My tracking system

Topic: My tracking system (Read 114 times) previous topic - next topic

My tracking system

May 12, 2026, 04:49:55 AM

Some one asked about my avatar picture on another forum, it was my very first kick off to off grid living. They where thin film amorphous panels from Canadian Tire, back then they had a claim of 30w each and I had 120w by the label, I never saw more then 50 out of it! So to try and improve it (fruitlessly) I made it an adjustable and turn-able mount

Crude but worked excellent, far better than the panels ever did!

Getting sick of the garbage I finally ordered some real solar panels, whopping 540w and man did they crank the juice out and work fantastic.

Back then 3k! including shipping!! (Now days I could buy a 4kw array with that! but still going 16 years later I got my dollars worth from them!)

Gave away the crappy amorphous panels and lived off those for some time, but after enough moves I put them on the old static manual tracking mount.

Effective, but gets tedious having to go out side and push it into the sun especially in winter! So lets automate! but on a budget!

Re: My tracking system

Reply #1 – May 12, 2026, 04:59:44 AM

Ah chinesium, But well made, and they knew it, still get these some what cheap!

But like any thing china they over blow the realistic current handling of the onboard relays and I cooked one, luckily easy enough to order new relays and repair the board, but lets not do that again, good thing same people sell some thing for that, while add it lets add a 40 amp psu!

Well great, I have the brains and one axis working, but following it up and down isn't too useful, we need azimuth, lets see the junk pile and see whats laying about!

Re: My tracking system

Reply #2 – May 12, 2026, 05:01:59 AM

Ok image loading issues again will try again later

Re: My tracking system

Reply #3 – May 12, 2026, 01:09:54 PM

It was the sunshine coming off the hat causing the upload issues

.
Nice looking panels!!

Cheers
Bruce S

Re: My tracking system

Reply #4 – May 12, 2026, 08:33:45 PM

Hi,
I'm glad to see you posting.
Does that ewe ever chew through your wires?
Long ago we kept a pair of goats and I couldn't leave a wire on the ground. The billygoat would soon be around to chew it apart.

Re: My tracking system

Reply #5 – May 12, 2026, 08:36:31 PM

Many years ago a FL member who went by "DavidHK" from Hong Kong came up with a design that would follow the sun by simply measuring the brightness of the sky left or right and turning to it. It was really simple.

Re: My tracking system

Reply #6 – May 13, 2026, 03:22:34 AM

Quote from: SparWeb – on May 12, 2026, 08:36:31 PM

Many years ago a FL member who went by "DavidHK" from Hong Kong came up with a design that would follow the sun by simply measuring the brightness of the sky left or right and turning to it. It was really simple.

If my garbage memory serves me right it used 4 cadmium cells to detect brightness, mounted in a tube with a divider between them...

Re: My tracking system

Reply #7 – May 13, 2026, 07:08:24 AM

I remember working with David, Glen Hurd and Rich before we went to The Philippines.
Back then 10 & 17 watt solar panels were ~34USD/ea.
I still have David's original email address , though I've not seen any posts of his on U-tube for a bunch of years.
I'll shoot him an email and see if it's still active.
Rich is active on FB, so I'll send him a message to see if he has any of David's notes/pics.

Cheers
Bruce S

Re: My tracking system

Reply #8 – May 13, 2026, 08:25:32 PM

Quote from: SparWeb – on May 12, 2026, 08:33:45 PM

Hi,
I'm glad to see you posting.
Does that ewe ever chew through your wires?
Long ago we kept a pair of goats and I couldn't leave a wire on the ground. The billygoat would soon be around to chew it apart.

The lambs like to chew on the zip ties and some random things. The goat there did goat things so every thing had to be armored!

Sheep just like to yell at me!

Re: My tracking system

Reply #9 – May 13, 2026, 08:42:41 PM

Azimuth drive:

Iteration one was bad, I knew it was going to be a problem,but I thought I could band aid it via PWM, but that ended in fire, of the PWM controller!

Hmm this guy from the junk pile looks like it'll do the job! it worked for an RV slide out after all! Now how do we cram it on the mount and make it go right round baby right round!

