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Build a Solar-Powered Automobile

Abstruse

Practice you lot want to build a solar-powered motorcar? How about enter it in a competition and race it against other people'southward designs? If so, this is the project for you! These instructions will show you lot how to get started edifice a solar-powered car that you tin enter in a science or engineering fair. No experience needed. If you want, you can even compete in the Inferior Solar Sprint, a regional contest for solar-powered cars. Get more information virtually your regional competition.

Are y'all a teacher? Try the classroom lesson plan version of this projection. Information technology contains special data just for educators.

Summary

Curt (2-5 days)

Requires solar panel and motor. See Materials list for details.

Low ($twenty - $l)

No issues

Ben Finio, PhD, Science Buddies

Objective

Design and build a solar-powered car.

Introduction

Solar ability is ability we get from the lord's day. Dissimilar fossil fuels, which tin cause significant pollution and emit greenhouse gases when burned, solar ability is clean and renewable. However, solar power is not without its drawbacks—it is not available at nighttime or on a cloudy twenty-four hours.

Solar panels convert sunlight into electrical energy, which can be used to power machines similar motors. They must exist connected to the motor past wires to course a circuit. A motor can be used to drive the wheels of a solar-powered car (Figure 1). In order to build a solar car, yous demand to exist familiar with the bones parts that make upwardly a typical auto:

The chassis is the motorcar'due south frame, or trunk.
The axles are straight, rigid rods that back up the wheels.
The bearings connect the axles to the chassis and allow them to spin.
The motor converts electrical energy from the solar panel into spinning motion. It has a metal shaft that spins.
The transmission transmits rotating movement from the motor's shaft to an axle.

There are several different types of transmissions that y'all can use for a solar car, shown in Figure 2.

In a friction drive, a disk on the motor shaft rubs directly against another deejay on the axle.
In a belt bulldoze, a deejay on the motor shaft is connected to a disk on the beam by a belt (e.g. a rubber band).
In a gear drive, a gear on the motor shaft meshes with a gear on the beam.

There are different engineering and physics concepts you volition need to have into account when designing and building a solar machine. Some decisions may involve trade-offs betwixt unlike factors. At that place is no single "right" way to build a car. Some of the factors you should consider are listed below. Additional resources listed in the Bibliography can assistance yous learn more about these topics.

Mass and stiffness: what material(southward) will y'all use to brand your chassis? Dissimilar materials have unlike densities (mass per unit volume) and stiffnesses (resistance to angle/flexing). In general, y'all want a chassis to be stiff and non too flexible. Your motor volition have a hard time moving a very heavy chassis. Even so, if a chassis is too light, information technology could be blown around easily past the current of air, or its tires might sideslip because at that place is not enough friction with the ground (see next point).
Friction is the strength that resists two surfaces sliding against each other. Sometimes friction is bad—yous want your bearings and axles to have every bit footling friction between them as possible, and so the axles can spin freely. Still, sometimes friction is good—you want your tires to take a lot of friction with the basis and so they practice not skid.
The gear ratio is the ratio betwixt the diameter of the drive gear on the motor shaft and the driven gear on the beam. This number tells you how many times the driven gear will rotate for each rotation of the bulldoze gear. For case, if the driven gear is five times bigger in diameter than the drive gear, and then whenever the bulldoze gear completes one full rotation, the driven gear will complete i/v of a rotation. Notation that this concept also applies to friction drives and chugalug drives, and more generally tin can be called the manual ratio.
Adjusting the transmission ratio allows you to suit the speed of your motor, measured in rotations per infinitesimal or RPM, and the torque of the motor. At that place is a merchandise-off between these two quantities (if you increment the RPM, you lot decrease the torque, and vice versa). You lot may need to experiment to find out what gear ratio makes your car get the fastest.
The angle of the solar panel relative to the sun's rays affects how much electrical power it produces. It will produce the near power when the console is perpendicular to the sun's rays.

If you lot experiment one by i with a few of these variables, and continue track of your results, yous can design a groovy solar-powered car. Optionally, you can enter your auto in the Junior Solar Sprint competition if there is one in your area. For more information, cheque your regional co-operative.

Terms and Concepts

Solar power
Fossil fuels
Renewable
Solar panel
Circuit
Chassis
Axle
Bicycle
Bearing
Motor
Shaft
Transmission
Friction drive
Chugalug drive
Gear drive
Mass
Stiffness
Friction
Gear ratio
Transmission ratio
Drive gear
Driven gear
Rotations per infinitesimal (RPM)
Torque
Angle

Questions

What materials could you lot use to build the dissimilar parts of a solar car?
What are the unlike types of transmissions?

