Sri Lankan teenager builds solar-powered tuk-tuk from scraps [video] | Hacker News Reader

Sri Lankan teenager builds solar-powered tuk-tuk from scraps [video]

bbc.co.uk

138 pointsiqtidar28 comments

There needs to be a program to sponsor top shelf educations for these super resourceful, highly motivated kids in these "how'd they do that" videos that circulate. Genius is evenly distributed, but the opportunity to develop it is not.

Previous discussion from 12 hours ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28186992

I'd love to get a bit more information on it, such as range, charging times, battery chemistry.

The signage on the vehicle indicates this lad is from Kilinochchi [1]. Not surprised in the least- the last time I was in Ceylon, I learnt that the people in the North are expert boat-builders and very resourceful.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilinochchi

we made one out of an Ape 50 shell some time in the 90s (because we were given a bunch of mismatched solar cells for free). I think it showed up in the local paper. Cute.

"cute"... what are you criticizing exactly?

I'm not, I still think it's a cute idea.

A pair of safety goggles (while grinding steel) would be a good investment too.

This kid is awesome

I swear I had this idea when I was 14………but I didn’t make it……….……..and I live in the first world………………

I don't know your age but finding a solar panel when you were 14 probably was not as easy as today. Storage of the vehicle is probably the biggest challenge too.

You’ve been able to get hobby solar cells at places like radioshack for as long as solar calculators have been around. Since the 80s, at least. But the price per watt to do something like that back then would be insane.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/45/b6/9f/45b69f8d1639dbcbd8a8...

The RS ones sucked, and it was better bang for your buck to just get a load of calculators for a dollar each... at the dollar store.

Those solar panels are mounted in a way to get the worst possible efficiency (aside making them facing down). I'm very skeptical of the outcome, or maybe they're incredibly oversized for the task so that even a couple of them getting a fraction of the sunlight can make the vehicle work. If he mounted them on the roof they would work a lot better by taking more direct sunlight, and he would save a lot of money by using just one or two for the same performance. Kudos to the kid for actively making stuff though; most of his western peers would waste all day tapping on a phone while he is using his brain to solve problems.

Don't you think he has them on the roof as well? While not optimal, he will get some power no matter what direction he's facing, and that may be enough for the small task. Sri Lanka is ridiculously sunny.

Along these lines, he may also have a very small daily range and thus below optimal charging conditional could meet his needs

> Don't you think he has them on the roof as well?

He doesn't, and you replied without even watching the video. He has the usual tent on the roof, which would have been the best spot to mount the panels. Had the kid been some some western youtuber, those who downvoted me would be in line to write my same exact post. Please be honest with yourselves and others.

I think you could bear another watch yourself, and a little less negativity.

The rear side panels are hinged on top, so they can be raised to the sun while the tuk is stationary. As well, in the back, on the roof is clearly another panel.

You can see the lack of translucency at about 0:07, and his hand on the rear frame at 1:14. Actually you can see it a bit better at 0:04.

Further, its entirely possible that he has an extra vehicular set of panels at home base. He probably parks it with the doors open, facing the rising sun, catching some charge before the horizontal panels become directly illuminated.

I take as you point out as good because for some unknown reasons I can't watch the video at the moment, it just returns the grey BBC background in the video frame and nothing loads (Firefox 78.12 and disabled all adblockers and similar addons). Anyway I didn't mean to bash in any way the kid and his accomplishment, which is great especially if compared to most of his western peers with much more money and tools at disposal.

Flat roof panels are visible in 00:05 through 00:08. I think he used panels are door because they are available cheap. Typical Tuktuks have a curved cloth/plastic material as roof

Sri lanka has lot of sun, so effect of angle may be less

That is true, but carrying people around requires a lot of power, nothing that panels put that way can offer. He probably can gain a few minutes of driving by recharging his batteries in several hours of sun on one side (unfortunately making all panels pointed to other directions useless) but I am 100% sure that thing cannot carry people around just with solar power, especially with panels mounted that way. There's not enough data to call it a fake, but surely there's enough data to tell it's not optimal.

As i wrote in another reply: had this kid been a western youtuber, those who are downvoting me would be in line to write my exact words.

To make it even more clear: correcting a technical error does not mean I'm bashing the kid who committed it, and correcting a kid of a certain country doesn't mean I'm bashing that country.

I think the issue is that the vehicle has no more surface area for panels. It couldn't extend them out further as that would make the vehicle more likely to collide with others.

It looks like the roof and sides are covered. I'm building a four wheel drive solar powered farming robot. We use four 800w panels, but on level ground it draws 40 watts at walking speed. I've heard there can be issues if one solar panel is in the shade and others are in the sun, but maybe that can be fixed with proper wiring. Anyway a few panels around the vehicle if properly wired could provide a real boost to the vehicle, even if its not gonna power it up hills for long. The really cool thing about solar vehicles is that in the daytime they are always ready to go. At least that's how our farm robot works. (link in my profile)

Correction we use eight 100w panels, 800w total.

Please do your research before you criticize. If you have ever seen a tuk tuk, you would know that the top is a curved artificial leather covering stretched on a iron frame ( https://sc01.alicdn.com/kf/HTB1ChvBPXXXXXbaXVXXq6xXFXXXo.jpg) . If you look at this tuk tuk, you can see the steel mounting frame for the solar panels instead of the usual artificial leather covering. So I am pretty sure that the did install the panels there as well. Also it seems quite simple to induce that being knowledgeable enough to operate a welding plant and hook up solar panels, he would know that the best place for the panels would be at the top. The only problem is that a tuk tuk has around 1.3mx1.7m space at the top. So obviously he needs another place to mount some more panels and the sides would be the next logical choice.

>carrying people around requires a lot of power, nothing that panels put that way can offer.

humans produce 100-200w (top cyclists can do 700-800w for 1 minute), that is 0.5-1 m2 of modern solar panels under Sri Lanka sun.

But human cyclist don't speed off like a tuk tuk with passengers in it.

The cost of used solar panels is unbelievably low.

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