An idea is forming!

So, need to make it higher as well, so all rigged up

So here is the idea together sure this will be no problem with 5 rpm! Non at all!

Hmmmmm, I don't things are supposed to to twist like that during adjustments! lets see if we can band aid it, because that never is a problem!

Re: My tracking system

Reply #10 – May 13, 2026, 09:00:02 PM

Oh who ever could have predicted that, ok, I suppose it is time to fix it properly!

Ok need to do some McMath

Ok, lets visit the parts pile again!

I like it, but this is not too convenient lets see what we can do with this, Metal pile we go.

Aluminium, shiny!

Lets do some trimming and make purdy!

Now lets get this all assembled into a functional part!

(Lots of die grinder to make it smooth)

Re: My tracking system

Reply #11 – May 13, 2026, 09:11:23 PM

Now lets get it on the panel

Here is the gear math I used, sadly attachments don't seem to work:

Var:

( RPM / 60) * 360 RPM to degrees /p Second

1 rpm = 6 degrees

Sun = 0.25 Degrees /p Minute

Input 26 RPM

Comp:

For 30m adjust lock out sun will move 7.5 degrees azimuth (30m * 0.25 = 7.5) (East to west)

Desired rotational speed less than 15 degrees per minute (15deg / 60sec = 0.25 deg /p second)

-------gear box

26rpm / 40:1 = 0.65 RPM
26rpm / 60:1 = 0.43 RPM
26rpm / 80:1 = 0.32 RPM

Convert to degrees per second

--RPM----------------Degrees per second

( 0.65 / 60) * 360 = 3.9

( 0.43 / 60) * 360 = 2.58

( 0.32 / 60) * 360 = 1.92

Final stage 2:1 ratio

----------degrees per second

3.9 / 2 = 1.95
2.58 / 2 = 1.29
1.92 / 2 = 0.96

---------------------Seconds per adjustment

7.5 degrees / 1.95 = 3.85
7.5 degrees / 1.29 = 5.814
7.5 degrees / 0.96 = 7.813

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

Motor used in the end was 10 rpm output! Gear box used: 40:1

Stage 1 drive: 10 rpm / 40 = 00.25 rpm

Stage 2 Final Drive: 00.25 rpm / 2 = 0.1250 rpm

Convert RPM to Degrees per second: ( 0.1250 rpm / 60 ) * 360 = 0.75 Degrees p second

Much better, excellent tracking, don't stick fingers in to chain drive!

A nice fabrication shot, First time using plasma cuter on Aluminium

Re: My tracking system

Reply #12 – May 14, 2026, 04:28:45 AM

My lawn care team assists in keeping the grass down and assists in the builds.

They all so some times test the solar arrays mechanical resilience, New farm build they are def, getting mounted higher off the ground!

After having a power supply fail after so many years of operation I wanted an easier way to verify power was good with out standing there watching it, so added a power led.

This has worked excellent last couple years, even at -30c it just chugs along, gets a bit glitchy under that, but after doing some repairs in wiring for some reason starting working better at low temps, for once, some thing worked better!

Re: My tracking system

Reply #13 – May 14, 2026, 08:27:47 PM

You have an interesting junk pile if you can concoct that out of it.

I thought I'd see a limit switch, or something similar to make it stop moving and pivot back at the end of the day.

Re: My tracking system

Reply #14 – May 15, 2026, 04:00:57 AM

Quote from: SparWeb – on May 14, 2026, 08:27:47 PM

You have an interesting junk pile if you can concoct that out of it.

I thought I'd see a limit switch, or something similar to make it stop moving and pivot back at the end of the day.

Many sensed darkness and moved back...

Re: My tracking system

Reply #15 – May 15, 2026, 05:07:16 AM

Quote from: SparWeb – on May 14, 2026, 08:27:47 PM

You have an interesting junk pile if you can concoct that out of it.

I thought I'd see a limit switch, or something similar to make it stop moving and pivot back at the end of the day.

It's there, parking is done via time, the controller has that logic programed in.

After 3 or so years the switch died, now they are sealed magnetic switches