Solar Engine Dynamometer Experiments
| Testing Series | 2004 Science Fair Project |
| Solar Engine | 1381 SE, Miller SE, FLED SE, Fred SE, Maxim 8212 PM3 |
| Software Version | 1.4.1400.31632 |
| Interface Type | Mouse Scroll (BETS1) |
| Motor Description | Regular Pager Motor |
| Winding Resistance | 10.46 Ohms |
| Testing Completed By | Joe Garcia |
| Testing Completed On | 2004-02 |
Download testing resultsThe solar engine that did the best was the Miller. The second best was the PM3. The way these two compare to the control 1381 was they both were better then the 1381. This did not come to a surprise because the 1381 take’s 15 minutes to charge and the other two didn’t take that long to charge. The Miller did so well because it had no resistors and it had 1 transistor so it does not waste much power.
The best # for the capacitors was 4700 uF. The second best was 0.33 F. These results were slightly passed the control (0.33F). This did surprise me because I was expecting the control to be the best. The reason these capacitors did so well was because they where small enough to not need so much energy to charge the circuit, and big enough to run the engine for a good amount of time.
The best transistors were the 2n2222 and 2n2207 the control was the 2n3904 and 2n3906. The reason these two did better than the 2n3904 was because the 2n2222 can pass up to 5 times more current than the 2n3904. The 2n3904 acts almost like a resistor and therefore does not allow as much of current to get to the motor as the 2n2222 does. The more current that gets to the motor the faster it goes.
The best motor was the Maxon DC GM118383. The control motor was the Solarbotics RPM1 Pager Motor. The Maxon motor had less winding resistance than the pager motors. Resistors take up current and less winding resistance means less power needed the move the motor.
Joe Garcia