Crazy idea, maybe someone tried before.
When building small project, like a weather station, someone would like to have a small (I'm talking about 5x5 cm)solar panel to charge a small battery and let electronics does the trickery.
If we mount the solar cell onto an ACTUAL REAL sunflower, does it have enough "torque" to follow the sun?
I mean only the solar cell, not all the electronics batteries etc... It is not so much weigh!
Let me know what you think
Yes, sunflowers are quite sturdy once they are flowering. I think it could support quite a bit of weight.
But if you cover up the business end of the sunflower with the solar panel will it still track the sun?
what happens to the sunflower in winter
Growing sunflowers begin the day with their heads facing east, swing west through the day, and turn back to the east at night. They will do so for a few days even if they are indoors with a non-moving light source. That suggest that if the solar panel only covered the seed head and left the leaves and stem exposed you might get away with it. There could be problems with rot and attaching the panel, and it is only going to work once the plant is already a reasonable size.
Could you attach a bamboo cane to the stem of the sunflower so that it projected above the flower and attach the solar panel to the cane. That way you would not obscure the flower.
Or maybe even have a pair of balanced solar panels on arms that reach out each side of the flower.
The permutations seem endless. And they may not all be mad.
...R
travis_farmer:
... or use a RTC, some math, and a servo to track the sun...
Spoilsport
Any way you don't need a clock or much in the way of maths. Just a couple of LDRs and a bit of black card to separate them.
...R
Robin2:
SpoilsportAny way you don't need a clock or much in the way of maths. Just a couple of LDRs and a bit of black card to separate them.
...R
The real sunflowers use a clock - way to go.
ardly:
The real sunflowers use a clock
Hmm ...
...R
It will still last longer than your average sunflower.
travis_farmer:
keep forgetting this is the Bar
true, a RTC and math would only work until the seasons changed a bit.
~Travis
"This algorithm calculates the solar zenith and azimuth angles in the period from the year -2000 to 6000, with uncertainties of +/- 0.0003 degrees based on the date, time, and location on Earth"
http://rredc.nrel.gov/solar/codesandalgorithms/spa/
http://rredc.nrel.gov/solar/codesandalgorithms/spa/
Delta_G:
It will still last longer than your average sunflower.
But it wouldn't give you the same satisfaction.
...R
Thanks you all for the participation!
I repeat, it is a crazy idea, and i does not have a sunflower here at home.
It would be an intersting experiment.
Daniele
You could attach a magnet to the flower and a couple of Hall effect sensors to detect the magnets motion....
That way you could do a whole solar array instead of just one panel.
Danz892:
It would be an intersting experiment.
It's unsure how practical this would really be but I think if you made it and made an artsy video it would get some good attention. I'd be willing to bet it would get a Hackaday article if you submitted it.
Danz892:
Thanks you all for the participation!
I repeat, it is a crazy idea, and i does not have a sunflower here at home.It would be an intersting experiment.
Daniele
They grow fast from seed. I don't see why the idea would not work if the panel is light enough. I agree with @pert than an artsy timelapse video would get a lot of hits.
here is an example. I think that it might be useful
^nope
The linked page is in Turkish, so I can't read it, but the video (the guy has an American accent) is about a TFT display called the Sunflower shield, but doesn't have anything to do with a real sunflower.
