please do something similar but also to power something ( small electronics) 😉🤙 U REALLY CAN MAKE SOMETHING #AMAZING FROM THIS !!! finger crossed 🤞 HOPE U GET MORE SUBS !!!!!
@@GremlinSciences anything that is automated by mechanical or electrical means is a robot. For example traffic lights are robots because they automate traffic flow that a person used to have to do. If you ever travel to South Africa you'll hear references to the robots, this is merely referring to the traffic lights.
My thoughts: - Use a motor with even lower RPMs - Place them more parralel, so it does not run much current when in perfect position to sun - Add some kind of diodes to prevent backfeeding into the panels
Yeah all these are pretty terrible. You have two voltage sources of varying value (but always opposite polarity) basically shorted to eachother. So basically the only limit on the current are the wires. The panels must be getting really hot. It won't work on cloudy days. It won't reset after sunset. It's mechanical - it breaks. You need to somehow measure it anyway to control main power panels. Basically anything based on math will be MUCH more reliable. You can get both Location AND Time from just GPS. There are probably many free models/scripts calculating the Sun position. It's not even that complicated, yeah, two dimensional geometry in angular system, but it's doable.
@@MrHerhor67 I think you missed the point. These panels are not getting any hotter than if they were not connected at all. "It is mechanical - it breaks" is just ridiculous. It doesn't really care about clouds, only about difference in brightness. It should reset just before sunrise, which is good enough (and technically AFTER sunset)
or have the panels both facing the same direction and a plate 90 degrees out front that would shade 1 panel use a geared motor to point a large array using just 2 small control panels
I’ve known about this technique (solar tracking) since college. This is indeed simple and with a few minor additions or modifications, it could control larger solar panels or anything that needs to move relative to the sun. As constructed it is a great example of an analog controller. With a digital flair and a PID controller, this device could be scaled up considerably with no “hunting”. Many digital design books explaining how and it is only a tiny bit more complex.
There were old (1970s/1980s) AI experiments where they'd build stuff like a swarm of buggies that would seek out "food" and then carry it back to the "nest", where the "food" was one color light and the "nest" was a different color light. It was all photosensors and filters and clever wiring.
Yes just attach a digital angle meter to this, and it gets the value of the angle the solar panels are facing towards. Then sends that data to the other solar panel's controller so it rotates as well
Back when Discovery channel was doing useful shows, they had one called The Colony. The first group built a simple solar tracker using a photocell that was recessed into a tube. When the photo cell didn't see the sun, the motor was activated, moving it and the whole solar array. Once light hit it, it would stop. It's just one of the things I have filed away in case society collapses
@@Jamesvandaele the problem in this is that a fixed solar panel is way cheaper since less complicated parts, way more safe to mount and also more effective since not every spot is big enough to carry a rotating angled solarpanel also less chance of failure due to less parts. maybe the floating solarplatforms already use this?
Once I made a line tracker like that, 2 photoresistors inside a termotube, 2 leds and 2 motors. Same circuit in both sides of car. Leds pointed to the floor and when there was no light reflected to the photoresistors that side motor stoped so the other turns back the car to the line. It was very fun to do back then in Highschool
I used to love that show! I forgot it ever existed. Thanks for reminding me... I'm going to go see if it holds up to my teen brain romanticism of TV. Mythbusters was amazing and still is, so maybe I had great taste as a teen... lol
@@DanteYewToob I just remember that the old guy who put it all together went from being all beat down and depressed looking to happy and healthy over the course of the show.
This panel can put out close to 100 watts th-cam.com/users/postUgkxOqI2yqX0XVrhR2BMJciTWrHJpG8FhJyg when positioned in the appropriate southernly direction, tilted to the optimal angle for your latitude/date, and connected to a higher capacity device than a 500. The built in kickstand angle is a fixed at 50 degrees. Up to 20% more power can be output by selecting the actual date and latitude optimal angle.The 500 will only input 3.5A maximum at 18 volts for 63 watts. Some of the excess power from the panel can be fed into a USB battery bank, charged directly from the panel while also charging a 500. This will allow you to harvest as much as 63 + 15 = 78 watts.If this panel is used to charge a larger device, such as the power station, then its full output potential can be realized.
I made something like this with a couple photo resistors and a physical divider between them. The challenge was getting the whole thing back at the end of the day. Created a "dark sensor", when it go dark enough it turned motor on until whole assembly rotated back and ran into a cut-off switch.
Yes. I feel he didn't even think about the sun rising opposite to the sunset. But in summer it happens, and this design would just wait idle until midday.
sticking with the no non solar power theme. how about a smaller third panel on the back side in the shadow of the 2 main panels. this panel would get lit up when the sun comes up cause the motor to "go" and after a little turning one of the main panels would get sun and then its back in business. no batteries no external non solar input.
The oscillating device is a great example of a underdamped control system. The final device is a great example of a overdamped control system. The engineering magic is to create a system that operates on the fine line between the two. Great Video!
Yep. Overdampening will hinder its ability to track the sun. In the extreme case of an open circuit, you get no tracking at all. I would like to see the likely hysterisis of this system and see how it performs in a timelapse: How big of an angle difference between the device and the sun is required to get it to start moving?
@@Celastrous So, I think the point of the "Simplest" was lost on you and OP here. It's not supposed to be GOOD, it's not supposed to be correct, it's not supposed to be pretty. It's supposed to be as simple as possible. Was it not? It may have flaws but it's very simple.
0:14 realized exactly how it'd work yet I'm certain I would've never thought of it myself. Creativity is almost magical like that. Elegant simplicity which also is a good lesson to keep it simple and that sometimes you just have to slow down!
It's a diode not a magical spell you can always use to stop your "reverse flow of energy" anyway you want. The best you can do is neutralize the current before it gets to the solar panel.
The diodes will make it oscillate, won't they? if you put a diode inline with each panel, you will never have zero voltage on the motor. If you put them across each panel, you now have 2 diodes connected in parallel, with opposing polarity, i.e. a dead short.
*** Update 1/5/2023: please disregard this not well thought through consideration! My stuff up! Something NOT to consider: In stead of wiring the panels in parallel so they fight each other controlling the motor, you could wire the panels in series with opposite polarity. This way the panels do not fight each other but work in an additional fashion which would allow theoretical use of the power produced by the panels. I.e., (panel 1 plus) (panel 1 minus) (panel 2 minus) (panel 2 plus) (plus motor) (minus motor) and then back to (panel 1 plus) to close the circuit. If the panels drive off the sun, reverse the polarity of the motor.
aren't solar panels just something like a diode? So if you connect them in series with opposite polarity, one panel simply blocks the output of the other?
@@Reneg973 Mind the polarity, the Panel will allow the current entering from +ve terminal and leaving --ve terminal. Thus we have to use additional reverse blocking diode while connecting more panels in parallel.
Cool. Some ideas for alterations: · Make both contiguous (same plane) and use a separator perpendicular. So the cast shadow in one make the system spin. So they align for maximum generation (but they do lose usable angle amplitude). · Join the black wires together, but no contact to the motor. Each red wire to some side of the motor. Only the difference in generation will be used in the motor. This maybe require the motor to work with smaller tensions, but you will be able to do useful stuff with the energy generated. · Get 4 solar panels, and you can wire them crossed and make like an wheatstone bridge. Each pair will have approximately the same voltage, so you can use the full energy harvested. But when, and only when, there's a difference in illumination, the motor will act. If you don't understand some detail, please ask and I'll explain. I'd love to see this in action.
@@aivazi Easy fix. Add a diode to a non-resisted output and put a 10K Ohm resistor on the black wires going directly to the motor. not 100% but you will be able to retrieve some of the enrgy
@@aivazi If you wanted to use this for real, you'd use these two small panels (neither of which points at the sun) to point a larger one (not connected to the motor) at the sun.
This will not damage the panels. It is basically just sitting there at zero-voltage passing Isc, which panels can do no problem. Furthermore, they aren't normal to the sun, so the current they are flowing is substantially less than Isc. Finally, consider conservation of energy--they will get no hotter than if they simply absorbed all of the sun's energy as heat. Would you expect that to cause them to melt?
Genius! Been creating electronic circuits for over 4 decades now and this has got to be the simplest, most genius idea in relation to free solar energy projects and electronic circuits in general. Very impressed.
I have always been curious about this long term. Does the motor experience any heat from the fighting currents? What of the solar panels? They don't need diodes?
genius... thank you for sharing this video. the only downside is that this guarantees that the solar panel are not most efficient due to angle, but this is still amazing and very useful.
I agree. An improvement could be to have them face the same direction but then have a dividing plane between both panels. When facing the sun they would both get 100% power but as the sun moves the plane would cast a shadow across the opposite side causing that panel to lose power giving the voltge difference needed to turn. To further save power he could even use a much weaker motor and gear since the sun moves so slow. That way it can be used as a power supply for another circuit.
