Solar tracker, wow
Found this. It is worth its own thread.
VIDEO
A simple, near fool-proof way to track the sun.
I have 200 watts on the roof, but if I add a 3rd panel it will be portable, so I will build one of these.
For those not to follow the link, he built a solar mount that has two motors. One up down, the other right left. They are powered by 4 little solar panels, just big enough to run a motor. The panel cast a shadow on all 4 little panels, so when the panel is perfect the motors have no power, but when the sun moves and hits one panel it has power to move the motor. This move the panel until the shadow is cast again and the motor stops.
The opposing panels are wired into one motor and are opposite polarity, so one moves it forward, the other backwards and this lets it go automatically right or left (or up and down). Genius.
VIDEO
A simple, near fool-proof way to track the sun.
I have 200 watts on the roof, but if I add a 3rd panel it will be portable, so I will build one of these.
For those not to follow the link, he built a solar mount that has two motors. One up down, the other right left. They are powered by 4 little solar panels, just big enough to run a motor. The panel cast a shadow on all 4 little panels, so when the panel is perfect the motors have no power, but when the sun moves and hits one panel it has power to move the motor. This move the panel until the shadow is cast again and the motor stops.
The opposing panels are wired into one motor and are opposite polarity, so one moves it forward, the other backwards and this lets it go automatically right or left (or up and down). Genius.
