My Homemade Solar Tracker

[Slidegate]

Here are some pics of my home made solar tracker. I still have to mount my 3 cell array to it and get the controller made. But this may give others ideas. I used 2 car window motors and combined the 2 gearboxes. I used an old front auto rotor with the tapered bearings and mounted it to an old chevy small block flywheel. Then I got a starter gear and mounted it to the gear box. I have the gearbox on a pivot so that I can disengage it if neccesary. I used the inner portion of a rim and weled it to my frame. then I got a small tote to cover the gearbox. In the test I took it runs very slow. It takes 20 min to rotate 180 Deg.

[Slidegate]

Homemade Tracker

Here are a few more pics to complete the picture

[Mike90250]

Awesome. Wish I had your skills for the mechanical side of things.

[kyp279]

Here are some pics of my home made solar tracker. I still have to mount my 3 cell array to it and get the controller made. But this may give others ideas. I used 2 car window motors and combined the 2 gearboxes. I used an old front auto rotor with the tapered bearings and mounted it to an old chevy small block flywheel. Then I got a starter gear and mounted it to the gear box. I have the gearbox on a pivot so that I can disengage it if neccesary. I used the inner portion of a rim and weled it to my frame. then I got a small tote to cover the gearbox. In the test I took it runs very slow. It takes 20 min to rotate 180 Deg.

NICE!!!!

[green]

Very cool. I love repurposing items, so this really got my attention. Nicely done.

Green

[c.wisselo]

Charging 3 battery bank

Lovely!

[suncity]

I could not see electronics and actuator to drive the frame. Is this single axis or dual axis drive type ?

[Slidegate]

Tracker axis

This is a single axis drive and I am using a circuit board with a programmable chip with auto return at dark

[inetdog]

You will never get any useful power out of a windmill that close to the ground!

Looks very nice. What angle are you going to tilt the panels to? And will that be adjustable seasonally?

[Slidegate]

I have my panels set at. 41 deg for autumn and winter and change to 30 deg in summer. I use the MTM Scientific tracker circuit set to check for sun location every 5 minutes. If you need more pics let me know

[dealuxe]

Very nice

Here are some pics of my home made solar tracker. I still have to mount my 3 cell array to it and get the controller made. But this may give others ideas. I used 2 car window motors and combined the 2 gearboxes. I used an old front auto rotor with the tapered bearings and mounted it to an old chevy small block flywheel. Then I got a starter gear and mounted it to the gear box. I have the gearbox on a pivot so that I can disengage it if neccesary. I used the inner portion of a rim and weled it to my frame. then I got a small tote to cover the gearbox. In the test I took it runs very slow. It takes 20 min to rotate 180 Deg.

Outstanding job Slidegate. I have been sketching out something similar but hadn't considered a rotor. I may have to go back to the drawing board.

[Slidegate]

Tracker

Outstanding job Slidegate. I have been sketching out something similar but hadn't considered a rotor. I may have to go back to the drawing board.

Need any help I would be glad to help. Mine has been working for 2 years without a problem

[tufail_74]

Can you please share the pics of completed and working system?

regards

[AZFIREBALL]

First post

I am posting this to be able to see the images.

[xboxgt12]

Great.