RCCrawler Forums

rcmaniac24 · 09-07-2009, 03:09 PM

hi everyone, i am thinking about turning my crawler into a solar powered rig for my high school senior project, think its do-able?

rcmaniac24 · 09-07-2009, 03:26 PM

or even partially solar powered

Jkelley · 09-07-2009, 03:54 PM

I would hate to even respond. I dont know crap about solar energy. I guess my question is do you expect it to produce as much power as it draws or are just planning on useing solar panels to charge your batterys after every run.

Jkelley · 09-07-2009, 03:57 PM

I would guess the 2nd idea would be a little more doable than the first. but you could always find a way to hook up the panels to the batterys so while your running it could charge the packs a little and maybe increase run time considerably

rcmaniac24 · 09-07-2009, 04:07 PM

i was just hoping for a little longer run times. like maybe have the solar panel feed into the battery or something

rcmaniac24 · 09-07-2009, 04:13 PM

yeah thats definatly what im looking to do

Jkelley · 09-07-2009, 04:13 PM

yeh, like i said i'm not sure about what would be involved. But i do think its a really good idea.

rcmaniac24 · 09-07-2009, 04:19 PM

yeah i think it would be a pretty cool senior project to do, but im just trying to learn more about it so i know what im getting myself into

Jkelley · 09-07-2009, 04:20 PM

I've seen small solar panels at auto parts stores such as advance, autozone, and o'reilly. that hook to your battery while you go in somewhere and it supposed to charge it. If it were me and i'm not telling you to get killed or anything. but "I" would charge my packs runn'm till they die and time it. Then I would charge them and take the two leads from the solar panel's and hook them to it and run'm again. If it lasts longer then BAM you've got a Hybrid crawler....kinda. BUT if they explode you want have to worry about making a solar crawler cause they want be one there. Instead of Mythbusters you could call it CRAWLERBUSTER's.

rcmaniac24 · 09-07-2009, 05:24 PM

yeah thats exactly what i was thinking! if i could make it last just a minutes longer then normal i could call it a success haha! but im just tossing the thought around right now, is it possible to hook it up to my battery and have the battery plugged into the esc at the same time?

Jkelley · 09-07-2009, 05:53 PM

dont see why not. Thats where the explosion comes in. It could be possible or it could not work. But like always said on the forum........NO VIDEO, IT DIDNT HAPPEN.

DonsATV · 09-07-2009, 06:11 PM

You might be better off asking over here.

Don't forget to let us know how it turns out.

minisaba · 09-07-2009, 06:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rcmaniac24

hi everyone, i am thinking about turning my crawler into a solar powered rig for my high school senior project, think its do-able?

I have some experience with solar panels and its a great idea. But in order to operate a crawler on solar energy is most probable that its not going to work. Do to the fact that a crawler draws a lot of energy at times. Maybe if you build a small little trailer you can maybe have it build for solar panels. One thing that is most possible is you charging your regular battery with one solar panel, but am sure it would take some time in the sunlight to charge. Don't try to charge lipo batteries. Another thing you can do is have the battery always have some charge in it by having the solar panel always attached to it. This are just my opinions and thoughts.

92PathSE · 09-07-2009, 06:53 PM

Does it have to be on the crawler?

If not, you could build a charging station with a solar panel on top and a normal 12VDC battery charger inside as well as a 12v car battery. This way you could use a larger solar panel. Mid 90s Civic batteries are somewhat small and might work great, although I'd use a deep cycle marine battery that can be cycled more times reliably if you plan on actually using this for a while.

Either way, in order to find out what you would need, decide on what kind of rc battery and charger you are going to use. Then you can figure out roughly what size solar panel you'll need to charge the rc battery or the charging station thing if you go that route.

In the end, I don't think you can fit a large enough panel to the top of a 1/10th crawler for it to extend the battery life if you still plan of wheeling it ;)

I'm very interested to see how it turns out though.

rcmaniac24 · 09-07-2009, 09:19 PM

Thanks for the replies, i think i would be kind of set on having the solar panel on the car its self, but i found one that is 8.5 x 12 inches, what i would hope to achieve is to have it connected to the battery itself to see if i could add even alittle extra battery life. and also make it detachable so i can still go bombing through rivers, mud and let it roll all the way down hills without damaging anything haha

jcboof · 09-07-2009, 09:35 PM

Ok, I'm not gonna burst your bubble here, But here's my take. I come from an alternative energy background, ie. Solar, wind, battery power business.

