Building a Solar Parabolic

[Rich Wong]

Originally Posted by Team2883

We are trying to build a solar parabolic to offset our heating costs in the school. We are currently in the design and testing stage. We need some info on how we can build a system to track the sun. We are currently leaning towards a GPS setup or maybe photocell type where we could measure +,- voltage to keep the sun centered on our collector. Just some thoughts and lead ins would help.

Wow, I had this project almost 30 years ago.
I used a cardboard tube with a light sensor on the bottom of it. The inside of the tube was covered with white paper to be semi-reflective. The microprocessor senses the intensity of the light coming down the tube from the sky and adjust the servos to move the solar parabolic for max exposure.
Use a simple looping routine to check sensor reading.
Good luck.