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Not just for Solar Tracker Control - Hack it

A project log for Open Concentrating PV Solar Tracker Controller

Achieve better than 0.1° sun tracking accuracy with a compass a tilt sensor and a shading beam sun sensor.

ruediger-f-loeckenhoffRuediger F. Loeckenhoff 10/08/2022 at 08:380 Comments

We have a new vision! We want this board to become widely available through many shops in Asia and anywhere. It should become the standard solution for solar trackers and we want to build an active community around it. Solar tracking alone won’t do that trick and it doesn’t need to. It’s not just a tracker controller, it’s

A GENERAL ROBOTICS BOARD

It’s an ATMEGA 328pb board with a powerful 24V 8A 3-phase motor controller that can also be used to run two DC motors at different speeds at the same time. The inbuild accelerometer and magnetometer allow for orientation sensing without external sensors. The RS485 communication and the real time clock are ideal for remote automation. There is also a current monitor to detect abnormally high currents. And there is the 4-channel light sensor connected to ground or VDD with pullup/pull-down resistors. Two I2C ports are available externally together with all unused pins of the µC. We are not aware of any other board with such versatile components. And all this will be available

AT A PRICE AS LOW AS $25. NOW IMAGINE WHAT YOU CAN DO WITH THAT!

The board is ideal for building up a community because it will make the replication of your projects so easy. There won’t be any sourcing issues because most things you need are already on the board. Just make the external connections and upload the code. We will love to see what you will come up with. Here are some cool ideas.

NOW THIS IS STILL ALL ABOUT SAVING THE WORLD

But why shouldn’t you have fun in the process.

APPLY FOR IT NOW! 

Explain your idea in the discussions section!

Our sponsor PCB-Way will sponsor this first set and will allow us to give the parts away for $25. So, you can get it now for a price which will only be reached again in mass production! Apply for a piece in the chat and explain your idea. We cannot wait to hear about it! If you want to build a solar tracker – even better. You will just have to wait some extra weeks until I have perfected the code for the new sensor chips. The code and the board drawings will be open source soon. We promise!

Now here is a preview of the board with all features explained.

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