I Built a Sun Tracking Solar Charger
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- čas přidán 21. 07. 2024
- Components used:
1 x N20 Electric Motor
2 x Continuous Servo
1 x 180° Micro Servo
1 x MP6550 Motor Driver
1 x Arduino Nano
1 x 128x32 Oled Screen
1 x D2F Micro Switch
4 x Push Button
1 x 5v Buck-Boost Converter
1 x Usb A Power Supply Module with 5V Boost Converter
1 x Relay module
8 x 10K Resistor
1 x 1N4007 Diode
1 x 3.7V Li-Po Battery
1 x TP4056 Charging Module
1 x INA219 Current Sensor
4 x LDR
▬ Contents of this video ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
00:00 - Intro
00:55 - The Idea
01:45 - Explanation of Electrical System
02:48 - Top Assembly
04:11 - Sensors for Sun Tracking
05:42 - Lifting Mechanism
08:22 - Electrical System
09:40 - The Base
11:13 - Final Assembly
12:36 - Result
▬ Music used ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
Cinematic Documentary Ambient by UNIVERSFIELD
Licensed under a Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Source:
freemusicarchive.org/music/un...
Wayside by Hotham
Licensed under a Attribution 4.0 International License.
Source:
freemusicarchive.org/music/ho...
Touch of Funk by Beat Mekanik
Licensed under a Attribution 4.0 International License.
Source:
freemusicarchive.org/music/be... - Věda a technologie
I'm glad CZcams recommended this to me
same as he gained a new sub here
@@OMGitzEDD me too 0:19
Same
same
me too
I sincerely hope the algorithm is kind to you and this video gains traction - the idea and creation of the panel system as well as the production quality is fantastic!
Beautiful project. Just call it art if you don't think it fulfills the requirements!
I'm sure many people would love one on their windowsill just to see it open in the morning and follow the sun all day.
Designing and building things like this by yourself is one of the best feelings in the world. I've done a bunch of smaller projects combining 3d printing, laser cutting, electronics and software and it's just so much fun. Very inspiring video, thank you for taking your time to make it!
Love the design with more cables and less pcbs. allways reminds me of the old guidance computers you see in cold war era missiles
algorithm gods need to blow your channel up, this video is stunning !!
This is exactly what I want to do: constructing and developing new things. Thank you for the video
Keep at it because we need people like you! 😊
Brilliant Design! I didn't realize this was a small channel until I checked the Description, I hope you get tons of subscribers! I always enjoy watching fellow tinkerers smarter than me design their own projects!
I can't believe you didn't include a time-lapse of it actually working and tracking the sun!
Very nice project! As an electronics engineer I am jealous of your mechanical design. Only think I would suggest is using thinner wires for your digital signals. I for example use wires from CAT6 cables and they would be much thinner than yours. Thanks for the video!
Thank you for the tip! Bought some 28 AWG solid core wire for the next project 😊
Very nice design! I loved the iterative work that you did and took the time to share. Thanks for sharing!
Very fun to see proof of concept and prototyping
Very cool usage of the OLED screen. I like that you can see what the metrics are without having to connect an external device.
Great video to teach junior engineers in looking for problems
Bruh i swear continue uploading you'll be one of big youtubers
Having a huge version of this would just insane to me
This is fantastic! Amazing quality, earned a new sub
seen less than a minute and i immediately want to build that mechaical device 😍
Absolutely amazing stuff!
Can't wait to see more of your designs
great stuff dude, keep going. great design. May the youtube gods bless you
I appreciate you saying this isn’t a climate solution right at the top of the video. It makes it easier to enjoy this as a little bit of an escapist break.
Wow, fantastic design and engineering! Excellent video as well. Keep these coming, I'm subscribed!
Amazing job! Great work!
This is seriously neat af!!!!! Amazing content
You could increase the efficiency of the light sensors by reducing them to 1, placing it in a tube pointing at the ideal solar pane (so that only if directly pointing at the sun does it directly 'see' the sun getting most light'), and letting software figure out what direction the sun is in by AB testing going up and down and left and right seeing if more light is received. You can control for cloud providing shade by comparing to charge levels, since light will fall off fast for the sensor but not for the panels if the sun is off ideal axis. Why this is better is because its self-calibrating once the software is written, and you only need 1 switch.
