Papillon Solar-AirBot (Captured Edition).
@ May 17, 2009
- Control method: Suspended Aerial Track Way - Mechanical Changeover Switch to Reverse Motors
- Power source: SolarCell 6.7V 31ma
- Target environment: Table Decoration, Ice Breaker, Curiosity piece, Out-Doing the Neighbours
Papillon Solar-AirBot. Update Venus Solar powered TrapBot.
Summer is approaching - Butterflies magically emerge to catch the lift of the warm air.
This SolarBot Flaps to the challenge and takes to the Air.
The Power is supplied by a SolarCell wired up as a Miller Solar-engine.
Its wings are powered by a locomotive style piston arrangement.
In this Video you can see the Totally Automatic Solar Powered Venus FlyTrap (aka Venus Fly TrapBot) catching Papillon whilst she flys over it quite unsuspecting.
The Trap is activated by movement detected around the base off the Lethal Gripping Leaves.
There is a mechanical Limit Switch to switch of the FlyTrap when it is fully closed.
Miller Solarengine :-
37x33mm SolarCell 6.7V & 31mA
0.47 Farad SuperCap
4.7µf Timing Capacitor
1381 C Trigger 2.1V
2N3904 Transistor
1N914 Diode
Solarbotics SCC3733 Module
The Wings are powered off the drive wheel of a 81:1 geared Pager motor.
The loco-motive Piston type arrangement gives a 2cm linear-vertical movement - cool for the realistic wing upstroke.
The Piston is a Cable-Tie, its flexible and slips easily over the metalwork.
@ Sat, 2009-05-23 23:27
This is so cool, Gareth!
@ Sat, 2009-05-23 20:37
once more: brilliant
It's beautiful Gareth. Not really a fair battle (like the trp cares!), as its giant leaves double as sun blockers for the dangling photocell of the butterfly.
To make the fight a bit more fair, you could place the trap's photocell inside its leaves. When they close, it takes aways its own energy. That might actually help to automatically release the butterfly again. Somehow.
@ Thu, 2009-05-21 19:06
cool!
cool!
@ Tue, 2009-05-19 10:29
Awesome. I'm anxious to see
@ Mon, 2009-05-18 06:26
Perfect - When are you going
@ Mon, 2009-05-18 09:34
Yes its not complete without a Petrol (Petal) station... LÖL
"Neat idea" - "Petal Station" .....Unleaded.........
When i have finished the "changeover switch" the actuating arms at the "Pit Lane" could be concealed in a "live" flower (lightweight tissue-paper)....cooooool.
It would be very simple to make an opening Solar-Flower ........ my goodness LMR should really open up a factory to make things like this.......Get your Soldering irons out..........
@ Tue, 2009-05-19 15:07
Petal Station - Schematic - Solar Driven
Here is a schematic of proposed "Petal" Staion.
It will be Solar Driven using Miller Solar Engine.
The output will drive a secondary "Orange" cog to slow the movement down.
Locomotive drive "Blue Shaft" giving by my calculation 2-3cm vertical linear motion.
The "purple lines" maybe thin elastic (not sure or just cotton) so there will be a little "give" or "feathering" when it folds together.
These will then pull down the "Green" levers close-ing the Petals on the Down stroke and opening on the UP stroke of the "Blue Lever".
The "Black" thingies on the "Red" ring are pivots.
(-: Paper Grid is 4mm² :-)
@ Tue, 2009-05-19 19:59
must be deflation
Four mm, I ask you! tisk tisk
Perhaps the opposite end of the track could have a Venus Fly Trap design. More of a Dark Side of The Force kinda thing. Sensing when the butterfly touches it, trying to close its arms around the flutter before it gets a chance to flee again.
@ Wed, 2009-05-20 15:26
Venus Fly Trap
It was only until i was cycling to work this morning that i twigged what a venus fly trap was Duhhhh. i was confused with the other one --a "pitcher pot" fly catcher that they drop into...... anyway...
Not such a bad idea - at least there would be two extra interesting interactive goals :- who would be stronger - have to "mull" over the mechanics - the switching should be straight forward (but also random hehehehe)
@ Sat, 2009-05-23 19:42
Venus Fly-TrapBot Released and captures Papillon
Here is the First contender - Thanks for impulse rik...........
Blogged Here with Video - maybe i make a separate Bot entry
@ Wed, 2009-05-20 15:52
pics and puns
Just this once, I neglected to google an illustration... Shame on me then.