I forget the exact phrase, but there is a phrase about the best inventions being ones that you can't possibly remove anything from (everything there is fundamental and the system is simple)
Thanks for sharing, this is simply amazing. I use to do this with arduinos, and it never occurred to me that there is a simpler solution. Lesson learned, keep it simple.
since the device tracks the sun until dawn, you can add mirror or lens, that can redirect the sunlight to the panels, so that in the morning, it can turn around 180 degree
This vid is the "World's simplest", but you are correct. If making a real tracker, you want something that detects sunset, and cranks it back towards sunrise, so its ready for morning. Assuming the panels are topping off a battery or something, you need to detect sunset and reset for morning, before the battery runs too low for the night.
this is basically the same as jump starting another car but you have the cables in reverse, creating a short circuit of 24v when speaking of the voltage of those batteries, in series. Same is happening with the panels. they are in series short circuiting.. Now the power of these panels are not so great so it will probably not fail really fast.. but they will. This setup is too dirty.
Seems like a brilliant way to ensure neither panel ever gets direct sunlight. Though maybe if it used a higher torque motor it could be used as the input to move an array of larger panels via some gear/joint mechanism or something like that.
I mean, in most cases there's no need to have panels track the sun at all. Just pointing them south towards the equator gets the vast majority of solar energy--depending on the size of the panel and the details of the setup, constantly moving the whole panel to face the sun can actually *decrease* net power generation.
You could have both panels facing the sun directly if you just add a wall in between. Then when the sun's angle changes, the wall will cast a shadow on one of the panels and trigger the motor. Or if you just need a mechanism to track the sun, then a sun dial with one sector without a panel, where the pole's shadow should land when the orientation is correct, would automatically orient itself at sunrise as well.
i did this project 6 years ago for a science fair... very cool although have you considered putting a main panel in the middle so that when you are properly oriented you generate the most power possible
@@Duck_side kind of, but in this situation they are backfed, which means one panel will act a little like a shit diode lamp while another is getting enough light to power both it and motor. I don't think you can solve it by adding diodes, as they will face the same way the diodes in panels are facing thus doing nothing to solve the situation. Maybe I'm wrong, I'm not really into electronics.
@@forgivenid Diodes can fix this. Connect a diode oriented in opposite polarity in series with the solar cell. This diode cannot support current flow in both directions unlike the solar cell. The issue here is the voltage drop across the diodes leading to power loss - however this dampening can also help attenuate the oscillations of the device, if the solar cells output sufficient operating voltage to overcome the drop in normal operation
@@Duck_side They are not made of diodes. A diode is a pn junction that's been designed for a particular application. A solar panel contains a pn junction but it is not designed for the same use as a diode.
The cells would last longer and generate less power in neutral (centered) if you intentionally left a dead spot when the device is pointed directly at the sun. By spreading the opening up just the tip of the triangle. Could make the slots in a rotatable section so you can adjust their relative angle.
A fun idea might be a 'main' panel, and two smaller panels linked to a DC motor as shown. The larger panel provides the main power supply, while the smaller panels are set up to keep the main pointed at the sun.
@@toddkes5890 That's pretty much the basic concept. you wouldn't use full size panels for the solar aiming system. Additionally any kind of power protection circuit would make the panels used for the pointer last better.
Very interesting. Actually there's an analogous solar tracker I read about decades ago for controlling a solar collector -- a pipe for heating flowing water. A parabolic mirror (NOT a parabola of rotation) has this pipe at the focal point and as a point of rotation of the mirror. On the two edges of the mirror are tubes containing some volatile liquid -- Freon, for example. These two tubes are slightly shaded by its respective side of the mirror, and each is sealed on one end and connected to a dual-action (i.e., NOT a spring-return) air cylinder on the other, which cylinder is able to rotate the mirror around the pipe. When the mirror is pointed at the sun, the two tubes provide the same pressure of Freon. When the mirror is pointed somewhat away from the sun, one tube is more shaded by the edge of the mirror than is the other, and the differential pressure extends or retracts the air cylinder rod, rotating the mirror until it points to the sun. No electricity involved at all, but otherwise essentially the same idea as described in this video.
I made a version of this in first year electronics class for a lab but with photo resistors and a power supply. Cool seeing it work with solar panels here
Excellent presentation! Great use of editing tools! Pauses and arrows provide an excellent way to keep the viewer on the same page! Thanks! Subscribed and can't wait to see what else you do!
The simplest solution is also the most dangerous one because it is shorting the wires I found out, I did this with large panels and it literally started a fire! Please put in a word of caution because this is irresponsible!
Cool idea! You could use two tiny solar panels to control the motor and thus the rotation, and then you could have one main panel that is always pointed directly at the sun. You should get better power generation because the panels lose efficiency the greater their angle from the sun they are.
Yes you get better efficiency, but the cost of doing this with real panels is more than the cost of just adding panels to make up the efficiency difference. Plus the added maintenance and reduced reliability.
@@bryanst.martin7134 you didnt get the point. it didnt woth with a compas, too. because he didnt point to the sun. and still: its a shortcut and ddint work this way. so why you answer my comment?
@@stargazer7644 True is you have space to add more - but if you want pure efficiency within limited space to place panels this could make a massive difference.
Perfect, ...please add a panel atop that points perpendicular to the nuetral point, and it will always reap the best sunlight benefit.... so your incredible design can be used so that your "guide panels" will move an attached panel array to point dirextly at the sun....absolutely great work..
@@3DPrinterAcademy even with a top panel to get electricity, can the side panels also contribute to getting electricity while in the neutral position? Instead of offsetting the currents, can the power be funneled to storage?
This is a great example of a Logic NAND gate, the first and simplest and most powerful of all Logic. Without NAND no computers ! Electrically there is a problem. Driving power into this type of solar panel will destroy them. The fix is simple, see if you can find a solution !
@@nathanieljames7462 yep, diodes are the best solution for this KIS* level technology. Don't forget that diodes have a voltage drop across them of somewhere between 0.6v to 1.0v. This could begin to be an issue with smaller solar panels, or in low light. You may see the motor 'hunting' back and forth. Use Schottky Diodes in this case, they have a much lower voltage drop and faster switching time. *Keep It Simple ;)
Oh crap ! I have made a big mistake ! It's not a proper logic gate example, I am sorry. A two input logic gate has four input conditons (0.0) (0.1) (1.0) (1.1) All outputs are the same, except for ONE condition ONLY were the output inverts. In the case of the NAND gate (0 0 = 1) (0 1= 1) (1 0 = 1) (1 1= 0). Do a search for "image nand gate truth table". Mega sorry folks.
In 1913 a solar power plant in Maadi Egypt was built by american engineer Frank Shuman. The plant produced steam to drive a water pump. The rotating parabolic mirrors followed the sun automatically with the help of a thermopile, a relay and electric motors in a similar arrangement as in the video. Although every morning the mirrors had to be reset manually...
Very clever and simple. It would be nice to solve the oscillation issue in such a way that it still tracks more smoothly. Add a small potentiometer to the rotation axis and you have a position encoder that can be used to control a more powerful stepper motor for a larger electricity generating solar panel, or a whole array of them.
Or you could actually measure the voltage difference and drive the motor such that the error goes to zero using the combined power of both cells. But that would require more then 3 components.
Someone who gets it! A stepper is overkill, though. Place this device on the array, and it's a negative feedback loop. A simple DC gear reduced motor just like he used but bigger to drive the large array would be plenty. The sun moves to the left. The sensor array follows it, which makes an electrical contact. That contact fires the main array drive motor (through a suitable relay or h-bridge). The array swings left moving the sensor too far to the left, causing the sensor to swing right and breaking the control contact.
Nice to see the technique implemented so simply. However, I would question how much benefit you would gain from the tracking if the panels are at such a steep angle wrt to the sun direction. You'd really want the 2 panels to be close to facing the sun for maximum production, of course, but I imagine that would negatively affect the tracking scheme due the smaller difference in voltage you'd get in that case.
I think the goal here was not to make solar panels produce the most electricity by following the sun, but merely to build something that follows the sun by using solar panels. Maybe this design or a better version of it could be attached to an actual big solar panel.
You could have two solar arrays, this tiny device as a position/driver. and another much larger one for solar production. Use the angle/position of the tracker to send a signal to the larger array so it can rotate for maximum efficiency?
The sun rises and sets so slow that two small solar panels used just for tracking or maybe a bit bigger can turn the big solar panels facing in direct sunlight. You can gear that motor down so much you wont even see it move and it could turn the weight of a car.
I designed something like this in a game called Homebrew: Patent Unknown, except I used 3 panels per system - one central panel and two edge panels that were angled inwards a few degrees. Sometimes the simplest solution is the best, though I did need a reset function since at the end of the day my system would be facing west, and not be ready for the sunrise in the east with such shallow angles.
With a worm gear to increase torque and prevent outside forces from moving it too much you could use this to rotate an even larger array that is slanted to better match the sun.
You could improve it by having both panels facing the same direction (0 degrees) but mounting a shade in the centre at 90 degrees, if it's facing the sun the shade only shades itself allowing both panels to be fully illuminated but otherwise, one panel is obscured and it will turn. Of course, it fails if facing more than 180 degrees away from the sun, but I've other ideas that would sort that ;)
@@danielrose1392 solar panels only have their full rated potential when perpendicular to the sun, the way they are facing in this video is VERY inefficient, so yes rvertyvcgrnhvc idea is a huge improvement
@@Sideshow-Bob Okay now I get the idea, but I am not sure if it is actually an improvement. To drive the motor in the shown configuration, a maximum difference between both panels is required. The total output is irrelevant. If you instead wire the panels in a way the produce power and track, the 90° plus shade would obviously be better.
