You know it is going to be a good day at work when you get a solar-powered Lego Car in the mail. The folks at Play-Well sent it to us after choosing to use our panels for this project (if you have children, check out Play-Well’s class locations for the best in LEGO-based engineering instruction).

Here’s the video of the car cruising through our offices.

If you want to make your own solar-powered lego car, you’ll need:
-Lego parts, including gears to transfer power from the motor to the wheels
Lego motor
2 Watt solar panel

Here’s a few close-ups of the car:
solar powered legosolar lego car
We did a quick mod of the car to put in a female 3.5×1.1mm jack so that we could easily plug and unplug the panel from the motor. You can use our “USB Out Cable 3.5×1.1” if you want to avoid cutting the plug on our panel.

Go Legos! Wanna race?

Go here to see all of Voltaic’s rugged small solar panels.

17 Responses

  1. Giovanni

    Hi,
    I have a lego technic 42030 it has too many motors I just want to replace the 6 AA batteries for a solar panel. The best set of batteries are good for 45 minutes no more than a hour and I do not want rechargeable ones I want something green.
    Can you please tell me what panel will work with my VOLVO L350F Wheel Load 42030 ?
    Thank you

    Reply
  2. Eric

    I know this is an old post, but I would love to get several solar panels if I had some instructions for connecting it to a LEGO motor. Is there a video for that?

    Reply
    • admin

      Hi Trina,

      I just got the new Lego motor. I’m connecting the two leads from the solar panel to the two middle leads on the Lego motor. Those seem to be the connections that drive the motor. Leave the two leads from the outside of the Lego cable alone.

      Reply
  3. TRINA

    Hi Jeff:

    I cut off the lego piece to expose the wires, and there are four of them. The solar panel has two wires (red and black). I tried connecting them,but it has not worked. Any ideas as to which wires to connect?

    Reply
  4. Trina

    Are there step by step instructions on how to connect any lego car to the motor, and solar panel? My son has the same motor as the link, and also the panel. The trouble is connecting the two. Thanks

    Reply
    • admin

      Hi Trina,

      We don’t right now, but will try to get them up shortly. In the meantime, if you want to give me a ring on Monday (x706), I’d be happy to walk you through it.

      Jeff

      Reply
  5. tim

    Hi Jeff,

    Many thanks for the right battery set up. I’m going to order the 2.0 Watt kit here: https://www.voltaicsystems.com/2wattkit.php

    Does this come with the the needed connection to go from the solar panel to the battery to the lego motor? I ordered this lego motor today, which appears to be the one in the car you have, but it does have an unusual plug:
    http://shop.lego.com/en-US/LEGO-Power-Functions-M-Motor-8883

    And now I realize there is a bigger motor available as well:
    http://shop.lego.com/en-US/LEGO-Power-Functions-XL-Motor-8882

    Which motor is in the car in the video? Or a different one that the two above?

    Many thanks for your help, We’ll share our car when it’s done!

    Tim

    Reply
    • admin

      Hi Tim,

      It is a prior version to both, but we have had customer reports that they work. I’d probably go with the smaller one as you have.

      We cut open the lego cable and spliced it to a Voltaic cable. You might be able to figure out a way to connect securely to their leads without cutting it open…it is hard to tell without having it in front of us.

      Jeff

      Reply
    • tim

      is there a way to hook up a battery or measure the amount of energy this solar panel creates for a science fair project? Does it need constant light to keep motor going?

      Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.