Here is one to make up for it. It's the nerdiest photo I could find.
I think this is the one you were thinking of. Not as mechanical, but still exciting. It's the least pornographic photo I could find.
@ Mon, 2009-05-18 00:07
What a whimsically
What a whimsically imaginative creation! Something like this would add interest to my garden railroad. Have you had any undo interest from your local bird a squirrel population?
"Nelly's your aunt" & "Bob's your uncle"? Do you come complete with explanatory glossary?
@ Sun, 2009-05-17 12:22
Absolutely 5 star man !this
Absolutely 5 star man !
this setup is 100% from your brain or did u get some inspiration around the web?
@ Sun, 2009-05-17 12:33
From my Brain and Sunburned arms
Yes it came from my Overcooked Braincells - i was out in the sun to long.
It has taken me the whole week waiting for the Sun to come out and Film.
You are a bit luckier being further south with more Sun ...........
Next to hit the Track will be either a Lizard or a Dragonfly or Grass-hopper.
@ Sun, 2009-05-17 10:26
Absolutely brilliant!!
@ Sun, 2009-05-17 07:18
Beautiful
@ Sun, 2009-05-17 09:29
Big Vote For Green energy - time to throw out my battery clocks
Make a clock into the base ...... a Solar-Sundial Clock - time to get out the paper pens and shadow-pointer and the calibration begins........
@ Sun, 2009-05-17 02:25
Nicely done! Much more than
Nicely done!
Much more than the standard vibrobot flutterby
@ Sun, 2009-05-17 02:05
That is a great little solar project!
@ Sun, 2009-05-17 01:18
Any Ideas - How to reverse the power to Motor on a Solar engine
How can i make a lightweight "mechanical" automatic changeover switch to reverse the polarity to the solar-AirBot pager motor.
An electronic solution would have to draw off the solar supply too (not so stable) so i would favour mechanical ideas.
@ Sun, 2009-05-17 02:04
How automatic?
@ Sun, 2009-05-17 09:25
Mechanical Dead-Band
I would like to run it on a long fishing line down the garden.
When it reaches the far end of the garden then it would "somehow" change the polarity of the motor and come back to start point and go through the cycle indefinately.
Both the Positive and Negative leads would have to switch over .. ie two-pole switch (i think)
The changeover i recon has to be "Quick" as i guess the moment it tries to change-over... the power to the motor will stop (and it will get stuck in space....dont know only a guess) - i am hope-ing it will have a little momentum to carry it over this "Deadband".
@ Sun, 2009-05-17 11:05
Down and up again
@ Sun, 2009-05-17 12:35
Yes it does climb
Because the drive wheel is made from a hard rubber it grips the fishing line quite well and the wire even better.
We have super sun this afternoonso i will make some measurements.
Not sure how to measure the Lux though.
@ Sun, 2009-05-17 17:06
Gradients max 45° wow Swiss cable-car engineers look out
Made some measurements:-
Time-ings are measured for 1 Metre
o° incline 10 seconds / Metre (Flat Track)
18° incline 24 seconds / Metre
27° incline 45 seconds / Metre (max angle using Nylon Fishing Wire, without slipping down again)
35° incline 70 seconds / Metre (max angle using 1mm galvanised Wire, without slipping down again)
Between 35° and 45° the butterfly was able to climb Up under its own power and traction but when it stopped it would slide down again.
>45° butterfly still had power to climb but lost traction.
@ Sun, 2009-05-17 18:35
OK, like, WOW!
That's quite some performance. The flapping wings must really take some of the load ;-)
That will make it much easier to span some distance using elastic fishing line. It sure can climb a sagging rope.
@ Sun, 2009-05-17 10:48
Switch design
I hope this little scribble makes sense. It might be possible to make this out of cardboard or a piece of plastic. The green bit is the switch lever and pivots on the yellow thingy. The light blue oval is a rubber band that helps to hold the switch in one position or another. Obviously the red is positive and black is negative. The dark blue/purple are the motor wires.
A piece of project board might also make a good base to make this out of.
@ Thu, 2009-05-21 16:24
excuse the OTwhich drawing
excuse the OT
which drawing program did u use for this schematic?
thx
@ Sun, 2009-05-24 05:55
I use Corel Draw
@ Sun, 2009-05-17 16:30
Tip-Top Drawing - this i Like..... Kind of Flip-Flop
Weheyyy thanks ..... Yes your idea will do it.........
A Mechanical Flip-Flop logic solution.