Heck, you could get rid of the switches entirely by tilting the panels 5 or so degrees back, away from the sun, and measuring the voltage provided by each panel, and let the software move towards whatever panel provides the most power until the increase of one panel is negated by the other panels losing more collective power (from overturning, passing by the ideal point). just before this point would be directly aimed at the sun with the most efficient panels. This would even correct for one panel being damaged or old, it would automatically prioritize the point that provides the most power.
Boom!
This can be optimized even further, because the sun travels along a predetermined route, which can be calculated - just the right angle of the device and rotation every certain time, without any sensors, only the device must be properly located
@@BartomiejGawron His current design is more future proof. What if in near future 2 suns come up in the sky. And what if people from another galaxy use his design where they have 2 suns in 24 hrs and have nights in our afternoon. 😅
@@adiscripts Many suns is not a problem, a lot depends on their configuration. In the case of multiple suns, I would be rather afraid of darkness falling once every 22 years ;)
Or use the soralpanels itself as a sensors..... not neeting extra comonents wires of hardware
Absolutely Amazeballs!!! What a great video and a great build!!
Woow! Such a cool project!
I enjoyed each moment watching this video, you are really amazing man! keep going!
pls algorithm gods this guy is amazing pls help him grow
Very, very nice! You are obviously very skilled in industrial design and I am happy to see that :-). You have a great day and thank you for sharing.
Great invention and great ideas. I'm proud of you.
how do you only have 67subscribers?? this video has the same quailty as ones that people with like 500k make
68 now
@@blazinghammer 74 now
172 now
214
236 now, though not sure if that includes mine
Absolutely incredible. I’m just getting into robotics and Arduino and seeing cool projects like these is inspirational.
A single Sunpower Maxeon C60 5x5" cell is 3.6 watts and can be split into 3 and connected in series to minimize the cutting loss while tripling the voltage (3x0.6v at peak power output) for a bit easier conversion.
The cell is also copper backed with no front contacts adding to the active area and allowing it to be much more rugged than normal solar cells. I've successfully ran these cells through a desktop laminator for waterproofing. A booster at 80% eff can then deliver around 2.88w from it. Two such cells can do a full 5w charging. If two cells are split you get 3.6v at peak power output from a 6s configuration. The hard part is the 1.9 amps current output which is double what the cheaper micro boosters can handle. High current, low voltage is not ideal for a boosting charge controller either. It is however the most efficient you can get in terms of power per area and these cells are very popular in folding camping chargers as the angle of incidence is not important with them. The cells are antireflective and very good at collecting light at less than perfect angles.
Wow, what a great little device you created! 🤩 Excellent presentation. Excellent work. Really lovin' it! 🥰
Would love to have a brain capable of making this sort of thing. Brilliant work!
Keep them coming .good content
This looks like something from a sci-fi game, very cool!
Thanks youtube for recommendation ❤😊
Such a nice build! Thank you very much for sharing this awesome video
Awesome engineering! Very enjoyable to watch
Quite good approach ❤
Great project! I really like the step by step video concept. You've got a new subscriber and I wish you many more.
Real cool looking project
0:27 such a beautiful view
that is the most solarpunk panel ive ever seen!
I love videos just like this, 3d printing and engineering ❤
Great video!
It is a next level vedio, Great work and effort, may your channel grow big and you earned another sub
Great design. Actually we are talkin about the idea a year ago and then put it aside... Nice to see someone actually make one!
Ah you Superman
Love It
Sincerely
Ejike
AMAZING video topic!!!!
Maybe we can buy this Solar charger soon. I will buy instantly 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼
Finally something cool to watch
Awesome video
Amazing! Great engineering!
Wow!
Thankyou for this project!
You’ve gained a subscriber :-)
I love this video!!, dude you are amazing...al the work and brains you put in this project!!
Бесподобно! Нигде такого ещё не видел!
Would love to see a video where you compare the power usage of the controller and motors to the gain in power generation that they provide. When space is at a premium, solar tracking makes more and more sense
"I think it is possible to determine the elevation angle using GPS location and time." GOOD JOB!
Make this man a multi million sub youtuber NOW!
this is amazing!
Wow I got to make one but without your overkill Arduino Nano.