@@Sideshow-Bob I was scrolling through the comments just to find a comment confirming my suspicion that the placement of the panels is inefficient. The creativity here is impressive, and there's something to learn from it, despite it not being a perfect solution, but I don't see anyone mentioning that flaw.
Or better yet, make the mechanism even more complicated by adding 2 more panels, and have a "+" shaped shade in the center (maybe a cylindrical shade could work too). Have one motor rotate around the vertical axis, and the other one around a rotating horizontal one (mounted on a part that's rotated by the first one), then mount panels and shade onto that one. This would account for the different angle of elevation of the sun on the sky (I don't know if that's the technical term, sorry), just how it works for the vertical axis - as sun moves around relative to the earth and thus the device. This, however, doesn't account for the daily reset of the device, which could be either done mechanically (by having the so-called vertical axis actually a little tilted towards the direction of the morning sun, and by having some sort of mechanical stopper, or maybe with some sort of spring), or with an arduino board and sensors for perfect calculation, but at this point, you might as well just add sensors and program *everything* on an arduino XD
Keep it as simple as possible! That is what every engineer should go for. But unfortunately most of them don't... You proof that there is hope for mankind to take the next step forward!
I made one of these back in the early 2000s when I custom built a Solar Panel of my own. Long gone these Days though! Nice work! 3d Printers make things like this way easier these days- mine was different. I didn't use the solar panel directly- I had a light detector hooked to the battery and it would spin when in sunlight and stop when in shade. Your way of doing it is probably a better way of doing it than mine, mine was easy to trick in certain conditions, it was about the size of a pencil dark clouds or random leaves/debris could make it forever loop.
good, BUT there are reason why it is a bad idea to use it in really application. Just one of them is that you cause power to go into a solar panel, which makes it produce light "UV light in this case" and it heats it up. The lost on the motor as well makes the whole use for solar panel rotation makes no sense, as it should help getting more energy out of it. And there are more and more reasons. But good fun project for showing here.
The panels are 2.5 watts at the optimum angle, and by design, they don't maintain that angle. At balance, they might produce a watt. The voltage across the motor will be zero. This is not a power-producing array, it's just a tracking sensor that could be used to control a larger tracker for an actual production array.
@@ericapelz260 I know that people could see it as a way to rotate bigger panels, but no. This will not work. The whole idea is based on driving the motor directly, which rotates the panels you need to face to the sun. So, the same tiny motor. If you will then say "then I take the power values and drive other elements which drive a bigger motors" then you already say that another solution is required. And basically, using solar panels as sensors is really really bad idea. They cost must much more than simple light sensors such as R or T, which work in a bridge circuit to drive the motor correctly. That, is the most simple way to do it, not this. This is a fun youtube project, fine, but from engineering perspective far away from realistically usefull one in any way, even for a home application.
@@el-domo the project shown can easily drive a potentiometer or simple switch that runs a larger motor to move the array. Place this on the array, and it become simple negative feedback loop. I'm not saying that it's the best way, just that it's a very simple way and that it would work.
@@ericapelz260 when you do that, it is no more the way he showed in the video. When you do that, it is no more simpler than light sensors and bridge, which is much muuuuuch smaller, cheaper, efficienter and more stable. But well, this is youtube, no more. Just take it as it is, a fun project, no more than that.
to avoid the short circuiting between the two pannels, could one simply add some resistors on one of the colors of the wires? (ex. 2 resistors, each of them on the black of each pannel?)
not usable in practical one..... rather use two LDR, an opamp, Zener diode, and an H-bridge motor driver..... this combination can make it way more efficient and usable.
@@theincapable they would fail after a week or so. I was running them well within limits in terms of voltage and current but I had about 4 failures before I went to small solar cells. Maybe the sun was too much for them or they were a faulty batch (from China).
I have a saying that I use with Students "SIMPLE IS HARD" I tell them, ANYBODY can make a complicated project, the genius is acheiving all the operational goals and keeping it SIMPLE
I love how the simpler version is sometimes the most effective. But I am wondering, shouldn't the panels be connected in series with differential arrangement, instead of parallel which you have done?
why ? it is working? why should we change it?, well i did this too, 5 years ago, but its better if the panals have a sharp angle, so it can rotate way more earlier in the morning (from afternoon position to morning sun position, wouldnt work well with an wide angle) if you wanna see my version you can search on my channel i have 2 short clips of my solar tracker
If they're wired in series, how would you tell which panel was getting power, and subsequently which direction to rotate? The whole point is measuring the difference in voltage between the two panels. If you wire them in series, you don't have different voltage from each panel.. You'd just have one signal which is the combined value of the voltages. And thus the motor couldn't change directions because it would only ever get power in one direction.
because solar panel would always output power from the same terminals no matter if they're on the left or the right. hence why u need to flip the terminals for one of them. lets assume the solar panel generates positive voltage on the positive terminal when in the sun. if both solar panels are connected in series then the positive terminal of one solar panel would connect to the negative terminal of the other solar panel so regardless of how the light hits the solar panels, the positive voltage from both adds up. the direction also doesnt change. if both positive terminals are connected to each other then the voltage just wont go anywhere since its not connected to the negative. solar panels are basically diodes and they only allow current to flow in one direction (hence why they have + and - terminals but the motor doesnt) you can flow current reverse of diodes but it would be much much higher than the voltage in normal conditions. hence why u need to connect them in parallel.
@@williamdowling7718 I am really glad that you went through my comment and tried to communicate the idea. what I mean by using the panels in series in differential arrangement is that the voltage at the motor terminals will the voltage difference between the two panels. If one panel gets more intensity(say left one) then the the terminal voltage will be positive(or negative depending upon the measurement points). But say if another(right one) gets more intensity then the terminal voltage will be negative(opposite of previous one). In simple term, V = Vl-Vr(left-right); (-ve sign is because of anti-series connection) If V= +ve, Vl>Vr, so rotate towards left If V = -ve, Vl
@@aoyuki1409 Yes, the voltage of panel increases with then intensity(considering constant panel current). The junction point of the solar panel is suppose to be consisting bypass diode, however we need to connect additionally here for one cell. Also I assume you that know the potential diff. between the pair of panels is +ve or -ve depending upon which panel gets more intensity(considering perfectly same panels) which is potential diff. appearing at the motor terminals. Yeah I can see the parallel connection working perfectly fine, and just curious. And, yeah, I would love if you guys share your view and help me clear my doubt. :) Cheers EDIT NOTE: I just realized that we don't need the bypass diodes as the anode-cathode orientation is in the way we want current to flow. Also, from the equivalent circuit of the panel(which is of current source and antiparallel diode in parallel with loss resistances), it seems like anti-series configuration would make the system less sensitive (which may help overshoot problem, maybe).
I expect the trade-off is efficiency of energy harnessed per area of solar panel, which must be a bit low due to the poor angle of incidence of light on each panel. I think you'd be better off using the original motor and having the 2 panels face the light on a more similar angle.
This is not an energy collection device. This device is designed to control a much larger array of solar panels. This 1 watt panel setup could orient 2000 watts of solar panels and increase output by 30%.
I love this vid, and of course it wins on being really simple. But as many commented already, if making a "real" tracker, there are millions ways to make it better: for starters, both panels more flat so both directly towards the sun. A small micro and H-Bridge to control the motor. And either a tiny angle on the two panels to still use the voltage difference to drive the correction direction, or an independent sensor from the main panels. But again, the vid was not about making the best tracker, but the "World's simplest".
This is a clever idea. Of course, as others have said, the end goal is to use this to position a large solar array, and I don't see how to do that without considerably more complication. The motor has to be small, in order for the two little sensor panels to drive it. But the motor that turns the larger array has to be large, to provide the power to turn the much larger array. Or put another way, the two little sensor panels don't produce enough power to drive a big positioning motor. They can position themselves, but not much else.
I always wondered how they track the sun that is a great idea you could mount large panels above that machine you built and voila you got a solar tracking charging system
There is a major problem with the design... Wiring the two panels in parallel with opposite polarity creates a short circuit when both are facing the sun. Also, you can't extract any useful energy in this configuration
@@sky-persuitofwonder That wastes 66% of the solar panels. Simply pointing all 3 in the direction where the sun is most of the time would produce more power and be even simpler
@@KarriKoivusalo It could be, but if you're getting a bit advanced, you can just go all in and use 2 photo-resistors and some circuitry to use the single big panel to power the motor rotating it, which is probably how it works in the real world.
@@jonasmp6663 Adding a few gears is not really that "advanced". Peg and cage gears are super rudimentary by any standards and it could even be as simple as a rope capstan.
This is fine, if you only need to point at the sun, but a stick in the ground can do that. Wiring panels like that cancels any useful power output, except for the instant it moves due to imblance between the panels, and that would be a fraction of the power from one panel.
Very Nice! This reminds me of the window insulator actuator I built in the 70s to open and close the window insulation. It was a small glazed box with a thermal switch inside. Sun shines, heats switch, and shades open. Sun leaves, switch cools and closes insulation. Some mass inside keeps it from cycling. No computer control back then. We also used it to control batch water heater insulation.
