Internet Enabled Solar Tracker

moncler outlet online This is a Solar Tracker. A full size, cloud connected, smartphone accessible Solar Tracker built mainly from 2x4s and plywood, employing wooden peg gears, recycled curtain poles, nuts, bolts and threaded rod. The solar tracker uses a home built electronic controller incorporating WiFi, stepper motor drives, accelerometer and magnetometer. The tracker was designed to drive a full size 90W panel in moncler outlet location azimuth and elevation. The gears driving the tracker are wooden peg gears commonly used in the 16th century. The gears were designed using modern 3D CAD moncler coats for kids (Solidworks). Connecting the wooden moncler coats sale peg gears to the cloud just seemed like the right thing to do. There are many arguments for and against, but efficiency gains of up to 30% versus static installation make solar tracking attractive. You just need to make sure that your motive buy moncler jackets toronto power needs are much less than the potential efficiency gain. The additional cost of a tracking solution is added to uk Moncler outlet the overall cost of a solar system which increases the time to a positive ROI. But tracking does not need to be expensive at least not for the home hobbyist with a small number of solar panels. The tracking accuracy requirements are not that high either. Using a micro controller to control the tracking made it easy to control the tracking power losses by having the system operate in a low power mode for as long as possible, with only an occasional high power spurt to turn the motors a small amount. There are other ways to do solar tracking (optical sensors connected to simple circuits for example “light followers”), but microcontrollers create opportunities for feature creep and you will learned a whole lot too. And learning is key.

moncler mens jackets Here’s a short video to show the https://www.thebeastmark.com completed project in action:

The major system components identified in the block diagram:

90 Watt solar Panel Two axis motion platform moncler outlet online store constructed from 2×4’s complete with wooden peg gears and re used curtain rod/pole. Custom electronics Electric Imp connected to stepper drivers, IO Expander and 6 Axis MEMS accelerometer/magnetometer Rechargeable battery retired unit from my moncler outlet store motorcycle as it is no longer capable of turning the engine over. Solar Charge Controller cheap unit from ebay to make sure the battery doesn’t moncler coats for cheap overcharge. Smartphone or web browser monitoring status and remote control. This is a non essential part of the moncler jackets system done purely for a learning experience to see what it takes to connect a phone to a remote device. (gotta remember to hide the URL so that I don’t have too many people trying to control the panel!) The tracker circuit includes a tilt compensated compass the math was coded from an application note. The moncler jackets toronto chip has 3 axis magnetic output and 3 moncler coats cheap axis accelerometer output. The magnetic moncler coats outlet output tells the system the azimuth angle and the accelerometer tells the system the the inclination with respect moncler outlets usa to gravity. The GPS location is hardcoded in the firmware (future will have this set by smartphone via the web). The firmware determines, based cheap moncler jackets on the time of day and geographic co ordinates, moncler coats for women what the sun angle is with a Sun Angle algorithm ported to the Electric Imp Squirrel language from C++ (discussed in later steps). Firmware drives cheap moncler jackets wholesale the azimuth and elevation motors to the Sun Angles based on feedback from the mag/accel.

This whole thing could be done a lot more simply, but I was intrigued by the Internet Of Things made possible by the Electric Imp. Rather than just reading web articles to get at best a superficial understanding, I found a way to try out the technology with an overkill solution to a common problem. Most solutions on the market today are “light followers”. They control motors in response to the intensity of light to maximize incident sunlight on the panel. These work well, are low moncler outlets uk cost and are really all you need. But if you go that route, you will miss a moncler outlet canada learning opportunity on the electronics/firmware/web/IoT development side of things. This is some of what you’ll learn::

cheap moncler coats 1. This is the server side code that the smartphone connects to, to see the status of the system, or to drive inputs to the controller for manual control of azimuth and elevation for debugging purposes.

buy moncler jackets 2. AJAX which allows discount moncler outlet a discount moncler jackets web page to update without server page reload. Allows a web page to dynamically query server data directly and update the regions of the page without page reload. This is how the monitoring data is updated.

moncler sale outlet 3. SQL Server work on the back end. The data from the Electric Imp is logged moncler jacket online in a SQL Server database.

cheap moncler outlet 4. JQUERY Mobile great open source library that simplifies working with the Web page Document Object Model. Just scratching the surface of it for this application but it has taken the web by storm. It is a great way to develop Smartphone HTML5 “apps”.

