A Beam That Wouldn’t Light

In preparation for the Sola(r)Dex I needed to find a circuit that would charge a capacitor with a solar cell and when the charge reached a threshold turn on an output. I went through a number of different circuits including the Schmidtt circuit and the MOSFET switch but ultimately decided that the astable multivibrator would work best. It allows the oscillation between two outputs. I started with two LEDs to understand how it worked.

Astable Multivibrator circuit. The resistor connected to the positive of the capacitor supplies the output with power from Vin. The resistor connected to the negative side of the capacitor is attached to the base of the opposite side transistor.

Phase one, left side capacitor is discharging, transistor on, LED on. Right side capacitor is charging.

Phase two once the right side capacitor charges to sufficient voltage the transistor turns on. Right side capacitor is discharging, transistor on, LED on. left side capacitor is charging.

I took that what I learned about this circuit and applied it to the Sola(r)Dex. I also wanted to see if I could build a complex Beam-Bot. Well I built one, aw heck I built two the only issue is neither work. I’ve been troubleshooting it for a few weeks now and at this point I think a full rework is in order. It looks like there is continuity on one side but not the other but all of the connections look good.