RedRock Tracker Enclosure

[RCpilot]

Here's a couple pictures of the RedRock LED3X tracker enclosure I built. I never could find one of those cool clear domes like you see on the RedRock site and my baby food jar sucked. It's made from .230" Acrylic Sheet. The five main pieces are glued together with Weld.On Acrylic cement. This type of cement actually melts the acrylic together instead of a surface tension type of bond. The bottom is held on with four machine screws. I tapped the four corners of the main enclosure. I made a rubber gasket from an inner tube and filled it with water for leak testing. The circuit board is mounted with double sided foam tape, (I will see how long that lasts) and the LEDS are in a completely unobstructed view now as the baby food jar had a very distorted bottom.

















The next two pictures are of the Tracker power supply. For now, I got lazy and didn't dig a new conduit to run the tracker from my mains. 22AH Gel battery completely surrounded by 3/4" foam for insulation, 50W solar panel for Charging and a 16amp charge control. I also added switches to the setup to allow manual movement of the tracker for maintenance, cleaning, etc. It's mounted in an outdoor rated old breaker box from the local salvage yard where I get all my goodies for building stuff. I gutted the box and everything fits really nice. Where the breakers would have protruded through the front is now a large hole, I think I will just put a piece of acrylic over it today. From earlier pictures, I have painted everything, got rid of all the hanging wires and added a rubber boot to the actuator. Basically the tracker mount is finished except for labeling the switches which I will do today. Today is (Gasp) tree cutting day to get more sun in the evenings. I am very limited on the hours per day I am currently getting and have about 5 pretty large trees in the woods  that, when cut will really open up the evening sun. That's all for now...

[dinges]

Looks good.

I took a different approach with my Redrok tracker. Apart from some small design changes (manual E/W override switch, user-selectable parking option, user selectable interval/continuous tracking) I've separated the LED module from the rest of the electronics so I could use a commercial IP67 rated case for the actual electronics. (only have a picture of the case as it was under construction):

The LED sensor was mounted in a stainless steel custom made case that was filled with epoxy afterwards:

Just to show another way of doing things apart from the customary 'see through' cases that I normally see used with the RedRok trackers.

Anyway, electronically the RedRok tracker is very easy to build. But to build it in such a way that it is waterproof and will last a long time in the outdoors is the hard part.

Regards,

[Volvo farmer]

Nice job.

Some of those fancy domes are nothing more than a Jif peanut butter jar. I got the last one from my neighbor for free and didn't even have to eat the $4 worth of peanut butter to get the jar.

One thing I like about my mounting is I can tweak it on the bolt pivot to get perfect alignment. Five degrees probably makes no difference whatsoever in my actual power production but I just get a kick out of seeing the thing pointed exactly at the sun.

It was about a twenty minute, zero dollar project to build and mount this thing. It helped that I had already built one and just copied the old design. If the plastic ever rots, I guess I'll have to eat more peanut butter :-)

[Mary B]

A totally sealed container can build up condensation over time. May not be a problem if it is dry there and the temp is fairly constant but in MN any electronics I had mounted at the ham antennas had a weep hole in the bottom to let moisture escape.

[RCpilot]

Everyone, thanks for taking the time to post the pictures of your setups! Your setups look very good too. I love looking at how others do things as It usually gives me Ideas for my own stuff. I wish I could have seen more pictures of setups before taking the route I did. I never thought about using a peanut butter jar or remotely mounting the LEDs. I had considered filling my container with clear epoxy resin for the moisture problem but I guess I will wait and see how bad moisture condenses inside. Volvo, I like the way you mounted it through the one and only hole in the board and are able to "Tweak" the alignment. How do you square your panels to the Sun?  What I have been doing, for now, is simply taking a  tall aerosol paint can and holding it on the glass, watching how the shadow falls. When I get the mount where I can't see a shadow, I guess it's close enough. I am sure there are more Hi-Tech ways of aiming the panels, what do you guys do? I'm worn out, cut very large trees all afternoon and by doing so, have gained almost 2 more hours of evening Sun that hits the panels without shadows. I live next to woods and am surrounded by trees. I would love to live where tree's aren't a problem, some day maybe....

Kelly

[healerenergy]

I found these for those interested in globes for their trackers.

http://www.hollywoodwholesaleelectric.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=RAB-VX
BR100&Category_Code=rabvaporproof

http://www.rabweb.com/product_detail.php?product=GL200

George

[RCpilot]

Thanks for the links George, those are perfect also. I googled one whole evening for something similar and never thought about outdoor light globes. This board is such a great place to learn new ways of "skinning the cat" I am really hooked and look forward to sitting down in the evenings to see what has happened, what cool projects everyone is working on and to simply learn new ways to tap into renewable energy. My goal someday is to be totally energy self sufficient as many of you. Just takes time and money, both which I never seem to have enough of. But as I say sometimes, when I die, I want to be ten dollars in debt.

Kelly

[healerenergy]

kelly

Different people think differently and have different life experiences which are great to share with others.  I am all about taping into energy potential Energy Healing and alternative energy are all a part of that potential.

We have very similar globes at the foundry I work in and another style I have yet to find through searching the web.  The globes I am looking for are larger diameter and thicker without threads so I do not know if they will work for a tracker enclosure.

George