circuit board and sensor assembly of the Chace tracker.

The circuit is not water proof so a protective plastic dome is needed. I have used 2 liter clear plastic soda bottles. They last a long time, at least 5 years for one I have used, probably a lot more. This circuit will fit into the 20 Oz. size. The plastic bottle chosen needs to have a round bottom, the type that comes with the black plastic bottom which is removed. The type with the molded in feet don't work very well as they diffract the light too much. Glass jars are even worse optically if looking through the bottom. Any one out there with a good idea for a better weather dome? In Minnesota I have snow that builds up on the top of the dome. This snow is quite reflective and can confuse the sensors as to the correct direction for the brightest portion of the sky when in the sky is overcast. It's easy to just brush the snow of but this is not always timely. I have experimented with putting black opaque paper inside the dome to eliminate the light from the snow. Another paper light blocker can be put under the sensors to stop the reflected light from the snow on the ground.
dome

Dome on Chace tacker This weather dome is made from a 2 liter pop bottle.
jiff

I have tried and like using jars

plastic Jiff Peanut butter

Jiff peanut butter jar with only the lid.

Jiff peanut butter jar.

dcb

DCB's implementation of the LED3 tracker with Pyrex Weather Dome.

This dome is made from an unusual deep style Petri dish.

East View

West View

Assembled

Long View

Top View Without Dome

View From Below The Base

doc

Doc's implementation of the LED3 tracker with a Fruit Jar Weather Dome.
Doc emailed this to me: The power produced from the system is run to the main house. In the house, the 120 volt service is connected to its own fuse box to run all of my 120 volt stuff. The LED3 increased the output of the 4 panel array by 50%, as compared to the output of an identical 4 panel array mounted on the roof. During mid-day, the power output of my system bulk charges the batteries and the C40 disconnects the solar panels to keep from over-charging the batteries. This never occurred before I installed the LED3. This is great!!

PV Panel

LED3 in Fruit Jar

PV Panel

Power Controller

Panel with LED3

danbennet

Back of Mount

Battery Pack

Dan Bennet's Dish.

12 foot parabolic dish with 10,300 1" pieces of mirrors on it. It weighs around 1,200 lbs with the boiler .

LED3 in Fruit Jar

wolfendale

Martin Wolfendale's implementation of the LED3 tracker with a machined plastic Weather Dome.
Martins PV panel mount is homemade and looks very nice. He is in Austrailia so things might seem a bit reversed to us northerners.

Overall View

Closer

Mount and Connections

Wearher Dome in Upper Corner Closeup of Weather Dome LED3

gary

Gary <gposavad@home.com > has suggested making the dome from Lexan. He wrote: It's fairly easy to make a perfect dome out of Lexan. Make a 2 piece mould out of whatever you can find that's the right size. Heat up a piece of Lexan in your oven at about 200F for about 5 min. Put it on the mould and press and release. Trim off the excess after it cools. If you want really good optics leave room in the mould for a piece of flannel on each side. Scratches are polished out with toothpaste. I Got this from EAA Sport Aviation to make nice wing tip strobe light covers.
mrea2001

Demo of my tracker at the 2001 Midwest Renewable Energy Fair

Look at all the people

Having fun igniting sticks of wood at the prime focus of the dish. That flash of white is smoke after about a second. It also melts holes in aluminum cans in about 1 second.

A small Stirling engine mounted where the electronics used to be on the small PrimeStar dish. Reflective Mylar was glued to the surface.

The north view

View from the SE. This mount is similar to that of a Poulek Traxle. This mount is very sturdy compared to the conventional Daisy mount.

mrea2002

Demo of my trackers at the 2002 Midwest Renewable Energy Fair

led5dlighting

led5spv

Solar trackers Lighting "Receiver Axis" heliostat with dual axis LED5D5V solar tracker.
bisectordrive

Small PV Panel with LED5S5V solar tracker. This one is powered from the PV panel it controls.
led5ddome

Two "Receiver Axis" heliostats

Back of large "Receiver Axis" heliostat.

mrea2003

Dual axis LED5D5V Bisector Drive on large solar tracker on large "Receiver Axis" "Receiver Axis" heliostat. heliostat.

Demo of my trackers at the 2003 Midwest Renewable Energy Fair

mrea2003trackers

mrea2003ledtv1&dome

mrea2003ledtv1b

mrea2003ledtv1c

A bevy of 4 solar trackers and mounts.

Prototype LEDTV1 solar tracker. The weather dome is a Lexan canister I got at Wall-Mart. The tracker is based on a MicroChip PIC12F675 8 pin microprocessor.

Prototype LEDTV1 solar tracker. In this case it drives an Alliance U-100 Tenna Rotor TV antenna rotator. This setup charged 2 junk car batteries to operate both this and the dish trackers.

Prototype LEDTV1 solar tracker. In this case it drives a Cornell Dubillar ham radio antenna rotator. It was great fun cooking mini killbasas on the Primestar dish.

mrea2003smallpv

mrea2003heliostat

Lighting "Receiver Small PV Panel with Axis" heliostat with dual axis LED5D12V LED5S12V solar solar tracker. This tracker. This one is powered from the small heliostat continuously PV panel it tracks and illuminated my Red supplies power to it and Rock sign. the LED5D12V heliostat tracker.

The Red Rock Energy sign. I apologise for not taking the picture earlier because my tent was blocking the light.

ledshex3

LED3 Schematic
ledshex3layout

Layout
ledshex3molex

Molex Connector The tracker consists of pairs of LED photo sensors. Each pair controls the voltage applied to one terminal of the actuator motor.
led3operation

When the easterly pair says go west the minus terminal is grounded. When the westerly pair says go west the positive terminal is connected to plus and we get westerly movement. Or vise versa for easterly movement When they disagree then either both motor terminals are grounded or have plus on them, and we get no movement. There are four operational states for the sensors to be in. Each LED pair tends to move the tracker East or West. An LED pair tends to move to the West or An LED pair tends to move to the East. Each of the LED pairs controls one side of the H-bridge. LED Pair 1-3 LED Pair 2-4 H-bridge Left H-bridge Right Movement
West West East East West East West East Low Low High High High Low High Low Move West Stopped Stopped Move East

Note! Unlike most H-Bridge drivers where both sides are always driving the load this circuit has independent drives for each side. This allows the motor to stop when both sides are high or low. The motor moves when they are different.

In addition, both sides have the top MOSFETs turned off most of the time until the clock enables movement by periodically pulling R9 and R11 low. Q3 and Q4 form a gated level shifter. To see how this driver works think of the bottom end of R9 and R11 being grounded when the top transistor is to be enabled. Also the driver for the left side are inverted from the driver on the right side. This is a method for returning the tracker to the east, for parking, if R2 and R3 are used. This way Q1A will be enabled and Q2B will be on when in the dark.
parking

In cloudy or overcast weather the tracker seeks the brightest part of the sky. At night it moves to the easterly parking position. The parking position puts the panel at a steep angle so night time snow doesn't accumulate as much in the winter. A westerly parking position is obtained by mounting the tracker upside down and reversing the leads to the actuator motor.
led3x

LED3X LED Sensor Electronic Tracker with H-Bridge Drive.

