Solar Robot Toy

This is the solar robot toy kit that my parents purchased for me for Russian Christian Orthodox New Year's Eve.

You can see the small solar cell on the top of my robot.

This robot toy has many settings. You can even make a boat with this toy.

The kit came with details instructions and many small parts.

Items: Solar Robot Kit.

Tools: Screw driver, Pliers.

Optional tools: 1.5 V to 4.5 V battery.

It took me about 3.5 hours to finish this robot.

Assembling the Gear Box

Initially I placed one of the cogs inside the blue robot gear box the wrong way because I did not notice the picture in the instructions booklet. Later I took the gear box apart and rotated the position of the cog by 180 degrees. I should have been more patient.

Gear Box

The gear box is drive by a tiny motor. This is could be serious problem if the motor wires break and you need to solder them because the motor is very small and the power contacts are thus also small. Thus they kit designers should have selected a bigger motor.

After completing the blue gear box I tried rotating the inside mechanism (cogs) a few times. I applied this step to adjust the position of the cogs inside the gear box to reduce the minimum force required from the DC motor to move the legs.

It is now summer in southern Australia. However, the outside temperature as only about 25 degrees. The tiny solar cell was not providing any power to my gear motor.

I connected the 9 V battery (that was probably a high voltage for the motor). However, even with this high voltage the mechanism inside the gear box was moving very slowly.

Complete Robot

Initially I became confused because a few small parts (eg. gear shafts) looked very similar. After completing the robot I tried moving the legs to fine tune the mechanism and improve movement before connection to power supply.

I connected the motor to 9 V battery. The robot was moving its legs very slowly. I could smell the motor burning. Eventually the tiny motor burned and I never found out if the robot would walk.