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Hello,

I`m new to arduino, but I`m willing to use it (love open-source). I already used Microship PIC thought. I wanted to know about the feasability of a solar tracker with an arduino.

-What kind of motor can I control with (with which additionnal board?) I`m thinking about a single stepper motor, do I need additional board?

-I`m thinking of putting a form of communication as an "extra", ex. : can I communicate through the USB port inside my program? Is there a library? Or should I better use an ethernet shield? Then would it be easy to get the hour from the internet with this?

-To follow the sun, should I better follow it with some photodiodes, or a GPS+compass, or get hour from internet and calculate with the latitude+longitude?

-Will I have enough I/O for all this, enough "room" for my code... or should I go for something bigger like the arduino mega?

This solar tracker wil be something small, more as a demo project than something big and generating lots of power. I`m quite new to solar things, and don`t know where to start. Any clue appreciated. Thanks!

Hey there!

This certainly sounds possible with an arduino, and I don't even think you would need the mega.  You should be able to control a standard stepper motor with the arduino using only a darlington transistor array.  An entire stepper control board shouldn't be necessary for just one stepper.  Serial communication over USB with the arduino is easy.  In Tutorial 06 for Arduino: Serial Communication and Processing I explained how you can use it to send data from the arduino to a display on your computer.  Using an ethernet shield would work equally well.  The advantage of using an ethernet shield would be that bi-directional communication from the web would be easier.  This can also be achieved using a USB Serial connection and a helper program running on the computer (See a video where I did that here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7vSyxLAtxI). I think the most accurate way to follow the sun would be to use latitude/longitude data plus information from the web.  Photodiodes wouldn't be accurate enough, and GPS modules are expensive and unecessary if you don't plan to move this around too much.

Let me know if that helps, and if you need any further advice.  Good luck!

Thank you for all these good advices! I`ll look at it, and see if I feel confident enough to start it. I`ll look at your suggestions, but this seems to make sense. Thank you!

Thank you for all these good advices! I`ll look at it, and see if I feel confident enough to start it. I`ll look at your suggestions, but this seems to make sense. Thank you!