monlcer down jackets 5. HTML5 capabilities and the relation to potential hardware independent phone apps. Bumped into a number of apps that will take the Web app and turn it into a traditional phone store application. Some are moncler coats for men free until you reach 10000 downloads. yeah right!

moncler outlet sale 6. The Internet Of Things model and what companies like Electric Imp and COSM are doing to make this a reality even for low budget hackers like me.

cheap moncler sale 7. Appreciation of cloud based services and the power of having services provided by the cloud. The electric imp is fully cloud based. your firmware lives in the cloud and is downloaded when your device connects to the internet.

moncler sale 8. Algorithms for tilt compensating a compass. Ultimately I implemented an app note but it required a fair amount of research.

9. Algorithms for sun angle prediction. Ported an Open Source implementation to the Electric Imp. Had no idea that sun angle prediction was such a complex problem. I don’t fully understand the algorithm but tip my hat moncler jackets for women to anyone who does! IJW!

cheap moncler jackets There is plenty more to learn with this project but I had to cap the list somewhere!

moncler outlet Official Moncler Outlet store I think the easiest way to tackle the documentation is to walk you through the building of the tracking base, then the electronics/firmware and finally the web app. The electronics and motion platform are independent components of the system. The tracker Discount Moncler Coats electronic module was moncler jackets men designed to be a reusable moncler outlet online component. I moncler jackets on sale made extensive use of roller bearings to keep friction low to reduce the motive power losses. The main azimuth shaft was a recycled curtain pole that I had the foresight not to throw out many years ago during a remodeling project.

Supplies you will need to make the base Bearings 3/8″ you moncler jackets outlet will need seven3/8 ID by 7/8 OD roller bearings. Sealed bearings are better moncler outlet usa at keeping moisture and dust out. Ultimate bearing for all weather operation is a plastic sleeve bearing or Moncler Factory Outlet roller bearing. I used cheap steel bearings that may not stand up to extended outdoor use without water proofing but I already had them in my box of stuff from an old CNC machine build so I used moncler coats what I had. I used 7 of them. Electronic Goldmine has 3/8″ ID bearings for under $1 each. VXB has plastic and ceramic bearings as well. Bearings 3/4″ You will need two ” moncler outlet ID by 1 ” OD bearing for stabilizing the azimuth pole (curtain pole OD must be 3/4″ for this project) 2×4 Pine Studs Two of them will be plenty. Construction lumber is a sustainable and renewable resource. ” Plywood I used birch from a furniture project I completed a long time ago. You will need enough to cut moncler outlet woodbury out two x 10″ gears, two x 2.5″ gears and some collar clamps. A 2ft by 2ft sheet will be plenty Pocket Hole moncler jackets kids screws 2 screws for joining 2x4s and 1 ” for joining thinner wood Piece of plastic Acetyl/Acetyl/Nylon at least ” thick. A 2″x2″x1″ piece will work nicely. This will be used to make the nut that controls moncler outlet uk the elevation. Strips of 1.5″ by 0.75″ wood plywood or anything else you have handy. Sustainable hardwood such as Poplar is good. This is used to stabilize the lead screw (fancy name for precision threaded rod) that will carry the elevation panel load. moncler jackets canada More strips of the same to make the support frame for the solar panel itself. Elmer Max wood glue

Tools cheap moncler that will help Measuring tape Miter Saw. You can cut everything by hand but this will take a long time. Angle grinder for cutting threaded rod and curtain pole moncler jackets outlet online to length. A hacksaw will work as cheap moncler coats for women well anything that cuts steel will be fine Electric Drill for making pocket holes high speed drill works better for this than a battery powered drill which tends to rotate at lower RPM Battery Powered drill/Electric screwdriver to fasten the pockets screws makes the job go a lot faster than doing this with a manual driver 3/8″ Tap drill and 3/8 13 tap for the elevation Acetyl nut that you will need to make 10 x 3/8″ nuts and washers for assembly Drill press if you have one helps to keep holes perpendicular. 1 1/2″ hole saw or larger. Anything up to 3″ will moncler jackets cheap work fine. The ratio for gears is determined by the relative diameters or tooth counts such that the following equation is satisfied

D1/TC1 = D2/TC2

cheap moncler Where D = Diameter and TC = Tooth Count

moncler outlet The diameters we are referring to here are the diameters to the center of the peg circle on each gear as shown in the pictures.