Ben CoxworthApril 22, 2013Review: Volta Racer solar-powered toy car

Gizmag reviews the Volta Racer solar-powered toy car

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While there are already a number of solar-powered model cars on the market, Toylabs’ new Volta Racer is unique in a couple of ways – you put it together yourself, and it incorporates a flexible polycrystalline silicon solar panel. Although my days of playing with toy cars are behind me (sort of), my days of tinkering with things aren’t, so I decided to check out one of the sun-powered autos for myself.

Given that the Volta Racer is aimed at children six years old and up, who will doubtless be receiving some help from their parents, I found that the difficulty level of assembly was just about right. It took me perhaps 20 minutes to put mine together. The instructions are clear and straightforward, and no tools or wiring skills are required.

Upon looking at the completed car, the feeling you get sits nicely at “Look what I made,” instead of veering towards “How dumb do they think I am?” or “These guys don’t realize that most people aren’t engineers.”

Using the Volta Racer is simple. You just clamp the motor’s two clips onto the solar panel’s positive and negative terminals, take it out into the sunlight, and set it on the ground. As gravity causes its body to sag down slightly, the motor’s gear spindle engages the top of one of the back wheels, and away it goes.

The car is not remotely controlled, so it will just keep traveling in a straight line until something blocks its path. If you don’t want to run after it, you can set its front axle at an angle, causing it to go around in circles. Whatever you do, you should be ready to answer questions from curious passers-by – I discovered that the car’s “solar-powered vehicle” look really piqued some peoples’ interest.

In its initial configuration, it doesn’t go much faster than an easy walking pace. Users can set it to a slightly higher speed, however, by moving the motor to the other rear wheel and adding a plastic cap to the motor’s gear (see photo above) – this increases its circumference, making it quite literally a “bigger gear.” While this does increase the car’s speed, you can still keep up with it at a brisk walk.

According to the instructions, the higher torque of the car’s low-speed setting allows it to do some limited off-roading. That may be true under just the right conditions, although I found that mine really only performed well on smooth roads or sidewalks. When I tried it on gravel or short grass, it was usually only a matter of a few seconds before its single drive wheel would lose contact with the ground, and thus lose traction.

With its skinny foam wheels, bamboo axles and plastic-straw connecting rods, the Volta Racer probably isn’t going to stand up to years of abuse. At just US$25, however, it’s definitely a fun and inexpensive way of teaching kids about what can be done using solar power – and of getting them to say “Look what I made.”

Product page: Volta Racers

Volta太陽能玩具賽車

本coxworthapril 22，2013review：Volta賽車太陽能玩具car

Gizmag回顧Volta賽車太陽能玩具車

圖像畫廊（8張）
雖然已經有一些太陽能汽車模型市場上，toylabs新沃爾塔賽車在幾個方麵–你把它放在一起，自己是獨一無二的，它採用一個靈活的多晶矽太陽能電池闆。雖然我玩玩具車的日子在我的後麵（排序），我擺弄的東西不是天，所以我決定去一個太陽能汽車為自己。

鑒於沃爾特賽車是針對六歲兒童起來，誰會我很可能會收到他們的父母的幫助，我發現裝配的難度是正確的。我花了大概20分鍾把我放在一起。指令清晰簡單，冇有工具或佈線技巧是必需的。

看完成的車，你會感覺坐好“看我做了什麼，而不是轉嚮”如何啞做他們想我嗎？”“這些人冇有意識到，大多數人不是工程師。”

使用沃爾塔賽車很簡單。你隻把這兩個夾子夾在太陽能電池闆的正負極上，把它放在陽光下，把它放在地上。由於重力使其身體下垂，電機的齒輪軸接合的頂部的一個後車輪，並離開它去了。< /對汽車不被遠程控製，所以它將隻在一個直線行駛直到有東西阻礙它的路徑。如果你不想運行它，你可以設置它的前端軸的角度，使它繞著圈子。無論你做什麼，你應該準備好回答的問題，從–好奇的路人，我發現車裏的“太陽能車”看起來真的引起了一些人的利益。

的初始配置中，它不比步行速度快多。用戶可以將它設置為稍高的速度，但是，通過移動電機的後輪，加上塑料帽對電機齒輪（見上圖）–這增加其周長，使它字麵上的“大齒輪”。而這也增加了汽車的速度，你還可以跟上它輕快的散步。

根據指令，該車的低速高扭矩設置允許它做一些有限的越野。這也許是真實的，在正確的條件下，雖然我發現我真的隻錶現良好，在平坦的道路或人行道。當我想在礫石或短草，它通常隻是幾秒鍾前的單驅動輪會失去與地麵接觸，從而失去牽引力。

其瘦發泡輪、竹橋、塑料吸管，連桿，沃爾特的賽車可能不是要經得起歲月的濫用。隻有25美元，但是，這絕對是一個有趣的和廉價的方式教孩子什麼可以做，利用太陽能–和讓他們說“看我做了什麼。”

産品頁麵：Volta賽車