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diy solar

Dual axis Solar panel system not tracking

1SickTSI

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May 7, 2021
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Hi All, i am new here and looking for some help. My Solar panel system stopped tracking about 2 months ago and i cannot seem to figure it out. At this point all i want to do is manually move it and point it to were i want it and leave it there for good. The moving of the unit stopped 2 months ago like i said, it went back to its home starting point 1 evening and has been sitting there ever since. I have reset the system multiple times and nothing. It is a dual axis system and it is still making power, it just does not move anymore, left to right or up and down. I do not see any errors on any of the units.
 

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So the company that installed this thing 10 years ago has said it went past its limits during a wind storm and the unit shut down so it would not try to move anymore after it went back to its home position, this prevents the unit from destroying itself if the unit lets say went way out of wack. The damn thing is right were it usually is when it starts. The guy then tells me that he needs to get a special cable to reset the unit or make a controller so i can move it manually to where ever i want it. # months later, 30 text messages and nothing. The company is a joke. I am literally ready to just remove the drive chain, turn the damn thing and put the chain back on so it does not move and let it sit in that position for the rest of its life.
 
What the back of the tracker look like? you got a brand for the tracker base?

per your request, I would look up the specs for the motors that drive the thing. (12v?) disconnect the motors at the tracker, alligator some bench top power supply leads to it and bring the voltage up till it slowly starts moving to were you want it. (+/- swap should be direction)

As for fixing the system, it seems like it would have blown/tripped some limit switch/fuse and or its photocell it uses for tracking is dead? With a wireing diagram and a meter you should be able to do some basic troublshooting to figure out what it doesn't like. that A&B controler also looks complex enough to give you error codes that may cut a lot off that T/S.
 
What the back of the tracker look like? you got a brand for the tracker base?

per your request, I would look up the specs for the motors that drive the thing. (12v?) disconnect the motors at the tracker, alligator some bench top power supply leads to it and bring the voltage up till it slowly starts moving to were you want it. (+/- swap should be direction)

As for fixing the system, it seems like it would have blown/tripped some limit switch/fuse and or its photocell it uses for tracking is dead? With a wireing diagram and a meter you should be able to do some basic troublshooting to figure out what it doesn't like. that A&B controler also looks complex enough to give you error codes that may cut a lot off that T/S.
its a 3 phase motor, takes alot of power to move it so i do not think a bench power supply will move it. Also there is no fuses, its all electronic and from what i was told it has to be reprogrammed to reset the limit switch, witch sounds pretty dumb to me. Everything looks as norm al operation on all the electronics, no errors, no fault codes
 

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the grey collars on the motor shafts in photo 4635, they are spline collars that connect the motor to the shaft. You should be able to take those off and free wheel the array by hand to the position you want it.

now "by hand" may be an understatement given the size/weight of the array. May be a 2 or 3 person job.

Do you know how it aims the array? These usually use a shaded photocell with a single like 1/4" hole. As the sun moves it creates a pinpoint of light that it measures. by looking at the position of the pinpoint on the grid of photocells it knows how to move the array to move the pinpoint to the center. If there are no errors shown then trying to troubleshoot the aiming "device" is were I would start.

I would also think there is a manual override to manually position the array that could be activated at the A&B controller. You might refer to whatever docs you got with it and see if you can locate such a feature. (my guess is you have to find the right menu setting, go into that, then use the arrow keys on the front to move it around)

by removing the grey collars you could also determine if that something mechanical is jammed up in the gearing that runs the movement. Ie after you take them off, you might try to power cycle or whatever the controler and see if it will move the motors. I assume there is some sort of current monitoring on the motors so if they overcurrent they shut down. So if its jamed up they may not move. (however i would also expect it to throw some sort of code for this... "elevation motor over current shutdown" etc) (however given A&B controlers, this may just be a logged code and you have to pull up the menu for logged codes, then refrence the manual for what error 782-5 is.... think ODB2 codes)
 
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