The type of panels that you would need to even add a few minutes to your crawling time would cost ALOT of money. Not to mention bigger than the crawler itself!

Most Small solar panels are only capable of producing very small amounts of current. In the 25 to 50mah range, That means if you have a 1000Mah pack, It would take around 20 hours to charge it!!! I've been able to find some smaller 1 watt panels. 1 watt at 17VDC is about 1/17th of an amp. Most motors will draw between 10-20 amps while running.

If you do the math you will see that it is just not feasible. Not saying that you could not eventually find something to work but its just that it would cost ALOT of money and you'd have a HUGE panel on the crawler that would only net you maybe seconds more run time instead of minutes. And that is only if there is optimal sun exposure. even a twig or tiny shadow on the panel can be enough to reduce the charging rate by half!!

rcmaniac24 · 09-07-2009, 09:51 PM

hmm alright thanks for the reply jcboof. that kinda those a kink in the idea.. anyother suggestions on what i could do to my crawler to make kind of more unique then?

stewbaru · 09-07-2009, 10:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rcmaniac24

hmm alright thanks for the reply jcboof. that kinda those a kink in the idea.. anyother suggestions on what i could do to my crawler to make kind of more unique then?

NITRO springs to mind.
gearing down a 37K rpm motor to run a crawler would be an engineering feat!.

I'd give you an A for sure.

monkeyracer · 09-08-2009, 07:43 AM

This almost reminds me of a thread on another forum about a guy that wanted to put solar panels on his rc car to make it run longer...

here's the thread:

Solar Panels

This has become my favorite thread ever in recorded history.
It's a long thread, but a good read. (There are actually little chunks of good information in it.)

Basically, there isn't enough current capability to do any good.

If you want to do something unique to it, make it a quad motor, or Motor on Hub design. There have been a few ideas kicked around about it, it just comes down to getting the electronics to work.

If it's a budget senior project, then maybe you can try to make a moon buggy out of it, and build a small course that is supposed to resemble the surface of mars, and call it the next generation mars rover. (You could incorporate the solar panels, because that's how those batteries would need to be charged...

rcmaniac24 · 09-09-2009, 04:55 PM

ahh hahahah that is soo funny! that kid is so dumb omg. i think im going to keep looking into this... even if it won't work i can stilll pretend it did and fake the teachers out and it will look cool...

09-07-2009, 03:09 PM	#1
rcmaniac24 Rock Stacker Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: shoreline Posts: 61	solar powered rig hi everyone, i am thinking about turning my crawler into a solar powered rig for my high school senior project, think its do-able?

09-07-2009, 03:26 PM	#2
rcmaniac24 Rock Stacker Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: shoreline Posts: 61	or even partially solar powered

09-07-2009, 03:54 PM	#3
Jkelley Quarry Creeper Join Date: May 2008 Location: Hartsville, SC Posts: 461	I would hate to even respond. I dont know crap about solar energy. I guess my question is do you expect it to produce as much power as it draws or are just planning on useing solar panels to charge your batterys after every run.

09-07-2009, 03:57 PM	#4
Jkelley Quarry Creeper Join Date: May 2008 Location: Hartsville, SC Posts: 461	I would guess the 2nd idea would be a little more doable than the first. but you could always find a way to hook up the panels to the batterys so while your running it could charge the packs a little and maybe increase run time considerably

09-07-2009, 04:07 PM	#5
rcmaniac24 Rock Stacker Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: shoreline Posts: 61	i was just hoping for a little longer run times. like maybe have the solar panel feed into the battery or something

09-07-2009, 04:13 PM	#6
rcmaniac24 Rock Stacker Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: shoreline Posts: 61	yeah thats definatly what im looking to do

09-07-2009, 04:19 PM	#8
rcmaniac24 Rock Stacker Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: shoreline Posts: 61	yeah i think it would be a pretty cool senior project to do, but im just trying to learn more about it so i know what im getting myself into

09-07-2009, 04:20 PM	#9
Jkelley Quarry Creeper Join Date: May 2008 Location: Hartsville, SC Posts: 461	I've seen small solar panels at auto parts stores such as advance, autozone, and o'reilly. that hook to your battery while you go in somewhere and it supposed to charge it. If it were me and i'm not telling you to get killed or anything. but "I" would charge my packs runn'm till they die and time it. Then I would charge them and take the two leads from the solar panel's and hook them to it and run'm again. If it lasts longer then BAM you've got a Hybrid crawler....kinda. BUT if they explode you want have to worry about making a solar crawler cause they want be one there. Instead of Mythbusters you could call it CRAWLERBUSTER's.

