redrok tracker

[Rabrsniver]

Well,

Its a good thing I'm not paying someone to get this thing working right! I spend hours each day fiddling with it.

I hate to jinx it, but I think maybe I FINALLY got it going.

The problem I was having was that in the morning it would get way ahead of the sun, but in the afternoon it worked OK.

So, out of desperation I put a small piece of cardboard vertically between the 2 LEDs, thinking maybe the west LED was getting too much light in the morning.

Today it did a full sweep with no problem, although right now it seems slower than normal to park, but its not really that dark yet. Even if it takes longer to park, I really don't care, as long as its in the east in the morning.

I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope it does well again tomorrow. If the cardboard works again, I may substitute small pieces of a straw on each LED, or maybe some shrink tubing.

John

[David HK]

John,

Thanks for the latest report.

Don't worry about parking time - all you want is for it to get there. My own  tracking array takes ages to park because the motor is 36 volts DC and the system is 12 volts DC.

The solid piece between the two LED's is worth a try - I have a solid partition between my Cadium Sulphide Sensors (CDS) but its more to do with shadow effect rather than unwanted interference.

Today I purchased all the parts for my own version and will pick up the H bridges on Sunday all being well. My version of the PCB layout will be finally checked tomorrow (Friday) and with PCB Express delivery the boards will be with me within one week.

I hope you don't mind me tagging along with your problems, but they are very useful to read especially the problem solving aspect.

David in HK

[Rabrsniver]

Hi David,

Of course I don't mind you "tagging along with my problem."

That's the whole idea of this board in my opinion. Sharing experiences and helping each other troubleshoot.

This morning it was at full east (park) position, so it was able to do that correctly overnight.

The tracker did a full east to west sweep today with no problems. I haven't tried the straw or shrink tubing idea on the LEDs yet. I'm almost afraid to tamper with success, since it took me so long to get things to this point! (But I probably will, just to satisfy my curiosity)

John

[Rabrsniver]

I couldn't resist, so I went ahead and tried my "straw" trick, replacing my piece of cardboard between the LEDs.

Unfortunately,  the straws I had were too small to fit over the LEDs, but I did have some shrink wrap tubing that was just about right.

I put a piece over each LED that just left the tip exposed. I didn't shrink it - it just slides on and stays by gravity.

It seems to work great. Two days now with a full sweep with the sun centered all day. I figure my production is up between 25 - 30% which is fantastic.

I got to thinking that maybe part of my problem was also the fact that the array is down near the water, and it may have bounced some strange reflections to the tracker. Just a guess, but after all the other problems I had, maybe this too was a contributing factor.

At any rate, I think (fingers crossed) that I'm finally finished messing with this.

John