Some progress on the electrics. It is not my most favorite part as I lack the knowledge of it. It is trail and error for me.
As planned I connected the motor directly to the battery and added a small switch to turn the motor on and off. Due to the fact I misunderstood some good advise of a railway modeller on the Garden Railway Forum I had placed a diode (wrongly!) between the battery and the motor to avoid unwanted discharge of the battery. However this was a complete useless thing to do. The diode had no function on that spot at all... it only let the voltage drop with 0,7 volts, causing too low voltage to run.
The diode had actually made more sense between the panel and the battery cell ifI had chosen to charge the cell directly from the panel (which I did not as I let it charge using the connection on the board). When charged directly from the panel it is also better to use a Schottky diode instead of the BY diode I used as the Schottky has a way lower voltage drop (0,2 volts). Trail and error!
A 1,5 volts 2500 mAh battery cell is used (the original cell that came with the set was 600 mAh). Hopefully this will extend running time (but also will extend charging time). If not, or when charging takes way too long or don't charge at all, I will replace it with the 600 mAh again.Although I found the LED a bit too blue-isch I used it as headlight because, well... I had it.
Perhaps a bit of coloring will get a more warmer color and if not it can be replaced after all.
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| Overview; be aware: the green diode is REMOVED (see text) |
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| LED in place |
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| Switch for the LED glued in place. The motor switch will be next to it. |
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| Overview on how the parts fit together |
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| Charging up in the first June sun |
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