Solar Tracker

[AubreyPhillip]

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 panels? 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!

hello friend sorry for old thread reply but have you completed the solar tracker project? It seems very interesting so please share some more information

[DampRobot]

A while ago (for my 8th grade science fair project) I built a solar tracker with mechanical feedback.

It had two bimetallic coils (like you'd find in thermostats, that rotate when their temperature changes), mounted on a shaft and wound in the opposite directions. When the temperature of both coils changed, they just pushed against each other and didn't move the shaft. However, when one was heated, it would move the shaft in one direction (as long as the other wasn't heated too).

Then, I constructed shades that would only heat one of the coils if the sun was on one side of the tracker. Basically, it created a mechanical feedback loop, so that if the sun was on one side, one coil would get heated and the tracker would move to the side with the sun until the shades equally heated both coils, and the tracker reached equilibrium.

In the end, it worked pretty well, I saw 14% improvement over a flat mounted panel. All in all, it was a pretty cool project, and definitely different from what most kids built.

[RoboTigers1796]

Hey! I know this reponse is really late, but this is another 100% programming free solar tracker from the TV show the colony.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ceaiYVvXvQ