How I built a motorized sun tracker for my solar

panels
One of my more complex projects
This is my home-made solar panel
sun tracker. It is based on a 1960s
vintage TV antenna rotator, driven
by 21st century microcontroller
technology. It was pretty easy to
build. This web site shows how I did
it.

I had seen other solar panel tracking

systems on the web based on
antenna rotators. It looked like a
neat solution to the problem of how
to move solar panels. Then one day
I saw an older style, but brand-new,
still in the box, antenna rotator for
sale at a yard sale for $15, I
snapped it up and got to work.

This is one of my more ambitious and complicated projects. Unfortunately, I have to

include the usual disclaimer that I won't be able to give people trying to build one of
these much in the way of individual attention. My inbox gets flooded with questions
and requests for help every day, and there is just no way I can help everyone, or even
most people. You'll need to have a decent grasp of mechanics, electronics and
programming to duplicate this project. If you don't have them, well I am not going to be able
to teach it all to you. Basically, you are going to be pretty much on your own. I will be
continually updating this web site with answers to frequently asked questions as time goes
on. So if you don't get a response to a question, check back from time to time. If a lot of
people are asking the same thing, I will address it here.

Don't feel you need to copy every part exactly. Feel free to innovate, experiment, and
substitute. There is a lot of wiggle room in the design. Lots of things can be changed or
modified and a working tracker would result. There are must be dozens of different ways to
implement the electronics alone. You could use an Arduino, a Raspberry Pi, a PC, or a
handful of analog components, instead of an MBED, to implement the sun tracking
electronics. This is just the way I did it. I hope it sparks some people's imagination and
ambition. Email me with details on how you do it and I'll add a link to your site.

Here is some time-lapse video of the home-made solar panel sun tracker in operation. In the video it is set up on
my remote Arizona property, and is doing a good job of keeping my solar panels pointed at the sun.
Why build a tracking platform for my solar panels? Solar panels produce a lot more power if
they are pointed directly at the sun all the time than they do in a fixed position. I got tired of
manually moving my panels to keep them pointed at the sun throughout the course of the
day. If I wasn't around to move them every few hours, they wouldn't make enough power to
keep my batteries fully charged. I decided to automate the process and free myself from
having to manually move the panels.
 Here is the box the antenna rotator
came in. It still has the $15 yard sale
price tag on it. The box is beat up
and faded from being in storage for
so long, but the unit inside was still
brand new and wrapped in the
original plastic. It is an older unit,
based on 1960s technology. The
person had purchased the unit new,
but never used it. It had been sitting
in a box in their garage for decades
until they finally decided to get rid of
it at the yard sale.

The trackers I saw online were

based on newer units, but I
immediately saw how to make this older one work as a solar tracker. Basically I just threw
away almost all the electronics that originally drove the unit, kept just the actual motor drive,
and rolled my own control system. I'll go more into detail about the electronics below. Older
units like this are fairly easy to come by and inexpensive at places like hamfests and on
Ebay, and of course yard sales. Here is a link to the manual for this particular model:
http://w5jgv.com/downloads/U-100_Manual.pdf.

The first step was to come up with a

way mount the drive motor and solar
panel(s). I did a little back of the
envelope brainstorming and
designed a mount for the tracking
system that was simple,
inexpensive, and easily broken down
for transport. It is made mostly from
2X4s and standard pipe fittings, and
is held together with carriage bolts.

This unit was designed to be

portable, since I would be building it
in my workshop in Florida and then
transporting it to Arizona for use. I
designed it to be easily knocked
down and packed for transport, and easily re-assembled in the field with only a few tools.
The core unit consists of just five main structural parts. There is the north support, the south
support, the rotating assembly, and two braces to hold everything together.