Now to construct it.........
copper pad half circle Left +5V
copper pad half circle Right 0V placed very close together ....so very little "Deadband"
Center Pivot with compression-rubberband to keep contacts tight to copper pads.
@ Sun, 2009-05-17 22:33
Change over Switch under construction
Almost there.........oddbot variant
No expense spared :-
Cracked open a bottle of Bubbley
left cork :-securing cork to adjust tension on tiny spring - as it has to be a light touch change over.
Middle cork will have the two contact wires attached to the motor - plus the actuating arms maybe 3cm long
Right cork (also below pic) has the split copper ground plane for the +/- supply.
Middle axle is a toothpic
Its pretty lightweight (nessesary)
I still need to secure the motor contacts (mid section) - not sure how big to make them yet.
@ Thu, 2009-05-21 00:24
Changeover switch completed
Middle section contacts installed.
Works very well and the spring compression devise has a very light rotational touch and is very easy to "Tweak"
(:- just what the doctor ordered :-)
I made a 1mm gap between the copper contact plates.
During change over there is no apparent shorting - i had expected the storage "SuperCap" on the solar cell to totally discharge during changeover - great news is the polarity reverses with no loss of power -
(-: Huston we can go for full burn :-)
@ Sun, 2009-05-17 18:39
Dead band is agood thing
@ Sun, 2009-05-17 00:44
So cool, I can imagine a
@ Thu, 2009-05-21 01:20
yeah!
this is so creative! I would never thought of something this cool! It looks like the motor and solar panel are from Solarbotics.
BTW: do you say "Papillon" like "Pa-pee-yawn" ?
@ Sun, 2009-05-17 09:24
Yes - my neighbours have also been commenting
The Mechanism works well on Nylon Fishing line so it would be easy to "Wire Up" the Garden.
- all i need is a way to get it to go around a bend smoothly and "Bobs your Uncle"
They are pretty cheap to make (i calculated 20 dollars) (batteries absolutely Not Included Haha) so yes there will be a few more in the Pipeline.
Interactive Insects flying around the neighbours . OMG (next will be a Locust Hehe)
@ Sun, 2009-05-17 11:01
Cable around a bend
Sounds like Alpine engineering to me.
Of course, your butterfly rides its monocycle over a fixed wire. So the bull wheel (below) would have to be a round track, like the metal wire in your video. Just figure out how to make a smooth connection from nylon to metal.
You could loop an aerial track all around the garden and leave out the polarity switcher.
@ Sun, 2009-05-17 17:15
Swiss Cable-Car Technology
As i am in the Heart of Switzerland - the Cable-Car solution does very much appeal to me.
Rik :-"Just figure out how to make a smooth connection from nylon to metal."
Thanks for the impulse - here is the resultant idea :-
The hard rubber wheel i am using works on cable diameters up to 2mm.
All i would need is a shortish hollow (brass) tube 2mm diameter bent into a loop
- then thread the fishing wire through the center of it and out the otherside and hey Presto "Nellys your Aunt" a smooth transition around a bend.
The brass tube can be easily supported by soldering some thin wire posts to it.
@ Sun, 2009-05-17 18:32
Nelly's nephew
I figured you'd appreciate the reference. You don't "sound" like a Swiss though.
2mm OD brass tube. That might be a tricky shopping trip. What about sheet? Drill a few tiny holes along the rim. Dul the edges. And again. You don't to cut your nylon. Then thread the line through, zig zag. bend the sheet in the desired shape. Line goes along the outer bend where it needs to pick up the wheel.
Hmmm, Who needs brass anyway? Could be a gentler (to the nylon) material. As long as it will hold shape. And be UV resistant.
Sheets can be simply tacked against wooden posts. Plywood could hold a sheet of plastic in a desired shape.
@ Wed, 2009-05-20 23:35
Local Hobby Shop Stocks "Hollow Brass"
Yes oh Yes - Local model shop stocks 2mm hollow brass tubing.........
Now My butterfly can circuit the whole garden - just as soon as i solder some supports onto it.
The idea as you see from the picture below is to thread some nylon "shark strength" fishing Gut through the hollow brass tubing.
This way i can bend the tubing to any shape (90° or 180° just for now - i mean a smooth long 90° or 180° curve).
When the butterfly wants to turn a corner there is a seamless transfer of the nylon track onto brass then around the bend and back onto the nylon - (-:So smooth you have to wear Sunglasses :-)
@ Sun, 2009-05-17 00:08
gorgeous