These panels are only powering the motor. When they have equal sun they are shorted. But this setup could rotate a larger panel facing the sun directly and supplying power.
@@Sgrunterundt The real practical question is how large of solar panels do you need to turn a larger panel. It would be really inefficient if it was 1:1 (two panels to turn two more of the same size). It would be really nice if you only needed the ones he used here to turn a average large panel. Side note: I wonder what the angle limitations are to have it return to east in the morning, that's probably a bigger limitation to this system than anything
which will never happen because it will always be facing towards the sun and has wider than 180 degrees of capture, so it can reset at sunrise the next day from the opposite direction it was pointing at last sunset.
Not on the coils of the motor, they see a potential of 0V, however not so for the wiring and more importantly the internals of the panels. Remove the motor and what you have here is basically two panels in series that are shorted out.
@@wich1 i dont really think there is 0 exactly, must be a low voltage since the motor doesnt move, but that doesnt mean exactly 0, and this is on scale, but yeah, the shorted pannels are much more of a fire hazzard on scale than the mottor burning
@@Nedeles yeah true, not exactly 0V as the motor has a threshold voltage as evidenced by the jerky sun following, but near enough 0V as to make no real difference to the coils
@@Nedeles as for the fire hazard, that all depends on the construction of the panels. The power produced by the panels is not near enough to cause the external wiring any issues, but it will basically concentrate all power collected from the sun over the entire panel into the relatively small internal wiring of the panel. If that internal wiring is capable of releasing that power as thermal energy back into the panel fast enough it would basically be as if the panel was just left in the sun unconnected like some other commenter suggested elsewhere. If it cannot however that internal wiring can get pretty hot.
What an elegant solution without using any overly complex circuits or computers. Maybe add a couple of steering diodes to prevent any backfeed from each solar panal. 😉
You can heat up water with this simple solar powered resistive heater. If is wasting all solar power as the panels are basically shorted. Connect two 100w panels like this, and boom, you got fire hazard.
Place this device on a larger array, and it's a negative feedback loop. A simple DC gear reduced motor just like he used but bigger to drive the large array would be plenty. The sun moves to the left. The sensor array follows it, which makes an electrical contact. That contact fires the main array drive motor (through a suitable relay or h-bridge). The array swings left moving the sensor too far to the left, causing the sensor to swing right and breaking the control contact. Disregard the comments about it being a short circuit heater. the panels in this device don't produce enough current to be a problem.
That's good, but that means that neither of the panels is at the optimal angle. I think to improve efficiency you could use two small solar panels to drive the motors and one bigger one on top so it will always point directly towards the sun. Great work!
Thank you, I said to someone many years ago that I thought this should work and they told me I was wrong and didn't understand electrics. As I don't really understand electrics I thought they might be right.
Wow - this is so good that it is so simple. What is more important (and could make this a lucrative money making venture) is to how to put this to a practical and needed purpose. Just thinking back to the early appearance of drone technology to where it is now. Perhaps splitting off the generated power to positioning mounted solar panels to get optimum energy throughout daylight days - maybe. All massive scale projects started in the micro. We all need to work on the 'Lowest Common Denominator'.
I miss making BEAM bots. Back in the late 2000s and early 2010s we would make neat little analogue we would turn junk into robots inspired by animals and bugs and stuff. One thing that was like this was solar plant bots that would track light sources and maybe have some blinking LEDs or something. I personally liked making solar walkers out of tiny motors with paper clips for legs.
amazing solution, many tried to tackle this problem by building circular solar panels or solar panels that use light resistors... and then there's you who solved this issue with a single 10rpm electric motor.
Ok, so this could be used as the guidance for a larger panel perhaps built around this. My only constructive feedback is the panels are not directly facing the sun which might lower their efficiency. I was thinking of this as a central piece to a larger array which is fully facing the sun so you get full efficiency. Think of this as the center of a sunflower with the radiating panel acting like the petals, as sunflowers follow the sun just like this. What I love about this idea is the low tech non software cheap and cheerful design. This would benefit third world applications. Well done. I've been visualising a non software way of doing this for a long time and you cracked it!
Imagine if this comment gets pinned!
pin deez nuts
@@memepog588 That would hurt... a lot
You should give it a heart
So uhmm...?
How do you connect them to batteries?
@@thereaper9987 This is a sun tracking mechanism, a third solar panel would be used to collect energy.
Love the simplicity! Nice one!
Hello
It’s amazing how simple such a complicated thing can be. Now we have to figure out what to power with it!
please do something similar but also to power something ( small electronics) 😉🤙 U REALLY CAN MAKE SOMETHING #AMAZING FROM THIS !!! finger crossed 🤞 HOPE U GET MORE SUBS !!!!!
@@lsudan2670 Also, it would be nice to be able to store the energy it collects also.
@@AdenSallaberry it can‘t power sth with this wiring. You’d have to sacrifice the simplicity for that. That’s why this is simple, yet not clever.
"Anyone can make the simple complicated. Making the complicated simple, man, that's creativity." - Charles Mingus
Massive kudos for pulling out a Mingus quote! 👍
This will be one of the downfalls of current (so called) AI.
This single sentence summarizes Feynman's view of the universe
2:20 that's actually the simplest WALKING solar robot. Somebody should explore that
SUN WALKERS
Yup,
I can agree with you 👍
Depends on your definition of 'robot' because they have solar robots that work on just solar heating, eliminating electronics altogether.
you can just add wheels
That motion would make an excellent little fish robot that always chased the sun
@@GremlinSciences anything that is automated by mechanical or electrical means is a robot. For example traffic lights are robots because they automate traffic flow that a person used to have to do. If you ever travel to South Africa you'll hear references to the robots, this is merely referring to the traffic lights.
My thoughts:
- Use a motor with even lower RPMs
- Place them more parralel, so it does not run much current when in perfect position to sun
- Add some kind of diodes to prevent backfeeding into the panels
Yeah all these are pretty terrible.
You have two voltage sources of varying value (but always opposite polarity) basically shorted to eachother. So basically the only limit on the current are the wires. The panels must be getting really hot.
It won't work on cloudy days.
It won't reset after sunset.
It's mechanical - it breaks.
You need to somehow measure it anyway to control main power panels.
Basically anything based on math will be MUCH more reliable. You can get both Location AND Time from just GPS. There are probably many free models/scripts calculating the Sun position. It's not even that complicated, yeah, two dimensional geometry in angular system, but it's doable.
@@MrHerhor67 I think you missed the point.
These panels are not getting any hotter than if they were not connected at all.
"It is mechanical - it breaks" is just ridiculous.
It doesn't really care about clouds, only about difference in brightness.
It should reset just before sunrise, which is good enough (and technically AFTER sunset)
@@MrHerhor67 nice bait
@@MrHerhor67 yes of course, no-one is suggesting actually using this for practical purposes. it’s just a fun toy to demonstrate a principle
or have the panels both facing the same direction and a plate 90 degrees out front that would shade 1 panel use a geared motor to point a large array using just 2 small control panels
I’ve known about this technique (solar tracking) since college. This is indeed simple and with a few minor additions or modifications, it could control larger solar panels or anything that needs to move relative to the sun. As constructed it is a great example of an analog controller. With a digital flair and a PID controller, this device could be scaled up considerably with no “hunting”. Many digital design books explaining how and it is only a tiny bit more complex.
There were old (1970s/1980s) AI experiments where they'd build stuff like a swarm of buggies that would seek out "food" and then carry it back to the "nest", where the "food" was one color light and the "nest" was a different color light. It was all photosensors and filters and clever wiring.
Gradient descent is a good algorithm for tracking the sun
Yes just attach a digital angle meter to this, and it gets the value of the angle the solar panels are facing towards. Then sends that data to the other solar panel's controller so it rotates as well
would be better to just use some photodiodes to send power produced by 1 panel
@@LuisC7 I think the point here is to not use relatively more complex digital information processing, but keep it as simple as possible.
That's brilliant! OK how about adding another axis so it can track not only the hour angle but also the tilt angle? World's simplest sun tracker V2.0
Booommm
NightHawkInLight and Greatscott! Already done that
Possibly use a corner of a cube for the shape. Have it triangulate.
I mean it's simple but he basically shorts the 2 panels. Risk of fire or damage with larger panels
@@dtibor5903 Who gives a shit if its fun
Stuff like this makes me feel like a kid again
😍
hi joel
Back when Discovery channel was doing useful shows, they had one called The Colony. The first group built a simple solar tracker using a photocell that was recessed into a tube. When the photo cell didn't see the sun, the motor was activated, moving it and the whole solar array. Once light hit it, it would stop. It's just one of the things I have filed away in case society collapses
I keep wondering when that solutions will be incorporated into all solar panel arrays and disappointed when it hasn't happened yet.
@@Jamesvandaele the problem in this is that a fixed solar panel is way cheaper since less complicated parts, way more safe to mount and also more effective since not every spot is big enough to carry a rotating angled solarpanel also less chance of failure due to less parts. maybe the floating solarplatforms already use this?
