Hello everyone,
First, excuse me if I missed what I'm looking for in the forum, but I really need your help.
I am new to arduino and automation.
I need to realize a one axis solar tracker with arduino uno, using a DC motor (12v)
I bought everything I needed for the project:
-Arduino uno card,
-2 LDR module
-L293D module to change the direction of rotation
-2 relays for the motor
-a 12v battery.
Can anyone help with the design and wiring of these components, how must I connect them with arduino card and connect them between eatchothers.
First, edit your post and put a better description on.
"Help me with a solar tracker" will get you better assistance that "help me please"
Have you googled for other similar projects? There are many.
Break it down into parts.
Write a sketch that prints out the output of your LDR sensors to the serial monitor.
Write a different sketch that drives your motors back and forth.
Unless you live somewhere where the sky is always blue then 'tracking' the sun may not be the best idea since the brightest part of the sky may not be where the sun is.
You might be better to work out where the sun will rise and set and then just rotate your axis through the day between those points.
ardly:
Unless you live somewhere where the sky is always blue then 'tracking' the sun may not be the best idea since the brightest part of the sky may not be where the sun is.
I guess if he is using LDRs he will be tracking the brightest part of the sky.
thank you for your answers,
but I'm not even in the field. I'm a doctor and trying To help my niece to finish this task and nothing more.
I was expecting more helpful answers.
thank you again
Belsawi:
but I'm not even in the field. I'm a doctor and trying To help my niece to finish this task and nothing more.
I was expecting more helpful answers.
Perhaps you would be good enough to tell us what a more helpful answer would look like?
Maybe a more productive approach would be to help your niece to participate in this Forum so we could help her directly rather than through a middle-man who (for perfectly good reasons) has no interest in learning to use Arduinos.
Belsawi:
thank you for your answers,
but I'm not even in the field. I'm a doctor and trying To help my niece to finish this task and nothing more.
I was expecting more helpful answers.
thank you again
well Doc, is it like this.....
the whole idea of the SUBJECT LINE is that of the 50,000 members, half are great at programming
half are great at hadware, about 10% are expert at robotics, and about 1% have skills and experiance in sun trackers.
you seem to expect 50,000 people to read your thread and then 49,900 go, I do not know enough to help that guy.
now, if you said, Need help with sun tracker, the 20 or so people YOU want to give you help, would think "I know lots about sun trackers, let me see if I can help this guy"
what you got, is what you asked for, some general help.
a sun follower, follows light, but cannot work in clouds. so, if you were to program your unit with your longitude and latitue, the day of the year and minute of the day, then calibrate your unit with the axis of the planet, it could point to where the sun is all day and night , regardless if clouds or being inside or trees.....
but, since many of us read 'between the lines' we point out a different result than what you asked because we think you need something different. pretty much because the people you wanted to attract have no clue as to what you need help with.
I think that guy who responded first post gave you the best help so far. you just have chosen not to take it.
Belsawi:
thank you for your answers,
but I'm not even in the field. I'm a doctor and trying To help my niece to finish this task and nothing more.
I was expecting more helpful answers.
thank you again
You did say "thank you" twice so the comment "I was expecting more helpful answers" was maybe just a poor choice of phrase.
The answers you were given were fairly helpful, given the limited information you provided.
Firstly your niece needs to be really clear about exactly what she is trying to do e.g. is she wanting to keep something constantly aligned to the actual position of the sun, or does she want to point something at the brightest point in the sky (which may not be the sun and which may jump around).
The Earth rotates once every 24hours and it is this rotation that makes the sun appear to move across the sky.
It follows that the sun seems to move across the sky at a speed of 15 degrees per hour (360degrees/24hours) or 0.25 degrees per minute.
The device is going to have one axis which it needs to rotate on at that quite slow speed. DC motors operate at high revs so a lot of gearing is going to be required to get down to the slow speed.
The next problem is getting the device to initially point at the sun. That can be done by calculation using the device's latitude, longitude and the time of day. However, that kind of calculation may be beyond your niece. A better solution may therefore be to initially manually point the device at the sun then start its constant rotation. Obviously you should not look at the sun directly, but using a tube to project an image onto some paper and then looking at the paper should let your niece alight the device safely. Once targeted the motor is started and away it goes.
You will notice that you don't need a microprocessor for any of this.
Although the device has only one axis of movement it should probably be aligned vertically to roughly half the height the sun will reach at midday.
The size of motor needed will depend on the torque requred to move the device.
