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太阳能玩具赛车

本coxworthapril 22，2013review：Volta赛车太阳能玩具car

Gizmag回顾Volta赛车太阳能玩具车

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虽然已经有一些太阳能汽车模型市场上，toylabs新沃尔塔赛车在几个方面–你把它放在一起，自己是独一无二的，它采用一个灵活的多晶硅太阳能电池板。虽然我玩玩具车的日子在我的后面（排序），我摆弄的东西不是天，所以我决定去一个太阳能汽车为自己。

鉴于沃尔特赛车是针对六岁儿童起来，谁会我很可能会收到他们的父母的帮助，我发现装配的难度是正确的。我花了大概20分钟把我放在一起。指令清晰简单，没有工具或布线技巧是必需的。

看完成的车，你会感觉坐好“看我做了什么，而不是转向”如何哑做他们想我吗？”“这些人没有意识到，大多数人不是工程师。”

使用沃尔塔赛车很简单。你只把这两个夹子夹在太阳能电池板的正负极上，把它放在阳光下，把它放在地上。由于重力使其身体下垂，电机的齿轮轴接合的顶部的一个后车轮，并离开它去了。< /对汽车不被远程控制，所以它将只在一个直线行驶直到有东西阻碍它的路径。如果你不想运行它，你可以设置它的前端轴的角度，使它绕着圈子。无论你做什么，你应该准备好回答的问题，从–好奇的路人，我发现车里的“太阳能车”看起来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。用户可以将它设置为稍高的速度，但是，通过移动电机的后轮，加上塑料帽对电机齿轮（见上图）–这增加其周长，使它字面上的“大齿轮”。而这也增加了汽车的速度，你还可以跟上它轻快的散步。

根据指令，该车的低速高扭矩设置允许它做一些有限的越野。这也许是真实的，在正确的条件下，虽然我发现我真的只表现良好，在平坦的道路或人行道。当我想在砾石或短草，它通常只是几秒钟前的单驱动轮会失去与地面接触，从而失去牵引力。

其瘦发泡轮、竹桥、塑料吸管，连杆，沃尔特的赛车可能不是要经得起岁月的滥用。只有25美元，但是，这绝对是一个有趣的和廉价的方式教孩子什么可以做，利用太阳能–和让他们说“看我做了什么。”

产品页面：Volta赛车