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

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(Created page with "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 3X schematic. I bought his. I recommend...")
 
(Mentioning my 5v zener broke, replaced with a resistor.)
(26 intermediate revisions by the same user not shown)
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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 3X schematic. I bought his. I recommend it.
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ALL MY PROJECTS ARE HERE: http://www.opencircuits.com/User:Definitionofis
  
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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 few hours or days (just omit the sun sensor and select appropriate timing pins and much lower oscillation frequency for the 4060).
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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).
 +
[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,
 +
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.]
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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.
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I pulled a random one out of an old VCR.
 +
 
 +
[[File:Irrigation_Timer_Sun_Tracker_photo_of.png]]
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 +
This needs upgrading but I get an error trying to replace the file:
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[[File:Irrigation_Timer_Sun_Tracker_motor_driver.sch]]
 +
 
 +
[[File:Irrigation_Timer_Sun_Tracker_motor_driver.kicad_pcb]]
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 +
[[File:Irrigation_Timer_Sun_Tracker_motor_driver.png]]
 +
 
 +
[[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
 +
instead of plugging them into a wall outlet DC power supply. I am using an
 +
almost dead car battery.
 +
 
 +
[[File:DC_Solar_to_15vdc+trickle_charge.png]]
 +
 
 +
[[File:DC_Solar_to_15vdc+trickle_charge.kicad_pcb]]
 +
[[File:DC_Solar_to_15vdc+trickle_charge.sch]]

Revision as of 15:25, 26 December 2018

ALL MY PROJECTS ARE HERE: http://www.opencircuits.com/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 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. 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

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