Materials and Equipment

At a minimum, you will demand to purchase an official solar panel and motor for your car. Make up one's mind if you want to build the other components from scratch, or buy a kit that includes additional parts. The official vendors for the Junior Solar Sprint competition, Solar Made and Pitsco, accept a variety of options (ranging from merely the motor/solar console to a complete motorcar kit, including a balsa wood chassis, axles, gears, and wheels):
- Solar Made kits
- Pitsco kits
If you want to build your own parts from scratch, here are some suggestions for materials:
- Chassis: corrugated cardboard, balsa wood, Styrofoam®, milk/juice cartons, cardboard tubes
- Axles: metallic coat hanger (cutting a direct section), wooden skewer or dowel, whatsoever other thin metal rod
- Bearings: drinking straws, center hooks, holes drilled in chassis material
- Wheels: bottle caps, circles cut from a rigid cloth (plastic, wood)
- Tires: prophylactic bands, hot glue forth the edge of the bicycle
- Manual: gears salvaged from toys or an electronic device like a VCR or DVD player, small disks (similar Dremel® rotary tool attachments), rubber bands
Depending on the materials y'all choose, you may need other miscellaneous tools or supplies (power drill, hot glue gun, scissors, pliers, etc.). Important: make sure you use tape/glue that won't melt or soften in the sun on a hot solar day!
You will also need a flat, paved, sunny area to test your car, and a volunteer to help catch your car (they can exist fast!).
Download a costless project packet to depict your sketches, organize your projection, and brand certain you have all the parts you lot demand to enter the Inferior Solar Sprint competition.
Download examples of technical drawings for information on how to make professional person drawings of your final solar car blueprint.

Disclaimer: Science Buddies participates in affiliate programs with Abode Science Tools, Amazon.com, Carolina Biological, and Jameco Electronics. Proceeds from the chapter programs help back up Scientific discipline Buddies, a 501(c)(3) public charity, and keep our resources free for everyone. Our top priority is pupil learning. If you lot accept whatever comments (positive or negative) related to purchases yous've made for science projects from recommendations on our site, please let us know. Write to us at scibuddy@sciencebuddies.org.

Experimental Procedure

Teachers, endeavor our classroom lesson plan version of this project instead. It has extra resources for schools. Students, this version of the projection was made specifically for you.

Planning Your Solar Car

Sketch what you want your solar car to look like. What materials will you use? How volition all the parts fit together? Y'all can utilize the gratis projection packet to practise your sketches and go along track of your project. If you are thinking of racing your car in a local Junior Solar Dart contest, using the project packet will help brand sure y'all have all the parts y'all need to enter the contest!
If yous are considering inbound the Junior Solar Sprint competition, brand sure to follow the car sketching and building rules in Table i. More detailed, official rules tin too exist downloaded.

Building a Starter Car

Now it is time to build your car. The video and stride-by-footstep directions in this section show you how to build a very basic solar car. It is pretty rickety though and will fall apart easily! It is meant as an example. Experience free to build it, it won't accept long, and then use the data you learned from building and testing it to build an crawly version of the machine you sketched. Remember to fill in the pages of your project packet as you work!

Depending on where yous purchased your motor, you will need to solder wires to it and/or crimp alligator clips onto the wires (Figure three).
1. If necessary, solder two wires to the tabs on the back of the motor (go an adult to help you with soldering).
2. Remove the plastic covers from the alligator clips, and slide them onto the wires.
3. Employ needle-nose pliers to tightly crimp the alligator clips onto the blank metallic ends of the wires.
4. Slide the plastic covers back over the alligator clips.

Connect your wheels, axles, and bearings. Figure iv shows axles (metal rods) within the bearings (straws). Each beam has two wheels (plastic discs with safety tires) that are press-fit onto the ends of the axle. One of the axles too has a plastic gear pressed on, which volition form part of the manual. You need to plan ahead to think well-nigh how this gear (the driven gear) will align with the gear on the motor shaft (the bulldoze gear).

Construct your chassis.
Connect your axles/bearings to your chassis. Effigy 5 shows the axles/bearings connected to the underside of the chassis (a slice of corrugated cardboard) with tape.

