the "annoying" MicroMo post Evan, I had missed the .PDF file....


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