Fischertechnik construction kits now harness the sun’s energy with environmentally friendly solar technology that continues to work in the dark!

The Profi Solar kit (part no. 30497) has been designed to help children understand solar energy, electrical energy and mechanical concepts in a playful and entertaining way. The kit provides the construction details for eight projects including; a fan, a helicopter, a mobile crane and cars of different types. Solar energy is used to power all these models.

The innovative solar components, supplied with the kit, consist of the latest generation of polycrystalline solar modules (3 Volts, 0.24 Amps), a gold capacitor (2.3 Volts, 10 Farad) to store the electrical energy produced and a bell-type armature geared motor which has a very soft start - as low as 0.2 Volts. Conventional iron-core motors have a starting voltage of around 1.7 to 2.5 Volts. The motor also has a very low idle current - around 20mA at 2 Volts (compared to a conventional motor of 50 to 200mA). These characteristics would mean that this motor could be run on a single AA cell battery for more than 5 days!

The electrical energy generated by the solar cell is stored in the gold capacitor which then drives the motor. This arrangement allows the motor to continue to operate when the light source is removed (i.e. in shady or cloudy conditions or when the room light is switched off).

The kit, available from Procon Technology, contains over 300 parts with a 45 page instruction and assembly manual containing the procedures for building eight models. Your purchase also entitles you to free membership of the fischertechnik FAN-CLUB providing up-to-date information and additional construction sheets.

Also available in the Profi range of kits is; I’m Walking (30493) an amusing bionics kit of walking robots, Pneumatic (30494) with air operated movement, Cartech (30492) for lovers of automotive technology, Sensoric (30491) an automated construction kit and the ultimate kit with computer controlled interface and IBM-PC software - the Profi Computing Combi-Pack (30330).

Click on the image above to enlarge the picture.