LED3X Solar Tracker The LED3 using surface technics was just to hard to assemble in a timly manor as sales were increasing. I needed a circuit that could be built with mostly through hole components. At the same time, there were other features and enhansments that I thought were needed. This was the impetus for the LED3X series of solar trackers. This circuit uses power MOSFET drivers and is designed to operate satellite dish linear actuators, however most any DC motor can be used. The power drivers are capable of delivering about 50 amps of peak current, maybe more. When better transistors become available this current can be increased. The large power MOSFETS, 72A, when operated at low duty cycle or low currents eliminates the needed for a heat sink on the transistors. Neat huh! The duty cycle is adjustable from 0% to nearly 100%. Idealy tracking from stop to stop should be 10 to 30 minutes. The duty cycle helps to slow down the motor drive speed. Less duty cycle will make the tracking slower but, we don't need speed anyway. Slow tracking speed helps in partly cloudy condition. This prevents the tracker from making unnecessary movements when clouds move by.
led3xshadow

To improve accuracy, ie. with concentrators such as troughs or dishes, a shadow blocker can be placed in front. Similar to the shadow blocker on the Chace Tracker or like this:

OK, this is an example of a dual axis version. The single axis version uses a strip of metal. Cool weather dome!! As I recall the dome is polycarbonate and from the oil or water traps on air lines and regulators. I have used a band of metal about .5" in width at about 2" from the LED3X sensor. If the LED3X is used for E-W tracking the band is oriented N-S. Conversely, if the LED3X is used for N-S tracking the band is oriented E-W. The shadow device is not particularly critical. For instance, I have used black electrical tape on the weather dome and it worked well.
led3xremotesensor

LED3X Remote Sensor

The remote sensor comes can be configured in several flavors. 1. Single axis 2. Dual axis And parking or no-parking on either axes. The PC board is configured in 2 halves. Each half is an individual single axis sensor. For single axis use the board is cut in half or dual axis if left whole. Depending on which components, positions, and jumpers installed all the configurations can be obtained.

led3xremotesensorschematic

Dual Remote Sensor Schematic

led3xs24vspecifications

LED3X Specifications
For a more detailed set of specifications, options, and pictures see the web page devoted to assembling the kit. And a lot more pictures and application information.
Power Supply Voltage 10.5 Volts to an absolute maximum of 44 Volts inclusive. The 10.5V minimum is specified as the under voltage point. Less voltage protects the power mosfet in the H-bridge driver circuitry. The 44 volt maximum is defined by the voltage tolerance of the 51V protection zener. This zener protects the power MOSFETs from seeing damaging breakdown voltages. The 51V zener has an initial tolerance of 5%. So the maximum continuous voltage that can be applied before conduction can occur is 48V or so. Most PV panels don't output more than 44V in open circuit. You should check for sure. If they do go too high in voltage a simple power regulator should be added to limit the maximum voltage. Load Current Continuous 9 Amp resistive. The power MOSFETs are rated at over 70A at 25F. A

conservative derating of 50% is prudent especially in hot weather conditions. Load Current Intermitant 20 Amp intermitant at 1S width once per timing cycle of 60S. The Power MOSFETs have an absolute maximum current rating of 72A, but this is with ideal conditions where the temperature is 25F and very fast gate rise times. The LED3x has a relatively slow gate rise time and may be operated at quite high temperatures due to the weather. I think 20A at about 1S is adequate for normal tracking applications. If higher current motors are required a power amplifier may be needed. See: http://www.redrok.com/electron.htm#power I should note that the satellite dish actuator I use normally consumes about 290mA of current at 13.8VDC. This actuator is capable of driving a 15' dish with 1500lb of force. You don't need a high powered drive, just a slow forceful one. Think slow! Operating Temperature -40F to 185F or -40C to 85C

led3xforsale

LED3XS24Vc3 For Sale

Please go to this page: http://www.redrok.com/led3xassm.htm#led3xforsale

power

Some have expressed an interest in driving high powered loads beyond the capabilities of the H-Bridge driver transistors. To this end I developed several

high powered driver circuits, (actually their almost the same circuit as in the relay trackers).
relaydc1

RelayDC1 Relay circuit that uses DC relays with 12VDC coils. The DC motor in this case is a permanent magnet type that is reversible.
relayac1

RelayAC1 Relay circuit that uses AC relays with 12VDC coils. The AC motor in this case is a capacitor run type.

relayac2

RelayAC2 Relay circuit that uses AC Solid State relays with 3 to 32 VDC control inputs. The AC motor in this case is a capacitor run type.

manualops led3manual led3xmanual

LED3XManual

Some have expressed an interest in adding a switch to manually move the array for test purposes. One of these circuits, when added between the tracker and actuator, will allow manual movement. The first circuit has a fast and slow position. The second circuit is slow only but simpler. The first circuit is the nicest.

Since I do the assembling variations can be easily made for such things as a change in the timing of the oscillator for other duty cycles or to disable the parking feature. I am currently selling the assembled units without the parking feature.
assemblyled3x

Assembly & Opperating Instructions for the LED3X series. Plus a lot of pictures and examples.
led3xenergy

The circuit draws about 15mA when idling. It can operate at temperatures to 40F or up to 158F. Its designed to operate from a 12V or 24V lead acid power source. I generally recommend using a 36V actuator on 12V. The daily energy consumed is quite small. My actuator draws about 290mA and can go from stop to stop and back in about 5 minutes. So: ((.015A * 24hr/day) + (.290A * 5min/day / 60min/hr)) * 13.8V = 5.3Whr/day Or about 5Whr/day, which is pretty small.
trickle

A very small 5W or even a 2W PV panel and small wet cell lead acid battery is a good combination for the power source to run the system. Wet cell manufacturers say you can "trickle charge" them continuously at 1% to 2% of the amp hour capacity. A trickle charger has no voltage regulation. A 12V 5W panel can deliver about 400mA of current. So the smallest lead acid battery can be about 20Ahr of capacity. A 12V 2W panel can deliver about 170mA of current. So the smallest lead acid battery can be about 8Ahr of capacity. Periodically these batteries need to be watered with distilled water. Note! I used to say it was OK to use gel cell lead acid batteries. This was a mistake on my part. Trickle charging by definition is over charging and gel cells are damaged when over charged wet cells are not.

While trickle chargers are simple it is often better to use a small solar charge controller such as the Morningstar SunGuard SG-4 or others. Make sure you select one that has Temperature compensation. This solution will greatly reduce the watering requirements of wet cell batteries or use of gel cells. I intend that this circuit will supplant the Chace tracker as its simpler to build and adjust. For two axis tracking two circuits are needed. However, for PV panels the second axis only adds about 5% on the average and may not warrant the added expense.
economics

Many have said that it makes no sense to use a solar tracker with PV systems as it is cheaper to just add an extra panel for every three. To this I say bunk. Using the NREL data: My link. http://rredc.nrel.gov/solar/pubs/redbook/redbook_index.html I find that in Minnesota a single axis tracking PV panel will have a 40% increase in output in December and a 100% increase in June. In Minnesota: A PV panel with 15% efficiency in December tilted to your latitude plus 15s. http://rredc.nrel.gov/solar/old_data/nsrdb/redbook/atlas/ 2 to 3 kWhr/m2/day lets say 2.5 solar 2.5 kWhr/m2/day * 15% = .375kWhr/m2/day electric Or a single axis north-south tracking panel at lat. +15. 3 to 4 kWh/m2/day lets say 3.5 solar 3.5 kWhr/m2/day * 15% = .525kWhr/m2/day electric .525 / .375 = 140% This shows 40% improvement with a tracker in December. Lets do it in June: 4 to 5 kWhr/m2/day lets say 4.5 solar 4.5 kWhr/m2/day * 15% = .675kWhr/m22/day electric Or a single axis north-south tracking panel at lat. -15. 8 to 10 kWhr/m2/day lets say 9 solar 9 kWhr/m2/day * 15% = 1.35kWhr/m2/day electric That's a 100% improvement with a tracker in June.

