Next Phase - Installing Solar - Making my own Tracker

[Dan Lenox]

All,

Planned upgrade from my 17' wind turbine, I am well into my next phase of electrical generation and am awaiting four Mitsubishi UD180MF5 solar electric panels, each capable of 180 watts for a total of 720 watts.

In the mean time I have been researching solar trackers and was a bit surprized by the prices: passive $1700, active $2500

Solution - build my own!

Typically I research the heck out of stuff, and this project is again no exception! And as usual I also over-design and over-build my projects, but again I am in a high wind area and do not want to have wind destroy my tracker.

Here is a quick drawing of the basic design, it's just a large equilateral mount to hold some framework and solar panels.
626

I calculated that the solar panels take up less space if put into a 'staggered' flower pedal arrangement as such:
625

So construction began last weekend, and the tracker is almost completed, I am short 3' of steel to mount the post mount onto the pipe cap. I will be using a 24" ball screw dish actuator for the movement and the RedRok sensor/controller to drive it.

The main column mounts are so far apart that I should not have any problem with having the actuator mount off center. Here are pictures showing how I mounted the actuator:
627
624

And here is the actuator in fully retracted position (parked). The actuator shown was an old SuperJack XL that used to be on my old C-Band 12' antenna.

It simply allowed me to mock up a mounting, and is a placeholder while I await my new Pro Brand 24" Ball Screw ($50 new in box - craigslist.com)
628

Mechanically I have about 210 degrees of rotation, but due to geometry of actuator mounts I have to limit the motion to about 160 degrees. I also have to make up some positive stops so that the wind will not blow the tracker past 0 or 180 degrees. And finally mount some angle iron to bolt the panels onto, but it is coming along pretty nicely.

Hopefully in about a week I can dig out the hole, dig trench for conduit, form up some wood and pour the concrete base in place.

This additional capacity should round out my power generation nicely. So far I have less than $1000 into post/steel/sensor/actuator/stainless hardware.

I know that watching your solar tracker/panels is about as exciting as watching watching paint dry, and certainly can't beat watching a wind turbine in operation, but it certainly is less climbing/maintenance!

But I also can't wait to have it in operation and when sun goes down watch it automatically park itself so that it is pointing back towards the East...

Dan Lenox

[Rob Beckers]

Dan, you may want to send a PM to Mario DeCastris. He designed/built an active tracker. It has a tiny bit of electronics to it. Fun to watch it move actually (yeah, it is slow, every few minutes there's a "bzzzz" and turns a few degrees). :pop2:

-RoB-

[Dan Lenox]

Rob,

already purchased sensor/controller from Duane Johnson from RedRok.com (http://www.redrok.com/electron.htm#led3xforsale), he is making me up a 48v unit so that it will be easy to integrate into my current inverter/battery bank.

thanks though,
Dan

[Ralph Day]

Hi Dan
I have a solar tracker similar to your design. It was an old General Instruments 10'dish pivot and actuator arm. I only have 4 175 watt panels on it, not as big a surface area as yours.

I had an old unused well tile, dug a hole, put the pipe in the tile and filled the tile with concrete. Not going anywhere. For years I just moved it manually (power on east or power on west a bit at a time). Then Mario got me a Red Rok module. It works great, but you must, must must get the micro-switches in your actuator arm set or you'll burn out your Red rock module (i did one in).

My sensor is housed in what looks like a flashlight (a flashlight would do the job well). A piece of abs pipe 8 inches long, with a light fixture siliconed into the end. The sensor sits just behind the glass. If it moves back down the tube at all it gets confused in the morning, the east sensor gets shadowed and the west one gets light...moves the array westward. You can use a pet pop bottle, but I like the hard fixed approach. Trailer wiring 4 wire harness is handy for connecting too.

Let us know how it goes.

Ralph

[Dan Lenox]

Ralph,

Thanks for the heads up on limit switches.

Yes - Redrok spells it out plainly and in bold letters that limit switches *are* necessary for his controller.

The dish actuator that I am getting *does* have them.

Looking forward to having it installed, generating electricity, and at evening reversing itself to park in the east - to await another sunrise!

Dan

[Ralph Day]

Hi Dan
The re-set to east is a slow process. The sensor only allows about 2 seconds of power at a time...you can watch the same thing happen, or demonstrate your unit, by putting a black had over the sensor.

Watching the unit operate definetly requires a lawn chair and beverage of choice.:bigsmile:

Ralph

[Mario De Castris]

Good morning all,

Ralph there is an adjustment on the unit near the front, is the only adjustments provided, by rotating with a small screwdriver you can increase or decrease the timing.

Dan I have an extra Von Wease 24 in. actuator you can have if you have not already purchased one. I was lucky to have a couple of horizon to horizon truckers left over from my days of installing 10ft satellite dishes.

Mario

[Dan Lenox]

All,

Here is an update on my current solar project:

I realized that getting the framework up onto the post (by myself) was going to be quite a chore. So I decided to put my floor engine hoist into my wife's pickup bed, I used some nylon ratchet straps to hold it into place, used some nylon webbing to pick up the framework, and backed the truck up to the post.

It actually worked out pretty well and after a bit of maneuvering the truck position I finally got it put on! It was almost too easy...

Here is some pictures:
669

670

671

At present PV panels are up and temporarily wired. I am still waiting on the combiner box/breakers, as well as sensor/controller from RedRok.com, but with temp wiring I do have the PV array producing power.

Unforunately I did not get the chance this weekend to take some pictures with the pv panels installed, but will will get some shots once the weather clears here.

Dan Lenox

[Dan Lenox]

Here are some quick pictures of the PV panels mounted onto the solar tracker.
672
673
By virtue that the panels had the positive and negative connections at opposite ends made for a nice neat wiring installation. I just made sure that the panel was oriented properly for the shortest run to the next panel.

As the actuator extends the angle between it and the framework becomes shallow, thus allowing for some movement of the array. If no movement is desired you need to mount the actuator more at a 90 degree angle. As it is the movement is not excessive and would rather have more walking clearance under the array.

And here is one showing the underside of the panels - the orange electrical chord has been replaced with a more suitable water-proof cable.
674
Project almost completed,
Dan Lenox

[Brian McGowan]

All I can say is very cool!

[Rob Beckers]

Dan, you have to stop doing this: The sheer speed at which you build stuff is making us all look bad! :nono:

What can one say. It's a work of art. Literally. Very impressive.

-RoB-

[Joe Blake]

Very nice indeed. Perhaps you could get some time lapse footage showing it in "action".

Joe

[Dan Lenox]

Will do - as soon as Duane from Redrok.com sends me the sensor/controller.

Seems that now it has been 38 days since the order has been placed. A couple of calls to him and while he says it was going out that day still nothing...

Very disappointing...

Dan Lenox