Once I made a line tracker like that, 2 photoresistors inside a termotube, 2 leds and 2 motors. Same circuit in both sides of car. Leds pointed to the floor and when there was no light reflected to the photoresistors that side motor stoped so the other turns back the car to the line. It was very fun to do back then in Highschool
I used to love that show! I forgot it ever existed. Thanks for reminding me... I'm going to go see if it holds up to my teen brain romanticism of TV. Mythbusters was amazing and still is, so maybe I had great taste as a teen... lol
@@DanteYewToob I just remember that the old guy who put it all together went from being all beat down and depressed looking to happy and healthy over the course of the show.
This panel can put out close to 100 watts th-cam.com/users/postUgkxOqI2yqX0XVrhR2BMJciTWrHJpG8FhJyg when positioned in the appropriate southernly direction, tilted to the optimal angle for your latitude/date, and connected to a higher capacity device than a 500. The built in kickstand angle is a fixed at 50 degrees. Up to 20% more power can be output by selecting the actual date and latitude optimal angle.The 500 will only input 3.5A maximum at 18 volts for 63 watts. Some of the excess power from the panel can be fed into a USB battery bank, charged directly from the panel while also charging a 500. This will allow you to harvest as much as 63 + 15 = 78 watts.If this panel is used to charge a larger device, such as the power station, then its full output potential can be realized.
The Illuminated panel will pass the energy trough the shadowed one heating it. You need add diodes to direct the current only to the motor.
this is the minimum requirement to upscale it and make it USEABLE and useful, and avoid frying any panels.
I made something like this with a couple photo resistors and a physical divider between them. The challenge was getting the whole thing back at the end of the day. Created a "dark sensor", when it go dark enough it turned motor on until whole assembly rotated back and ran into a cut-off switch.
Well a simple NOT gate would work...
This is very practical.
Yes. I feel he didn't even think about the sun rising opposite to the sunset. But in summer it happens, and this design would just wait idle until midday.
A couple years ago I tried to do something similar, but men, I study chemistry not electronics (I know it's simple but no so entreteining for me c: )
sticking with the no non solar power theme. how about a smaller third panel on the back side in the shadow of the 2 main panels. this panel would get lit up when the sun comes up cause the motor to "go" and after a little turning one of the main panels would get sun and then its back in business. no batteries no external non solar input.
The oscillating device is a great example of a underdamped control system. The final device is a great example of a overdamped control system. The engineering magic is to create a system that operates on the fine line between the two. Great Video!
Yep. Overdampening will hinder its ability to track the sun. In the extreme case of an open circuit, you get no tracking at all.
I would like to see the likely hysterisis of this system and see how it performs in a timelapse: How big of an angle difference between the device and the sun is required to get it to start moving?
@@Celastrous So, I think the point of the "Simplest" was lost on you and OP here.
It's not supposed to be GOOD, it's not supposed to be correct, it's not supposed to be pretty. It's supposed to be as simple as possible. Was it not? It may have flaws but it's very simple.
@@Ilovepoopin I'm well aware. I'm just saying I would like to analyze this system as-is because it looks interesting.
0:14 realized exactly how it'd work yet I'm certain I would've never thought of it myself. Creativity is almost magical like that.
Elegant simplicity which also is a good lesson to keep it simple and that sometimes you just have to slow down!
Defo one of those "OMG why didn't I think of that!?" moments, lol.
Indeed, P=NP is wrong.
the leson is dont build a shortcut, but this lesson he didnt learned...
@@Wrutschgeluck And why not create a shortcut?
@@Wrutschgeluck wasn't assembly language created because David J. Wheeler didn't want to right binary digits i.e he was looking for a shortcut
Briliant idea thank You..
Adding diodes to avoid reverse flow of energy, whould make the idea solid against criticis..
MAYBE, on the critics.... critics will be critics... sometime rightfully so.
It's a diode not a magical spell you can always use to stop your "reverse flow of energy" anyway you want. The best you can do is neutralize the current before it gets to the solar panel.
The diodes will make it oscillate, won't they? if you put a diode inline with each panel, you will never have zero voltage on the motor. If you put them across each panel, you now have 2 diodes connected in parallel, with opposing polarity, i.e. a dead short.
@@gozewson The short circuit will always be there weather you use diode or not. I don't understand how the motor is turning with such low power?
*** Update 1/5/2023: please disregard this not well thought through consideration! My stuff up! Something NOT to consider: In stead of wiring the panels in parallel so they fight each other controlling the motor, you could wire the panels in series with opposite polarity. This way the panels do not fight each other but work in an additional fashion which would allow theoretical use of the power produced by the panels. I.e., (panel 1 plus) (panel 1 minus) (panel 2 minus) (panel 2 plus) (plus motor) (minus motor) and then back to (panel 1 plus) to close the circuit. If the panels drive off the sun, reverse the polarity of the motor.
aren't solar panels just something like a diode? So if you connect them in series with opposite polarity, one panel simply blocks the output of the other?
@@Reneg973 yes they are.
@@Reneg973 Mind the polarity, the Panel will allow the current entering from +ve terminal and leaving --ve terminal. Thus we have to use additional reverse blocking diode while connecting more panels in parallel.
@@diliprana3882 @Rasputin You are absolutely correct. Blocking diodes would be necessary.
Wow, that's brilliant. I can see it working well with solar cooking dishes as they usually require to frequently turn them manually towards the sun.
great idea
Cool. Some ideas for alterations:
· Make both contiguous (same plane) and use a separator perpendicular. So the cast shadow in one make the system spin. So they align for maximum generation (but they do lose usable angle amplitude).
· Join the black wires together, but no contact to the motor. Each red wire to some side of the motor. Only the difference in generation will be used in the motor. This maybe require the motor to work with smaller tensions, but you will be able to do useful stuff with the energy generated.
· Get 4 solar panels, and you can wire them crossed and make like an wheatstone bridge. Each pair will have approximately the same voltage, so you can use the full energy harvested. But when, and only when, there's a difference in illumination, the motor will act.
If you don't understand some detail, please ask and I'll explain. I'd love to see this in action.
can you explain how to get the solar panels to power the motor PLUS charge a battery? Or manybe power a light?
Holen Sie sich 4 Sonnenkollektoren, und Sie können sie gekreuzt verdrahten , bitte um schaltplan
What you're proposing would work with batteries, but not with solar cells because they are diodes that prevent reverse current.
If I am not wrong you are shorting two sources (solar panels) which is not good as there might be a circulating current which may damage the panels.
And additional, there is no way to grab the produced power since it`s necessary to control the motors ? or am i wrong
@@aivazi Easy fix.
Add a diode to a non-resisted output and put a 10K Ohm resistor on the black wires going directly to the motor. not 100% but you will be able to retrieve some of the enrgy
@@aivazi If you wanted to use this for real, you'd use these two small panels (neither of which points at the sun) to point a larger one (not connected to the motor) at the sun.
This will not damage the panels. It is basically just sitting there at zero-voltage passing Isc, which panels can do no problem. Furthermore, they aren't normal to the sun, so the current they are flowing is substantially less than Isc. Finally, consider conservation of energy--they will get no hotter than if they simply absorbed all of the sun's energy as heat. Would you expect that to cause them to melt?
@@cosmicosmofour6883 Right, and you'll also need a motor driver because such small current wouldn't be able move larger panels.
Genius! Been creating electronic circuits for over 4 decades now and this has got to be the simplest, most genius idea in relation to free solar energy projects and electronic circuits in general. Very impressed.
I was following the sun tracker throughout the internet since 3 to 4 years. Yours is the best and the simplest congratulations🎉
Use TDA2822 is easy more safe and works (Has CI ne555 sun track too).
I used exactly the same principle to control a 2kw solar array. 10 years on and it still works great.
I have always been curious about this long term. Does the motor experience any heat from the fighting currents? What of the solar panels? They don't need diodes?
Fighting voltages maybe but no fighting currents. The motor responds to voltage difference and I didn’t find the need to include diodes.
@@kevinmills5293 You are awesome!
Very elegant and clever solution. Might try and build one of these
Good luck with the wires spinning around the motor
genius... thank you for sharing this video.
the only downside is that this guarantees that the solar panel are not most efficient due to angle, but this is still amazing and very useful.
I agree. An improvement could be to have them face the same direction but then have a dividing plane between both panels.
When facing the sun they would both get 100% power but as the sun moves the plane would cast a shadow across the opposite side causing that panel to lose power giving the voltge difference needed to turn.
To further save power he could even use a much weaker motor and gear since the sun moves so slow. That way it can be used as a power supply for another circuit.
100% agree with the takeaway. Whenever I'm making something one of my main thoughts is if I'm overcomplicating it and if I can make it simpler.
I forget the exact phrase, but there is a phrase about the best inventions being ones that you can't possibly remove anything from (everything there is fundamental and the system is simple)
I love this. Wow, It was so much more simple than I expected. I could make this myself and I have close to no experience in this field. Thank you!
Thanks for sharing, this is simply amazing. I use to do this with arduinos, and it never occurred to me that there is a simpler solution. Lesson learned, keep it simple.
for what purpose?, this has no use. All the energy is wasted to itself as solar panels are shorted with each other.
since the device tracks the sun until dawn, you can add mirror or lens, that can redirect the sunlight to the panels, so that in the morning, it can turn around 180 degree
in fact, a 3º solar panel is better, a mirror will ever reflect and confuse the system.