Of course your location will have different results. For instance I just did it for San Jose, CA and got an increase of only 14% in both June and December. Clearly this is not the best place to do solar tracking. Here are the 4 maps that I used.
nrelmaps

Click the map! The full set of maps from NREL are here. I don't have a cost for the tracking mount but the actuator I'm using costs about $140us and my tracker is $35us. PV panels now are about $5us/W so a 100 watt panel costs $500us. Using a system of 3 panels this is $1500us. Since the tracker delivers at least 40% more output, in December, it would be fair to say that the tracker has an equivalent value of $600us in a 3 panel 300W system. I can't see the tracking mount would cost $600-$140-$35=$425 more than the equivalent stationary mount that has to hold at least 4 PV panels. Of course, the comparison is even better in June with the 100% increase. Today there are many obsolete C-band satellite dishes. These have polar axis mounts which are almost ideal for use with arrays of PV panels. Remove the dish and install racks to support the panels. They are well designed and very strong. They have all the needed hardware including the motor actuator. Besides they are often free for the asking.
tripod

TriPod Mounts
I am convinced that the best and strongest mount for PVs at ground level is one based on the design example of:
poulek traxle

* Traxle
Poulek Solar by Martin Poulek Gary A. Werner, President GWM Corporation Polar mount with tracker. The tripod support arrangement is very strong with light weight construction.
aps

* APS Solar's "Tilt Tracker".

Similar to Poulek Solar's Traxle, with a clockwork tracker. The second axis, the tilt axis, is adjustable for a few percent improvement in total output. The actuators are hydraulic.
powerlight

PowerLight A bigger version, similar to Poulek Solar's Traxle

sunpower

* SunPower
SunPower purchased PowerLight
szymanski

* Martin Szymanski's variation of a Tripod Tracking Mount

pvc

PVC plastic TriPod Mount

This is my version of Poulek's mount. I call it the TriPod Mount. This mount is cheap and crude but easy to make, especially for demonstrations. It's easy to build and knock down. Its quite portable. A proposed Stationary Receiver Dish on a Tripod Mount. A proposed Stationary Fresnel Lens on a Tripod Mount. It's made from PV plastic sewer pipe. 1. The legs are fitted with end caps. 2. The foot caps are drilled and have long bolts protruding through to be pushed into the ground. 3. The support legs have "I" bolts fitted to the top caps. 4. The main polar axis leg has a large bolt that is fitted through the "I" bolts of the support legs. (The Primestar mount doesn't allow the pipe to go all the way through so I made a compromise and have this large top bolt mounted to the dish support. Although the Primestar mount has a method to manually adjust for declination.) 5. The polar leg needs to rotate. To do this side pipes are glued on to the polar

and one of the support legs. 6. The satellite dish linear actuator is fitted to the side pipes. 7. To set it up just adjust the support legs until the polar tube is aimed at the pole star. This is due north and angled at exactly your latitude. 8. To make sure the thing doesn't blow away I have a heavy nylon cord, ( not in the pictures ), tied from the top of the polar leg down to the earth. I used a screw into the ground dog leash stake. 9. Don't bolt the dish and PV panel to tightly. This will allow some manual adjusting. There are some compromises to this example. 1. The actuator can only rotate the polar leg about 150. A better way would be to have a pulley and cable to get the rotation to 270 or so. 2. The Primestar mount is not ideal. A better mount would allow the polar leg to protrude fully. 3. A longer polar leg would allow more rotation without interfering with the supporting legs. Improvements 1. For larger equipment one should make the tripod from steel cold water pipe. This would make things much sturdier. 2. Make the polar rotating device using a large pulley and cable to allow more rotation.
led4

LED4 LED Sensor Electronic Tracker with Simple Solar Charge Controller.

LED4 The "LED3" light sensor works very well. It is sensitive, accurate, and cheap. A couple of years ago I had devised a simple solar charge controller I called "Shunt 2". I thought it would be a good idea to combine them into a single PC board called the LED4. Note! I no longer sell the LED4 as it was replaced by the much more capable LED3X. Ok, the LED3X doesn't have a charge controller but this isn't really required to run the tracker. The design philosophy for this tracker was to make it more robust and self contained. I included a charge controller for rechargeable batteries intending them to be NiCds to run the actuators. Since the charger is there it might as well be capable of running a large PV panel with lead acid batteries. Note! this charger is not intended to charge the expensive system batteries. Leave that job to the high end smart charger such as those by Trace, Outback, and others. It can also run a very small PV panel to charge the local NiCds or NiMH batteries. These batteries work well over a wide temperature range.

I will test the ability of the sensors to be at the end of a long cable. I will test this using 1000' of 4 wire telephone cable. 8 wire Cat5 cable should also work with the extra wires driving the actuators. With the use of long Cat5 cable the main board can be inside a heated battery room. Of course you still have to run the heavy gauge main charging wire pair to the battery room. The advantage of having the batteries in a heated room is temperature compensation won't be needed.
ledshex4

LED4 Schematic LED4 Layout

led4connections ledsensor01

LED4 Pinout

Alternate LED4 Sensor Schematic

led4features

LED4 Features
The signal sent back from the sensor can be sent a considerable distance since the current flow is minimal. However, static electric discharge could be a problem if the sensor is more than about 6 feet or so from the main board. If long distances are needed please Email me for advice. Shuts down the actuator motor drive when the battery voltage drops below about 10 volts.

Separate LED Light Sensors Under voltage Shutdown Protection

Designed for use with nominal 13.8 volt battery systems. The charger is Built In Charge designed for controlling 13.8 volt 125 watt PV panels. There is no Controller provision for either temperature compensation or multiple charging strategies. Larger Power Transistors The power MOSFET transistors are much more robust than in the LED3. It uses IRF5305 and IRLZ44N transistors from International Rectifier. The IRF5305 P-channel MOSFET has an on resistance of about 60m and the IRLZ44N N-channel MOSFET has an on resistance of about 20m. A 125 watt PV panel can deliver about 9 amps of current. The maximum wattage dissipated by the IRLZ44N shunt transistor under these conditions is about 1.6 watts continuously. The Schottky Barrier series protection diode is rated for about 9 amps. The H-bridge transistors are pulsed at about a 10% duty cycle. I'm rating the actuator maximum pulsed current at about 16 amps. If you want to continuously drive the actuator keep it below 5 amps. The IRF5305 has a maximum current rating of 110 amps and the IRLZ44N has a maximum current rating of 160 amps so if the currents are kept to below my system rating no heat sinks will be needed. Through hole construction allows the average home brew guy the ability to easily put the LED4 tracker together either as a kit or scratch built. I can supply the PC boards separatly for $9.00us. -40F to 185F or -40C to 85C

No need for a heat sink

Built with Through Hole Components Operating Temperature Range

vdish1

Virgil Vinz's faceted dish with LED4 tracker in a plastic Peanut Butter Jar Weather Dome.

This dish is to be used to run a small steam engine. The mirrors are 6" Lucite squares. The ribs are cut from parabolic sections. The receiver is a flash tube type. The spiral copper tubing is cast into an aluminum block. The Pyrex cooking dish is the transparent insulating cover. The backside is insulated with fiberglass. The indicated temperature is about 1100F. The concentration ratio is about 20X or so given the receiver is larger than the mirror tiles.
vdish1overall

vdish1mount vdish1steamgenerator

Steam Generator Mount Faceted Dish

vdish1melting vdish1flashtube

Steam Generator

vdish1receiver

Melting aluminum cans with a propane powered

Spiral copper flash tubes imbeded in the aluminum.

"weed burner" blow torch. The angle iron and steel plate mold is heated and the cans poured in.

The tubing is 3/8th inch tubing and about 4' in length. Be careful not to over heat the aluminum as it is possible to melt the copper. Filling the tubing with sand helps to prevent melting by absorbing some heat when cooling.

Front side of receiver painted flat black.

vdish1led4

vdish1ribs vdish1drive

Parabolic Ribs and Polar Tripod Mount

Belt Drive

LED4 in Butter Jar

concentratortemperature

plastic Peanut

Calculations of Concentrator Temperature Rise.

