What I want to do is this: I have a basic bicore hooked up to a vibration motor. He kind of flops around, but it isn't totally random. Anyway, I was wondering how I could power him with some solar cells that I have without using a solar engine. If that's possible, I would really like to hear some ideas.
Oh, forgot to mention, not
Oh, forgot to mention, not only am I totally new to this site (joined 2-21-2012), but I have only been doing this hobby for about a month. I have a general idea how most components work and what they do. I have next to no knowledge of microcontroller programming (I can’t afford them anyway), but I do know a teeny bit of VB, HTML, and DOS. So please, please, please explain everything really well. sorry for being a noob and all.
If you combine enough solar
If you combine enough solar cells together to get the required voltage and current to power the circuit directly, then no solar engine is needed.
The solar engine (and similar circuits) collect energy from the solar cells until there is enough to power the rest of the circuit for a bit. Using a solar engine allows you to keep the circuit working in bursts even though the solar cells aren’t putting out enough power to run it continuously, such as when the light level is a bit low, or the solar cell array is too small compared to the power demands of the circuit.