This vid is the "World's simplest", but you are correct. If making a real tracker, you want something that detects sunset, and cranks it back towards sunrise, so its ready for morning. Assuming the panels are topping off a battery or something, you need to detect sunset and reset for morning, before the battery runs too low for the night.
This is beautifull! We live in a world where alot of stuff gets overengineered, and this proves the point “A well tought plan is often the simplest”
this is basically the same as jump starting another car but you have the cables in reverse, creating a short circuit of 24v when speaking of the voltage of those batteries, in series.
Same is happening with the panels. they are in series short circuiting.. Now the power of these panels are not so great so it will probably not fail really fast.. but they will.
This setup is too dirty.
To what part of speech does "alot" belong?
Seems like a brilliant way to ensure neither panel ever gets direct sunlight.
Though maybe if it used a higher torque motor it could be used as the input to move an array of larger panels via some gear/joint mechanism or something like that.
Exactly my first thought
I mean, in most cases there's no need to have panels track the sun at all. Just pointing them south towards the equator gets the vast majority of solar energy--depending on the size of the panel and the details of the setup, constantly moving the whole panel to face the sun can actually *decrease* net power generation.
hehe brilliant
You could have both panels facing the sun directly if you just add a wall in between. Then when the sun's angle changes, the wall will cast a shadow on one of the panels and trigger the motor. Or if you just need a mechanism to track the sun, then a sun dial with one sector without a panel, where the pole's shadow should land when the orientation is correct, would automatically orient itself at sunrise as well.
i did this project 6 years ago for a science fair... very cool
although have you considered putting a main panel in the middle so that when you
are properly oriented you generate the most power possible
I did that as a solar clock for our science fair back in the early 80s.
You could put a diode on one lead of each panel to stop voltage feedback into the panels
Well, the funny thing is solar panels are made of diodes.
@@Duck_side kind of, but in this situation they are backfed, which means one panel will act a little like a shit diode lamp while another is getting enough light to power both it and motor. I don't think you can solve it by adding diodes, as they will face the same way the diodes in panels are facing thus doing nothing to solve the situation. Maybe I'm wrong, I'm not really into electronics.
@@forgivenid Diodes can fix this. Connect a diode oriented in opposite polarity in series with the solar cell. This diode cannot support current flow in both directions unlike the solar cell.
The issue here is the voltage drop across the diodes leading to power loss - however this dampening can also help attenuate the oscillations of the device, if the solar cells output sufficient operating voltage to overcome the drop in normal operation
@@Duck_side They are not made of diodes. A diode is a pn junction that's been designed for a particular application.
A solar panel contains a pn junction but it is not designed for the same use as a diode.
@@deang5622 a diode is a diode. The application may differ but the device is still a diode.
A solar cell is a photodiode, which is still a diode.
The cells would last longer and generate less power in neutral (centered) if you intentionally left a dead spot when the device is pointed directly at the sun. By spreading the opening up just the tip of the triangle. Could make the slots in a rotatable section so you can adjust their relative angle.
A fun idea might be a 'main' panel, and two smaller panels linked to a DC motor as shown. The larger panel provides the main power supply, while the smaller panels are set up to keep the main pointed at the sun.
@@toddkes5890 That's pretty much the basic concept. you wouldn't use full size panels for the solar aiming system. Additionally any kind of power protection circuit would make the panels used for the pointer last better.
Or by adding a bit at the tip to shade the panels.
@@toddkes5890 This is what I was thinking while watching.
Very interesting.
Actually there's an analogous solar tracker I read about decades ago for controlling a solar collector -- a pipe for heating flowing water. A parabolic mirror (NOT a parabola of rotation) has this pipe at the focal point and as a point of rotation of the mirror. On the two edges of the mirror are tubes containing some volatile liquid -- Freon, for example. These two tubes are slightly shaded by its respective side of the mirror, and each is sealed on one end and connected to a dual-action (i.e., NOT a spring-return) air cylinder on the other, which cylinder is able to rotate the mirror around the pipe. When the mirror is pointed at the sun, the two tubes provide the same pressure of Freon. When the mirror is pointed somewhat away from the sun, one tube is more shaded by the edge of the mirror than is the other, and the differential pressure extends or retracts the air cylinder rod, rotating the mirror until it points to the sun. No electricity involved at all, but otherwise essentially the same idea as described in this video.
I made a version of this in first year electronics class for a lab but with photo resistors and a power supply. Cool seeing it work with solar panels here
Your's sound cheaper.
Can you send circuit diagram plz
Excellent presentation! Great use of editing tools! Pauses and arrows provide an excellent way to keep the viewer on the same page! Thanks! Subscribed and can't wait to see what else you do!
The simplest solution is also the most dangerous one because it is shorting the wires I found out, I did this with large panels and it literally started a fire! Please put in a word of caution because this is irresponsible!
Maybe use separate low voltage panels to rotate and larger panels not wired to the motor.
Cool idea! You could use two tiny solar panels to control the motor and thus the rotation, and then you could have one main panel that is always pointed directly at the sun. You should get better power generation because the panels lose efficiency the greater their angle from the sun they are.
Yes you get better efficiency, but the cost of doing this with real panels is more than the cost of just adding panels to make up the efficiency difference. Plus the added maintenance and reduced reliability.
It's even a shortcut he builded here, so no use for real applications. At least not how he did it.
@@Wrutschgeluck Add a wireless compass to it and you have the feed to angle a large array to gain max power.
@@bryanst.martin7134 you didnt get the point. it didnt woth with a compas, too. because he didnt point to the sun. and still: its a shortcut and ddint work this way. so why you answer my comment?
@@stargazer7644 True is you have space to add more - but if you want pure efficiency within limited space to place panels this could make a massive difference.
The best engineering solutions are always the simplest. The wheel for example.
Perfect, ...please add a panel atop that points perpendicular to the nuetral point, and it will always reap the best sunlight benefit.... so your incredible design can be used so that your "guide panels" will move an attached panel array to point dirextly at the sun....absolutely great work..
exactly
@@3DPrinterAcademy even with a top panel to get electricity, can the side panels also contribute to getting electricity while in the neutral position? Instead of offsetting the currents, can the power be funneled to storage?
That was the whole point. Did you miss it?
@joewoodchuck3824 thank you for pointing that out... you are so nice... thank you
This would be bad for real solar use, but it could work to control larger arrays I think.
That's the point.
@@owenkegg5608 some people don’t got points to they minds lmfao
This is a great example of a Logic NAND gate, the first and simplest and most powerful of all Logic. Without NAND no computers !
Electrically there is a problem. Driving power into this type of solar panel will destroy them. The fix is simple, see if you can find a solution !
@@nathanieljames7462 yep, diodes are the best solution for this KIS* level technology. Don't forget that diodes have a voltage drop across them of somewhere between 0.6v to 1.0v. This could begin to be an issue with smaller solar panels, or in low light. You may see the motor 'hunting' back and forth. Use Schottky Diodes in this case, they have a much lower voltage drop and faster switching time.
*Keep It Simple ;)
It's not really a nand gate tho
@@emiliaolfelt6370 Hi Emilia. what makez you say that ?
Attach a couple heatsinks and use bigger wires than necessary. I don't know logic very well...
Oh crap ! I have made a big mistake ! It's not a proper logic gate example, I am sorry.
A two input logic gate has four input conditons (0.0) (0.1) (1.0) (1.1) All outputs are the same, except for ONE condition ONLY were the output inverts. In the case of the NAND gate (0 0 = 1) (0 1= 1) (1 0 = 1) (1 1= 0).
Do a search for "image nand gate truth table". Mega sorry folks.
add a clock to the table and you just made a digital sun dial!!! that blows my mind :)
Oh, wow yes
Making a complex thing simple is the most complex thing!
In 1913 a solar power plant in Maadi Egypt was built by american engineer Frank Shuman. The plant produced steam to drive a water pump. The rotating parabolic mirrors followed the sun automatically with the help of a thermopile, a relay and electric motors in a similar arrangement as in the video. Although every morning the mirrors had to be reset manually...
Very clever and simple. It would be nice to solve the oscillation issue in such a way that it still tracks more smoothly. Add a small potentiometer to the rotation axis and you have a position encoder that can be used to control a more powerful stepper motor for a larger electricity generating solar panel, or a whole array of them.
Or you could actually measure the voltage difference and drive the motor such that the error goes to zero using the combined power of both cells. But that would require more then 3 components.
Someone who gets it! A stepper is overkill, though. Place this device on the array, and it's a negative feedback loop. A simple DC gear reduced motor just like he used but bigger to drive the large array would be plenty. The sun moves to the left. The sensor array follows it, which makes an electrical contact. That contact fires the main array drive motor (through a suitable relay or h-bridge). The array swings left moving the sensor too far to the left, causing the sensor to swing right and breaking the control contact.
He's proved that solution already.. without any more components.. 😁😁😁..
OR SOFTWARE 😂😂
Nice to see the technique implemented so simply. However, I would question how much benefit you would gain from the tracking if the panels are at such a steep angle wrt to the sun direction. You'd really want the 2 panels to be close to facing the sun for maximum production, of course, but I imagine that would negatively affect the tracking scheme due the smaller difference in voltage you'd get in that case.
