project: fred jr.

One of my faves...

Update: Feb 21, 2004: Fred Jr. is one of my latest series of smaller versions of the classic Fred Photopopper using a FLED solar engine. This little guy uses a similar circuit design as the original Fred, except this time I tried to keep it under 6cm.

The overall dimensions are 5.9 X 3.4 X 2.4cm and weighs 16 grams (0.5 oz). He's really active and finds the bright spots very easily. It's one of the quickest solar bugs I've made to date, beating out Fred Senior, even with his twin Sanyo panels.




It's powered by a Panasonic 2433 Sunceram solar panel that pumps 3.45 volts and 17.5mA. The panel is 24mm X 33mm X 0.7mm thick, and I highly recommend it. You can get this as well as the smaller Panasonic 2422 over at Andy Pang's Solar Bugs Kits and Parts.



I spent a little more time on Fred Jr.'s aesthetics as you can tell. I used a lot of blue heatshrink tubing on the feet, and matched it with the LED blinders. I also covered the .22uf caps. The lightweight aluminum tubing was fashioned into a mount in the rear for the solar cell. I didn't trim the dorsal support piece over the main cap because I thought it looked cool.

I added a small front skid to prevent him from popping too far, which he likes to do in bright sunlight. Another bot I am working on is getting a pair of front skids that look like legs. I'll be posting shots of it and the other solar bugs soon.