A number of people have asked the question: "How hot will my concentrator get?"

or: "How much concentration will I need to get to a certain temperature?" Let's use this example: "A twelve foot dish focused to a 6 in., 3 in., or one 1 in., diameter receiver. How can you estimate the temperature of the various smaller diameters?" Lets review: X factor is the ratio of the captured sunlight area divided by the radiating surface area of the receiver. Assuming the back side is well insulated. 12' foot C-band satellite dishes have a focal length of about 10'. At least mine does. The sun has an image diameter of about 1/2 of arc. At 10' this perfectly focused diameter would be: ( 2 * tan( .5 / 2 ) * 10' = .087' * 12"/1' = 1.04" That's for a perfect parabola. C-band dishes aren't nearly that accurate. So maybe the diameter is about 3". So firstly, you can't get to a 1" diameter.
3" is about (144"/3")2 = 2304X 6" is about (144"/6")2 = 576X

"How can you estimate the temperature of the various smaller diameters?" The simple answer is you can't. Temperature of a receiver is only loosely related to X. The more important factors are:
1. Rate of heat removal. For instance if the heat removal is infinite then the temperature would be the same as ambient. 2. The selectivity of the surface of the receiver. Good selective surfaces such as black nickel oxide are pretty good and will attain a higher temperature due to not radiating as much heat back to space. 3. A limiting factor is the surface temperature of the sun. Generally considered to be about 10000F or about 5600C. 4. The quality of the reflectivity of the mirror. I usually assume this at 80% to 85% regardless of what the manufacturer of the Mylar films say.

Another way to help in the understanding of receiver temperature is it is a kind of balance. The receiver, insulated on the back side, radiates into a hemisphere.

The dish appears to cover a portion of the hemisphere. The ratio:

(dish angular surface area) / (a hemisphere) * 10000F = Temp

This implies that a receiver temperature is independent of X. And this is true. However larger receivers have other losses such as:
1. Convection loss 2. Process heat removal

What are you trying to do? Generate steam? Steam receivers don't have to be particularly small as the temperatures are limited by the steam system. See our experimental receiver above. This dish has a no thermal output temperature rise of about 1100F with a concentration of about 20X. We estimate this is about correct for the dish angular area.
sphericalcollectormath

* Here is an Excel spreadsheet to do the math.

http://www.redrok.com/sphericalcollectormath.xls Another way to use this information on our system. 1100F = 0% efficiency. ( No output of steam.) 50F = 100% efficiency ( Perfect cooling of the receiver.) Other efficiencies are approximately linear between these.
837F = 25% 575F = 50% 312F = 75%

Actually the lower temperatures will have higher efficiencies because convection losses are reduced. Does this make sense?
martins

<Martin Szymanski's> variation of a Tripod Tracking Mount

* Welcomb to Copperopolis
Martin's web page.

View from the south. Martin lives in southern California about 100 miles from the ocean. This is why the array has a severe tilt back.

Weather dome using a glass lamp fixture obtained at Home Depot. That's an older LED3 inside.

LED4 under test. Note! The LED sensors are directly mounted on the main board and the remote sensor board wasn't used.

Pre Construction

Base hole ready for concrete.

assemblyled4

Assembly Instructions for the LED4.

opperatingled4

Operating Instructions for the LED4.

Actuator.
I have more circuits here along with a bunch of data about Satellite dish linear actuators. The circuits on this page are not finished nor fully tested.
chace1

Jeremiah Chace's Analog Solar Tracker Schematic.

Chace1

Tracker Schematic.
Some guys on the net have expressed a desire for a simple analog solar tracker to operate their concentrator projects. Jeremiah Chace sent me a schematic for such a tracker. His circuit was based on a Cadmium Sulfide, CdS, photo cell with a relay output. There were a couple of problems with the circuit. After some discussions with him I made some improvements and here are the results. The basic operation is essentially that of 2 separate photo sensor circuits in pairs. Each separate sensor circuit has a control pot to set it's sensitivity for bright sunlight.

It is important to have a thorough understanding of the operation of the circuit in order to be successful in making the correct adjustments for acceptable operation. One must do the adjustments on a clear cloudless day. At the very least wait until the sun is between clouds. CdS cells have a wide variance in the resistance they exhibit in bright sunlight. Generally the resistance is too low for this type of circuit. I have found that the CdS cells can be modified to have higher resistance by painting the cells with a black marker. I use a Sharpie black permanent marker. I paint this on all sides and edges. If you get too much on it can be removed with fingernail polish remover or acetone. The correct amount of blackening is when the adjustment pot is approximately at mid setting when the circuit is tilted so about half of the cell is illuminated by sunlight and half covered by the light blocker. Repeat this painting of the cells until all 4 CdS cells are adjusted. I have found a helpful tool to make the adjustment easier. Just use a small mirror to reflect sunlight onto the CdS cell. By covering one cell with the finger and reflecting light onto the other cell the tracker can be moved at will. This allows the cell sensitivity adjustments to be easily made. The painting procedure would not be very easy to get accurate were it not for the pot. The settings seem stable but I haven't had very much time on the circuit. I suspect that the most problem would be the fading of the black marker. If this happens I suppose a different more permanent light filter coating could be devised. Possibly Parsons Black which is carbon lampblack in spar varnish. P.S. I have had about 4 months of operation on the tracker and have not seen any problems. There have been days where no bright solar radiation falls on the sensors the tracker just stays in the last position that movement occurred. The panel is not at the optimum orientation to gather the maximum amount of energy from this diffuse radiation during these times. In the long run this is not a problem. Of course the amount of energy is less than optimum during cloudy times. The gain due to tracking greatly exceeds the dim time loss.

chaceshadow

Sensor and shadow light blocker.

Each CdS cell of a pair is on each side of a central light divider with a top light blocker. The light blocker is just wide enough to block both CdS cells when the sun is dead on center. In this example the light divider is made of rubber and the light blocker is an old aluminized 5.25" floppy disk write protector. The materials used are not critical. They need only be light opaque. The light divider should be black and non reflective. The blocker could be made from reflective aluminum foil to prevent heat buildup. Note! The CdS cells are highly angled in such a way that they are generally aimed at a portion of the sky that is away from the sun. This helps to get the platform moving in the right direction when far off track. If either CdS cell is uncovered by the light blocker it will conduct heavily and the associated power driver will move the actuator in such a way that the CdS cell is again covered. When neither CdS cell is exposed to bright light the actuator is prevented from moving. This leaves the tracker at the last moved to position. Little power is expended searching for a new position when in dim light. The light blocker is supposed to never let both CdS cell be exposed to bright light. However it could happen. If this condition occurs the actuator is prevented from moving or hunting. This saves power by moving only when necessary. This schematic is for one axis. The second axis is the same as the first and uses the other half of the LM339 comparator. When the sun is behind clouds the actuator is prevented from moving or hunting. When the sun comes back out the tracker will move toward it again. When the sun sets the platform remains aimed to the west. In the morning the easterly aimed CdS cell becomes active and the platform positions itself back to the east. In my example I have the light dividers about 2 inches long. If a tighter angular tolerance is desired the light dividers can be made longer.

Overall Layout.
The layout of the circuit has the CdS cells mounted on the eastern side of the board. The east/west, right ascension, pair is on the left. The north/south, declination, pair is on the right. The output power drivers are in the foreground. I have mounted the power MOSFETs in such a way that they form the output terminals. Another example is pictured in my heliostat I/O board shown here: Terminals. The PC board is all single sided using mostly 1/4 Watt resistors and capacitors mounted in surface mount fashion. This prototype construction technique is fast and easy to build. If the board is to be built in larger quantities a through hole board could be build with the parts in exactly the same location as the surface mount version. (Any one want one? Email me at: <redrok@redrok.com >)
Here is my IRF9Z34 IRFZ34 LM339 resistors Pot D4AA15 CdS Cell Total 1998 US cost breakdown in single quantities. $1.82 * 4 = $7.28 Digi-Key $1.25 * 4 = $5.00 Digi-Key $ .49 * 1 = $0.49 Digi-Key $ .02 * 20 = $ .47 Digi-Key $ .22 * 4 = $ .88 Digi-Key $ .35 * 4 = $1.40 Jameco $15.42

A true surface mount board using conventional, tiny, surface mount parts would make the board about 1/2 the present size. All the components are available in surface mount form except the CdS cells. Even the power transistors can be had in surface mount. I don't think that the smaller sized board layout justifies the higher cost of the surface mount components.