I think the goal here was not to make solar panels produce the most electricity by following the sun, but merely to build something that follows the sun by using solar panels.
Maybe this design or a better version of it could be attached to an actual big solar panel.
You could have two solar arrays, this tiny device as a position/driver. and another much larger one for solar production. Use the angle/position of the tracker to send a signal to the larger array so it can rotate for maximum efficiency?
The sun rises and sets so slow that two small solar panels used just for tracking or maybe a bit bigger can turn the big solar panels facing in direct sunlight.
You can gear that motor down so much you wont even see it move and it could turn the weight of a car.
Then add 2 more at the top which are for the battery
The goal isn't to generate power from the tracking panels.
I designed something like this in a game called Homebrew: Patent Unknown, except I used 3 panels per system - one central panel and two edge panels that were angled inwards a few degrees. Sometimes the simplest solution is the best, though I did need a reset function since at the end of the day my system would be facing west, and not be ready for the sunrise in the east with such shallow angles.
Brilliant contraption with simple logic in mind, Kudos to you
If you think about it, this design is an actual revolution in the industry
In stead of changing the motor you can use a simple resistor . That will make it easier and you can use any dc motor that way
With a worm gear to increase torque and prevent outside forces from moving it too much you could use this to rotate an even larger array that is slanted to better match the sun.
Or potentially use 2 of these 1 to adjust the up and down slant, and the other to adjust the left to right angle.
You could improve it by having both panels facing the same direction (0 degrees) but mounting a shade in the centre at 90 degrees, if it's facing the sun the shade only shades itself allowing both panels to be fully illuminated but otherwise, one panel is obscured and it will turn. Of course, it fails if facing more than 180 degrees away from the sun, but I've other ideas that would sort that ;)
Where do you see the improvement having both face the same way?
@@danielrose1392 solar panels only have their full rated potential when perpendicular to the sun, the way they are facing in this video is VERY inefficient, so yes rvertyvcgrnhvc idea is a huge improvement
@@Sideshow-Bob Okay now I get the idea, but I am not sure if it is actually an improvement. To drive the motor in the shown configuration, a maximum difference between both panels is required. The total output is irrelevant. If you instead wire the panels in a way the produce power and track, the 90° plus shade would obviously be better.
@@Sideshow-Bob I was scrolling through the comments just to find a comment confirming my suspicion that the placement of the panels is inefficient.
The creativity here is impressive, and there's something to learn from it, despite it not being a perfect solution, but I don't see anyone mentioning that flaw.
Or better yet, make the mechanism even more complicated by adding 2 more panels, and have a "+" shaped shade in the center (maybe a cylindrical shade could work too). Have one motor rotate around the vertical axis, and the other one around a rotating horizontal one (mounted on a part that's rotated by the first one), then mount panels and shade onto that one.
This would account for the different angle of elevation of the sun on the sky (I don't know if that's the technical term, sorry), just how it works for the vertical axis - as sun moves around relative to the earth and thus the device.
This, however, doesn't account for the daily reset of the device, which could be either done mechanically (by having the so-called vertical axis actually a little tilted towards the direction of the morning sun, and by having some sort of mechanical stopper, or maybe with some sort of spring), or with an arduino board and sensors for perfect calculation, but at this point, you might as well just add sensors and program *everything* on an arduino XD
Keep it as simple as possible! That is what every engineer should go for. But unfortunately most of them don't...
You proof that there is hope for mankind to take the next step forward!
I made one of these back in the early 2000s when I custom built a Solar Panel of my own. Long gone these Days though! Nice work! 3d Printers make things like this way easier these days- mine was different. I didn't use the solar panel directly- I had a light detector hooked to the battery and it would spin when in sunlight and stop when in shade. Your way of doing it is probably a better way of doing it than mine, mine was easy to trick in certain conditions, it was about the size of a pencil dark clouds or random leaves/debris could make it forever loop.
good, BUT there are reason why it is a bad idea to use it in really application. Just one of them is that you cause power to go into a solar panel, which makes it produce light "UV light in this case" and it heats it up. The lost on the motor as well makes the whole use for solar panel rotation makes no sense, as it should help getting more energy out of it. And there are more and more reasons. But good fun project for showing here.
The panels are 2.5 watts at the optimum angle, and by design, they don't maintain that angle. At balance, they might produce a watt. The voltage across the motor will be zero. This is not a power-producing array, it's just a tracking sensor that could be used to control a larger tracker for an actual production array.
@@ericapelz260 I know that people could see it as a way to rotate bigger panels, but no. This will not work. The whole idea is based on driving the motor directly, which rotates the panels you need to face to the sun. So, the same tiny motor. If you will then say "then I take the power values and drive other elements which drive a bigger motors" then you already say that another solution is required.
And basically, using solar panels as sensors is really really bad idea. They cost must much more than simple light sensors such as R or T, which work in a bridge circuit to drive the motor correctly. That, is the most simple way to do it, not this. This is a fun youtube project, fine, but from engineering perspective far away from realistically usefull one in any way, even for a home application.
@@el-domo the project shown can easily drive a potentiometer or simple switch that runs a larger motor to move the array. Place this on the array, and it become simple negative feedback loop.
I'm not saying that it's the best way, just that it's a very simple way and that it would work.
@@ericapelz260 when you do that, it is no more the way he showed in the video. When you do that, it is no more simpler than light sensors and bridge, which is much muuuuuch smaller, cheaper, efficienter and more stable. But well, this is youtube, no more. Just take it as it is, a fun project, no more than that.
to avoid the short circuiting between the two pannels, could one simply add some resistors on one of the colors of the wires? (ex. 2 resistors, each of them on the black of each pannel?)
Potentially diodes?
Adding resistors will require more sunlight to hit the panels for the motor to work. Some diodes or some switching will works.
@@enlacdmx4379
What matters is voltage difference, so resistor of course make it require more sunlight but it wont make big change
or you could coat the connections in something like glue or hot glue or sealing foam or rubber sealent.
It's just amazing, how simple it is!
Pretty brilliant! The faster version reminded me of one of those old-school drinking birds!
Love this. so many simple projects can be build off this. Thank you!
Great idea, food for thought! This could be used as a sensor to orient a large focusing solar collector, too. Thanks!
not usable in practical one..... rather use two LDR, an opamp, Zener diode, and an H-bridge motor driver..... this combination can make it way more efficient and usable.
Originally I tried LDR’s but they proved unreliable. Changed to two small solar panels and it’s been going for the last 10 years.
@@kevinmills5293 why unreliable? Were they saturated or was the area too small and prone to give false measurements when they went dirty?
@@theincapable they would fail after a week or so. I was running them well within limits in terms of voltage and current but I had about 4 failures before I went to small solar cells. Maybe the sun was too much for them or they were a faulty batch (from China).
the two little panels in an opposed set up is truly elegant.
I have a saying that I use with Students "SIMPLE IS HARD" I tell them, ANYBODY can make a complicated project, the genius is acheiving all the operational goals and keeping it SIMPLE
Yo looks like a solar eco friendly hot wheels track
I love how the simpler version is sometimes the most effective. But I am wondering, shouldn't the panels be connected in series with differential arrangement, instead of parallel which you have done?
why ? it is working? why should we change it?, well i did this too, 5 years ago, but its better if the panals have a sharp angle, so it can rotate way more earlier in the morning (from afternoon position to morning sun position, wouldnt work well with an wide angle)
if you wanna see my version you can search on my channel i have 2 short clips of my solar tracker
If they're wired in series, how would you tell which panel was getting power, and subsequently which direction to rotate? The whole point is measuring the difference in voltage between the two panels. If you wire them in series, you don't have different voltage from each panel.. You'd just have one signal which is the combined value of the voltages. And thus the motor couldn't change directions because it would only ever get power in one direction.
because solar panel would always output power from the same terminals no matter if they're on the left or the right. hence why u need to flip the terminals for one of them. lets assume the solar panel generates positive voltage on the positive terminal when in the sun.
if both solar panels are connected in series then the positive terminal of one solar panel would connect to the negative terminal of the other solar panel so regardless of how the light hits the solar panels, the positive voltage from both adds up. the direction also doesnt change. if both positive terminals are connected to each other then the voltage just wont go anywhere since its not connected to the negative. solar panels are basically diodes and they only allow current to flow in one direction (hence why they have + and - terminals but the motor doesnt) you can flow current reverse of diodes but it would be much much higher than the voltage in normal conditions.
hence why u need to connect them in parallel.
@@williamdowling7718 I am really glad that you went through my comment and tried to communicate the idea. what I mean by using the panels in series in differential arrangement is that the voltage at the motor terminals will the voltage difference between the two panels. If one panel gets more intensity(say left one) then the the terminal voltage will be positive(or negative depending upon the measurement points). But say if another(right one) gets more intensity then the terminal voltage will be negative(opposite of previous one).
