Solar Tracker

[Billfred]

Originally Posted by Sh1ine

I am trying to design a solar tracker project for my POE class. I have found online a lot of information about hacking a servo and replace the pot for photo sensors. I want to make a bigger system using the same principles, and without programming. Has anyone ever made a simple solar tracker? How did you accomplish it? Would it be possible to run a motor off of a Jag and connect the photo sensors up to it directly without any programming?

Thanks for your input!

According to this NI-hosted document, the Jaguars still require an external signal whether using CAN or PWM. (Is it possible to hack the firmware? I don't know--but even if you could, you're still programming.)

Seems like you could program up a few Trinket boards to handle the necessary processing; they support up to three analog inputs and two PWM outputs (or two and three; one pin goes both ways). A couple extra wires won't kill them (just say "MAGIC HAPPENS HERE" in the diagram), and eight bucks won't kill you if they somehow kill the board.