Nano Solar Mars Rover

In this project, I’ve decided to make a simple robot from an old Nokia Phone Vibration Motor. This turned out to be a cute Solar Bot that looked like a Mars Rover. So, if you like this project, please vote for it and subscribe to my channel and Newsletter.

Supplies

I found an old Nokia phone that was broke with no hope for repair. So, I’ve decided to salvage useful parts from it. And I started with the vibration motor. I found a small Solar Panel. And a piece of copper wire from coaxial cable inner core.

So, here are the components if you want to get them as new parts:

Vibration Motor.

Small Solar Panel.

1mm copper wire.

Connecting Solar Panel:

I connected the solar panel with small wires to the vibration motor. And then I tried to test the connected parts together in the sunlight. The vibration motor worked fine with the solar panel in the sunlight.

Forming the Bot Wire Body:

I got the 1mm copper wire and tried to form it into a small 3-legged bot. Here’s what I came up with.

Integrating Parts Together:

Then I formed the copper wire to hold the vibration motor and the solar panel without dropping down while the Bot is moving. I put a small piece of tape on the back of the solar panel for insulation of the terminals.

Testing

In the first time I tested the bot in the sunlight it had long legs. So, the motor rotated well but the Bot moved very slowly.

Experiments and Improvements:

When I first built the copper wire body, I thought that the long legs would make the Bot move quickly. But the testing revealed that the long legs made the Bot move slowly.

Then I wanted to change the shape of the wire body so I tried to make the legs shorter and made the components close to the ground. This has lowered the Bot center of gravity.

I found that this step has made the Bot move faster.

I also noticed that the Bot moved mainly in the direction at which the vibration motor is pointing.

In one trial, I made the vibration motor point to the right or left. This has made the Bot rotate around one of its legs.

Thank you for reading so far. So, if you like this project, please vote for it and subscribe to my channel and Newsletter.