I would greatly appreciate some suggestions as to why the following circuit of an Easter engine, does not seem to be working.
http://www.instructables.com/id/The-Easter-Solar-Engine/
I constructed the circuit which is supposed to be latching. In a LTSpice simulation it shows that the current through the motor should almost instantly go from nothing to saturation.
What I found instead was that I could not get the motor to run. Substituting a diode with a resistor in place of the motor, the diode seemed to gradually come on, and fairly immediately go off if the solar panel was shaded. I would have expected the diode to snap on. A voltmeter across the 80 ohm diode resistor also seemed to gradually rise instead of suddenly rise. I thought transistor QP was supposed to store the charge and then suddenly release it.
I used a 4400u capacitor which was barely able to keep the LED glowing for 2 seconds, so I dont see how it could ever drive a motor.
Any ideas as to where I go from here to build a solar engine?
http://www.instructables.com/id/The-Easter-Solar-Engine/
I constructed the circuit which is supposed to be latching. In a LTSpice simulation it shows that the current through the motor should almost instantly go from nothing to saturation.
What I found instead was that I could not get the motor to run. Substituting a diode with a resistor in place of the motor, the diode seemed to gradually come on, and fairly immediately go off if the solar panel was shaded. I would have expected the diode to snap on. A voltmeter across the 80 ohm diode resistor also seemed to gradually rise instead of suddenly rise. I thought transistor QP was supposed to store the charge and then suddenly release it.
I used a 4400u capacitor which was barely able to keep the LED glowing for 2 seconds, so I dont see how it could ever drive a motor.
Any ideas as to where I go from here to build a solar engine?