Hi, I am trying to make a car with my teammates. A small one to race with. According to the rules, I can only have 1 panel and motor. Car must be powered solely from the suns light.
I am trying to figure out which gear combo to use. A small powering a big gear is powerful and a big gear powering a small gear is really fast but requires more power. Would a small gear powering a big gear powering a small gear be fast AND powerful? Any help choosing the gear combo would be highly appreciated. Thanks in advance!
Hi,
This is called Engineering. Not Guessing.
You need to know what voltage and current your solar panel puts out, and will the 'race' be in full sunlight.
Then you need decide what motor to use, and how it matches (or not) the solar panel.
Then you need to understand the motor characteristics like rpm with different applied voltages and loads.
Then you need to decide the size of wheels, and what gear ratio is appropriate.
We will not do Guessing for you here...
This car also uses an arduino for testing. Is there a way to make the car go really fast using only a 2 volt max solar panel and a motor? The wheel will be rubber and size will be decided depending on the gears. The load is an empty soda can. Has anyone ever done something like this? Thanks.
Would a small gear powering a big gear powering a small gear be fast AND powerful?
No! Having extra gears in series only wastes energy through the added friction.
Power, or the amount of work being done, is equal to speed times torque (p = n x t).
You can increase torque, the rotational force, by making the gear ratio higher - but this comes at the cost of speed, which decreases. You car starts out fast but ultimately, it is speed limited.
You can increase speed by decreasing the gear ratio but this only lowers the torque which slows the acceleration rate. Lower it too much and the car doesn't move at all.
So, hopefully you can see that since power is the product of speed and torque, no matter what you do with the gear ratio, power cannot be increased. The best you can do is to start slow, with lower torque to ultimately go faster.
Have you a a free choice of motor or are you required to use a specific motor? If the latter please post a link to the datasheet for the motor.
If you have a free choice of motor you should be aware that many of the small DC motors are available with different internal windings suited to different voltages and, unfortunately, it is not usually obvious which is which.
For a low power motor drive it is extremely important to minimize friction - especially friction in any gearing you may be using. Testing with a single AA cell can help to show up differences in friction.
...R
A little complex perhaps but a centrifugal variable pulley with a belt drive would give best for start and top end speed.
bluejets:
A little complex perhaps but a centrifugal variable pulley with a belt drive would give best for start and top end speed.
How much energy would that consume?
...R
Robin2:
How much energy would that consume?...R
No idea. As all of it is experimental, I imagine it would be a " suck it and see" arrangement.
Since this is a low powered solar car, I would say the best thing to do is NOT ADD WEIGHT. Make it as light as possible.