Project: Solar Tracker

Description:

Tracker circuit and software was primarily designed for hydro-thermic concentrated solar system, however using it with non concentrated photo-voltaic requires even less components, effort, and accuracy.
- The MK I circuit was designed for DIY-ers, with off the shelf modules and minimal custom circuit. (MK II will be more professional single board design.)
- The program still lacks a couple of features, but seems to work fine.
- Instructions on how to set it up as well as design considerations coming soon... For now ask on our OSRC Discord!

Known issues:
          - Sometimes it may lock onto reflected light from a wall or something... - Workaround: When there's not enough light, it will turn back to an endpoint either to the right, or to the left, as it is set in software, and vertically always down(for easy cleaning, and protection from dust, hail, and other disaster). This is also used by the pump controller for hydro-thermic system to turn away from the sun thus avoid overheating. You can use the left or right limit switch to make it stop at about the right direction to find the sun at morning. ...and just generally try not to place it close to a wall...
          - Soft switching feature is not implemented yet, therefore you may find it to eat relay contacts for breakfast... - Workaround: PWM should work, which will interrupt the arking, this will mitigate that problem, although will not solve it entirely... So make sure it's NOT set to absolute maximum speed, till I implement that feature.(Soft switching feature will also use the PWM circuit, so although hooking up PWM is optional, it is highly recommended, otherwise your system won't benefit from the upcoming soft switching feature either...!)
          - The circuits for both 3 and 4 sensor versions work with DC motors, but not with AC since I forgot that single phase AC motors don't change direction by flipping line and neutral. This will soon be corrected for 3Phase AC motors, and since I'm modifying the circuit I will add support for hydraulic positioning as well! Both 3Phase AC, and hydraulic positioning will require software update... (Since I'm employed now this will take some time...)

DownloadLinks and cloning

MK I - 3 sensor version

MK I - 4 sensor version

Cloning 3 Sensor version: git clone --branch 3Sensor https://github.com/RPBCACUEAIIBH/SolarTrackerMK1.git
Cloning 4 Sensor version: git clone https://github.com/RPBCACUEAIIBH/SolarTrackerMK1.git

Please consider donating to help keep all this freely available! Thank you!