rngd

Guys,

Need some help urgently! I have a thin shaft and a rectangular solar panel. The shaft is connected to a motor shaft and will rotate. How do I stick the panel onto the shaft so it can rotate ?
The simpler the solution the better..

Thank you everyone

Hero999

With glue.

You're not being very clear, are you building a solar follower?

How big is it?

If it's just a small pannel you're probably wasting your time as all the extra energy will be wasted powering the motor that turns it.

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HarveyH42

Hot glue, duct tape, canadian chewing gum...

How big a panel, shaft, motor? Panel have any kind of framework? Is the shaft strong enough to support the panel? What will the wind do (assuming this will be outside under the sun). How about some pictures, links, or some sort of scale.

Is this for power, or as a light sensor? So many posiblities, any other guesses?

blueroomelectronics

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McIntosh toffee, now that stuff will pull fillings out of your teeth.

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audioguru

Canadian Chewing Gum is hard like steel after it has been sitting in the snow for a while.

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rjvh

what kind of material is the shaft and your frame work of your sollar panel???

welding could be a solution

what are the envoirement conditions the thing has to oparate in tropics blizards high winds monsoon rains ???????

HarveyH42

Two days, guess it wasn't that urgent after all...

I've been sort of getting the solar bug again. I've got a 12 watt panel, a 5 watt charger/controller, and a 12 volt/7AH SLA to play with. Should have plenty from the panel for a tracker. But then again, should be able to charge that tiny battery easy without chasing the sun. I was going to use the hardware an actuator from the old satelite dishes I have.

To the OP, there is an alternate energy site called REDROCK (search, easy find), that has hundreds of photos and diagrams, and about as many links. Page takes for ever to load (dial-up), but you should have no problem finding something that fits your needs. My 12 watt panel would be a little small compared to most of the stuff the have, but you can scale to your needs.

rngd

Very very very sorry guys. For some reason I did not get any emails about replies to this topic (normally i do), so I did not check back here thinking nobody replied..

I actually decided to use epoxy (Araldite) to glue the shaft onto the perspex frame that is holding the solar panel. Its a small 5W panel and the shaft is 5mm in diameter.


Ive been to that site, but they only show few pictures of the trackers, and it was very hard to see how the frame was constructed.

Thanks for the replies anyway guys.