Weather Dome.

How do you like the high tech weather dome? It is made of a 2 liter polyethylene plastic pop bottle. This plastic is pretty good in the UV of sunlight. Of course it can be easily replaced if it becomes clouded. Use the bottles with the black plastic base and remove it. The fancier Coka Cola bottles with the molded in feet don't work very well optically. I think a 1 liter bottle would work just as well and the wooden mounting would be smaller. I haven't tried a 1 liter bottle yet. The dome is not sealed from the weather in the picture. I will drill a hole in the wooden mount for the wires. The tapered sides to the wooden block will seal the dome to the block. The interior gets hot enough to vaporize any condensed moisture.
goofy1

Experimental Goofy Demonstration Mount.

I needed a platform to test the circuit. I usually don't want to publish an untested circuit. I have had experience with circuits that don't operate as expected the first time. I sent Jeremiah a prototype, (Rev. A2), of the circuit and PC board to try out on his dish. Unfortunately he is moving his shop and couldn't try it out right away. I then decided to build a simple mount that I had been thinking about for a while. This is a simple design meant for use with PV panels. It uses 2 satellite dish linear actuators. One to move the platform east and west about +-75s in right ascension. The other to move the platform north and south a minimum of +/23.5s in declination. The main pier is slanted to the south at an angle of 90 - the local latitude, (45s for me). The reason the pier is tilted south is to align the right ascension axis to the polar axis which is the bolt that holds the ascension member to the pier. A second brace will be installed under the pier for support if needed.

Right Ascension / Declination Head.

This is a close-up of the mount head. The declination mechanism is controlled by the second satellite dish actuator. It tends to move the declination platform around the axis on the ends of the right ascension mechanism. This picture shows the arrangement of the two satellite dish linear actuators. These actuators have adjustable limit switches. These switches are required by this circuit both to limit the travel and stop power from being wasted when at the limits. Actuators with limit clutches are unsuitable for this application. While they do stop when the limit is reached, their motor continues to consume power. This is disastrous when running on a storage battery. The actuators, which consume over 10 amps, will drain the battery in a short while. The magnitude of the declination movement is maximum when at the extremes of the right ascension and minimum in the middle of the travel range. This design leaves a lot to be desired.
1. It has limited travel. 2. The declination angle changes in a complicated way with the movement of the right ascension angle. 3. It probably is not very strong when at the extremes of travel. I used it only as a convenient means of testing the analog controller.
patent5622078

Brad A. Mattson's Active Solar Tracker Patent# 5512742 & 5622078.

Brad's PV Solar Tracking Panel and Controller.

This is one of Brad's patents for this mechanism.
bradtrough

Brad's Trough Collector.

This is Brad's patent for the solar tracking controller.
shunt charger

Solar Charge and Diversion Controllers.

Most solar charge controllers are of the shunt type. They are easy to build and work very well. More complex controllers are the Maximum Power Point Controllers. I will describe several circuits that are based on a Zetex ZM33064 computer voltage monitor and reset circuit. While there are a number of companies and models of voltage monitors on the market I chose the Zetex ZM33064 because of its low cost, accuracy, low power consumption, but mostly for the low, 20mV, hysteresis characteristic. Most reset circuits operate in a similar manner to the Zetex ZM33064 and could be substituted in the circuits. I believe that power controllers based on voltage monitor circuits are significantly reduced in complexity due to the high integration of several power

controller characteristics in a small 3 pin device that looks like an ordinary TO92 transistor. In come cases it and a power MOSFET transistor are the only active devices in the circuit.
shunt1

A Simple Solar Shunt Charge Controller.

This is the simplest charge controller that I know of. OK, a really big zener is simpler but I don't know where to get one that can do the job. I have built several of these for different purposes and they work OK but I don't recommend there usage anymore because more advanced circuits exist today.

Shunt1
Simple Shunt Charge Controller.

These parts can 5 Amp 40 Volt 12 Volt 1 Watt 1 Amp 50 Volt 10 Amp 25 Watt 7.5 50 Watt Total

be obtained from: Diode Zener Diode Diodes NPN Power Transistor Q1 Power Resistor RL

Digi-Key or Farnell. $0.63us SB540CT-ND 518177 $0.26us 1N4742ADICT-ND 368660 $0.60us/10 1N4001DICT-ND 365117 $1.00us approximately $3.22us FVT50-7.5-ND $5.17us

Of course you will also need a 25 watt heat sink for the transistor.

I don't know why but Digi-Key dropped their bipolar power transistors. You can get any NPN power transistor capable of dissipating 25 Watts possibly from Radio Shack. This is a version of an amplified zener diode with a Schottky diode used to prevent power loss through the panel at night.
shunt2

A Better Solar Shunt Charge Controller.

Here's A better Solar Shunt Regulator. It can be made as large as you want. It's not as "simple" but it works better.

Shunt2
Shunt Charge Controller.

These 5 5.1 8.2 41 4.6 1 K 2.0K 24K Total

parts can be obtained from: Amp 40 Volt Schottky Diode Volt .5 Watt Zener Diode Volt .5 Watt Zener Diode Amp 55 Volt Logic Level MOSFET Volt ZM33064 Voltage Monitor Trim Pot .25 Watt 5% Carbon Film .25 Watt 5% Carbon Film

Q1 R2 R1 R3

Digi-Key or Farnell. $0.63us SB540CT-ND 518177 $0.21us 1N5231BMSCT-ND 368970 $0.21us 1N5237BMSCT-ND 369020 $1.73us IRLZ44N-ND 637488 $1.74us ZM33064C-ND 633318 $0.22us D4AA13-ND $0.28us/5 2.0K E BK-ND $0.28us/5 24K E BK-ND $4.86us

With Optional Heater Resistor 2 Total 100 Watt Resistor RL $12.45us $17.31us AVT100-2.0-ND

Is this cheap enough?

How the Conventional Shunt Charge Controller circuit works. This shunt regulator is based on a Zetex ZM33064 computer under voltage reset circuit. The voltage monitor is an integrated circuit in a 3 pin package that in its normal usage is used to reset a microprocessor. The IN pin would normally be connected to a 5V logic bus. When the 5V bus voltage drops bellow 4.6V the open collector OUT pin is pulled down toward ground. In my circuit I use this output to switch the gate of a logic level power MOSFET. When the voltage is bellow 4.6V the transistor is turned OFF and the PV panel is allowed to supply power to the battery until the voltage goes above 4.6V. The ZetexZM33064 has a hysteresis of about 20mV which is degraded to 100mV in the circuit. This helps to prevent the power MOSFET from going into linear mode and dissipating power in the transistor. When in regulation the transistor will switch On and OFF at a rate dependent upon the capacity of the battery and power available from the PV panel. The zener and resistors are used to divide the battery voltage down to the 4.6V range for the voltage monitor. Don't skimp on the power MOSFET. You might ask why use a transistor capable of passing 41 amps in a circuit designed for only 5 amps. The answer is in the cost and complexity of the heat sink. This transistor has only .022 s of ON resistance. This power dissipation at 5 Amps is: 7 * 7 * .022 = 1.1 Watts. The transistor will get warm but not excessively and without a heat sink. Of course if the full 41 amps is passing through the transistor then: 41 * 41 * .022 = 37 Watts. This is significant and needs to be heat sinked for this amount of heat.
damage

Damage Your Panel With A Shunt Controller. Not!!!!

