Unique and entertaining, for all ages, but especially infants.

Lighting and performance

No other solar mobile requires less light.

Hang it from a pin in the ceiling of a well lit room.

It rotates a little every few minutes in an average brightness room, say 200 lux. The solar cell faces down so it can tolerate direct sunlight, but then spins almost continuously, in reflected light of say 1k lux. You can hang it above a table lamp to control it.

Details:

• One foot long
• Sweeps a circle of diameter twenty inches
• Weighs less than an ounce
• No batteries or maintenance except occasional dusting

Fully assembled.

Made from:

• a pager motor
• an amorphous silicon solar cell
• a tantalum capacitor
• miscellaneous control electronics
• a stainless steel hypodermic tube
• an OSHPark PCB
• nylon fishing and quilting line

Warranty is one year, but it should last for years, until the motor wears out.

Ships securely in a cardboard box.

You can put tape over the solar cell to get less spinning in very strong light.

Patented. The mobile is suspended by a thread to the axle of the motor, near the middle of the tube. In this model, the steel tube is one of the conductors to the motor, the other conductor is an insulated wire inside the tube.