Sun Tracker or Irrigation Timer to drive motors - Revision history

Definitionofis: explaining the R4 seemingly unnecessary part.

2022-01-01T13:33:11Z

explaining the R4 seemingly unnecessary part.

Definitionofis: clarify description of irrigation timer modification

2022-01-01T13:21:42Z

clarify description of irrigation timer modification

Definitionofis at 20:10, 14 March 2021

2021-03-14T20:10:59Z

Definitionofis: Mentioning my 5v zener broke, replaced with a resistor.

2018-12-26T22:25:30Z

Mentioning my 5v zener broke, replaced with a resistor.

Definitionofis: .sch will not upload. Complains about MIME name not matching.

2018-12-26T18:19:18Z

.sch will not upload. Complains about MIME name not matching.

Definitionofis at 18:04, 26 December 2018

2018-12-26T18:04:24Z

Definitionofis: added a photo of mine with a new $3.86us ebay H-bridge bolted to it.

2018-12-26T18:02:55Z

added a photo of mine with a new $3.86us ebay H-bridge bolted to it.

Definitionofis at 01:13, 1 September 2017

2017-09-01T01:13:05Z

Definitionofis at 01:12, 1 September 2017

2017-09-01T01:12:10Z

Definitionofis: reliability report

2017-09-01T01:00:34Z

reliability report

← Older revision		Revision as of 13:33, 1 January 2022
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	[[File:DC_Solar_to_15vdc+trickle_charge.kicad_pcb]]		[[File:DC_Solar_to_15vdc+trickle_charge.kicad_pcb]]
	[[File:DC_Solar_to_15vdc+trickle_charge.sch]]		[[File:DC_Solar_to_15vdc+trickle_charge.sch]]
		+
		+	Why is that R4 15 ohm resistor in there? Here I am 5 years later trying to remember why, since it is not necessary, except I remember the current regulator was dropping a small voltage across itself and the final charge on the battery was thus less than 100% capacity; maybe 70%. So the 15 ohm resistor is so huge that for example: 1/2 volt results in a 1/30A trickle to top up the final charge on the battery to something higher by 1/2v than what the current regulator can do because it loses some voltage across itself. If my voltage regulator was 1/2v higher it might have been better for my lead-acid battery and then I could have left out the 15 ohm cheat, for top up trickle charge to a final voltage closer to the voltage regulator output voltage than the current regulator's output voltage.

@@ Line 3: / Line 3: @@
 This is using two LEDs to sense the sun and send +- or -+ logic signals to a full bridge motor driver like L298 or http://www.redrok.com/led3xassm.htm LED3X schematic. I bought his. I recommend it.
-I changed the front end logic to 4060 and 4011 ICs here, because I want to put the sun sensor separate from the controller board so it does not weather and die again, after 8 years of use. The circuit turns on a motor for 3 seconds once every 47 seconds to move the solar panels. You could use this circuit to turn on an irrigation motor for a very short time every several hours (just omit the sun sensor and select appropriate timing pins and much lower oscillation frequency for the 4060, since 3 seconds every 47 seconds is not long enough for irrigation).
+I changed the front end logic to 4060 and 4011 ICs here, because I want to put the sun sensor separate from the controller board so it does not weather and die again, after 8 years of use. The circuit turns on a motor for 3 seconds once every 47 seconds to move the solar panels. You could use this circuit to turn on an irrigation motor for a very short time every several hours (just cut the sun sensor output, resulting in the motor driver never reversing polarity, and select different timing pins of the 4060IC, since 3 seconds ON, every 47 seconds is not long enough for irrigation, which should be more like 15 minutes ON, every 48 hours).
-[Update: Aug 31, 2017. This has been in use for a year and it is reliable. I had another car battery go weak after five years, so I returned the ten year-old battery and kept the "new" dead car battery. It parks the solar rotator back to sunrise position reliably every night. Dec 2018: I plugged in the wall adaptor because the battery died, but the solar is providing current during daylight and the wall adaptor, which is buck-controller,
+[Update: Jan 1, 2022. This board has been in use for 5 years and it is reliable. I had another car battery go weak after five years, so I returned the ten year-old battery and kept the "new" dead car battery. It parks the solar rotator back to sunrise position reliably every night. Dec 2018: I plugged in the wall adaptor because the battery died, but the solar is providing current during daylight and the wall adaptor, which is buck-controller,
 and not a transformer, typical of these modern day adaptors
 so it doesn't seem to care as long as it's voltage is the same.]