You might ask if there is a problem with the direct shorting out of the PV panels? Will this shorting damage the PV panels? The simple answer is NO! I have talked to several PV panel manufacturers. All have said there are no detrimental effects to their panels. Now for the more complex answer. One of the reasons that you might want to use the optional heater resistor instead of directly shunting the panel is that the panel will run slightly cooler, which is a good thing. Think of it this way. when the panel is delivering it's peak load at a nominal efficiency of 15% much of the other 85% is dissipated as heat in the panel. If the panel is either open circuited or shorted then no power is delivered to the load and 100% of the influx is dissipated as heat in the panel. The shunt resistor, if selected properly, will have a voltage, not 0 volts, across it and dissipate nearly the same power that would have been delivered to the battery. The result is that the temperature of the panel will remain more constant. OK, so this is only a minor point but I wanted to explain it thoroughly. I suspect that environmental conditions, such as clouds passing by, vary the temperature far more than that caused by any power regulator. Besides, the manufacturers say there isn't a problem here anyway. I used the high current 41 Amp MOSFET because when operated at low currents it will dissipate only negligible power and prevent over heating. The optional heater resistor can be used to heat something such as water or the house in winter. It's not needed. Normally the transistor dead shorts the panel. This is not an error. It's standard practice for solar panels to be shorted in this way. There is no harm to the panel doing this. If you do use a large heat sink on the transistor this regulator is capable of much higher currents. Possibly as high as 41 Amps. (I haven't done this myself yet.) The MOSFET power driver circuit probably should be improved for very high currents during regulation. The best improvement would be to use a D flip flop between the voltage monitor and the transistor gate. This flip flop is clocked at about 100 Hz. This will cause the transistor to have a controlled and predictable gate pulse.

shunt3

The Best Solar Shunt Charge Controller.

Here's the Best Solar Shunt Regulator. It's more complicated but it works better because it's temperature compensated. I have adding temperature compensation to the basic shunt PV regulator. Temperature compensation is needed when the battery pack is stored in a location where the temperature is not controlled, such as outside and near the PV panel, in hot or cold weather. Depending on the manufacturer, the charge voltage is adjusted by measuring the battery temperature. The specific value is mainly dependent on the internal RESISTANCE of the battery. This resistance is basically dependent on the CHEMICAL ACTIVITY in the battery. This chemical activity is dependent on the TEMPERATURE. The construction methods can also affect the change in internal resistance vs. temperature.
temperature

Most lead acid batteries have a temperature coefficient somewhere between: -.0025 V/(C * Cells) the minimum temperature coefficient. -.0036 V/(C * Cells) being recommended by Bill Dub if no other information is known. -.0040 V/(C * Cells) being recommended by Hugh Piggott. -.0050 V/(C * Cells) the maximum temperature coefficient. 13.8 Volt Lead Acid Battery Voltage vs. Temperature
C F LM50 Output 0.900V 0.750V 0.500V 0.300V 0.100V -.0050 V/(C * Cells) 12.34V 13.80V 16.23V 18.17V 20.12V -.0040 V/(C * Cells) 12.75V 13.80V 15.55V 16.95V 18.34V -.0025 V/(C * Cells) 13.07V 13.80V 15.02V 15.99V 16.96V

50C 122F 25C 77F 0C 32F 20C -4F

-40F 40C

Shunt3
Temperature Compensated Shunt Charge Controller.

These parts can be obtained from: 5 Amp 40 Volt Schottky Diode 5.1 Volt .5 Watt Zener Diode 5.1 Volt .5 Watt Zener Diode 41 Amp 55 Volt Logic MOSFET Q1 4.6 Volt ZM33064 Voltage Monitor LM2902 Dual Operational Amplifier -40C to 125C Temp Sensor 1K Trim Pot R7 500K Trim Pot R8 2.4K .25 Watt 5% Carbon Film R3 2.7K .25 Watt 5% Carbon Film R5 10K .25 Watt 5% Carbon Film R4 20K .25 Watt 5% Carbon Film R6 91K .25 Watt 5% Carbon Film R1 200K .25 Watt 5% Carbon Film R2 Total With Optional Heater Resistor 2 Total 100 Watt Resistor

$0.63us $0.21us $0.21us $1.73us $1.74us $0.49us $1.47us $0.22us $0.22us $0.28us/5 $0.28us/5 $0.28us/5 $0.28us/5 $0.28us/5 $0.28us/5 $7.26us

Digi-Key or Farnell. SB540CT-ND 518177 1N5231BMSCT-ND 368970 1N5231BMSCT-ND 368970 IRLZ44N-ND 637488 ZM33064C-ND 633318 LM2902M-ND 400002 LM50CIM3-ND 630937 D4AA13-ND D4AA55-ND 2.4K E BK-ND 2.7K E BK-ND 10K E BK-ND 20K E BK-ND 91K E BK-ND 200K E BK-ND

RL $12.45us $19.71us

AVT100-2.0-ND

How's that?! It's cheap and has temperature compensation too!

The bread boarding went well. I now have the circuit working. The LM2902 buffer Op Amp was required because the LM50 has a high impedance output. This output is not designed to drive even very low power powered loads.

The LM50 is a new generation SOT-23 part from National Semiconductor. It reads temperature from -40C to 125C. The interesting feature of this sensor is that it outputs 10mV/C referenced to -50C. Vout=(10mV/C*TempC)+500mV for the LM50
TempC TempF Vout 125C 257F 1750mV 100C 212F 1500mV 75C 167F 1250mV 50C 122F 1000mV 25C 77F 750mV 0C 32F 500mV -20C -4F 300mV -40C -40F 100mV -50C -58F 0mV

I mounted the LM50 on a little chip of PC board and soldered 3 wires to it. This allows the sensor to sample the battery temperature. To insulate the LM50 from possible damage I coated it with automotive "Oxygen Sensor Safe" RTV gasket cement from Permatex. The .47uF capacitor is needed when the LM50 is mounted remotely with wires. It's not needed if the LM50 is mounted near the Op Amp on the PC board. The two pots are very tricky to adjust because they interact with each other. The best way to set them is to substitute the LM50 with a voltage divider pot. It's also helpfully to substitute a resistor for the battery. The LM50 makes it easy to substitute an external voltage for the LM50 temperature output voltage. Just force the desired voltage onto the output pin of the LM50connected to the OpAmp. The LM50 has a high impedance resistor divider output. No damage will occur if the voltage is kept between -1VDC and VCC+.6VDC, +5.7VDC in this case. Of course the two calibration voltages will be .3VDC and .9VDC. Temporary Test Circuit Used for Calibration.

Adjustment Procedure for Pots R7 and R8.

1. Determine which temperature coefficient you need from the manufacturers literature. 2. Introduce 0.300V, equivalent to -20C, and adjust R8 for the correct output voltage. 3. Introduce 0.900V, equivalent to +50C, and adjust R7 for the correct output voltage. 4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 until no more changes are needed to either R7 or R8.

I am not entirely satisfied with the circuit because of the sever interaction between the 2 pots when adjusting for different temperature coefficients. I think that one pot should be used to calibrate the sensor and the other to set the temperature coefficient with no interaction between them. I will consider a change in the future. Right now it works, don't fix it. Right now the circuit is acceptable and works from -40C to +50C. I tested it in my temperature chamber. The circuit tracked quite well with temperature. If you want the most accuracy possible you will have to calibrate the LM50. This is done by measuring the voltage output of the LM50 at two temperatures. Calculate the temperature coefficients for the sensor and introduce them into the standard equation. Vtemp=(10mV/C*TempC)+500mV Use this new equation to get the true output voltage for -20C and +50C and use them in the R7 and R8 adjustment procedure.

If you want to purchase a commercial shunt controller check out the Morning Star units at: Windsun or: Natural Energy Systems, Inc.
undervoltage

Under Voltage Protection.