When set up in the field, the base unit would be leveled in both the east-west axis, and the
north-south axis, and aligned toward due north. Note that magnetic north and due north can
be quite different directions in some parts of the world. Apply your local deviation when
using a compass to align the unit.
 Here is a photo of the north side
support of the solar tracker. It
measures 48 inches wide at the
base and stands 43 1/2 inches tall.
Keep in mind that these dimensions
are only correct for use at 34.6
degrees north latitude. If you are
significantly further north or south,
you will need to modify the
dimensions of this piece. More on
that below. The support is made of
2X4s that are screwed and glued
together. Note that there are two
little feet on the bottom. They aid in
levelling the unit when setting it up.
The gap between the upright 2X4s is
exactly the thickness of another 2X4, or about 1 1/2 inches.

Here is a photo of the south side

support of the solar tracker. It
measures 24 inches wide and
stands 13 1/2 inches tall. It too is
made from 2X4s glued and screwed
together. This piece also has little
feet to aid in levelling the entire unit
when setting it up. This piece is
probably more or less universal, and
will work for a wide variety of
latitudes. Again, the gap between
the upright 2X4s is exactly the
thickness of another 2X4, or about 1
1/2 inches.

The horizontal 2X4 brace that goes from the bottom of the north support to the bottom of
the south support is 48 inches long.
It fits between the uprights and gets
bolted through them. This is another
piece that will have to be sized for
your particular latitude, since the
distance between the north and
south supports will change as the
angle of the driven pipe changes.

The diagonal brace is a piece of

1X4. It was added to take the bulk of
the stress off of the rotating
assembly so it doesn't bind up. It
slips on the bolts holding the rotating
assembly in place.
 Here is the heart of the tracker unit.
This is the drive motor and rotating
assembly. The antenna rotator drive
motor is at the left, with its
associated mounting structure. A 4
foot long, 1 inch steel pipe is driven
by the rotator, and will carry the
solar panels. A bearing and
mounting structure are at the right
end. Details below.

Here is a close-up of the motor end. The antenna rotator is designed to be clamped onto a
fixed mast, and rotate a shorter mast with an antenna attached to it. So I created a pseudo
fixed mast to clamp it to. The short piece of 1 inch pipe at the top (under the coil of wire)
serves as the mounting point for the rotator. The short piece of pipe screws into a floor
flange, which in turn is bolted to a 3 1/2 X 3 1/2 square piece of wood that is glued and
screwed to a 12 inch long piece of 2X4. The 2X4 slips between the uprights on the north
support and gets bolted in place.

Another short piece of 1 inch pipe passes through hollow drive shaft of the rotator and gets
clamped in place. A 90 degree elbow is screwed on to the left (top) side of this short shaft.
A 4 foot long piece of 1 inch pipe is connected to the other end via a coupler.
 Here is a close-up of the bearing
end. The lower end of the 4 foot long
pipe that carries the solar panels
screws into a union that has been
modified to serve as a bearing (more
on that below). A close nipple
connects the other side of the union
to another floor flange. The floor
flange is bolted to another wooden
mounting structure identical to the
one at the other end, but one corner
was cut off to prevent it from
interfering with the lower brace
holding the north and south supports
together.

The first time I assembled the unit, I

held all the pieces together with
large c-clamps. Once I got the angle
of the drive axis correct and
everything nice and squared up, the
clamps were tightened down to hold
it that way. Then I drilled holes for
long carriage bolts to bolt everything
together.

I should talk a little about how I

determined the angle to use on the
north-south rotational axis of the
tracker. I planned on using this
tracker on my remote, off-grid
property in Arizona. So I designed it
to work at the latitude of my property. The unit is fixed in latitude. I didn't make it adjustable.
It will only be the correct angle during Spring and Autumn, but those are the times of year I
am usually on my property. It will be close the rest of the year. It will be a little high in
Summer, and a little low in Winter. Still, it will work much better than fixed panels.

