I've decided to revisit this project, likely after completing my current one. There have been many great suggestions in the comments, and I plan to incorporate several of them. Here's what I've gathered so far: *Larger panels *Replacing relay with solid-state switching *Tilting panels like a joystick to eliminate the need for a slip ring *Measuring motor current to detect end stops, eliminating microswitches. *Using smaller wires for signals Plans include creating a proper housing for electronics. I will share the improved project files once it's complete, offering a better starting point for anyone interested :)
BRUV I'm super green inspired. I would love to build this with AI vision, my only obstacle is the hardware parts. Is there a class/course/literature you can recommend getting started on the servo motors/ raspberry pi creation? Glad we can have people to show us what can be done
Bro can you give all details regarding this project I wana make this can you give me the details please like circuit for aurdino and 3d middle and wring please
I sincerely hope the algorithm is kind to you and this video gains traction - the idea and creation of the panel system as well as the production quality is fantastic!
Beautiful project. Just call it art if you don't think it fulfills the requirements! I'm sure many people would love one on their windowsill just to see it open in the morning and follow the sun all day.
I appreciate you saying this isn’t a climate solution right at the top of the video. It makes it easier to enjoy this as a little bit of an escapist break.
Very nice project! As an electronics engineer I am jealous of your mechanical design. Only think I would suggest is using thinner wires for your digital signals. I for example use wires from CAT6 cables and they would be much thinner than yours. Thanks for the video!
Instead of the pdr for light sensing, by angling the panels in by 5 degrees, you can use the power difference on the panels as a way of pointing to most powerful source of energy
Designing and building things like this by yourself is one of the best feelings in the world. I've done a bunch of smaller projects combining 3d printing, laser cutting, electronics and software and it's just so much fun. Very inspiring video, thank you for taking your time to make it!
If you do end up going with a slip ring again it is fairly easy to manufacture one, especially since you have a 3D printer. All you need is rings of metal to solder to your wires (The size just has to be close to the size of your wire.) Then you attach small metal wipes (Thin metal strips or even ends of wire that are flattened and are solid or have been tinned) The wipes work the best when they are rounded so they don't try to go anywhere when you go the other direction. Add a spring to make sure the wipes have good contact with the rings. And attach both sides to independent casings with a center attachment point. metal or plastic rods work for this. Just make sure that the stress of turning gets put on the slip ring and not the wires coming out. This way you can have a slip ring with as many or few connections as you need and size is dictated by how many wires and their sizes. Last bit, if you add multiple wipes per ring that are equally spaced it will reduce the resistance variation over the rotation.
I think this has great potential for scalability, and I love the fact that you designed your own little mechanical piece with the bolt and screw to help raise and lower the device. I would love to have something like this for being able to charge small devices outdoors.
Nice project! I made a real scale one with 2 axes of movement. The sun reading is also done with LDRs but with different angles and shadow projection, I really liked yours! Congratulations!
This is super cool. it feels like the sort of thing i would come up with in my head and could never find the exact thing to make it work.. and yet you did it.
Glad to see im not the only one attemting to build a small solar generator like this. I've been building a little more practical version than youre's for the past year
Great idea! But a "small" improvement could be to not rotate the solar array and base, but to tilt the solar array in two directions similar to a joystick(X,Y) to track the sun. That way you don't neet the slipring and you don't have the problem of to many wires going up since they are only going to bend and not twist. Edit: it also makes the project more scaleable
VERY COOL project!!! It gives me verification that I needed for my project for a solar follwer needed to maximize solar panel output without any need tfor manual interference! Great Build!
A single Sunpower Maxeon C60 5x5" cell is 3.6 watts and can be split into 3 and connected in series to minimize the cutting loss while tripling the voltage (3x0.6v at peak power output) for a bit easier conversion. The cell is also copper backed with no front contacts adding to the active area and allowing it to be much more rugged than normal solar cells. I've successfully ran these cells through a desktop laminator for waterproofing. A booster at 80% eff can then deliver around 2.88w from it. Two such cells can do a full 5w charging. If two cells are split you get 3.6v at peak power output from a 6s configuration. The hard part is the 1.9 amps current output which is double what the cheaper micro boosters can handle. High current, low voltage is not ideal for a boosting charge controller either. It is however the most efficient you can get in terms of power per area and these cells are very popular in folding camping chargers as the angle of incidence is not important with them. The cells are antireflective and very good at collecting light at less than perfect angles.
