Solar engine A simple circuit, designed to gather energy from light, store the energy, and then release that energy in bursts to drive a motor, coil, or some other circuit . These are variously called Solar Engines, solarengines, and SEs; in strict electronic terms, they are called relaxation oscillators. The whole purpose of a solar engine is to act like a power "savings account" -- a small trickle of incoming energy is saved up until a useable amount is stored. This stored energy is then released in a burst, in order to drive some useful (if only sporadic and incremental) work. Various solar engine designs "trigger" (release their stored energy) based any of a number of criteria. Solar engines have a number of advantages: With a solar engine, a solar-powered robot can be made to work (if only sporadically) in even low light levels. Solar engines allow solar cell size to be minimized Saves money Saves weight Allows room for the solar cell to be ruggedized. Four types of solar engines have been defined and built to date, categorized by their trigger mechanism: Type 1 - voltage controlled trigger. This is by far the predominant form of solar engine, since they are "efficient enough" for most uses, and pretty simple to build. Type 2 - time controlled trigger. These aren't terribly efficient, but are handy for 'bots that need activity at specific times. Type 3 - charge curve differentiated, i.e., it triggers when the charge rate of the capacitor(s) slows down. These are (theoretically at least) the most efficient. Nocturnal -- These solar engines charge up when it's light, and discharge (i.e., power a load) when it's dark. For more information, and a whole slew of solar engine designs, see the Solar Engine section of the BEAM Reference Library's BEAM Circuits collection.

Legalities    Page author: Eric Seale   This page was last updated on This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.