The angle of the with respect to the ground of the axis of rotation is set to be the same as
the latitude of location where the tracker will be used. Think about it this way to visualize
why. If it was used at the Equator, 0 latitude, the angle with respect to the ground would be
0, so the axis would be horizontal. If used at one of the poles, +90 or -90 latitude, the angle
with respect to the ground would be vertical. So it follows that the correct angle is always
the latitude of the location where the tracker will be set up. My Arizona property is at about
34.6 Degrees North Latitude, so that is the angle I used. The angle you need will depend on
where you are. Not only will your angle probably be different, but the dimensions of your
base structure will also be different. The dimensions of the base will depend on the angle
you use. Assuming you use the same south support, the height of your north side and the
distance between your south and north supports can be calculated with a little trigonometry.

This angle is not always correct. If the sun always rose due East and set due West it would
be perfect. However, the Earth is tilted 22.5 degrees on its axis. So during the course of the
year the sun seems to move 22.5 degrees North in Summer, and 22.5 degrees South in
winter (this is reversed in the Southern hemisphere). So this fixed angle is really only ideal
during the times of year when the sun seems to rise roughly due East and set roughly due
West. This would be during Spring and Autumn, which just happens to be the times of year
I am on my property.

An adjustable version could be easily created that could be set to a lower angle in Summer
and a higher angle in Winter. For now though I will leave that as an exercise for the reader,
because it works fine for me as is.

Here is another view of how the

rotator head is mounted. I don't draw
actual blueprints for the stuff I build.
So don't bother writing and asking
for them. I tend to just visualize stuff
in my head and then build it without
bothering with the intermediate step
of drawing up plans. I know this
makes it difficult for others wanting
to reproduce my work, sorry. If you
live at a different latitude than me,
you are going to have to modify the
design anyway. So there isn't much
point in my being too specific about
dimensions anyway. But I'll take lots
of pictures and post them here.
People with the knack for building things should be able to figure it out from the photos and
a few dimensions. If you are having trouble figuring out something, write and ask a
question. I will get back to you with info, advice, dimensions, and/or more photos as time
allows. If I find a lot of people asking the same question, I will put the answer here on the
web site.

This photo shows how the lower

bearing end of the drive pipe fits into
the south side support and gets
bolted into place with carriage bolts.
The other end is similarly attached to
the north side support. The lower
end of the diagonal brace is also
visible.
 Here is a close-up of how the union
has been converted into a bearing.
This is an old amateur astronomer's
trick for building telescope mounts
using pipe fittings. I'm an old
amateur astronomer, so I used it
here. It works great and is dirt
cheap.

Basically, the union is just packed

with grease, and not tightened all the
way. This allows it to serve as a
pretty good bearing, as seen in the
video below. To keep the union from
loosening up and falling apart, or
tightening up and seizing as it
rotates, two hose clamps and a Z-shaped piece of metal are used to hold the parts fixed
with respect to each other. In this photo you can just see the Z-shaped piece of metal going
under and between the two hose clamps.

Here is a brief video showing how a pipe

union can be used as a bearing. The hose
clamps and z-shaped piece of metal are not
yet installed.
This photo shows one of the
aluminum frames that hold the solar
panels. It is made from aluminum
angle. This particular frame holds a
100W panel, and measures 47 1/8
by 21 1/2 inches inside dimensions.
Basically, it is just slightly larger than
the outside dimensions of the solar
panel. The panel drops right into the
frame, and will be held in place with
screws that go through the frame
into the sides of the panel.

Notches cut in the frame for

mounting on the tracker drive pipe
are just visible in the photo. Click the
photo for a larger version.

This photo shows how the aluminum

angles are butted and screwed
together at the corners. I didn't have
time to get fancy. I only spent about
an hour tops building my frames, but
they work great. If you have the time
and skills, feel free to miter and
MIG/TIG weld the corners.

Here is a close-up of the notches cut

in the frame for mounting on the
tracker drive pipe. The notches are
the same depth as the hose clamps
used for mounting are wide.

