4 way tilting panels fully working

[Deleted member 3614]

getting water into the tank is vey easy with this van, its water feet is 3 feet higher than the tank and its in the perfect place to have the pipe placed inside, its all gravity fed.

 

[nibs]

When it comes to patenting, you will find too much prior art.
I have one patent, and have researched several ideas, you have to show that there is no prior art.

 

[Deleted member 3614]

When it comes to patenting, you will find too much prior art.
I have one patent, and have researched several ideas, you have to show that there is no prior art.

Whats prior art? not hard of that.

was looking at our uk laws, 1 in 10 will make a patent, i,ve not seen any multi tilt systems for sale. there maybe somewhere i guess.

 

[JeepHammer]

Whats prior art? not hard of that.

was looking at our uk laws, 1 in 10 will make a patent, i,ve not seen any multi tilt systems for sale. there maybe somewhere i guess.

Way back when, you had to have at least a model of what you wanted to patent.
They quickly found out you can't store all those models.
Now you need drawings/diagrams known as 'Art' and have a search done for similar ideas.
The Art and search are at your cost.

Now you can patent a general idea, like teleportation without art, just a written overview of of the idea.

Half the patents are to keep a better idea from becoming products.
You patent the idea, and it's not profitable for a company actually doing the work to develope a product because a competitor has the patent and won't licence it to the people making it a reality.
They do this to hold market share, the have a lesser product, get a whiff of something better coming down the pipeline, and race to the patent office to stop that product.

See battery technology over the past 100 years...
Petroleum & auto companies owned the IDEA of batteries that would have made Renewable Energy & electric vehicles viable & competitive.
The ideas for 'X' type batteries, and ideas for manufacturing processes were patented and left to rot, ensuring the market share for big fossil fuels energy and big auto.

I keep EVERYTHING, from bar napkins to writing down how the idea first struck,
And though patent litigation I leaned to keep doodles & write insprations/ideas down, stick a stamp on them and have them time/date cancelled at the post office.
99.99% come to nothing, but it's a cheap way to document the 0.01% that might go somewhere...
And you can bet if it makes any money at all, someone is going to infringe your patent (knock-offs) or challenge your patent,
The post office stamp is accepted by the courts 100% of the time.

Copyrights are even worse, and the courts accept the postal stamp time/date code 100% of the time also.
It's 'Poor Mans' documentation insurance.

-------------

As to "4 Way",

There are only 3 planes of motion with 3 dimensions/3 dimensional objects.
Pitch (nose up/nose down)
Yaw (right or left rotation)
Roll (think barrel or airplane, drunk falling sideways out of a chair)

 

[maxx123]

Way back when, you had to have at least a model of what you wanted to patent.
They quickly found out you can't store all those models.
Now you need drawings/diagrams known as 'Art' and have a search done for similar ideas.
The Art and search are at your cost.

Now you can patent a general idea, like teleportation with Art.
Half the patents are to keep a better idea from becoming products.
You patent the idea, and it's not profitable for a company actually doing the work to develope a product because a competitor has the patent and won't licence it to the people making it a reality.
They do this to hold market share, the have a lesser product, get a whiff of something better coming down the pipeline, and race to the patent office to stop that product.

See battery technology over the past 100 years...
Petroleum & auto companies owned the IDEA of batteries that would have made Renewable Energy & electric vehicles viable & competitive.
The ideas for 'X' type batteries, and ideas for manufacturing processes were patented and left to rot, ensuring the market share for big fossil fuels energy and big auto.

I keep EVERYTHING, from bar napkins to writing down how the idea first struck,
And though patent litigation I leaned to keep doodles & write insprations/ideas down, stick a stamp on them and have them time/date cancelled at the post office.
99.99% come to nothing, but it's a cheap way to document the 0.01% that might go somewhere...
And you can bet if it makes any money at all, someone is going to infringe your patent (knock-offs) or challenge your patent,
The post office stamp is accepted by the courts 100% of the time.

Copyrights are even worse, and the courts accept the postal stamp time/date code 100% of the time also.
It's 'Poor Mans' documentation insurance.

registered is the best, in Canada Lawyers use double register

 

[Deleted member 3614]

If you think in countries closer to the equator, tilting panel system are not needed but when the sun only just makes it past the treetop then it becomes a major issues, it may be fine to charge a phone or a laptop but running a full desktop pc and trying to keep some home normality will not work.
panels flat on a roof in the winter in the UK are hopeless. just 2 amps from a 300-watt solar panel and when tilted nearly 10 amps but the panels wasn't fully pointed flat at the sun so would expect more amps.

anyway in the UK we have a free business seem where you get full funding for ideas and some invention. if my system works how i think it will I will be seeing them.

