First Look!!
Hello, till date I have posted number of articles in my blog, but none on my core interest of Arduino microcontroller. This is because I’m still learning it and lots remain to be learnt. Nevertheless here is one of my very simple projects on Arduino microcontroller. I’m sure this post will be a boon for all those newbie on Arduino and equally stupid for the microcontroller experienced guys. For any questions or comments you can mail me at rishiraj.in@gmail.com or Facebook me! (Link at right side of this page)Oh, forgot to mention, this project won a small prize at a small project competition in my state
Solar Tracker Based Solar Panel using Arduino
In this post I present you a prototype of a solar tracker
based solar panel. The solar panel changes its orientation according to the
direction of the Sun.
Final Prototype of the Solar Tracker based Solar Panel Notice how the 3 sensors are kept at the Sensor Board |
How it happens?
Basically there are sensors mounted. This sensor when
illuminated by the sun rays gets activated and sends a signal to the
Microcontroller. The microcontroller in return instructs the motor to move by
the specified speed and direction.
There are three sensors fixed in such a way that each sensor
gets activated at 3 instants of the entire day, i.e. Morning, Noon, and
Afternoon. As the sun raises the first sensors gets activated due to ray of sun
falling on it. As a result the Solar Panel orients itself to receive the early
morning sunrays. Similarly the Solar panel orients itself when it is noon and
afternoon to receive the sun rays efficiently and thereby increase the efficiency
of the solar cell.
This dynamic Solar Panel has a greater efficiency since it
can illuminate its solar cell even at the morning and afternoon time of the
day.
Since it is just a prototype hence I have used torch light to
depict sunlight. I made sure that the torch light illuminates only one sensor
(LDR) at a time, i.e. one sensor for Morning, one for noon and one for
afternoon.
Technical Aspect (Not really)
The Motor and the Sensor (LDR) is controlled by Arduino
Microcontroller. The sensor has a predefined threshold value which is crossed
when it is illuminated. Once the threshold value is crossed the Arduino sends
an instruction to the motor to move.
To make sure that the current demand of the motor is met
without affecting the microcontroller, the Motor is connected to a Motor driver
(IC L293D) circuit which in turn is connected to the microcontroller.
To control the speed of the motor, PWM technique is used.
The Circuit
The image below shows the circuit, though it looks messy but
trust me, it’s very simple.
Blue Wire: Connected from digital Pin 10 and 11 of Arduino to
Pin 2 and Pin 6 of L293D Motor driver IC.
Green Wire: the 5V power supply from Arduino to Pin 1 and Pin
16 of IC L293D and also to all the LDRs as shown in figure.
Orange Wire: From Pin 3 and Pin 7 of IC to the DC Motor.
Red Wire: 9V external DC supply. This supply depends on the
rating of the DC motor used. In my case I had a 9V DC motor hence 9V supply.
Black Wire: Common ground of the entire circuit. Pin 4, Pin
5, Pin 12, Pin 13, and Arduino ground Pin, 9V battery ground.
Resistor: I just used 100 Ohm resistor and this was chosen
randomly. You can use any low resistance.
The Arduino Sketch (Code. . .)
Download It ! ! !
You may have to change some part of the Code depending on the intensity of the light where you keep the prototype and the intensity of the torch light used. I guess you'll do it easily, in case of any error or problem write to me.
You may have to change some part of the Code depending on the intensity of the light where you keep the prototype and the intensity of the torch light used. I guess you'll do it easily, in case of any error or problem write to me.
Hey very nice blog!
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good projet
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thanks
Hello Rishi,
ReplyDeleteI have used this project as a basis for a college project I am doing trying to demonstrate a solar follower. after building this project with a few different components I use Linker modules for sensors and for my program I use for loops as counter and an else statement to stop and restart the program.
the only thing I notice is that I had to create and enable the pin1 of the L293D to start with and I could not get my motor to reverse direction after each delay period of sensor reading. I would like to share my project with you so you can comment and give some advice if possible.
Hi Rishi
ReplyDeletePlease I need use two motors with bridge H, could you please with code arduino.... thanks in advance
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