Here is a close-up detail shot of how the hose clamps are used to mount the frames on the
tracker drive pipe. Tightening down the hose clamps really locks the frames onto the pipe
quite tightly. I was somewhat surprised at how well it worked.

During initial indoor testing I only

mounted one solar panel length-wise
on the tracker, taking up the whole
drive pipe. My intention all along
though was to eventually mount two
panels. The motor seemed to have
plenty of torque, and with counter-
weighting, I was confident it could
handle two panels. If you only have
or need one panel, this is a way to
mount it.
 This photo shows two aluminum
frames for holding panels clamped
onto the drive pipe. By turning the
panels 90 degrees, two will now fit.
The frames are slightly different
sizes because the panels they will
be holding are slightly different.

This photo shows the two solar panels in place. The panels just drop right into the frames,
which have been made slightly larger than the outside dimensions of the panels. Screws
hold the panels in place so the wind can't blow them out of the frames.

The top panel is a commercially made 100 Watt unit I bought because I got a really good
deal on it. The bottom panel is one of my home-made 60 Watt solar panels. Follow the link
to see how I make them.

160 Watts may not seem like a lot of power, but my power needs at my cabin are minimal.
With the tracker keeping the panels pointed at the sun, and my home-built wind turbine to
supplement their output, my
batteries stay charged and I have
plenty of power.

This photo shows the counterweight

pipe. It is a piece of 1 inch steel pipe
30 inches long. It gets screwed into
the elbow at the top end of the motor
unit. The pipe alone is a little more
counterweight than is needed for
one panel. For two panels I added a
steel T fitting at the end of the pipe.
The antenna rotator was designed to
move a balanced vertical mast. The
counterweight is necessary to reduce the amount of torque the motor has to exert to move
the panels which are hung off the side of a nearly horizontal mast. Your panels will probably
have a different weight than mine and need a different counterweight arrangement.
Experiment with different lengths of pipe, and/or extra fittings to get the balance as close to
perfect as possible and prevent burning out the motor or stripping the gears.

Here is a video walk-through of assembling

the solar tracker with detailed explanation
of all the parts and how they go together.
Here is the original schematic for the
antenna rotator. It is totally electro-
mechanical. Very old-school, almost
primitive. On the other hand, it still
worked after decades of storage.
One of the quirks of this old unit is
that the motor in the rotator head
runs on 24V AC. That made
designing a new control system for it
challenging. I looked for ways to
modify or automate the original
control box, but couldn't figure out a
way to make it work. So I gave up on
trying to use the old control box,
stripped it of usable parts, and
started designing something
completely new.

I didn't re-use many of these parts.

The actual rotator head is of course
used. But from the control box I only
kept the 120V to 24V transformer
(#110), and the motor capacitor
(#107). The rest got junked. In the
end, I decided to use a different
transformer too. The one inside the
original controller looked very wimpy to me, so I substituted a more robust one. I figured
that the antenna rotator wouldn't have been moved very often when used for its original
application. The way I am using it though it moves a lot, every day. So the wimpy
transformer worried me. It may have been overkill, but I already had a bigger transformer
rattling around in my junk box, and I won't ever have to worry about it, so why not?
 Here is a schematic of the controller
electronics I came up with after
several iterations. Click the image
for a larger view. the circuit is based
on the MBED rapid prototyping
platform. The MBED is basically a
complete computer on a tiny
module. It can be programmed in C
using an online IDE. The MBED is
quite powerful, has lots of IO
capability and just about every bell
and whistle anyone could want. It is
really overkill for this project, but I
was familiar with MBEDs from using
them in projects at work. So it was
my first choice for this project. You
could easily substitute an Arduino, a
Raspberry Pi, a PC, or a handful of
analog components to do the same thing. This is just the way I did it. Feel free to roll your
own.

