Difference between revisions of "Sun Tracker or Irrigation Timer to drive motors"

From OpenCircuits
Jump to navigation Jump to search
m
m (explaining the R4 seemingly unnecessary part.)
 
(16 intermediate revisions by the same user not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
 +
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.  
  
I changed the front end logic to 4060 and 4011 ICs here, for fun. 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).
+
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: 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.]
 +
Zener D3 went open circuit, malfunctioned and raised all the
 +
voltages from 5v to 15v. So I am going to replace that with
 +
a 270 ohm resistor. I guess my zener could not handle 30mA.
 +
I pulled a random one out of an old VCR.
 +
 
 +
[[File:Irrigation_Timer_Sun_Tracker_photo_of.png]]
  
 +
This needs upgrading but I get an error trying to replace the file:
 
[[File:Irrigation_Timer_Sun_Tracker_motor_driver.sch]]
 
[[File:Irrigation_Timer_Sun_Tracker_motor_driver.sch]]
  
Line 9: Line 21:
 
[[File:Irrigation_Timer_Sun_Tracker_motor_driver.png]]
 
[[File:Irrigation_Timer_Sun_Tracker_motor_driver.png]]
  
I made a simple trickle charger and voltage-reduction circuit
+
[[File:solarTrackerBoard.png]]
 +
 
 +
I also made a simple trickle charger (below) and voltage-reduction circuit
 
to power my motors and above circuit directly from the solar panels
 
to power my motors and above circuit directly from the solar panels
 
instead of plugging them into a wall outlet DC power supply. I am using an
 
instead of plugging them into a wall outlet DC power supply. I am using an
Line 18: Line 32:
 
[[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.

Latest revision as of 05:33, 1 January 2022

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.

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: 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.] Zener D3 went open circuit, malfunctioned and raised all the voltages from 5v to 15v. So I am going to replace that with a 270 ohm resistor. I guess my zener could not handle 30mA. I pulled a random one out of an old VCR.

Irrigation Timer Sun Tracker photo of.png

This needs upgrading but I get an error trying to replace the file: File:Irrigation Timer Sun Tracker motor driver.sch

File:Irrigation Timer Sun Tracker motor driver.kicad pcb

Irrigation Timer Sun Tracker motor driver.png

SolarTrackerBoard.png

I also made a simple trickle charger (below) and voltage-reduction circuit to power my motors and above circuit directly from the solar panels instead of plugging them into a wall outlet DC power supply. I am using an almost dead car battery.

DC Solar to 15vdc+trickle charge.png

File:DC Solar to 15vdc+trickle charge.kicad pcb 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.