Automated Solar Panel adjuster
Solar panels are mounted on a large rack. This rack needs to be rotated during the day to follow the sun and thus achieve a maximum charge. Although this could be done with less efficiency with a timer, it is often necessary to get maximum charge. This would also not move the panel if there were no sun as to not waste power. This would be done by using 2 optical sensors. One would detect if it was a sunny day, and the other would detect how much sunlight was hitting the panels. If it was a sunny day and the sunlight hitting the panels had decreased by a certain percentage then the motor attached to the rack would rotate the rack until the sunlight was sufficiently increased. I was going to use a National
Instrument MYRIO with a programmable ZYNQ FPGA as the controller. The motor would need to be isolated from the controller through the use of relay or optical isolator. This was just my idea I am very open to whatever you guys want to do
Parts required:
- NI MYRIO controller with ZYNQ FPGA
- 2 optical sensors
- Actuator motor arm
- Isolator relay
Power interface with solar system for powering the controller