Solar Optimiser

Does anybody have any information regarding to a control system to keep a solar panel pointing towards the sun? Thank You :idea:

One idea is to mount light 4 sensors on a fixture as shown. If the panel platform is not pointing directly to the sun, one or more of the sensors will have a shadow over it. All you need now is the electronics to sense which sensor/s is shadowed and take corrective action to the tilt motors to correct the error.

km said:

Does anybody have any information regarding to a control system to keep a solar panel pointing towards the sun? Thank You :idea:

Click to expand...

You should also consider if it's worth trying to follow the sun?, it might use more energy to do so than you would gain by tracking. An accurately aligned fixed panel won't provide a great deal less than a moving one.

There are methods that do not use electrcity, eg:
**broken link removed**

What about some like this???

You construct a little box that is obscure inside or some like that, you make a orifice and insert a glass for concentrate the sun light to a point, you have inside a type of reciver/charger/battery, when is full it will start the movent of the base and because this will consume the battery, then needing to reload again ????

Hehe, is only a idea .


By the way, all the left side can by used for "atract the light" and the right side to reflectate it, some more not like a black box but a right white box and a left dar box (mirrors at the right side????)... also sure, it will need turn to adjust itself, a similar idea can be constructed with this, a semicircle and the first post??, the seocond image use the same about the trigger/discharge, but it "delete" the necesity to turn also the detector at the cost of introduce more of them?? .

km said:

Does anybody have any information regarding to a control system to keep a solar panel pointing towards the sun? Thank You :idea:

Click to expand...

Eh km,
Take a look at this link http://www.redrok.com/electron.htm it's all about solar tracking and there's a few neat circuits too

Cheers Bryan1

km said:

Does anybody have any information regarding to a control system to keep a solar panel pointing towards the sun? Thank You :idea:

Click to expand...

Eh km,
Take a look at this link http://www.redrok.com/electron.htm it's all about solar tracking and there's a few neat circuits too

Cheers Bryan1

Solar Tracker Block Diagram

I have found a block diagram for the solar tracker on the internet which is shown below. Can anybody please briefly explain to me what function does each part of the block perform? The processor is a microcontroller (has a built in ADC). The motor is it control the movement of each sensors? The X represents horizontal movement? & the Y represents vertical movement? Please help me

Having some first hand experience with solar panels I find it is not necessary to rotate them to the sun at my location. I live in Utah(USA) and have 3ea 75 watt panels mounted at a 45 degree angle facing due south. As soon as it gets light in the morning they start to charge. My load on the batteries that they charge varies a little, but there are days when the sun is out that the batteries(12V @ 450ah) are fully charged by 11AM.
When they were first installed I made provisions to change the angle(higher angle for winter and a lower angle for summer), but after monitoring I found it not necessary. If you don't have quite enough charge time it is far easier to put up another panel than add the control circuitry. Just my opinion.