[MOC] LEGO Technic Solar Cells Sojourner Mars Rover

[Berthil]

Full working LEGO Technic Mars Rover with 4 wheel drive and steering, Powerfunctions only. The three genuine LEGO Solar Cells (9912) charge the LEGO rechargeable battery (8887).

The LEGO Solar Cell was available in the eLab Renewable Energy Set 9681:
https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?S=9681-1

[XG BC]

that looks really nice and i think its almost original size the real sojourner rover was about as big as a shoebox so yea it could be almost 1:1 scale i just have one question: would it charge faster with the newer solar cells?

XG BC

[Berthil]

Thanks @XG BC

Please note April fools day :)
The solar cells are genuine but cannot be hooked up in series to get this amount of power or even charge. Nevertheless, it's a real model I have build for a truck trial.
Integrating them being 8,5 studs wide was a lot of work.

But this probably interests few judging by the amount of reactions.

[TechnicRCRacer]

Ahhh I got pranked  Cool moc anyway!

[XG BC]

ohh it was an april fools. I didnt realize that because i first of all didnt watch the whole video and later you can clearly see that there is no charging cable plugged into the batterie box and i didnt know that the green solar cells put out so little power but i think you could get it to charge from solar power you just have to use wayyyy more solar cells! Its a great model anyways!

XG BC

Edited April 2, 2019 by XG BC

[Berthil]

I photoshopped the charging cable out! 

The solar cells have potential but unfortunately cannot be hooked up in series for larger Voltage or in parallel for higher Amps.
As soon as you put plugs on top of each other in any way nothing comes out. 

[Exetrius]

Wow, you fooled me too. At least it looks cool though! 

[XG BC]

On 4/2/2019 at 11:17 AM, Berthil said:

I photoshopped the charging cable out! 

The solar cells have potential but unfortunately cannot be hooked up in series for larger Voltage or in parallel for higher Amps.
As soon as you put plugs on top of each other in any way nothing comes out. 

possibly there is some sort of protection system preventing that because you know its designed for safety and not for customisation. you would have to open the solar cell and remove the protection cirquit but then you could just use different solar panels all together.

Have fun with your mars rover

XG BC

[Nudipics]

I know this thread is almost a year old but I thought I'd ask anyway. Having no knowledge of how Lego solar panels are designed. Could you possibly daisy chain panels using and old electric plate like the one here (2x8 plate comes to mind)?

Edited March 27, 2020 by Nudipics
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