The heart of the circuit is the MBED. It reads the voltage value (via two of its analog inputs)
from two small solar cells mounted at right angles to each other. The motor of the antenna
rotator is moved so as the keep the voltage from the two solar cells nearly equal by keeping
them pointed at the sun.

The motor is energized by closing a relay and turning on an AC inverter. The output of the
inverter is stepped down to 24V AC with a transformer. The direction of the motor is
controlled with another relay. I used 40 Amp automotive relays because they are cheap,
available everywhere, and I already had a few on hand. The relays are energized by
TIP120 Darlington power transistors driven by output lines from the MBED. Two push
buttons were added to manually move the motor for testing and troubleshooting. Pressing
PB1 moves the motor west. Pushing PB1 and PB2 together moves the motor east.

Two limit switches are read using MBED input lines. Motion only starts in a given direction if
that limit switch is closed. Motion is stopped via an interrupt if the limit switches open at the
limits of travel.

A LM7809 positive 9V regulator provides stable power for the MBED from the 12V supply.
The MBED is based on 3.3V logic, and has an on-board regulator and a 3.3V output line
that is used to tie pull-up resistors to.

Parts List
C1 - 0.33 uF
C2 - 0.1 uF
C3 - NPO (harvested from original control box)
D1-D2 - 1N4001 or equiv Diodes
ECell-WCell - Thin-Film Copper Indium di Selenide (CIS) Solar Cells
F1 - 2A Slow-Blow Fuse
IC1 - LM7809 +9V Voltage Regulator
IC2 - NXP LPC1768 MBED
K1-K2 - 40A SPDT Bosch Type Automotive Relays
LS1-LS2 - Momentary Contact NC Switches (see below)
PB1-PB2 - Momentary Contact NO Push Buttons
Q1-Q2 - TIP120 NPN Power Darlington Transistors
R1-R6 - 1k 1/8W Resistors
R7-R8 - 10K Trimpots
T1 - 120VAC to 24VAC 2A Step-down Transformer
AC Inverter - 200-250 Watt 12V DC to 120V AC Power Inverter

The code (software) for this project can be found at

http://mbed.org/users/omegageek64/code/suntracker/. It is a fairly simple program. As I said
above, the MBED is overkill for this project. However its untapped potential could allow for
adding more features and functions in the future. A second motorized axis could easily be
controlled. Battery management, charge control and temperature compensation could be
added. Logging of power production and usage data could be added. The sky is the limit.
Let your imagination and ingenuity run wild.

The electronics for driving the unit

are housed in an old ammo box that
I got at a yardsale for $5. It makes a
perfect enclosure. It is rugged,
weather-proof, and plenty roomy.
The box holds two 40 Amp
automotive relays, a power inverter,
a 120V to 24V step-down
transformer, the breadboard
containing the actual drive logic, a
fuse holder, and terminal blocks for
wiring everything together, There are
feed-through terminal blocks
mounted to the outside of the ammo
box so that various signal and power
connections can get into and out of
the box.

This photo was taken very early on in the project. The breadboard has an earlier version of
the electronics on it. The small 100W inverter shown in the photo was later replaced with a
more robust unit. I tend to err on the side of robustness. The little inverter worked, but it was
straining, and I figured it was a weak point that would fail eventually. So I bought a larger
250W unit. The motor moves faster and smoother with the bigger inverter, and the inverter
doesn't make strange noises like a dying animal.
 Here I have begun mounting parts
inside the ammo box. The relays,
transformer, terminal strip and one
of the feed-through terminal strips
have been mounted.

Though it looks like the electronics

were the last thing to be done from
its position on this web page, they
actually were one of the first things I
started work on after acquiring the
antenna rotator. The electronics
went through several different
versions before settling on this final
design.

Here is a view inside the ammo box

with all the electronics installed. The
white breadboard with all the logic is
on the upper right. The long black
rectangle is the power inverter. The
breadboard and inverter are held in
place with industrial strength velcro.
A second pass-through terminal strip
has been mounted at the lower left.
Everything has been wired together
creating a real rat's nest effect in the
bottom of the box.