This is super nice. I built something similar back in the day, but minus the solar panels and foldability. I like your innovative way of thinking and your abillity to take off-the-shelf components and make it into something quite functional. This is definitely scalable and I can already think of many uses. So don't leave it here! If you find the right people who know how to design and manufacture larger scale products, you could have the next great idea in your palm.
Brilliant Design! I didn't realize this was a small channel until I checked the Description, I hope you get tons of subscribers! I always enjoy watching fellow tinkerers smarter than me design their own projects!
Would love to see a video where you compare the power usage of the controller and motors to the gain in power generation that they provide. When space is at a premium, solar tracking makes more and more sense
The base I'm on had these sun tracking panels. They doubled as shaded parking and was a grand idea. Unfortunately the motors siezed up pretty fast due to the salt air and the lack of maintenance with cleaning the panels. It took 4 years just being stupidly expensive car covers for them to finally remove them. I work on maintaining the electrical infrastructure on the naval bases and solar is definetly desirable but the lack of training to maintain and work on them is the bottleneck in my opinion. Good work on this project and I hope to see a similar version while I'm on base one day!
Impressive! Thanks a lot for sharing the incremental progress and your thought process. Would you consider sharing your design files for others to try to rebuild?
only 3.39K subs? dayum bro you deserve more visibility ! here is one more sub to your channel, thanks for sharing great content, in hope to see the cad files on a patreon or smth someday so you can monetize your efforts ! keep up the good work !
This is a really cool project! Maybe, if you get the stacking of the solar panels a bit more compact, you coud stack 4 of these current flowers together. If I'm visualizing this correctly, if you do it right, the surface area it takes when retracted wouldn't change much, just the height. If you do that though, you'll have to revise the raising and lowering mechanism completely as this idea would make it A LOT heavier. Also, gotta say, great editing!
![[TH] 2024 PMGC League | Survival Stage วันที่ 1 | PUBG MOBILE Global Championship](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/FVFT-PFwU80/mqdefault.jpg)
I've decided to revisit this project, likely after completing my current one.
There have been many great suggestions in the comments, and I plan to incorporate several of them. Here's what I've gathered so far:
*Larger panels
*Replacing relay with solid-state switching
*Tilting panels like a joystick to eliminate the need for a slip ring
*Measuring motor current to detect end stops, eliminating microswitches.
*Using smaller wires for signals
Plans include creating a proper housing for electronics.
I will share the improved project files once it's complete, offering a better starting point for anyone interested :)
BRUV I'm super green inspired. I would love to build this with AI vision, my only obstacle is the hardware parts. Is there a class/course/literature you can recommend getting started on the servo motors/ raspberry pi creation?
Glad we can have people to show us what can be done
Looking forward to that one.
Bro can you give all details regarding this project I wana make this can you give me the details please like circuit for aurdino and 3d middle and wring please
Yes please I also want to made this project please give the 3d printing information and circuit diagram
When video will come
I'm glad TH-cam recommended this to me
same as he gained a new sub here
@@OMGitzEDD me too 0:19
Same
same
me too
I sincerely hope the algorithm is kind to you and this video gains traction - the idea and creation of the panel system as well as the production quality is fantastic!
Beautiful project. Just call it art if you don't think it fulfills the requirements!
I'm sure many people would love one on their windowsill just to see it open in the morning and follow the sun all day.
U r not just an engineer, u r an austrian painter
I can't believe you didn't include a time-lapse of it actually working and tracking the sun!
Love the design with more cables and less pcbs. allways reminds me of the old guidance computers you see in cold war era missiles
I appreciate you saying this isn’t a climate solution right at the top of the video. It makes it easier to enjoy this as a little bit of an escapist break.
Very nice project! As an electronics engineer I am jealous of your mechanical design. Only think I would suggest is using thinner wires for your digital signals. I for example use wires from CAT6 cables and they would be much thinner than yours. Thanks for the video!
Thank you for the tip! Bought some 28 AWG solid core wire for the next project 😊
Instead of the pdr for light sensing, by angling the panels in by 5 degrees, you can use the power difference on the panels as a way of pointing to most powerful source of energy
But doesn't the sun have the same angle towards all panels?
@@gadze3000 Having a small tilt per panel (1 degree) would make the trick.
This and folding origami style sails/panels, is just one of the many things I find interesting in mechanical and electrical engineering.
This is exactly what I want to do: constructing and developing new things. Thank you for the video
Keep at it because we need people like you! 😊
algorithm gods need to blow your channel up, this video is stunning !!
Bro you just gave us a glimps of how foldable solar pannels work in space stations. Great job keep going 👍
Very cool usage of the OLED screen. I like that you can see what the metrics are without having to connect an external device.