← Older revision		Revision as of 20:10, 14 March 2021
Line 1:		Line 1:
−	ALL MY PROJECTS ARE HERE: ~~http~~://~~www.~~opencircuits.com/User:Definitionofis	+	ALL MY PROJECTS ARE HERE: https://opencircuits.com/index.php?title=User:Definitionofis

	This is using two LEDs to sense the sun and send +- or -+ logic signals to a full bridge motor driver like L298 or http://www.redrok.com/led3xassm.htm LED3X schematic. I bought his. I recommend it.		This is using two LEDs to sense the sun and send +- or -+ logic signals to a full bridge motor driver like L298 or http://www.redrok.com/led3xassm.htm LED3X schematic. I bought his. I recommend it.

@@ Line 7: / Line 7: @@
 and not a transformer, typical of these modern day adaptors
 so it doesn't seem to care as long as it's voltage is the same.]
 [[File:Irrigation_Timer_Sun_Tracker_photo_of.png]]

@@ Line 4: / Line 4: @@
 I changed the front end logic to 4060 and 4011 ICs here, because I want to put the sun sensor separate from the controller board so it does not weather and die again, after 8 years of use. The circuit turns on a motor for 3 seconds once every 47 seconds to move the solar panels. You could use this circuit to turn on an irrigation motor for a very short time every several hours (just omit the sun sensor and select appropriate timing pins and much lower oscillation frequency for the 4060, since 3 seconds every 47 seconds is not long enough for irrigation).
-[Update: Aug 31, 2017. This has been in use for a year and it is reliable. I had another car battery go weak after five years, so I returned the ten year-old battery and kept the "new" dead car battery. It parks the solar rotator back to sunrise position reliably every night. I do not use wall adapter power for a year now. In this era, a microcontroller could be used instead of two ICs, but then you have to program the microcontroller (and commercially product test for radio wave output for a commercial product; somebody told me so).]
+[Update: Aug 31, 2017. This has been in use for a year and it is reliable. I had another car battery go weak after five years, so I returned the ten year-old battery and kept the "new" dead car battery. It parks the solar rotator back to sunrise position reliably every night. Dec 2018: I plugged in the wall adaptor because the battery died, but the solar is providing current during daylight and the wall adaptor, which is buck-controller,
 [[File:Irrigation_Timer_Sun_Tracker_photo_of.png]]
 [[File:Irrigation_Timer_Sun_Tracker_motor_driver.sch]]

← Older revision		Revision as of 01:00, 1 September 2017
Line 4:		Line 4:

	I changed the front end logic to 4060 and 4011 ICs here, because I want to put the sun sensor separate from the controller board so it does not weather and die again, after 8 years of use. The circuit turns on a motor for 3 seconds once every 47 seconds to move the solar panels. You could use this circuit to turn on an irrigation motor for a very short time every several hours (just omit the sun sensor and select appropriate timing pins and much lower oscillation frequency for the 4060, since 3 seconds every 47 seconds is not long enough for irrigation).		I changed the front end logic to 4060 and 4011 ICs here, because I want to put the sun sensor separate from the controller board so it does not weather and die again, after 8 years of use. The circuit turns on a motor for 3 seconds once every 47 seconds to move the solar panels. You could use this circuit to turn on an irrigation motor for a very short time every several hours (just omit the sun sensor and select appropriate timing pins and much lower oscillation frequency for the 4060, since 3 seconds every 47 seconds is not long enough for irrigation).
		+	[Update: Aug 31, 2017. This has been in use for a year and it is reliable. I had another car battery go weak after five years, so I returned the ten year-old battery and kept the "new" dead car battery. It parks the solar rotator back to sunrise position reliably every night. I do not use wall adapter power for a year now.]

	[[File:Irrigation_Timer_Sun_Tracker_motor_driver.sch]]		[[File:Irrigation_Timer_Sun_Tracker_motor_driver.sch]]