Looking closely you will see that a

USB cable is plugged into the MBED
module on the breadboard and goes
to my netbook computer just visible at the top of the shot. This photo was taken during
programming/testing/debugging of the drive electronics.

Here is a close-up of the breadboard

with the "brains" of the system on it.
The MBED computer module is on
the right. Left of the MBED are the
two trimpots for adjusting the signals
from the sensor head. Below them
are the power transistors for driving
the relays. Further left are the
manual override push buttons for
moving the tracker manually. At the
far left is the 9V voltage regulator.

The breadboard is temporary.

Eventually I will build a proper circuit
board and install it. I was in a big hurry to get the tracker up and running before my last trip
to Arizona, and there was much last-minute tinkering, so the breadboard was the way to go.

The sensor head consists of two

small thin-film Copper Indium di
Selenide (CIS) solar cells of the
same type I used in my home-made
folding 15 watt solar panel. I had
several of these cells left over, so it
seemed like a no-brainer to use
them as sun sensors in the tracker.

The two small solar cells are mounted at 90 degrees with respect to each other. The idea
was that one cell or the other would get more sun, and the tracker would move until they
were getting equal sun.

Here is a view of the completed

sensor head. It is mounted on a
short piece of square aluminum
tubing, which in turn will be mounted
on the drive pipe of the tracker. I
drew on some dimensions for those
who are always asking me to include
them. The sensor head is held on
with a hose clamp in the same way
the panel frames and limit switch bar
are attached.
 Here is a view of the sensor head
attached to the tracker. The sensor
head is mounted on the stub of pipe
coming out of the top of the rotator
unit. This keeps it out of the way
when mounting the panels, and
makes it less likely to be shaded by
anything.

Two limit switches are mounted on a piece of aluminum angle held onto the drive pipe with
a hose clamp in the same manner as the solar panel frames.

The paddles of the switches engage

with the heads of long screws
protruding from the wooden support
structure for the drive motor. The
limit switches stop the motion of the
motor at both the east and west
ends of travel. The switches are
wired normally closed, and open
when the limit of travel is reached.
 This photo was taken during a
marathon testing and debugging
session at my workshop the last
weekend before leaving for Arizona.
My netbook computer is plugged into
the MBED unit in the ammo box. A
large, deep-cycle battery is powering
the electronics and the tracker unit
(not in the shot). I needed to get the
unit working, and then break it down
and pack it for transport by Sunday
night. It all came right down to the
wire (doesn't it always?). But it
appeared to all be working well by
Sunday afternoon. So I
disassembled it all and packed it for
shipping. Little did I know that there was going to be a big problem when I got to Arizona.

Here is a photo from the above

testing and debugging session. The
sensor head idea worked well
indoors in my workshop. After tuning
the pots on the controller, the tracker
would follow a lamp quite well,
always staying pointed toward it, no
matter how I moved it around. I was
very pleased. I wanted to take the
unit outside for some testing under
the actual sun, but there wasn't time
to disassemble it, move it outside,
reassemble it, test it, then
disassemble it again. I had simply
run out of time. So I hoped for the
best, packed it up, and trucked it to
Arizona.

Once outdoor testing in Arizona began though, a problem was discovered. The much
stronger natural sunlight seemed to be saturating the output of the solar cells even if they
were at quite oblique angles to the sun. This resulted in the tracker not following the sun
with any real accuracy. No amount of adjusting the pots on the controller would make it
track the sun accurately.
 A solution to the problem was found
by mounting an occulting bar in front
of the solar cells, and applying black
tape to cover part of the solar cells.
As the sun moves west the bar
shades the east cell more and the
west cell less, resulting in the
necessary voltage difference needed
to make the tracker move and follow
the sun accurately.