Very nice design! I loved the iterative work that you did and took the time to share. Thanks for sharing!
What a great project to start tackling the subject and learn a bunch of engineering fields - mechanics, electronics, programming
that solar panel looks german
💀
r/accidentalswastika
That's just 45° titled version of Hindu Good Luck symbol. 😂
ERRRRRIKKAAAA
bomp bomp bomp bomp
Accidentally he shouts "Power!" as the panels expand to a known symbol. Okke.
Designing and building things like this by yourself is one of the best feelings in the world. I've done a bunch of smaller projects combining 3d printing, laser cutting, electronics and software and it's just so much fun. Very inspiring video, thank you for taking your time to make it!
First video I have seen and really cool to see the iteration of the design and concept. Look forward to more.
I’ve had this idea recently after using portable folding solar panels with a power station. Cool to see that someone actually did it!
You are a mechanical and technical genius!
If you do end up going with a slip ring again it is fairly easy to manufacture one, especially since you have a 3D printer.
All you need is rings of metal to solder to your wires (The size just has to be close to the size of your wire.)
Then you attach small metal wipes (Thin metal strips or even ends of wire that are flattened and are solid or have been tinned) The wipes work the best when they are rounded so they don't try to go anywhere when you go the other direction.
Add a spring to make sure the wipes have good contact with the rings.
And attach both sides to independent casings with a center attachment point. metal or plastic rods work for this. Just make sure that the stress of turning gets put on the slip ring and not the wires coming out.
This way you can have a slip ring with as many or few connections as you need and size is dictated by how many wires and their sizes.
Last bit, if you add multiple wipes per ring that are equally spaced it will reduce the resistance variation over the rotation.
great stuff dude, keep going. great design. May the youtube gods bless you
Love the cloverleaf design
Awesome video & project, keep it up!
I think this has great potential for scalability, and I love the fact that you designed your own little mechanical piece with the bolt and screw to help raise and lower the device. I would love to have something like this for being able to charge small devices outdoors.
a larger version of this for boats and cars and camping would be great
Nice project! I made a real scale one with 2 axes of movement. The sun reading is also done with LDRs but with different angles and shadow projection, I really liked yours! Congratulations!
Now this is what engineering is all about. 👍
Great work.
This is fantastic! Amazing quality, earned a new sub
This is super cool. it feels like the sort of thing i would come up with in my head and could never find the exact thing to make it work.. and yet you did it.
A great project! I especially liked how you showed the iterations required to get it functioning as you wanted. Thanks!
Wow, fantastic design and engineering! Excellent video as well. Keep these coming, I'm subscribed!
Bruh i swear continue uploading you'll be one of big youtubers
Great project. I just can't unsee the windmill of friendship.
Glad to see im not the only one attemting to build a small solar generator like this. I've been building a little more practical version than youre's for the past year
Great idea!
But a "small" improvement could be to not rotate the solar array and base, but to tilt the solar array in two directions similar to a joystick(X,Y) to track the sun. That way you don't neet the slipring and you don't have the problem of to many wires going up since they are only going to bend and not twist.
Edit: it also makes the project more scaleable
Great video! You share your success and failure, failed prints iteration and the true workflow ^^
Super interesting robotics project with a happy ending. Thanks for sharing.
VERY COOL project!!! It gives me verification that I needed for my project for a solar follwer needed to maximize solar panel output without any need tfor manual interference! Great Build!
Great video to teach junior engineers in looking for problems
A single Sunpower Maxeon C60 5x5" cell is 3.6 watts and can be split into 3 and connected in series to minimize the cutting loss while tripling the voltage (3x0.6v at peak power output) for a bit easier conversion.
The cell is also copper backed with no front contacts adding to the active area and allowing it to be much more rugged than normal solar cells. I've successfully ran these cells through a desktop laminator for waterproofing. A booster at 80% eff can then deliver around 2.88w from it. Two such cells can do a full 5w charging. If two cells are split you get 3.6v at peak power output from a 6s configuration. The hard part is the 1.9 amps current output which is double what the cheaper micro boosters can handle. High current, low voltage is not ideal for a boosting charge controller either. It is however the most efficient you can get in terms of power per area and these cells are very popular in folding camping chargers as the angle of incidence is not important with them. The cells are antireflective and very good at collecting light at less than perfect angles.
Great design. Actually we are talkin about the idea a year ago and then put it aside... Nice to see someone actually make one!