Lawyers are born greedy, they walk around with pound signs in their eyes.

always try in life and if you don't you will never know, I've always been a person who tries new things, i get bored doing the run of the mill stuff.

even made a chimney cover that uses lost heat to heat the bathroom, 35 degrees of heat coming from the small pipe that's lost inside the wardrobe, the bathroom now gets nice and toasty at 25 degrees using 0 power from inside the bathroom. sometimes small adjustments can make all the difference.

 

[Alexank]

@Cloudy-Day

Well done for providing this post, I am going to be doing almost exactly the same as you using these.

Smith & Locke Spring-Loaded Animal Bolt Zinc-Plated 230mm - Screwfix

Order online at Screwfix.com. Zinc-plated. Ideal for use on gates, farm doors and garage doors. FREE next day delivery available, free collection in 1 minute.

www.screwfix.com

I am also in the UK and you are right Solar is not very effective at this time of year.

I have two vans one where the single panel will be a four way tilt and the other where the four panels can only really be 2 way otherwise they will shade each other plus I will only be able to access them from the side of the van

My panels are all mounted on Unistrut and it is very easy to bolt extra things like the spring bolts to Unistrut.
Unistrut is very strong!
I will be using rubber strips as a bump stop under the panels otherwise they will almost certainly rattle when closed because the hole for the spring bolt will obviously have to be slightly larger than the bolt itself.

The panels will need to be well support at the hinge point and prop when raised especially in very strong winds
Note also in strong winds with multiple panels there will be a noticeable sail effect which will easily rock the van.

This is my current panel setup
Crafter

Sprinter

And yes sitting on the van roof is a very nice place to be!

 

[Deleted member 3614]

@Cloudy-Day

Well done for providing this post, I am going to be doing almost exactly the same as you using these.

Smith & Locke Spring-Loaded Animal Bolt Zinc-Plated 230mm - Screwfix

Order online at Screwfix.com. Zinc-plated. Ideal for use on gates, farm doors and garage doors. FREE next day delivery available, free collection in 1 minute.

www.screwfix.com

I am also in the UK and you are right Solar is not very effective at this time of year.

I have two vans one where the single panel will be a four way tilt and the other where the four panels can only really be 2 way otherwise they will shade each other plus I will only be able to access them from the side of the van

My panels are all mounted on Unistrut and it is very easy to bolt extra things like the spring bolts to Unistrut.
Unistrut is very strong!
I will be using rubber strips as a bump stop under the panels otherwise they will almost certainly rattle when closed because the hole for the spring bolt will obviously have to be slightly larger than the bolt itself.

The panels will need to be well support at the hinge point and prop when raised especially in very strong winds
Note also in strong winds with multiple panels there will be a noticeable sail effect which will easily rock the van.

This is my current panel setup
Crafter

Sprinter

And yes sitting on the van roof is a very nice place to be!

Nice work, yes solar this time of the year grr, might as well use aa batteries lol.

Due to my motorhomes skylights I have to spread the panels around, one will be slightly over the one skylight and the other two will be joined. Last Saturday they got a really good test from the wind, it hit around 40 mph here causing no issues. the twin panels are having a brace fitted. as for the van rocking it does that with its stock rear shocks, lets say i will be ok on rough seas lmao.

Some would say why not just have them on the floor but in this country, never people with knick anything and the van is often let on its own.

To gain more power you don't have to fully tilt the panels, the tests was done the week before I made the brackets, all I did was unscrew the panels, it was too windy using two wooden poles to hold them up so only tilted them about halfway to the sun, from flat on the roof at 2 amps to almost 10 amps at 10.30 am which for this country is very good and far better than the crappy 2 amps. I guess by pointing them directly at the sun the amps will shoot up.

What do you think of parking in the UK? off-grid is a nightmare, staying away from campsites too makes it very difficult and getting water is like looking for gold. I photograph churches and may find one water tap out of 50 churchyards.

I hope to have the panels up and running by mid jan, thanks to xmas getting in the way.

 

[Alexank]

We live on the Welsh borders and we spend a lot of time in Snowdonia, I have not had any problems finding anywhere to stop but I always have a plan B just in case.
I don’t use the search for sites or park 4 night apps very often as those sites are often already occupied or full of litter.

I do use google maps satellite view though, and I google drive my planned routes in advance that often identifies interesting potential stopping places.

Water has never really been a problem we take 120l with us and I may use a campsite for one night if we need to fill up and can’t find a friendly garage forecourt or car wash or garden centre or cafe, lots of places have outside taps for dog bowls, biggest problem is lots of places now also have height barriers to keep the infesting pikeys out.

I would not consider living permanently in a van in the UK because the lifestyle is not welcomed In many places there are far too many dogooding nimby bean counters trying to make wild camping as difficult as possible, plus the weather is pretty awful for a large part of the year not helped by the fact we have three dogs!

Van life is much more acceptable on the continent though, Portugal or Spain in the winter appeals and we might try three months over there in the future.

 

[Deleted member 3614]

I reply from the bottom up from your reply.