09-07-2009, 05:24 PM	#10
rcmaniac24 Rock Stacker Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: shoreline Posts: 61	yeah thats exactly what i was thinking! if i could make it last just a minutes longer then normal i could call it a success haha! but im just tossing the thought around right now, is it possible to hook it up to my battery and have the battery plugged into the esc at the same time?

09-07-2009, 05:53 PM	#11
Jkelley Quarry Creeper Join Date: May 2008 Location: Hartsville, SC Posts: 461	dont see why not. Thats where the explosion comes in. It could be possible or it could not work. But like always said on the forum........NO VIDEO, IT DIDNT HAPPEN.

09-07-2009, 06:11 PM	#12
DonsATV RCC Addict Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: United States of the Offended Posts: 1,184	You might be better off asking over here. Don't forget to let us know how it turns out.

Sponsored Links

09-07-2009, 06:53 PM	#14
92PathSE Quarry Creeper Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: West GA, USA Posts: 280	Does it have to be on the crawler? If not, you could build a charging station with a solar panel on top and a normal 12VDC battery charger inside as well as a 12v car battery. This way you could use a larger solar panel. Mid 90s Civic batteries are somewhat small and might work great, although I'd use a deep cycle marine battery that can be cycled more times reliably if you plan on actually using this for a while. Either way, in order to find out what you would need, decide on what kind of rc battery and charger you are going to use. Then you can figure out roughly what size solar panel you'll need to charge the rc battery or the charging station thing if you go that route. In the end, I don't think you can fit a large enough panel to the top of a 1/10th crawler for it to extend the battery life if you still plan of wheeling it ;) I'm very interested to see how it turns out though.

09-07-2009, 09:19 PM	#15
rcmaniac24 Rock Stacker Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: shoreline Posts: 61	Thanks for the replies, i think i would be kind of set on having the solar panel on the car its self, but i found one that is 8.5 x 12 inches, what i would hope to achieve is to have it connected to the battery itself to see if i could add even alittle extra battery life. and also make it detachable so i can still go bombing through rivers, mud and let it roll all the way down hills without damaging anything haha

09-07-2009, 09:35 PM	#16
jcboof I wanna be Dave Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: I miss Rowdy Posts: 2,238	Ok, I'm not gonna burst your bubble here, But here's my take. I come from an alternative energy background, ie. Solar, wind, battery power business. The type of panels that you would need to even add a few minutes to your crawling time would cost ALOT of money. Not to mention bigger than the crawler itself! Most Small solar panels are only capable of producing very small amounts of current. In the 25 to 50mah range, That means if you have a 1000Mah pack, It would take around 20 hours to charge it!!! I've been able to find some smaller 1 watt panels. 1 watt at 17VDC is about 1/17th of an amp. Most motors will draw between 10-20 amps while running. If you do the math you will see that it is just not feasible. Not saying that you could not eventually find something to work but its just that it would cost ALOT of money and you'd have a HUGE panel on the crawler that would only net you maybe seconds more run time instead of minutes. And that is only if there is optimal sun exposure. even a twig or tiny shadow on the panel can be enough to reduce the charging rate by half!!

09-07-2009, 09:51 PM	#17
rcmaniac24 Rock Stacker Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: shoreline Posts: 61	hmm alright thanks for the reply jcboof. that kinda those a kink in the idea.. anyother suggestions on what i could do to my crawler to make kind of more unique then?

09-08-2009, 07:43 AM	#19
monkeyracer I wanna be Dave Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Golden Posts: 2,588	This almost reminds me of a thread on another forum about a guy that wanted to put solar panels on his rc car to make it run longer... here's the thread: Solar Panels This has become my favorite thread ever in recorded history. It's a long thread, but a good read. (There are actually little chunks of good information in it.) Basically, there isn't enough current capability to do any good. If you want to do something unique to it, make it a quad motor, or Motor on Hub design. There have been a few ideas kicked around about it, it just comes down to getting the electronics to work. If it's a budget senior project, then maybe you can try to make a moon buggy out of it, and build a small course that is supposed to resemble the surface of mars, and call it the next generation mars rover. (You could incorporate the solar panels, because that's how those batteries would need to be charged...

09-09-2009, 04:55 PM	#20
rcmaniac24 Rock Stacker Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: shoreline Posts: 61	ahh hahahah that is soo funny! that kid is so dumb omg. i think im going to keep looking into this... even if it won't work i can stilll pretend it did and fake the teachers out and it will look cool...

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