We are thinking of doing this kind of project with my friends. Thank youuu
This is super nice. I built something similar back in the day, but minus the solar panels and foldability. I like your innovative way of thinking and your abillity to take off-the-shelf components and make it into something quite functional. This is definitely scalable and I can already think of many uses. So don't leave it here! If you find the right people who know how to design and manufacture larger scale products, you could have the next great idea in your palm.
Absolutely incredible. I’m just getting into robotics and Arduino and seeing cool projects like these is inspirational.
I love the mechanics of this device! It looks so awesome and watching it function is so satisfying!
pls algorithm gods this guy is amazing pls help him grow
this is one of the coolest thing ive seen
incredible video and process. so inspiring! thank you
It is a next level vedio, Great work and effort, may your channel grow big and you earned another sub
Brilliant Design! I didn't realize this was a small channel until I checked the Description, I hope you get tons of subscribers! I always enjoy watching fellow tinkerers smarter than me design their own projects!
The overall design was quite impressive man
Great project! I really like the step by step video concept. You've got a new subscriber and I wish you many more.
Absolutely Amazeballs!!! What a great video and a great build!!
Well done, the world needs brilliant people like you!
I literally was working on a electronic sunflower. Great job
Woow! Such a cool project!
"I think it is possible to determine the elevation angle using GPS location and time." GOOD JOB!
You got in the algorithm and deservedly so, congrats, got this recommended just as I opened and the video and of course the project itself are so cool
I really wanna see a future where we can affordably make this proof of concept in a much larger scale 🎉❤
Very fun to see proof of concept and prototyping
Make this man a multi million sub youtuber NOW!
This was a great build. super job.
seen less than a minute and i immediately want to build that mechaical device 😍
i can’t get enough of your content, always clicking the like!
Great invention and great ideas. I'm proud of you.
Would love to see a video where you compare the power usage of the controller and motors to the gain in power generation that they provide. When space is at a premium, solar tracking makes more and more sense
Keep them coming .good content
Maybe we can buy this Solar charger soon. I will buy instantly 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼
Quite good approach ❤
Very, very nice! You are obviously very skilled in industrial design and I am happy to see that :-). You have a great day and thank you for sharing.
I enjoyed each moment watching this video, you are really amazing man! keep going!
That was so fkn cool xD I was nerding out over here!
Großartiges Konzept!
0:27 such a beautiful view
The base I'm on had these sun tracking panels. They doubled as shaded parking and was a grand idea. Unfortunately the motors siezed up pretty fast due to the salt air and the lack of maintenance with cleaning the panels. It took 4 years just being stupidly expensive car covers for them to finally remove them. I work on maintaining the electrical infrastructure on the naval bases and solar is definetly desirable but the lack of training to maintain and work on them is the bottleneck in my opinion. Good work on this project and I hope to see a similar version while I'm on base one day!
Thanks youtube for recommendation ❤😊
Finally something cool to watch
Wow, what a great little device you created! 🤩 Excellent presentation. Excellent work. Really lovin' it! 🥰
Would love to have a brain capable of making this sort of thing. Brilliant work!
What a lovely prototype!
Amazing job! Great work!
Ah you Superman
Love It
Sincerely
Ejike
This is very impressive.
Real cool looking project
Love when youtube recommends me smaller channels!
Impressive! Thanks a lot for sharing the incremental progress and your thought process.
Would you consider sharing your design files for others to try to rebuild?
Absolutely amazing stuff!
Can't wait to see more of your designs
This is really impressive dude!
This looks like something from a sci-fi game, very cool!
Super cool project! Definitely subscribing to see future stuff. Keep up the great work!
only 3.39K subs? dayum bro you deserve more visibility ! here is one more sub to your channel, thanks for sharing great content, in hope to see the cad files on a patreon or smth someday so you can monetize your efforts ! keep up the good work !
I love this video!!, dude you are amazing...al the work and brains you put in this project!!
Awesome engineering! Very enjoyable to watch
I love videos just like this, 3d printing and engineering ❤
Proof of concept for the power source for an autonomous security drone station.
I honestly hope to see this on top of many homes one day, at a larger scale of course lol
This is seriously neat af!!!!! Amazing content
This is a really cool project! Maybe, if you get the stacking of the solar panels a bit more compact, you coud stack 4 of these current flowers together. If I'm visualizing this correctly, if you do it right, the surface area it takes when retracted wouldn't change much, just the height. If you do that though, you'll have to revise the raising and lowering mechanism completely as this idea would make it A LOT heavier.
Also, gotta say, great editing!