Anyone Try this simple type of Tracking system ?

[St34mPunkPrivateer]

Has anyone tried this kind of tracking system, its so simple. I will be using it on a boat at anchor so that gonna have other issues, but seems nifty.

 

[kenkoh]

Smart. But my bear would just knock that over. Hope he builds a more robost one.

 

[45North]

I see James biggar has a ton of these videos on yt. Says he's a carpenter but sounds more like an inventor to me.

 

[FilterGuy]

Quite clever!

 

[KBWaldron]

Has anyone tried this kind of tracking system, its so simple. I will be using it on a boat at anchor so that gonna have other issues, but seems nifty.

In this video, the host discusses vertical shades to ensure better alignment and deal with the morning issue. I have seen a solution that only uses vertical shades. The longer those shades the more accurate the tracking.
Plus with vertical shades you don't need to hide it behind a panel. In fact, one of these, synchronized with all panels, could be used to track many panels or groups of panels.
Finally, putting a detector or panel in this case, facing backward on the eastern-most panel, at not quite 180 degrees from the front facing panel will fully address the issue with tracking back for the morning.

 

[FilterGuy]

In this video, the host discusses vertical shades to ensure better alignment and deal with the morning issue. I have seen a solution that only uses vertical shades. The longer those shades the more accurate the tracking.
Plus with vertical shades you don't need to hide it behind a panel. In fact, one of these, synchronized with all panels, could be used to track many panels or groups of panels.
Finally, putting a detector or panel in this case, facing backward on the eastern-most panel, at not quite 180 degrees from the front facing panel will fully address the issue with tracking back for the morning.

Can you find a link to what you are describing? I think I am following but am not sure.

 

[KBWaldron]

Can you find a link to what you are describing? I think I am following but am not sure.

Here you go.

This is from Great Scott, who has a number of very interesting related topics that may be of interest to people on this forum.
Note that when I talked about adding another reversed panel on the tracker the design would then need to be computer controlled, otherwise the pair of panels on the one side of the tracker would overpower the single panel on the other side, simply based on ambient 360 degree light. I would also not recommend using servos as Great Scott does as they would need to be big and provide a constant drain. Better would be stepper motors and some logic in the controlling app to not use the stepper motors more than every x minutes to keep drain to a minimum. Using an Arduino one could have it sleep for x minutes then wake to check and adjust alignment. Arduinos are very low power and using the sleep function would take the cpu drain to a very minimum amount. Your biggest power drain would be when the stepper motors were activated.

 

[FilterGuy]

Yup....That is what I pictured from your description. I like the ingenuity!!
Having said that, I am not a fan of solar trackers. Adding all the mechanical parts impacts the reliability too much.

 

[KBWaldron]

Still, the increase in efficiency s nothing to sneeze at. I keep trying to work out a simple, yet strong solution for the top of my trailer.

 

[St34mPunkPrivateer]

Im wondering if I could run this program off my PC and then route it back to the controller, nothing should be stopping me from doing that, be interesting and might take the need to maintain multiple cpus out of the equation

 

[FilterGuy]

Im wondering if I could run this program off my PC and then route it back to the controller, nothing should be stopping me from doing that, be interesting and might take the need to maintain multiple cpus out of the equation

What program?

 

[St34mPunkPrivateer]

dont know yet, I might be able to dabble and write one up, but most likely I can find one posted somewhere as well. that kind of why I said I wonder. Normally Pi programs are fairly straight forward. Im in the middle of researching how to setup GPS and Radar to my PC as well. Cause what marine based electronics companies charge for their systems is a massive rip off, even when you include the water resistance and upgraded components.

 

[Will Prowse]

Fun little device. But not worth the effort. Better to buy another panel and keep them static. Imagine the complexity of a 10kw array with tracking. Not worth it.

But very cool. Anyone into beam robotics? I used to build autonomous robots that would seek light and use it to charge. Really fun little insect like robots that eat the sun to move. Fun stuff

 

[KBWaldron]

When your panels are mounted on the roof of an RV there is very little one can do other than tilt them to the south. In order to fully track multiple panels they all need to be on one mount such that they all turn as one flat unit. If each turns individually they start to throw shadows on the panel behind them.
So, possibly good for ground based panels but not happening on an RV.

 

[JeepHammer]

Think about a big post, big bearing on top (for me, that was a big truck axle someone left on my land) to rotate east/west.
The big truck axle gear set has gear reduction so a pretty small motor can move the entire panel mount east/west.

Old trailer frame on top that bearing for panel array base mount platform.
Again, left on the property when I landed here.

Then a screw jack for panel deck incline.
Screw threads (screw jack) has an incredible amount of torque so heavy loads are a snap for it.
Screw jacks can also do east/west, but only do under 90° rotation, it's a bell crank linkage thing, so I used the gear set for 180° rotation.

Timers work almost as well as the optical tracker, but have to be reset for season, about 4 times a year before you see any real losses.
It's a lot of hardware, and it requires tools/torch/welding skills, but the production can increase as much as 30%.

You can buy 30% more panels which aren't as cheap as everyone says when you buy big, high quality,
Or you can go the 'Junk Yard' route and increase the output of the panels you have, buying 25%-30% less panels.

While city folks might have issues with finding old truck axle and trailer frames, and issues with building something yourself,
Country folks always know someone with trucks and where an abandoned house trailer is sitting somewhere.
'Sweat Equity' in stripping the 'House' off the trailer frame, and lugging home the truck axle and setting it in the ground pays off BIG TIME over the next 20-30 years.