well I have to put mine on a wall so that sort of mecanism may not work, mine will be one next to the other is a line. and all i see is a list of ideas and parts.

like I said that sort of mecanism is not what I need your pictures give no info at all infact that looks to me solidly stationary. just keep your project in your projects thread where I've already made my comments on it....

It sounds like you need a horizontal venetian blind concept. Only sturdier.

pretty much yes I'm thinking of a screwing mecanism with a nut on the panel and a long threaded shaft turned by a motor so that it will "rock" from side to side. obviosly the nut needs to be able to swivel on the panel plane

If you had a hinged frame for each one to pivot on, then a long acme threaded rod with nut assemblies attached to a lever on each panel. That would rotate or pivot the panels then you would have to work out limit switches, tracking and the like but that should work.

I suppose if I had a rod sticking out at 90 deg. from the panel plane I could interconect all the panels with a long "rod" (2 to start with) so that one powerful motor could action them all together via the rod moving it from side to side

Sounds good, when can we start?

Just watch the back lash in each joint...

Originally Posted by mike2545

If you had a hinged frame for each one to pivot on, then a long acme threaded rod with nut assemblies attached to a lever on each panel. That would rotate or pivot the panels then you would have to work out limit switches, tracking and the like but that should work.

yes thats it, and the thread/nut assembly would be very surdy against the wind, what I'm mainly worried about is the wind ripping the lot out of the wall. just have to use big screws and maybe a bolt straight thru as its going to be at loft level

Originally Posted by mike2545

Sounds good, when can we start?

Just watch the back lash in each joint...

back lash ?

so where can I get a high torque mecanism/motor + gear box without breaking the bank and making it unviable, I've figured each 20 W panel may make £ 7 of electric a year and I'm banking on the cost of electricity going up (yes literally banking, at the moment the return on solar generated electricity is higher than the interest rate at the bank ! )

I made a window opening device, years ago, that opened an attic window. The window was hinged at the bottom, I used a threaded rod but brazed two nuts on either side of a 2 inch metal tube as the carriage. I put a grease-zert in the pipe for lubrication. Worked for years.

One gear motor and an H-bridge will do it. Something high torque low rpm.

Back lash. The individual joints that have slop or looseness in them, when added together is a lot of unwanted movement. One joint with .05 movement is OK but 10 of those joints is too much.

sounds like a plan but in this case it would be more compact if it swiveled on the panels centre, I work for an engineering company so should be able to russle up some parts (metal bits and bobs) andworkmanship

Originally Posted by mike2545

One gear motor and an H-bridge will do it. Something high torque low rpm.

so where do I get the motor (with gearbox) how do you think i should calculate the power needed, although I gather given a nice powerful motor and the huge torque multiplication such a high gearing down would give itdoesn't need working out too accurately

Are you going to want to run the motor on low Voltage DC? or What you have coming out of the wall there in the UK?

Stupid question