Classic Symmet

[doczizi]

I haven't posted in a while mostly because I had undertaken a lot of large, complex (for me) projects and I kept getting discouraged because it didn't go as planned.

This weekend I decided to go back to simpler things just so I could start and finish a project and feel some sense of accomplishment. That worked and really helped make me want to go back to those harder robots glaring at me from the workbench, halfway finished.

I started with a classic Symmet model. I had never made one and I always found them strangely elegant.

I'm happy with this even if I wish it was a little more powerful. Seems like the small solar cell coupled with that mini-cassette motor is just enough to make it move around a little at a time.

Still, it's done and quite good looking, if I may say so myself...

Here's the diagram. It is closely inspired by something I had seen in an excellent book called :"Junkbots, Bugbots & bots on wheels".

Here are a few close ups of the underside. As you can see, I soldered the components to each other and the capacitors to the motor itself. I had to use a file and really scuff it good to make sure it would stick.

Since the flashing LED is sensitive to light and this whole thing is meant to be left in the sun, I decided to hide it in a small piece of foamcore. I love foamcore and tend to use it for a lot of things. You can see the final result here.

I also added a small piece of heat-shrink tubing to the motor's spindle (or whatever that thing is called), to give it a little more traction. 

 

I hope that helps!

This is definitely one of the simpler robot designs out there. Very elegant and hard to screw up. I reccomend it strongly for first timers and youngsters. As I mentioned, this really helped make me feel a bit better about my recent failed attemps. It was an easy win and ended up pretty cool.

Enjoys the sun, twitches a bit and rolls around in a very lazy way.

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This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://community.robotshop.com/robots/show/classic-symmet

[doczizi]

Thanks for the words of

Thanks for the words of encouragment. And hearing that he performs in a manner that is statistically average makes me feel a bit better…

I used 3x4700uF caps for it. I was tempted to go for some smaller ones I had but the bright blue color swayed me. I had made a bunch of different solar engines through the weekend and this one uses a flashing green LED. Not the most efficient but it worked. The motor … I can’t remember where I got it from, might have been solarbotics but it is the motor from a mini-cassette player. I added a bit of heat-shrink tubing to the spoke to give it a bit of grip.

[lumi]

I like those Symmets and

I like those Symmets and yours looks really clean build.

However, would you mind to add some schematics and tips how to build it? I know, it’s basic lesson but some of our newcomers would really aprecciate it so they can just start from here without having to google the schematics somewhere else.

[doczizi]

Thanks for the kind

Thanks for the kind words!

You’re absolutely right to ask and I intend to put more info as soon as I have a minute. I just put this page up quickly at lunchtime, from work. 

 

[doczizi]

Done!And please let me know

Done!

And please let me know if you have more ideas on how to improve the way I post these creations.

[lumi]

Very good, thanks. Yes I

Very good, thanks. 

Yes I know the hurry, sometimes it just gets me too. However, if you introduce your projects and you want people to re-build them, you might add as much pictures, schematics, PCB layouts, code…just all the stuff you want to see if you want to build something.

Oh, i forgot the priority one. Videos. People on LMR, called LMRians, are dying for videos. A project without videos are just not complete (That part you already fullfilled)