That looks Cool!!! but so many things can be simplified like the need of the slip ring could have been eliminated and just programmed so that after it hit 360 it rotatedin th opposite direction to track the sun, still it look super cool
Best introduction.
A common method for sun tracking is to put a pillar between the photo sensors. If the array is misaligned, the pillar casts a shadow on some of the sensors.
Very nice and inspirational
Very nice!!! Great Job!!
So nice!
Great work congrats
I love this. i need to make one myself!
Awesome man!
I LOVE IT !! 😍
Great project and definitely something I'd love to recreate, most likely a bit bigger though.
Too bad for the low power output but that is most likely related to the way you use the solar panels. Solar panels have a "maximum power point" with a given light intensity. I estimated the panels to be 6 cm squared so that results in 0.06 * 0.06 * 4 = 0.0144 m2 and with 1 kW solar energy per m2 and 20% efficiency, these panels add up to 2.88 W of energy at absolute max.
I tried some of those small panels but was never able to get more than ~ 50% of the calculated power out of them and this is most likely due to cheaper (out of spec ?) cells being sold to hobbyist but also has to do with the effective area of the cells and the fact that those small MPPT charger circuits are not working at optimum efficiency.
Unfortunately it is hard to get hold of a proper low power MPPT charger. Even the electronics in a lot of those solar powered power banks don't have this.
Another issue is the parallel wiring of the solar panels. Placing panels in parallel may result in one panel consuming the power produced by the other panel. I had one of these 'strap on your backpack solar charger' units that had 4 panels wired in parallel. When measuring all panels separately I got about double the amount of power compared to the standard delivered situation with all panels wired in parallel.
Wiring all panels in series will most likely give you more power. A higher voltage also means you get less power loss from the 1N4007 diode in series with your panels. But this does mean you need a buck converter to regulate the voltage down to 5V for the charger circuit.
Still a very nice project. Reminds me of the solar tracking station we had at my technical college.
as a scaleable design say you make it designed to drop from over 500 ft even 1000 a lil parachute with a meshtastic on the bottom integrated but also connectable external antenna 📡 🛰️ wires then you fire whole thing into sky with fiberglass reinforced PVC pipe air cannon and ill need at least 10 so they can be launched from SUV self right and automated communication with eachother drive around town deploying them as a test for a mars mission making lines of valuable communication that's self sufficient in no time with remote protection of it's hide mode via long range repeaters communication to avoid detected storms etc
First of all, this is very good quality content, you deserve a lot.
This being said.
4:31
4:31
that’s not 120 degrees and it’s kinda making me mad😂
Jk man, keep it up love your content
Operation Swasti-Tracker is great success!
I've been wanting to create something like this, that tracks the sun with a mirror or other reflective surface, to get some light into my house in the wintertime
Reminds me of the ones in No Mans Sky game. I have about 4 outside my base. Great to see! Thanks. Laurie. NZ😅
Thanks for the rec CZcams new sub.
Awesome!
First time I made solar tracking contraption in Stationeers. I was so proud myself 😅. But it used math formula for calculating solar panels rotation.
this is awesome! i bet you could overcome some of the movement resistance in the lifting mechanism by using lighter gauge wires. those look pretty heavy for the low voltage/current application of micro solar.
More videos like this❤
What is the voltage and wattage those solar panels make (individually)?
Would be great for a system that would protect itself from bad weather like hail.
Nice work. Google « n20 long threaded shaft gear motor » for your next iteration. Also you can use current to monitor end of stop I waste of switch’s or Hall effect sensor. Some 3D printers and other products use this technique
What software did you use for the animation? 1:01
It is the animation workbench in Fusion360 😊
This is *shockingly* cool! Hehe.
Wunderbar!👏
but do you get more energy output when you use some of it for moving the panels or would it be more efficient to just let them lay flat?
excellent😍😍😍
Love when youtube recommends me smaller channels!
You need to incorporate a voltage step up circuit to that creation
4:08 what kind of stabilizer r u using after tc4056 ?
12:22 transition caught me off guard
you can reduce the breadboard space if you remove the relay from the module board or even use a mosfet instead
If it pops up pointed away from the sun, because it starts completely vertical, how will it track it?
Awesome