more of a solar guy

[tillerman]

I hope I am not trespassing but I'm more interested in "re-purposing" some old satellite stuff to make a couple of solar trackers. I live off grid in Oregon. Closest neighbor is 2.5 miles away. Surrounded by USFS property. Love it.
I placed an ad in a free local sale/swap paper for anyone who wanted to have an old dish removed. Looked at several in various states of decay when I came across a Paraclipse horizon to horizon dish. Perfect, almost. In the solar world, 12vdc, 24vdc and 48vdc are common. The motor on this puppy is 36vdc!!! Now it's head scratching time. SMPS, inverter, replace. Anyway, that's why I joined. Glad to hear from anyone who's been down this road. If you see a good idea, make it your own.

 

[Van]

@party:clap: welcome to satellite guys

I'm also looking into off the grid stuff and have been putting together a few plans such as home built windmill using a re-wired motor from an Austrailian washing machine and home made solar panels just on the power generation.

Take a look through the forums specialy the free to air and the computer and electronics forums, we have some backyard geniuses here that should be able to help you with that motor.

 

[tillerman]

thanks

Appreciate the welcome. I lucked into a package a guy was selling for half his cost after 3 years cause his wife wouldn't give up her electric dryer!!
Got 6 185watt solar panels, Whisper Air genny, and Outback inverter equipment, charge controller, etc. Also came with "sealed batteries". He obviously didn't look into how batteries cycle and went with what the salesman recommended. The solar panels came with a mounting rack but no tracker. Solar trackers are expensive even used, when they can be found. Old satellite trackers, another story.

 

[stogie5150]

Paraclipse as a solar tracker....:river:river:river:river:river:river:river:river

 

[Van]

Appreciate the welcome. I lucked into a package a guy was selling for half his cost after 3 years cause his wife wouldn't give up her electric dryer!!
Got 6 185watt solar panels, Whisper Air genny, and Outback inverter equipment, charge controller, etc. Also came with "sealed batteries". He obviously didn't look into how batteries cycle and went with what the salesman recommended. The solar panels came with a mounting rack but no tracker. Solar trackers are expensive even used, when they can be found. Old satellite trackers, another story.

Theres a magazine that comes out quarterly called "Make" and its a great resource for tinkers and professionals that may be able to help you with making a cheap solar tracker. Likewise I remember not to long about that another electronics mag that might have been poptronics / electronics now / popular electronics or nuts and volts had an article about making a solar tracker. A couple of these pubs are now defunct however you should be able to find them with some time spent on google.

Paraclipse as a solar tracker....:river:river:river:river:river:river:river:river

Hey nice political statement with the avatar and avatar sig.

 

[stogie5150]

Hey nice political statement with the avatar and avatar sig.

I'm sorry. I remember Scott said no political Avs..so I changed it. Please accept my apologies.

 

[Van]

I'm sorry. I remember Scott said no political Avs..so I changed it. Please accept my apologies.

:up

 

[tillerman]

Stogie,
If it's any consolation, the Paraclipse I got is very, very old. It's not the fancy semi-circular ring with the chain mounted on the half circle. It is a chain drive but it operates a worm gear and then a helical gear, both heavy steel. I looked at the pdf posted on installation of a Paraclipse and nothing was familiar compared to what I'm looking at.
Tillerman

 

[Inno]

I'm interested in similar things and have been looking at possibly converting some of my old C-band stuff. I've built a small solar space heater which is currently on the south side of my garage. Back to your issue, if you're just looking to track the sun you don't need much speed so you would easily be able to run the actuator from 24 or even 12V DC, it would just run slower and possibly use a little more current. Any thoughts about a control circuit? I've seen many simple ones I'll just have to find a link.
Here's one Red Rock Energy Heliostats which actually sells a very simple tracker controller and has links to an abundance of very informative sites!

Good luck and keep us posted. I'd be interested to see what you come up with!

 

[vegassatellite]

Why not rig up some kind of hydraulic arm to the dish on each side of the dish and use a large metal cylinder that is highly pressurized on each side of the home. Western side and Eastern side. The cylinder on the East side of the home will get warmed in the sun and the gas inside will expand, turning the dish towards the sun. Then, as the sun passes overhead and warms the Western cylinder, pressure in that cylinder will counteract the pressure in the other cylinder to track the midday sun. Then, as the Eastern cylinder is shaded by the home, the pressure will drop and the dish will track West. No electricity used. Haven't tried this myself, but should work as long as the gas expansion is high enough.

 

[Inno]

My guess would be that a hydraulic system would be quite expensive. I can also think of a few problems. One, every climate is a bit different summer to winter, in some areas you have drastic changes in the amount of sun available. You'd have to make adjustments for the season. Two, if you have a day that starts out cloudy and ends up sunny then the dish wouldn't be in the right location once the sun hits the cylinder. Three, it would be very hard to adjust just the right amount of pressure to track the sun accurately.

If you used an electric based unit you could have a solar tracker unit controlling an actuator (or two if you wanted dual axis control) connected to a battery which could be charged by a solar panel. No outside electricity used. Given that the actuators will only need very small adjustments intermittently you wouldn't use up too much of the battery and a small panel should keep it topped up.

 

[tillerman]

Well after much "googling" and searching the postings here, I have determined the actuator that the Paraclipse dish was mounted to is an Ajak. The guy I got it from is a real tinkerer so I imagine he pieced it together. I have seen the Red Rok website and that is what I intend to use. Using the 24vdc input seems to be the easiest solution. Obviously it only needs to move as fast as the sun across the sky. The mounting bracket is all welded steel and I know what I have to do to bolt it to my Uni-rack that my panels mount to. Think I will eventually get a linear actuator arm for vertical adjustment with another Red Rok sensor. Right now, I'm just waiting for the rain to stop. Maybe June, July?? One of the many joys of living in Oregon. Thanks for all the suggestions. Will check back soon.

 

[Van]

Sun Tracker Automated Solar Panel | Edmund Scientific

Might help