- #1
Brian in Victoria BC
- 14
- 15
- TL;DR Summary
- Airlift pump/waterwheel/capstan drive to replace motors and gearboxes to rotate solar panels. It takes so little energy to rotate a solar panel that a motor is overbuilt and runs too fast to do it optimally.
Electric motors and actuators are commonly used when people do solar tracking. But there are some problems. The sun moves really slowly across the sky so the motors must be massively geared down. Also, wind stress is an issue so the motors have to be built strong. This increases the price of solar tracking and makes it uncompetitive with the cost of adding new solar panels instead.
One of my previous solutions to the problem was to have 2 floats in containers, and to pump water from one to the other raise one float and lower the other, these were connected with string to the solar tracker to rotate it. It worked well but it was bulky.
https://www.physicsforums.com/threa...rial-mount-tracking-for-solar-panels.1062171/
I already use low pressure air in my garden so my next attempt was to be a mini homemade waterwheel attached to a torn apart old oscillating desktop fan. with the plan being to use the worm drive of the fan gearbox to rotate the solar mount. But I thought the plastic worm drive was too weak. (It already was slipping a bit) so I took the gearbox right off altogether and used the bare shaft as a "capstan drive". The waterwheel was driven by an airlift pump that turned on automatically whenever the mount needed to move a bit. It worked!
And it has plenty of torque to easily move the tracker. I think the airlift pump/waterwheel/capstan drive combo might have other applications in control systems too. For instance, it might be able to raise and lower night curtains in small greenhouses in the winter. Maybe open and close vents, etc. too. and if a capstan drive doesn't have the range to do it, and if you want one way power, with no feedback, a worm drive gearbox for an awning might be a possible way to attach things instead of or with, the capstan drive.
I have done several videos, but nobody watches them, this one is a short, so it only takes a minute to watch.
One of my previous solutions to the problem was to have 2 floats in containers, and to pump water from one to the other raise one float and lower the other, these were connected with string to the solar tracker to rotate it. It worked well but it was bulky.
https://www.physicsforums.com/threa...rial-mount-tracking-for-solar-panels.1062171/
I already use low pressure air in my garden so my next attempt was to be a mini homemade waterwheel attached to a torn apart old oscillating desktop fan. with the plan being to use the worm drive of the fan gearbox to rotate the solar mount. But I thought the plastic worm drive was too weak. (It already was slipping a bit) so I took the gearbox right off altogether and used the bare shaft as a "capstan drive". The waterwheel was driven by an airlift pump that turned on automatically whenever the mount needed to move a bit. It worked!
And it has plenty of torque to easily move the tracker. I think the airlift pump/waterwheel/capstan drive combo might have other applications in control systems too. For instance, it might be able to raise and lower night curtains in small greenhouses in the winter. Maybe open and close vents, etc. too. and if a capstan drive doesn't have the range to do it, and if you want one way power, with no feedback, a worm drive gearbox for an awning might be a possible way to attach things instead of or with, the capstan drive.
I have done several videos, but nobody watches them, this one is a short, so it only takes a minute to watch.
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