This first occulting bar was a quick

and dirty proof of concept piece cut
out of an aluminum soft drink can,
which happened to be the only thin
sheet metal I had on hand at the
time.

The first prototype occulting bar

worked so well that a permanent
occulting bar, made of 1/32 sheet
aluminum, procured from the
hardware store in town, was
fabricated the next day. This bar was
made wider so so it would cast a
wider shadow and I could do away
with the tape on the solar cells.

The occulting bar is mounted on two screws that allow it to pivot east and west. This allows
for fine-tuning the pointing accuracy of the tracker. with this bar in place, the tracker really
began working well.

In the photo you can see how the occulting bar is shading most of the east cell. The sun
doesn't have to move far before the difference in output between the cells is enough to
make the tracker move.

Here is a photo of the final version of

the occulting bar with dimensions.

The occulting bar works great. Here it is late afternoon and the tracker is all the way over to
its west limit after following the sun all day. The unit is working very well. I couldn't be much
more pleased with it.

Calibration of the tracker is pretty simple. On a clear day, with the sun well up, connect a
laptop computer to the MBED module in the tracker, then open a terminal program to see
the numbers being put out by the MBED. Adjust the occulting bar so that it is centered. Use
the manual controls to position the tracker so that it is centered on the sun, then turn off the
inverter so the tracker can't move on its own. Adjust the trimpots until the east and west
numbers are both approximately 0.5. Get them as close as possible. Be fairly quick or the
sun may move enough to throw off the calibration. You can always manually re-center the
tracker on the sun and try again. Once you are happy with the numbers, turn the inverter
back on and see how well the tracker follows the sun. The tracking can be tweaked by
moving the occulting bar slightly east or west and the tracker will move in the opposite
direction

Since the sun moves so slowly, calibration can take a while. You may have to wait an hour
or two, or even most of a day after making an adjustment to determine if the tracker is
following the sun accurately, or if more tweaking is necessary.
 Here the tracker is a little east of
center late in the morning on a
somewhat cloudy day. Even through
thin clouds the tracker works well.
The tracker stops tracking when
thick clouds roll in and the
brightness of the sky tends to be
fairly uniform. As soon as they thin
out though, the tracker latches back
on the sun.

This shows my temporary testing

setup in Arizona. There is a large,
deep-cycle battery in the battery
box. On top of the bin is my home-
made charge controller and a power
inverter to supply 120V AC to the cabin via the orange extension cord. Eventually I will
weatherproof and permanently install the tracker. The batteries and electronics will live in a
weatherproof enclosure nearby, and underground wiring for 120V AC and 12V DC will go to
the cabin, and a remote power switch for the inverter, and battery voltage meter will be
mounted in the cabin. That's the plan anyway.

It gets really windy on my Arizona

property. On any given day we can
see gusts of 35 mph or even more in
the afternoons. Something about the
location, between the mountains in
the south and the desert in the north,
drives a daily strong wind out of the
south. It gets even worse if there is a
storm. The winds could easily blow
over the solar tracker. So I take the
precaution of staking it down. This
photo shows wooden stakes at the
four corners of the tracker base to
keep it in place. Once I decide
where to permanently place the
tracker, I will probably use steel
stakes to hold it in place because
they won't rot.

The strong wind is why I also built a

wind turbine to make electricity.
Check out that project too.

Here is a video showing the solar tracker in opera

UPDATE - I think I have found a
cheap and easy way to weatherproof
the sensor head. I sliced a 2 liter
bottle in half and slipped it over the sensor head. I had to cut a few slits in the bottom part of
the bottle to make it slide around the square tubing at the base of the head. Some clear
tape holds it together. I can adjust the position of the occulting bar (if necessary) through
the cap hole with a notched stick. It will be interesting to see how well it stands up to the
weather.

UPDATE - I have made some

changes to the solar tracker. Firstly,
as you can see in this photo, it has
been painted to help protect the
wood structure from the weather. It
is also now sitting on top of bricks to
keep it up off the ground at least a
little bit and prevent the wood from
absorbing moisture.