Van life as you say seems unwelcomed, most on this site would be shocked how bad the uk is. eg one person setting fire to a Morison petrol station and they then blanket bad LPG for motorhomes and anyone trying to fill up gas bottles, in the fens we are down to one petrol station witch sells LPG,

I live near Norfolk which has only e LPG stations now. BP are removing them fast.

My plan was to live full time BUT a lack of power has gotten in my way, i need to run my pc as its part of my life's works, i live for adventure and photograph all kinds of wonderful things which can't be run from a laptop. The tilting panels I hope will fix some of the power but this weather at the moment would never help. constant rain.

as photography is my daily life, i plan around that and parking, I photograph churches often so parking near or around them is always a good idea BUT again winter comes and church car parks are 99..99% grass, meaning my 3.5 ton van goes titanic and sinks lol. I have to use google earth and look for farmers concrete storage places or a farm track that is hard ground, there are loads about but not always where i want them. it gets tiring tho looking.

everywhere i look, its either no overnight parking, private or is full of junk and yes like you I hate that park for night apps, its like everyone has the same idea.

When summer comes, another problem pops up, you can't park at all hear, roads jammed up to the coast so have to move inland.

I think scotland (haven't been yet) looks better for parking and is more welcoming than the uk.

is owning a home with wheels fun, yes it is but not if you live in the UK, too many rules terrible its getting worse all the time, one ban was due to campers parking too close, a fire risk, there goes the uk nany state yet again. are we so weak and should we all just buy an xbox and sit at home?

Brexit is now a word that defines this country.

Ohh here the councils are charging people to park on saltmarshes car parks which gets flooded, money grabbers but you can bend the rules no issues, the rules only apply to the bays but you get other bits that are free, only use locals know this.

also parking in laybys is not really an option, they are used as dumping grounds and for drug users so are not safe.

 

[Alexank]

We have been visiting Scotland regularly for the last 35-40 years. we have several relatives in Tain north of Inverness.
The success of the NC500 has spoilt a lot of it unless going out of season, however the success of the NC500 also means central Scotland is not anything like as busy as it could be and there's a heck of a lot to see inland!

We stay on the East side e.g the Cairngorms if the weather forecast is bad.

Re power have you considered mounting a folding wind turbine similar to those used on Yachts?
They can have one draw back, cavitation which can cause a droning sound inside a vehicle, the noise can mean they are not ideal overnight but during the day when there is no Sun a turbine could be an alternate option, I am not sure if they are covered on this forum though!

 

[Deleted member 3614]

Very cool been eyeing up Scotland for months, was due to be there for this Christmas but after the power issues became too much I had to cancel.

Yes it sounds like it up there then, in the summer months head inland like we do here, its far too packed with people and removes what i,m looking for and thats freedom.

Been looking at a wind turbine for ages as we have lots of wind in this country without beans lol. they a good idea but the price is crazy, yes i saw about the noise too.

 

[Brimacfly]

Cloudy-Day where did you get the black L brackets from?

 

[Deleted member 3614]

Cloudy-Day where did you get the black L brackets from?

B and Q £2.67 i think.

 

[Deleted member 3614]

The twin panel frames are finished. Seeing the fabricator tomorrow to finish off the spring bolts so on.

I hope to have someting up and running in the next 10 days as the van as been off the road for weeks.

Been advised to see my business adviser about this design so that will be interesting.

 

[Alexank]

I did a very temp install just to get my panel up in the air
I am going to buy a more efficient i.e. smaller panel and then will either use 8 latches to get a for way tilt or experiment with and old seat swivel base
That will give a finer degree of rotation until something gets in the way but it will require a support frame that can be safely locked down on the move.

 

[Deleted member 3614]

I did a very temp install just to get my panel up in the air
I am going to buy a more efficient i.e. smaller panel and then will either use 8 latches to get a for way tilt or experiment with and old seat swivel base
That will give a finer degree of rotation until something gets in the way but it will require a support frame that can be safely locked down on the move.

well done,

as you have found out the power gain is impressive.

in testing my two panels as one was ok in 40 mph winds, they have just had their frame made which will increase the strength. having two types made for both single and double panels.

the full of the grid water system has worked a treat, no more hunting for water which is like gold in the uk.

 

[coachgeo]

look at how Unimog and other truck as well as Agriculture trailers do their 3 way tilt beds. Many ideas for panel tilting can be gleaned from their methods.

 

[Deleted member 3614]

look at how Unimog and other truck as well as Agriculture trailers do their 3 way tilt beds. Many ideas for panel tilting can be gleaned from their methods.

yes but there's weight issues.

my ideas come me, love inventing things and when they work its far cooler. somethings are really easy when you think with an open mind.

 

[Deleted member 3614]

Its been weeks of work but the tilting panel system is on my motorhomes roof and working miles better than i first thought. seeing the fabricators tomorrow for 4 more brackets and three updates to the first set up.

Sorry, no pictures until my appointment with the business adviser which is in a months time.