In simple term, V = Vl-Vr(left-right); (-ve sign is because of anti-series connection)
If V= +ve, Vl>Vr, so rotate towards left
If V = -ve, Vl
@@aoyuki1409 Yes, the voltage of panel increases with then intensity(considering constant panel current). The junction point of the solar panel is suppose to be consisting bypass diode, however we need to connect additionally here for one cell. Also I assume you that know the potential diff. between the pair of panels is +ve or -ve depending upon which panel gets more intensity(considering perfectly same panels) which is potential diff. appearing at the motor terminals. Yeah I can see the parallel connection working perfectly fine, and just curious. And, yeah, I would love if you guys share your view and help me clear my doubt. :) Cheers
EDIT NOTE: I just realized that we don't need the bypass diodes as the anode-cathode orientation is in the way we want current to flow. Also, from the equivalent circuit of the panel(which is of current source and antiparallel diode in parallel with loss resistances), it seems like anti-series configuration would make the system less sensitive (which may help overshoot problem, maybe).
I expect the trade-off is efficiency of energy harnessed per area of solar panel, which must be a bit low due to the poor angle of incidence of light on each panel. I think you'd be better off using the original motor and having the 2 panels face the light on a more similar angle.
This is not an energy collection device. This device is designed to control a much larger array of solar panels. This 1 watt panel setup could orient 2000 watts of solar panels and increase output by 30%.
I love this vid, and of course it wins on being really simple. But as many commented already, if making a "real" tracker, there are millions ways to make it better: for starters, both panels more flat so both directly towards the sun. A small micro and H-Bridge to control the motor. And either a tiny angle on the two panels to still use the voltage difference to drive the correction direction, or an independent sensor from the main panels. But again, the vid was not about making the best tracker, but the "World's simplest".
This is a clever idea. Of course, as others have said, the end goal is to use this to position a large solar array, and I don't see how to do that without considerably more complication. The motor has to be small, in order for the two little sensor panels to drive it. But the motor that turns the larger array has to be large, to provide the power to turn the much larger array. Or put another way, the two little sensor panels don't produce enough power to drive a big positioning motor. They can position themselves, but not much else.
I always wondered how they track the sun that is a great idea you could mount large panels above that machine you built and voila you got a solar tracking charging system
And then get uvs shining at you and power lost in motor
How we will get output?
True
It's a tracker, not a power supply
Easy, you put the solar panels on top of a generator, then use the generator for power.
There is a major problem with the design... Wiring the two panels in parallel with opposite polarity creates a short circuit when both are facing the sun. Also, you can't extract any useful energy in this configuration
Add a third panel there you go.
@@sky-persuitofwonder That wastes 66% of the solar panels. Simply pointing all 3 in the direction where the sun is most of the time would produce more power and be even simpler
@@jonasmp6663 The third one could be huge. Just gear down the motor, it doesn't (and shouldn't) be fast to turn anyway.
@@KarriKoivusalo It could be, but if you're getting a bit advanced, you can just go all in and use 2 photo-resistors and some circuitry to use the single big panel to power the motor rotating it, which is probably how it works in the real world.
@@jonasmp6663 Adding a few gears is not really that "advanced". Peg and cage gears are super rudimentary by any standards and it could even be as simple as a rope capstan.
This is fine, if you only need to point at the sun, but a stick in the ground can do that. Wiring panels like that cancels any useful power output, except for the instant it moves due to imblance between the panels, and that would be a fraction of the power from one panel.
Very Nice!
This reminds me of the window insulator actuator I built in the 70s to open and close the window insulation. It was a small glazed box with a thermal switch inside. Sun shines, heats switch, and shades open. Sun leaves, switch cools and closes insulation. Some mass inside keeps it from cycling. No computer control back then. We also used it to control batch water heater insulation.
Is there a significant drain when the motor isn't moving and the panels are supplying it equal voltage?
These panels are only powering the motor. When they have equal sun they are shorted. But this setup could rotate a larger panel facing the sun directly and supplying power.
@@Sgrunterundt The real practical question is how large of solar panels do you need to turn a larger panel. It would be really inefficient if it was 1:1 (two panels to turn two more of the same size). It would be really nice if you only needed the ones he used here to turn a average large panel.
Side note: I wonder what the angle limitations are to have it return to east in the morning, that's probably a bigger limitation to this system than anything
@@Ivan.Wright If you use a small motor and gear it down, not a lot. It will turn slowly, but it doesn't need to be fast.
Flaw:
If the sun is at the back both panels are in the shadow making neither produce energy
And there is nothing attached to it like a power bank 😂
which will never happen because it will always be facing towards the sun and has wider than 180 degrees of capture, so it can reset at sunrise the next day from the opposite direction it was pointing at last sunset.
that seems like a masive waste of heat on the coils of the motor
Not on the coils of the motor, they see a potential of 0V, however not so for the wiring and more importantly the internals of the panels. Remove the motor and what you have here is basically two panels in series that are shorted out.
@@wich1 i dont really think there is 0 exactly, must be a low voltage since the motor doesnt move, but that doesnt mean exactly 0, and this is on scale, but yeah, the shorted pannels are much more of a fire hazzard on scale than the mottor burning
@@Nedeles yeah true, not exactly 0V as the motor has a threshold voltage as evidenced by the jerky sun following, but near enough 0V as to make no real difference to the coils
@@Nedeles as for the fire hazard, that all depends on the construction of the panels. The power produced by the panels is not near enough to cause the external wiring any issues, but it will basically concentrate all power collected from the sun over the entire panel into the relatively small internal wiring of the panel. If that internal wiring is capable of releasing that power as thermal energy back into the panel fast enough it would basically be as if the panel was just left in the sun unconnected like some other commenter suggested elsewhere. If it cannot however that internal wiring can get pretty hot.
@johnnytheprick I presume you’re referencing something, but I haven’t the foggiest
What an elegant solution without using any overly complex circuits or computers. Maybe add a couple of steering diodes to prevent any backfeed from each solar panal. 😉
So would you use this to turn a larger array or how would you harness any power from it as that would negate the principles on which it works?
You can heat up water with this simple solar powered resistive heater. If is wasting all solar power as the panels are basically shorted. Connect two 100w panels like this, and boom, you got fire hazard.
@@dtibor5903 Ah yes, heating water with the power of the sun, except there are solar panels floating in the water for some reason.
Place this device on a larger array, and it's a negative feedback loop. A simple DC gear reduced motor just like he used but bigger to drive the large array would be plenty. The sun moves to the left. The sensor array follows it, which makes an electrical contact. That contact fires the main array drive motor (through a suitable relay or h-bridge). The array swings left moving the sensor too far to the left, causing the sensor to swing right and breaking the control contact. Disregard the comments about it being a short circuit heater. the panels in this device don't produce enough current to be a problem.
maybe it's can be use as sensor ,,, and the data from the tracker for feedback to the real solar panel
This dirty Soldering Iron tip.. is killing me.
cool project tho.
That's good, but that means that neither of the panels is at the optimal angle. I think to improve efficiency you could use two small solar panels to drive the motors and one bigger one on top so it will always point directly towards the sun.
Great work!
The moment I Read the title, this is exactly what I built in my head, lol.
The jerkiness could probably be lessened with a capacitor
Probably true, but it's an extra part that can fail. This is all about the simplicity
But energy can generate this angle isn’t optimized, I like the idea though
Great idea, this works as long the solar efficiency of the two panels are accurately identical, any difference would need a correction.
dude, ... that´s just soo cool. obviously thiny panels like this could just even put much bigger panels in place . . . sooo good.
The beauty of the analogically simple.
Thank you, I said to someone many years ago that I thought this should work and they told me I was wrong and didn't understand electrics. As I don't really understand electrics I thought they might be right.
Wow - this is so good that it is so simple. What is more important (and could make this a lucrative money making venture) is to how to put this to a practical and needed purpose. Just thinking back to the early appearance of drone technology to where it is now. Perhaps splitting off the generated power to positioning mounted solar panels to get optimum energy throughout daylight days - maybe. All massive scale projects started in the micro. We all need to work on the 'Lowest Common Denominator'.
I miss making BEAM bots. Back in the late 2000s and early 2010s we would make neat little analogue we would turn junk into robots inspired by animals and bugs and stuff. One thing that was like this was solar plant bots that would track light sources and maybe have some blinking LEDs or something. I personally liked making solar walkers out of tiny motors with paper clips for legs.
love to see engineering solutions to help the blind community.
amazing solution, many tried to tackle this problem by building circular solar panels or solar panels that use light resistors... and then there's you who solved this issue with a single 10rpm electric motor.
And it will destroy your panels through reverse voltage and shorting
@@Ed19601 Yeah but a diode would fix that
"Just find another motor". Sure, bub! They grow on my lawn like mushrooms.
You have a 3D printer right there!
There was nothing interesting to watch but when i seen this thumbnail i knew it got to be simple and genius and i had to know how it works
the elegance of simplicity
this is dependant on how clean and how well the solar panels work though, which isn't permanent but it's still quite cool.
Ok, so this could be used as the guidance for a larger panel perhaps built around this. My only constructive feedback is the panels are not directly facing the sun which might lower their efficiency. I was thinking of this as a central piece to a larger array which is fully facing the sun so you get full efficiency. Think of this as the center of a sunflower with the radiating panel acting like the petals, as sunflowers follow the sun just like this. What I love about this idea is the low tech non software cheap and cheerful design. This would benefit third world applications. Well done. I've been visualising a non software way of doing this for a long time and you cracked it!
Awesome job on this! Very cool!