help needed

i am doing a project to design a Solar panel that follows the sun. the idea is to have sensors on the panel which will control the movement of the motor to direct the panel towards the direction of the highest intensity sensor... any ideas of how to go on about doing that using microprocessor???

You could program a micro to function as a Heliostat.

thanks Bill, but could you please ellaborate more as i dont realy understand micros!
thanks

osman82,

Google: solar tracker

Ken

osman82 said:

thanks Bill, but could you please ellaborate more as i dont realy understand micros!
thanks

Click to expand...

A solar tracker really doesn't need an MCU. If your learning micros then start buy blinking an LED till you get the hang of them. Writing a heliostat would not be a beginners project.

Hi osman,

you might try my sun tracker circuit which is designed to control both azimuth and elevation angle of the solar panel.

It uses clear dome 10mm red LEDs as sensors and a homing circuit with selectable time to home towards sunrise position starting at the selected time when maximum West position is reached.

Near the equator the sun sets pretty rapidly and twilight duration is 20 to 30minutes. At 60deg North twilight duration might last up to four hours in summer time.

The sensor enclosure is made of a "bear brand" coffee creamer can. The picture shows it with two LEDs only.

Boncuk

Try this relativly simple solar tracker:
Electronic Projects
Duane