Built this little guy for a mate of mine. The main housing is from a speaker set designed to plug directly into a small MP3 player. The base is a machined aluminium tape head from an old-school VHS player. As far as behaviour goes, TemPoe tries to align its solar panels with the strongest incoming light to keep its cells charged. The 2 LDR photocouples on the back allow for light tracking, while a single LDR inside the case monitors ambient light levels so TemPoe can 'sleep' if there isn't enough light available. TemPoe also monitors the output voltage of the 2 photovoltaic cells, which is used to determine whether or not to go to sleep.
Actuators / output devices: LEDs, piezo speaker, 1 x GM17
Control method: autonomous
CPU: PIC16LF628A
Power source: 2 x AAA NiMH cells, 2 x SZGD5433 photovoltaic cells
Programming language: Assembly
Sensors / input devices: 2 x LDR couples, 1 x LDR single, 2 x photovoltaic cells
I find that reading is an effective tool to gather information while staring at text.
TemPoe tries to align its solar panels with the strongest incoming light to keep its cells charged. The 2 LDR photocouples on the back allow for light tracking, while a single LDR inside the case monitors ambient light levels so TemPoe can ‘sleep’ if there isn’t enough light available. TemPoe also monitors the output voltage of the 2 photovoltaic cells, which is used to determine whether or not to go to sleep.
I wanted to be able to make I wanted to be able to make retro 8-bit sound effects with TemPoe so I used a PIC, but if you’re interested in minimalist sun-trackers you should check out some of the ‘BEAM’ head robots - particularly the 2DoF design which are quite impressive.