Connect the motor to the chassis and align the transmission. This tin can be one of the near hard steps. If your manual uses gears like the one in Effigy 6, you need the teeth of the gears to mesh firmly. If they are too loose or not touching at all, then the motor will just spin without making the beam plough. However, if they are too tight, there might be too much friction and they could jam. You will need to run into how it works when you connect the solar panel.

Adhere supports for your solar panel to the chassis (Figure 7).

Attach the alligator clips to the 2 tabs on the back of the solar panel, and secure the solar panel to the chassis (Figure eight).

Now it is time to examination your auto! Take your car outside in directly sunlight, but do not put it down yet. Agree it in your hands and aim the solar panel towards the sun. If the motor and beam both spin, congratulations! Move on to the next step. If not, try these troubleshooting steps:
1. If your motor does not spin at all:
  1. Make sure y'all are outside, in directly sunlight, on a sunny solar day, with the solar panel facing towards the sun. Your solar console might not generate plenty power to spin the motor if y'all are in the shade or it is cloudy.
  2. If your motor still does not spin, double-check your circuit. Make certain the alligator clips are firmly connected to the solar panel's metal tabs. If you soldered or crimped your own wire connections, make certain none of them are loose or broken. Repair them if necessary.
  3. If your circuit is OK, make sure your axle or transmission are non jammed. Does the axle spin if yous twist one of the wheels by hand?
2. If your motor spins, but the axles does not, make sure the gears are touching each other. You might need to realign your motor or the axle to make sure the teeth of the gears mesh together firmly.
Once your motor and axle both spin when you lot hold the automobile in the lord's day, information technology is time to put your car on the ground and lookout it go! Only be careful—a working machine can move pretty fast. It is a good idea to test your car in a apartment, open area gratuitous of obstacles that it could crash into. Aim your motorcar towards a volunteer who can catch information technology, or something soft similar a pillow. The solar panel is fragile, and then endeavour to avoid letting your car crash. Lookout your machine carefully when you put it down. How fast does it go? Does information technology get directly?

Making Your Car Improve and Faster

Call back about how you could make your car faster. Here are a few suggestions:

Endeavor to reduce friction in the axles. Could yous use other materials for the bearings?
Brand sure the axles are parallel to each other so they roll smoothly without getting stuck.
Can you make your car lighter by removing material?
Can you change the bending of the solar panel so it faces the sun directly? Can you lot make the bending adjustable and then you can tilt the console towards the sunday when racing at different times of day or in different directions?
Make sure your manual is not slipping. Do you hear a grinding/scratching/rattling noise? Fifty-fifty if your axle is spinning, the gears might occasionally be slipping against each other. Marshal your transmission so the gears are firmly pressed against each other.
Try changing the gear ratio. What happens if you use dissimilar size gears? You lot will probably need to realign your motor and/or axle if you try this.

Competing in the Inferior Solar Sprint

Y'all volition need to brand technical drawings of your final solar car design as part of your entry into the Junior Solar Sprint. Directions on how to do this are included in your gratis project packet. You can also download these examples of technical drawings for more assistance.

Now yous are ready to race! Enter the regional branch of the Junior Solar Dart nearest yous and have fun testing your car against the competition.

Ask an Expert

Do you have specific questions well-nigh your science project? Our squad of volunteer scientists can help. Our Experts won't practise the piece of work for you lot, but they volition brand suggestions, offer guidance, and assistance you troubleshoot.

Variations

Do you live in a cloudy climate, or are yous unable to practice this projection outdoors for some reason? Do not worry! Yous tin all the same build and test a battery-powered car and utilize many of the same technology principles. Instead of a solar panel, purchase a 2xAA battery pack and connect it to your motor.
Instead of a solar-powered car, can y'all make a unlike solar-powered machine? What nearly a solar-powered fan or artwork with moving parts?
If your schoolhouse does not permit engineering projects for their science fair, consider doing a science projection with your car. Perform an experiment to determine how changing one variable, like the gear ratio or angle of the solar panel relative to the dominicus, affects the speed of the car.

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MLA Style

Finio, Ben. "Build a Solar-Powered Car." Science Buddies, 5 Oct. 2021, https://world wide web.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project-ideas/Energy_p043/energy-power/how-to-build-solar-powered-automobile. Accessed 11 Apr. 2022.

APA Style

Finio, B. (2021, Oct 5). Build a Solar-Powered Automobile. Retrieved from https://world wide web.sciencebuddies.org/scientific discipline-off-white-projects/project-ideas/Energy_p043/energy-power/how-to-build-solar-powered-car

Last edit date: 2021-x-05

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