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RE: Project 'GiraSol' - Oliver Schalles

dubbie — Thu, 06 Feb 2020 09:44:21 GMT

An impressive whole system. Well done on persevering with it.

Dubbie

RE: Project 'GiraSol' - Oliver Schalles

oliverschalles — Wed, 05 Feb 2020 16:20:01 GMT

@ 14rhb - Thank you - that project 'hounts me since , now 7 years ? ...
as i started i made the electronics very 'analoge: instrument opamps , comperator, oscillator, pwm , digital logic, fet driver for the motors...
but it was a hell ammout of work ( eagle, designing , lasertransfer for the pcb's, etching drilling etc ...
too much..
so I discoverd that ardruino' thing , some years ago, and learned to program that thingie' , and the project is so far grown as it never was before...

when I do have a working model - I want to go to 'kickstarter - to get that project' crowdfunded ?

greetings from Andalucia !
Oliver

RE: Project 'GiraSol' - Oliver Schalles

14rhb — Wed, 05 Feb 2020 13:05:26 GMT

That is an impressive amount of focussed heat, thanks for the update Oliver. It is great to see a project being continued over such a long period of time, tackling issues along the way...well done.

RE: Project 'GiraSol' - Oliver Schalles

14rhb — Fri, 19 Oct 2018 22:46:46 GMT

Hello Oliver,

Looks like a top-quality repair with the metal plates and epoxy resin.

Rod

RE: Project 'GiraSol' - Oliver Schalles

genebren — Tue, 16 Oct 2018 21:38:41 GMT

Pretty darn cool! I really like the creativity and problem solving you demonstrated in your 'double-spray-on-air-pistol'. That turned out really nice. Well done!

Gene

RE: Solar Bubble Blaster

andycrofts — Tue, 16 Oct 2018 13:38:07 GMT

I'd probably have gone completely bananas, and used a "Joules Thief" to wang up the solar panel a bit ... but then when I did electronics, I was known as "Mr. Overkill"...(as in, why use a simple zener, when a nice, complex10-component FET-based switched-mode converter would suffice?) [View:/resized-image/__size/16x16/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-4d1b394d-ffec-495c-99f9-f1c382a3cc07/contentimage_5F00_3.png:16:16]

RE: Project 'GiraSol' - Oliver Schalles

oliverschalles — Sun, 23 Sep 2018 12:14:36 GMT

Thank you for your comments, mcb1, 14rhb -
yes, I had a looog research time on U'tube', forums et al' - and finally found an old sattelite dish, here in Spain, that they are easy to achieve (used) - and literally in all forms and sizes - forms : central focusing , with a complete round dish, big ones - even up to 2meters in diameter ( for them English guys living here in the region - their satellite is to find right above horizont, and for to receive, to get a proper signal - they need these big dishes...
And the other type, oval - these cut-aside parabol's: so the LMB is not shadowing the reflective area.. - and they are stable, a bit smaller - can withstand a big windload from aside - (sometimeshere the windspeed is pretty fast, so I looked for a stable, robust' construct'. ...
I will write further on on a 'update' on the project, above... that dish Ii work with, now, is a cutaway parabol, oval and its dimensions are 110 cm by 90..

Oliver

above - read further on' [View:/resized-image/__size/16x16/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-6f6eb806-a69b-4dab-b0ab-76adaa46c768/contentimage_5F00_1.png:16:16]

RE: Project 'GiraSol' - Oliver Schalles

mcb1 — Sun, 23 Sep 2018 01:48:17 GMT

It looks like a engineering adventure, and as you've already discovered some strengthening needed in certain areas.

I'm curious, this looks like an old satellite dish, which has been repurposed.?

These are designed to off set the focal point to something much lower down. (you can see with the other one shown in the images)

I presume you'll have your heat collector mounted somehwere near that point.

Have you considered making your own dish?

I heard many years ago the Radio Ham guys made a profile of the curve they wanted.

They had a pile of damp sand and ran the profile around the pile, then fibreglassed the resultant curve, added wire mesh inside the fibreglass (it was for radio).

The necessary mounting was then glassed to that. (I only heard about it and didn't see the final result)

It strikes me that this would allow you to make whatever size and focal point you wanted, which might help with the loading on the bottom screw.

.... and it's relatively cheap to make.

There is also a mirror stick on film the sign writers use. ... just like the coloured films.

I've used it on UV florescent lights as the standard white paint doesn't work.

Mark

RE: Simple Solar BOT ----Finale

three-phase — Thu, 20 Sep 2018 20:54:34 GMT

Well done for completing your project, good luck in the competition.

Kind regards

RE: Solar SPEC - What's Next?

genebren — Sat, 15 Sep 2018 21:41:20 GMT

Cool plans. Is a camera necessary for a sun tracker? You could mount your reference cell to a pan/tilt base and attempt to find the peak. I have seen a lot of trackers built from photo-diodes, again looking for a peak signal.

On the VI curve tracer, on though that I had was to use a li-ion battery charger with programmable charge current setting to act as a variable load. That way you can command the current and measure the voltage.

Good luck and have fun!

Gene

RE: Solar SPEC - Challenge Finale

jw0752 — Fri, 14 Sep 2018 22:56:39 GMT

Hi Ralph,

I enjoyed following your project. You may find that the proper coating on the plastic PLA will block the uV light and extend the life of your printed case. I too hope you will followup so we can see the continuation of your project.

John

RE: Solar SPEC - Challenge Finale

genebren — Fri, 14 Sep 2018 22:41:39 GMT

Well done! This was an interesting project. Hopefully the data will be helpful to you enabling you to get the most out of your solar array. It will be interesting to follow along with your enhancements as you go forward.

Gene

RE: Simple Solar BOT ----Finale

genebren — Fri, 14 Sep 2018 19:36:16 GMT

Good work! You over came more than your share of issues (like lack of sunlight) in order to get this far. Way to persevere.

Good luck!

Gene

RE: Simple Solar BOT ----Finale

DAB — Fri, 14 Sep 2018 19:14:04 GMT

It is a common problem with solar cells that they cannot provide a lot of the instantaneous power needed by motors.

That is why most designs use batteries and use the solar cells to provide recharge current.

The batteries take care of voltage regulation and provide spike current beyond what you can get with standard solar cells.

DAB

RE: Solar SPEC - Completed Assembly

genebren — Fri, 14 Sep 2018 18:38:41 GMT

Looking good! That is a pretty nice case that you created.

Keep up the good work!

Gene