new version of my solartracker without webserver:

http://techmind.dk/arduino-singleboard/solartracker-uden-webserver/

Hope this version cover your needs for a suntracker better   

This version of the suntracker (Release Candidate 1))will be used for a scrapped motor TV stand, and driven by a small gearmotor and a H-bridge mosfet driver stage. The Suntracker is for at 30 watt solarpanel, and will be placed an a caravan.

Great, happy to hear it compiles well. Thanks for the tip, i have not tryed 1.0.3 

Thanks for your interest in the beta sketch

As written already in the beta sketch header i use 0018 arduino IDE and ethershield lib is from nuelectronic:

// Version: 0.8b Arduino IDE 0018 - based on nuelectronics.com ethershield webserver software http://www.nuelectronics.com/estore/

Direct link to the ethershield i use: http://www.nuelectronics.com/estore/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=4

time.h is a standard library

The errors you got from compiling is most ethershield related, so you might have to convert the code to your own ethershield, or get the nuelectronic version of the ethershield. However, i plan to migrate the project to nabduino, or rasperry pi, so this might work better for you.

But, you can just remove the code related to the ethershield, and just use the tracker code. The ethershield is just used to visualize what's going on i the tracker. In the v1.0 the solarpanels performance will be logged to by the webserver

Sketch now on Codebender.cc : http://codebender.cc/sketch:5009   

Hey, i am sorry to hear you can't translate. The site is in danish, but comments in code are in english

Try this link:  http://translate.google.com/translate?twu=1?sl=da&tl=en&u=http%3A//techmind.dk/arduino-singleboard/soalrtracker-med-actuator-arduino-version/

I think i will put the code on codebender.cc and embed from them.

 It should be possible to copy paste from the plugin i use to embed code now.

Finally i found the time to made the arduino based suntracker for my old diy solarpanels 

I made a model with a gear motor fro polulo to simulate the actuator, use a ethershield from nuelectrictronics, and i found dc motor controller chip in a defect tape deck.

In the real life suntracker i have a actuator / polarmount from a scraped from a satellite parabol. In the real life suntracker i will make a suntracker+mppt charger+inverter shield with a mosfet H-bridge.

My first version of the suntracker is a beta model, based on a nuelectronic webserver sketch.
In the beta version the position counter(interrupt) is not functional.

If you can use the first beta suntracker sketch, you can grab sketch here: 

** The site is in danish, please use google translate on the site, thanks **

http://techmind.dk/arduino-singleboard/soalrtracker-med-actuator-arduino-version/

Latter i might 'migrate' the arduino sketch to the nabduino platform

You can use a tl431 and a P-mosfet as lowvoltage detector and shutdown controller, i made a LiIon hack for my bosch powertool: http://techmind.dk/elektronik/under-spaendings-detektor-med-tl431-bruges-til-hack-af-bosch-skruemaskine-med-li-ion-batterier/

I Just connect a standard cheap RC multi charger like this:  http://techmind.dk/tilbeh%C3%B8r/multilader-fundet-pa-ebay-co-uk/

Also, there are IC able to handle multible batterier. A great arduino project could be to make a LiIon/LiPo charger for 20 x cells

This works

Next todo is sample som data and send the sensorData to this batteriesvoltage object

Code:

void batteriesvoltage() //or void batteriesvoltage(char *sensorData) to incl the measured data
{
       //exampel place qwerty in the drawn RoundRect
        char i = 22;
        char sensorData[20] = "qwertyuiopasdfghjkl";
       
uint8_t row=0;

// draw font
tft.ClearScreen(WHITE);

tft.DrawRoundRect( 40, 70, 280, 230,  10, MENU_HIGHLIGHT_COLOR,1);

font.set_Font(f15x22);
font.set_Color(MENU_FONT_COLOR, MENU_NORMAL_COLOR,1);

font.set_Cursor( 50, 80);

for(i=0; i<23;i++) //loop until al chrs in sensorData is placed on the LCD display
          {
            font.putChar(sensorData[i]); //place the sensorData variable, sensorData come from a sensor as voltage sensor, current sensor, temperature sensor
           
if(font.CharWidth(i) !=0)
{
if( (font.CursorX + font.CharWidth(i)) > 270)
{
row++;
font.set_Cursor(50, 80+ (row* font.Font_Height + 2));
}      
}
  }

font.set_Font(f12x12); // set font to menu size
wait_for_OK();

}

I have placed my EVduino-MS-08beta megaDuino code here if anyone can use it for another appl.:
http://mynerdstuff.blogspot.com/2012/02/evduino-ms-08beta-code.html


The dallas ds18b20 part works well already, so check the demo and grab the code piece here:
http://mynerdstuff.blogspot.com/2012/02/dallas-ds18b20-temperature-sensor-and.html

thanks for your help

found i asked the wrong quistion 


The text_box_p is not used in the example from nuelectronic to place 'dynamic' characters   

They use another lib for this, the font lib:

font.putChar('y');

To place a string, i count the number of charcters and use a for statement to put a series af chars

  michael

looks interesting, thanks

tried it this way:


 char text[6]="qwert";
 int voltage = '12';
  uint8_t IP = voltage;                             // integer part
  uint8_t DP = (voltage - IP)*10;               // decimal part
  sprintf(text, "Voltage: %d.%d", IP, DP);

  text_box_P( 80, 50, 250, 200, 15, (PSTR(text)));  


commes with error: fails to determinate size of '___C'

EVduino_MS_08b_tft_menu_play.cpp: In function 'void batteriesvoltage()':
EVduino_MS_08b_tft_menu_play:373: error: initializer fails to determine size of '__c'

 

Hey,

I got this great 2,8" color LCD with touch from nuelectronics, but i can't figure out how to write variables to a text_box_p. In the included lib. it looks like they just use pstr as pointer, but i can't pipe a variabel to the text box.

void batteriesvoltage()
{
        char test = '1';

        text_box_P(   80, 50, 250, 200, 15, PSTR("Batteri one Voltage:")); // This works

        text_box_P( 80, 50, 250, 200, 15, (PSTR("Data is: %c", test))); //So, I have tried severel ways to include a variable, but nothing from standard C seams to work, any idees are welcome

        wait_for_OK();
   
}

The touch LCD is intend to be used i my Kewet Electric Vehicle as system monitor and datalogger

http://mynerdstuff.blogspot.com/2012/01/arduino-based-electric-vehicle.html

all ideas welcome, thanks

michael