Damage to the battery or load equipment can occur if the storage battery charge is run down to much. This could happen in many application such as these:
1. Sign Lighting. The battery could be under charged for the nights lighting requirements and could become depleted. 2. Remote The battery could be under charged if the weather has not allowed Instrumentation. enough solar energy to accumulate. In this case critical measurement equipment could be left running while unnecessary equipment is turned OFF. In my case the Peet Brothers Ultimeter 2000 weather monitor remains ON while the Kenwood 7930 2 meter transceiver is turned OFF. The weather monitor continues to record data. 3. Water Pumping. In water pumping applications it is sometimes desirable to have the pump operate on a continuous basis, even at night. A storage battery supplies the night time power to run the pump. However, if the charge gets below 50% the battery life suffers. Under voltage cutoff protection can solve this problem. 4. Domestic The battery could be depleted due to excessive usage. In this case Electricity. critical equipment, such as the computer, furnace, or refrigerator, could be left running while unnessassary equipment is turned OFF. 5. Sensitive Some equipment must be shut OFF when the battery voltage is low. Equipment. My Kenwood 7930 2 meter transceiver doesn't tolerate low voltage well.

Undervoltage
Under Voltage Protection Circuit.

These parts can be obtained from: Farnell. 8.2 Volt .5 Watt Zener Diode 369020 18 Volt .5 Watt Zener Diode 931688 -17 Amp -55 Volt P channel MOSFET .1 Amp 40 Volt NPN Transistor 4.6 Volt ZM33064 Voltage Monitor 633318 2.00K .25 Watt 1% Carbon Film 2.26K .25 Watt 1% Carbon Film 10K .25 Watt 5% Carbon Film 20K .25 Watt 5% Carbon Film 200K .25 Watt 5% Carbon Film Total

Digi-Key or $0.21us $0.21us Q2 $1.82us Q3 $1.60us/10 $1.74us R1 R2 R9 RH R3 $0.54us/5 $0.54us/5 $0.28us/5 $0.28us/5 $0.28us/5 $4.52us 1N5237BMSCT-ND 1N5248BMSCT-ND IRF9Z34N-ND 2N3904DICT-ND ZM33064C-ND 2.00K 2.26K 10K 20K 200K X X E E E BK-ND BK-ND BK-ND BK-ND BK-ND 934677 358824

How the Under Voltage Protection circuit works. This Under Voltage Protection Circuit is based on a Zetex ZM33064 computer under voltage reset circuit. The voltage monitor is an Integrated Circuit in a 3 pin package that in its normal usage is used to reset a microprocessor. The IN pin would normally be connected to a 5V logic bus. When the 5V bus voltage drops bellow 4.6V the open collector OUT pin is pulled down toward ground. In my circuit I use this output to switch the Base of an NPN logic transistor, T3, which in turn operates the gate of a standard gate drive level P channel power MOSFET, T2.

The power transistor, T2, is turned ON when the battery voltage is higher than a set point and OFF when below the set point. When the voltage is above 4.6V the output transistor is turned ON and the load is given power from the battery until the voltage goes below 4.6V. The Zetex ZM33064 has a hysteresis of about 20mV which is degraded to 100mV in the circuit. This helps to prevent the power MOSFET from going into linear mode and dissipating power in the transistor. This amount of hysteresis may not be enough for many applications. An extra hysteresis resistor, RH, can be added to increase the hysteresis to higher voltages. This could be used to prevent cycling of the protected load. The amount of hysteresis required is dependent on the internal resistance of the battery. When the load is removed, due to low voltage, the battery voltage increases. If the hysteresis is not large enough the protected load will be turned ON again. And the cycle continues. I can't give you an equation that predicts what this resistor should be. I can only suggest that you experiment with the value until satisfaction is obtained. The two resistors, R1 and R2, are used to divide the battery voltage down to the 4.6V range for the voltage monitor. The hysteresis resistor, RH, affects this calculation. Calculate the value of R2 for the Under Voltage Protection Circuit.
Vc = Vm = R1 = RH = Im = R2 = R2 = R2 = R2 = R2 = R2 = WattsR2= WattsR2= WattsR2= Desired cutoff voltage. Threshold voltage of ZM33064. 2.00Ks Lower voltage divider resistor. 20.0Ks Lower voltage divider resistor. 180A Quiescent current of ZM33064. Vc - Vm ) / (( Vm / ( R1-1 + RH-1 )-1 ) + Im ) 6.2V ) / (( 4.6V / ( 1.8181Ks ) + 180A ) 6.2V ) / (( 2.53mA ) + 180A ) 6.2V ) / ( 2.71mA ) 2.29Ks 2.26Ks Closest 1% value. V c - Vm )2 / R 2 2 6.2V ) / 2.26Ks Calculate the power in R 2 0.017 Watts Use a 1/4 watt resistor. 10.8V 4.6V

( ( ( ( ( (

I now have bread boarded this circuit and it works fine. I made a few changes to the circuit as published before. These were minor value adjustments. I also removed the adjustment pot. Next, I will make a PC board that includes the temperature compensated shunt regulator. I have shown, on the schematic, two outputs:

1. Bypass.

This output is for critical equipment. It essentially bypasses the protection circuits. 2. Protected. This output is for the equipment that can be turned OFF when the low battery voltage is reached.

I have added two optional jumpers:

J1 Enable Enables normal operation of the controlled output. Output. J2 Disable Forces the controlled output OFF. Output. None Output ON. J1 removed Forces the controlled output ON if J2 is not in place. J2, Disable Output, has precedence.

I hope that all of these designs will fulfill your needs. Obviously I can't know the specifics of your requirements. Please use general circuit design analysis to determine the proper size of the heat sink or the value and wattage of the optional heater resistance. Use good judgement when sizing the power MOSFETs for higher power applications. I have attempted to use components that will work with much higher current MOSFETs. One caution is the use of logic level vs. conventional gate drive transistors. The conventional gate drive transistors require that greater than 10 volts, some even higher, be applied to the gate to be fully turned on. Logic level gate drive transistors may be damaged by this high a gate voltage. Logic level gate drive transistors will be fully ON with 5 volts applied. Power MOSFET characteristics:
Gate Drive. Logic Level Gate Drive Power Conventional Gate Drive Power MOSFETs MOSFETs Greater than Full rated current flow with low The transistor may be operating in the 5 Volts. drive voltage. linear region which is usually very destructive. Greater than The gate may breakdown with Full rated current flow. 10 Volts. voltages greater than 10 volts.

If you have any questions or special requirements about these circuits just send me an Email at: <redrok@redrok.com>
diversion1

Diversion Controller.
Here's A type of Shunt Regulator called a Diversion Controller. It can be used to dump unwanted charging power into a diversion load once the battery is full.

Diversion1
Diversion Charge Controller.

These parts can be obtained from: Farnell. 5.1 Volt .5 Watt Zener Diode 30 Amp 100 Volt Logic Level MOSFET 4.6 Volt ZM33064 Voltage Monitor 1K Trim Pot 2.00K .25 Watt 1% Carbon Film 24.3K .25 Watt 1% Carbon Film 24K .25 Watt 5% Carbon Film Total

Digi-Key or Q1 RD R1 R2 R3 $0.21us 1N5231BMSCT-ND $1.73us IRL540N-ND $1.74us ZM33064C-ND $0.22us D4AA13-ND $0.54us/5 2.00K X BK-ND $0.54us/5 24.3K X BK-ND $0.28us/5 24K E BK-ND $4.17us 368970 740690 633318

Is this cheap enough?

