Pollution is a big problem on our planet. Something we can use to help stop pollution is a solar car. I am going to show you how to make a solar car in a few easy steps.
Step 1: Materials:
- Solar panel (6V mini)
- 2 Drive Motors (2400rpm)
- Pulley (for the 3rd wheel)
- hot glue
Step 2: Attaching the Cardboard to the Solar Panel
Measure a peice of cardboard to the size of the side of your solar panel, Then, cut it out and hot glue it onto the solar panel at a 90 deg. We are doing this so the cardboard can hold up the wheels (the Drive Motors).
Step 3: Putting on the Drive Motors
Take your 2 drive motors and put them on the sides of your solar panel with a hot glue gun. Make sure that the drive motor is also glued to the cardboard strip. Also, make sure that the top part of the drive motor is fully off of the solar panel and does not hit the cardboard otherwise it will not work.
Step 4: Putting on the Pulley
Hot glue gun your pulley to the side of the solar panel that does not thave the drive motors. The pulley will act as a third wheel for the solar car. I decided to print my pulley from a 3d printer.
Step 5: Soldering the Wires to the Solar Panel
We took a multi meter to check were the solar panel was getting power. I found were it was and solder and taped my wires to it. I had to reverse the left wheel because of the way the motor turns, so I reversed the wiring. I solder the positive wire to the positive(cathode) solder point and the negative wire to the negative(anode) solder point.
Step 6: Conclusion
In conclusion, I learned a lot about solar cars and solar panels. If I would make this again I would make sure that the Drive motors both turn the same way. I think that my model turned out better than expected, but can still be improved. I faced a lot of problems, such as: I lost my pulley, my drive motors were broken and my solar panel did not come with the piece that I needed. But, after a lot of trial and error I found solutions to all of the problems.