Click the photo for a larger view.

The original wooden stakes used to hold the tracker down in high winds have been
replaced with long steel stakes driven deep into the ground. Long screws go through holes
in the stakes and into the wood to securely anchor the tracker. A storm front came through
with hurricane force winds shortly after I made this modification. The tracker handled it with
no problem.

Click the photo for a larger view.

 A horizontal support bar has been
added to help stabilize the panels
and prevent them from flapping
around in strong winds. Wire ties are
threaded through holes in the edges
of the panel frames and loop around
the bar. The wire ties had not yet
been installed when I took this
picture.

Click the photo for a larger view.

The horizontal support bar was attached by welding a 1/2 inch steel pipe coupling to the
main 1 inch support pipe. Two 24 inch long pieces of 1/2 inch pipe then thread into it to
make the horizontal support bar.

Click the photo for a larger view.

UPDATE - The old limit switches

have been replaced with new sealed
units to keep out dust and moisture.

Click the photo for a larger view.

 UPDATE - I have built a new,
weatherproof sensor head for the
system. It is still based on two small,
thin-film, Copper Indium di Selenide
(CIS) solar cells set at an angle to
each other, but now it is mounted
inside a clear plastic container. The
container originally held a Bluetooth
speaker I bought for use with my
phone. I immediately saw a potential
new use for the container. I had also
considered using peanut butter jars
and Mason jars, but this particular
container was just perfect.

Click the photo for a larger view.

The occulting bar is now located on

the outside of the container for ease
of fine tuning the tracking. It is held
in place with a simple hose clamp.
Once the new sensor head is
mounted on the tracking system, a
bead of silicone caulk will be applied
around the lip of the jar lid to seal it
against moisture.

Click the photo for a larger view.

Here is a view of the sensor head with the jar removed. The original head had the two CIS
solar cells mounted at 90 degrees to each other. Such an arrangement would not fit in this
jar, so I mounted the cells at a more acute 60 degree angle.
Click the photo for a larger view.

This photo shows the underside of

the sensor head where a terminal
block was attached so that wires
could be terminated neatly. It also
shows how the mounting foot is
screwed onto the jar lid. The
mounting foot will be clamped to the
main shaft of the tracker with a hose
clamp.

Click the photo for a larger view.

UPDATE - The new sensor head has been installed and is working! I don't have to worry
about wind, rain, dew and dust damaging the sensor head anymore. That is a major relief.
The new head does seem to result in the tracker hunting around a little more for the ideal
position than the last one did, especially on partly cloudy days. I think it is a result of turning
the solar cells by 90 degrees in this unit as opposed to the first one. Since these cells are
made of an array of tiny cells, and not just one big cell, this different orientation results in a
larger change in output Voltage with a small change in shading. I made the change
intentionally because the last unit seemed rather insensitive to orientation unless there was
a huge amount of shading of the cells. It doesn't seem like it is doing a really excessive
amount of hunting to me, but I may tweak the software a bit to reduce it anyway. Just
maybe slightly increasing the required voltage difference between the cells before the
system moves may reduce the hunting while still maintaining adequate pointing accuracy.

Click the photo for a larger view.

 UPDATE - I was having some
trouble with the pipe connections on
the solar tracker coming loose. The
motor would turn, but nothing would
move because the pipes were
unscrewing at the union. Also the 90
degree fitting for the counterweight
would sometimes loosen and the
counterweight would flop down
uselessly. So I drilled some through
holes at the problematic joints and
stuck nails through them to keep the
joints from coming loose. I would
have used Cotter Pins, but didn't feel
like driving nearly 50 miles round-trip
to the nearest hardware store to buy
some. I had plenty of nails on hand, and they worked fine to lock up the two joints that were
giving me problems.

Click the photo for a larger view.