How the circuit works. The diversion controller works similar to the shunt regulator. In the shunt regulator the source charging current is shunted to ground when the battery is

full. In the diversion controller the diversion load is activated when the battery voltage is full. The diversion controller has no charging diode and does have a diversion load. This diversion controller is based on a Zetex ZM33064 computer under voltage reset circuit. The voltage monitor is an Integrated circuit in a 3 pin package that in its normal usage is used to reset a microprocessor. The IN pin would normally be connected to a 5V logic bus. When the 5V bus voltage drops bellow 4.6V the open collector OUT pin is pulled down toward ground. In my circuit I use this output to switch the gate of a logic level power MOSFET. When the voltage is bellow 4.6V the transistor is turned OFF and the diversion load is removed to allowed the power to the battery until the divided voltage goes above 4.6V. The Zetex ZM33064 has a hysteresis of about 20mV which is degraded to 100mV in the circuit for 12V.(I haven't built one of these but I would expect the hysteresis to be 400mV for a 48V battery.) This helps to prevent the power MOSFET from going into linear mode and dissipating power in the transistor. When in regulation the transistor will switch On and OFF at a rate dependent on the capacity of the battery and power available from the PV panel. The two resistors, R1 and R2, are used to divide the battery voltage down to the 4.6V range for the voltage monitor. Don't skimp on the power MOSFET. You might ask why use a transistor capable of passing 30 amps in a circuit designed for only 5 amps. The answer is in the cost and complexity of the heat sink. This transistor has only .044 s of ON resistance. This power dissipation at 5 Amps is: 5A2 * .044 = 1.1Watts. The transistor will get warm but not excessively and without a heat sink. Of course if the full 30 amps is passing through the transistor then: 30A2 * .044 = 40Watts. This is significant and needs to be heat sinked for this amount of heat. The total diversion load in this example is: 55.2V * 30A = 1656Watts.

The diversion power can be increased by either using a larger transistor, paralleling more transistors, or paralleling more diverter controllers. Additional diverters can be staged by setting them at slightly different voltages. Calculate the Value of R2 in the Diversion Controller.
Vc = Vm = R1 = RD = Im = R2 = R2 = R2 = R2 = R2 = R2 = R2 = WattsR2= WattsR2= WattsR2= 55.2V 4.6V 2.00Ks ( Vc - Vm ) / (( Vm / ( R1 ( 50.6V ) / ( 4.6V / ( 2.00Ks ( 50.6V ) / ( 1.84mA ( 50.6V ) / ( 2.02mA ) 25.05Ks 24.55Ks 24.3Ks R2 * (( Vm / ( R1 24.3Ks * 2.02mA2 0.099 Watts Desired Diversion voltage. Threshold voltage of ZM33064. Lower voltage divider re sistor. 1Ks Divider Pot 180A Quiescent current of ZM33064. + RD / 2 ) ) + I m ) - ( RD / 2 ) + .5Ks ) + 180A ) - ( .5Ks ) + 180A ) - ( .5Ks ) - ( .5Ks ) - ( .5Ks ) + RD / 2 ) ) + I m Closest 1 % value. )2 Calculate the power in R2 Use a 1/4 watt resistor.

* Here is an Excel spreadsheet to do the math.

http://www.redrok.com/DiversionController.zip
pwm mppt

Pulse Width Modulating, PWM, Solar Power Regulators. Maximum Power Point Controllers, MPPC. Maximum Power Point Trackers, MPPT.
The Maximum Power Point Tracker is a special form of buck/boost, sometimes buck only, power converter designed to deliver the maximum possible power to a load, or storage battery, from limited input power sources. These work similar to a normal Pulse Width Modulating, PWM, voltage regulator except that the pulse width control is designed to track the maximum power available from the PV panel. Of course, when the battery voltage is high enough then the converter is shut down effecting charge regulation. PV panel output voltage, and consequently the maximum power point, varies in many ways. The maximum power point varies with temperature, light influx, cloud cover, dirt, and panel age. The important thing is that this maximum power point voltage rarely matches the battery voltage.

These converters are sort of reverse voltage regulators that instead of controlling the output voltage, which is fixed by the battery, it controls the input voltage. There are several ways to accomplish the control of this power conversion:
Fixed Ratio. The simplest way is to just manually set the pulse width of the power converter. While this is not technically a controller because the pulse width is fixed it does produce some power gain over a shunt controller. Open A better way is to first characterize the panel voltage vs. the input light vs. output loop power. A photo sensor circuit controls the input voltage at which the panel runs. power While these work reasonably well and more efficiently than the simple regulators tracker. they are not the optimum solution. In my opinion they are no cheaper to build than the better tracking circuits described next. Closed More complicated and more accurate power tracking controllers use wattage loop sampling techniques to continuously find the optimal panel operating voltage. power The way they work is to periodically introduce a small change in the controlled tracker. panel input voltage, measure the current, then calculate the input wattage. If the wattage has increased over the last sample then the next change in voltage should be in the same direction as the last change. However, if the wattage is less than the last sample the next voltage change should be in the opposite direction to what the present change was. OK, I said the power was measured on the input to the converter. Actually the wattage can be measured on either the input or the output. The panel voltage is continuously being adjusted in a dynamic way to see if the output power can be increased. While the panel voltage is technically never at the true peak power point the error is negligibly small. The result of this voltage dance is the ability of the controller to track the maximum power point no mater what the input PV panel conditions.

Can the circuit be made simpler? YES!

Closed loop current tracker. It turns out that there is a major simplification in the control of maximum power point tracking battery charger controllers. Yes, this is a special case, not the general case. Delivered power is the multiplication of delivered current times battery voltage. Since battery voltage is relatively constant one needs to only use the delivered current to represent the approximate delivered power. No complex multiplication needs to be performed. In the above example where power was used to determine the direction of the change of the input voltage The simplified controller uses the change of the delivered current sample as the clue for determining the direction of the change of the input voltage.

I built a controller for a windmill alternator in about 1973 that used OpAmps and CMOS logic gates. Today I think I would use a simple microprocessor to do the controlling. The idea though is this type of circuit doesn't need to be complex, This isn't rocket science. Many micros have built in AtoD converters and PWM outputs. Use the AtoD to measure the output current and the PWM to control the pulse width of the pass transistor in the buck/boost converter. Future Plans: I am planning on designing an MPPT. I will be using a desktop PC as the logic element. I will use a simple buck circuit with the PWM controlled by the computer. A 1 bit integrating current sampling AtoD circuit will tell the computer if the power delivered is increasing or decreasing. The computer will always be slowly changing the pulse width wider or narrower. The direction of change is controlled by the polarity of the single bit AtoD. I have done these experiments. It was successful. I now plan to program a PIC micro processor to perform the function. The PIC with which I'm interested is the PIC12C672. This microprocessor is in an 8 pin dip. It has 4 A/D converters, an internal clock and is cheap. I hope this micro will do the job. I will keep you posted. (Gees, that was a while ago. Yes It worked nicely. However, since I figured out the details and I don't think I can compete with the big guys on price this is where I left it. Today I would use a PIC12F675.) Any questions or comments? Email me at: <redrok@redrok.com> For further study on how MPPTs work look at the various patents on the subject at my Neat Patents page: http://www.redrok.com/neat.htm#MPPT Conclusion: If the power grid is available then there is no need of any form of PV nor other alternative power sources. The power grid provides a very stiff power source and can accommodate the use of simple low cost power supplies for most applications. However, not everyone has access to the power grid. Some also want that feeling of energy independence.

Conventionally, PV panels have been the mainstay alternative energy source. They are also very expensive. MPPTs are a solution to increasing the power delivered by the PV panels. If the costs of the MPPT is low enough, and I think they are, the total cost of the power delivered can be reduced. MPPTs can benefit many applications where the input power is not very constant. Many alternative energy sources have highly compliant output power curves and require a more sophisticated power converter than a simple power supply. If one wishes to maximize the delivered power from highly compliant power sources MPPTs are what is required. MPPT can increase the power output of a PV system by about 20%. Much greater gains in power can be obtained by using solar trackers which constantly aim the PV panels at the sun. I estimate about 100% increase in power output in summer and 50% increase annually, and about even in winter can be obtained from solar tracking. The combination of solar tracking and MPPTs is an unbeatable combination.