Bushings: Wood vs Steel, DIY Solar Tracking Array, Tilting
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- Опубликовано: 12 сен 2024
- How to create a pivot point on the steel pipe? Wood vs Steel? In this video I make two different types of connections that will allow the solar panels to tilt and change angle. This will allow tracking of the sun angle for different times of the year, which will increase solar output.
The first design uses a steel ring and a plastic bushing. The second type is an oak yoke. I made both types as a test. I wanted to see how long they take to make, and ultimately help me decide which one to use on my solar project. I call this a bushing, not bearing. Hopefully I'm getting the right terminology.
If you are unfamiliar with this project, then please check out my video showing a plan and model. • DIY Tilting Solar Grou... The solar array will be used to charge my off-grid powerwall.
Eventually this will be a single-axis tracking array. I thought about making a duel-axis, but choose not to. My site has shade on the east and west sides, so my solar window is fairly narrow. A duel-axis tracker just won't have much benefit in my yard.
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Well working with that big oak is wonderful, especially coming from your own resource. But perhaps routing out the hole on a piece of 2x10 but do two of them to reach the 4 inch depth. Then glue together and trim outer square. Nice that you showed how you progressed with design as you went along, as most, if not all projects tend to do. Thanks for sharing.
When I was in my 20's back in the 70's, the company I worked for built fiberglass storage tanks for the oil drilling industry. I was building the 10 & 12 ft. diameter mold forms we sprayed/wound the tanks on. The tank molds were 3/16 inch thick, rolled steel tanks, slowly rotating horizontally on a 6 inch pipe axle. This axle was supported cantilever fashion, on bearings made from oak timbers. As long a as you kept em greased, they'd run forever around 12 rpm.
That's encouraging to hear. Thanks for sharing.
As usual a very professional video...good luck
Thanks Jr Gt.
Depending on how temporary you want it to be. I would go with the PVC. I would add a piece of 2" angle or sq. Tube to brace the z channel
Cut a part circle out of it. Like leaf spring perches on a truck Axel. Pieces of 2" matereal about 6" long should work. I love projeçts like this. I designed a rear suspension for a truck I had. It was a bit heavy duty for a 1/2 ton truck but it worked well. Can't wait to see what you come up with. I would use the PVC and add zerk fittings. And drill a hole in the PVC for the grease to pass. Keep at it.
I really like the look of the oak yoke , it would be mixing new with old to if that makes sense. Oak for sure
Since you are using it for the 3 change settings spring/fall, summer, winter it does not have to be like a bearing just be able to move. Now if you were using it to collect prime sunlight all day then I would worry about a smooth transition. I like the Oak and if the hole gets a little loose you can cut the circle in half as a tightening mechanism.
You would be better off to use the metal, make the plastic go all around and brace the pipe back to angle iron,
also you might drill and tap for a grease fitting....sort of surprised that you went to all the trouble to build a great house and now i understand that you are considering moving and starting all over....good luck with the sale..richard in arkansas
Hi Richard, I love building! That's why I'm always talking about "the next house". There is no timeline for moving, just "at some point". In the meantime, my wife and I are enjoying living in our home.
Oh, the dual axis tracker would indeed have a benefit. A cost-worthy benefit? Probably not. :P
I keep wanting to build some method of tracking for my solar panels, but they're quite expensive, especially automatic ones. :(
You nailed it, not a cost-worthy benefit. I'm trying to keep my purchasing of supplies (specific to the mount) to a minimum.
Well depending on how much exposure you get in your location it can be up to 50% extra electricity per day, so instead of a 1000W system you got a 1500W system with two axis tracking.
And from that you can also work out what it's worth.
Awesome video my friend.....
You can use window washer motors for your tilting, they are very strong and cheap as used
I was thinking the same thing Morten. I am probably going to model mine off this video: ruclips.net/video/vxhBMiyy3y0/видео.html
You could always hybrid it and use the wood to clamp the plastic bushing llike a pillow bearing. Cut the circle in half and shim the joint for tightness
Hi dwf dwf, I've been trying different systems. I bolted up a "Z" channel to the wood, but found extra play I didn't like. The Steel has almost no play to the pipe. Then I bought some U-bolts and tried them with the steel ring, but found the U-bolt still has some play, even when tightened down. So they both have play in the system. Yesterday I picked up some thick steel angle, and have been trying to cut out a simi-circle so that I could weld it to the steel ring. I figure that would wind up being the least-play system. However, I don't have a plasma cutter, so I've been hacking away at this steel to make the simi-circle and it looks poor. I've been on Craigslist for a used welder, but finding the cheapest welder is just a new 125 Amp Flux-core from Harbor Freight. $89 w/coupon. Anyways, that's where I'm at right now. I might go back to the wood?
Using either a linear actuator or any geared electric motor, if you have the panel balanced well enough there shouldn't be much weight on the motors which mean you could make it relatively free moving and the motors would be enough to hold it still instead of trying to use friction for that
Thank you. Recently I've been questioning the idea of using a moving array. I'm currently thinking of simplifying it and just making it fixed.
I don't know if this fits in your project very well but this video still proves interesting
ruclips.net/video/wDuMNY89lNk/видео.html
I'm sorry, but I don't understand. Your link was for a razor ad.
If I had the space and the panels I'd love to make an arduino or raspberry Pi -controlled solar tracker using time of day and latitude, and control two linear actuators to set the optimum angle continuously through the year.
With one actuator you could mount the axis north-south and rotate the panels E->W during the day.
However, just getting more panels might be cheaper and easier though not as much as a technical challenge!
Look forward to seeing it up and running...
Hi Andy, I thought about the idea of a duel-axis tracker, but eventually settled on the idea of one axis. The reason is my site. The last place I have on my site to mount panels is my backyard (where I showed the model in my past video). It is shaded on the east and west, so the window is short, and south. I will build this array to change angle for time of year. Thanks for watching.
Yes, the shading kind of negates the advantage - so you gotta make the most of your window!
Raising the whole thing may get you an hour or two more, and power optimizers will help mitigate shadows as they move from panel to panel, but that also pushes up costs significantly!
(Did you find my feedback on cheap BMSs useful?)
Hi Andy, I read all comments and appreciate any help offered. The link you sent was to another youtube video on cheap bms's. He had links to Ali-express in his description, but just went to a generic "BMS" page, not a specific one. The cheaper bms's I've seen on Ali-express seem to have the same issue you described, having 50ma or 60ma balancing. That's the other thing, I'm still trying to lean all the terminology for BMS's before making my choice. Top-balancing vs. bottom-balancing. Then there seems to be some that balance continuously, and some that only balance during charging. Most I've seen don't have a user interface. I saw a video on Going Off Grid, he said he had a BMS with LED's that would flash if they were balancing, but couldn't track down the same one. Anyways, I've still got more to learn on the topic before making my purchase. I'm not complaining, the learning is half the fun of making projects. On the positive side, I just checked every cell (all 96) and found them still in balance. I'm working on a charger video, probably be out in a week or so.
There certainly is a lot to learn, and after watching literally many thousands of videos on this subject, I think I'm a bit closer to being an expert now!
I've built a 14S 2kWh ebike battery and have another 800 tested harvested cells to put together for a home battery - still halfway entering them into the database to be able to allocate them to equally sized modules and I'll put them together using Average Joe / HBPowerwall's methods.
I prefer and recommend top balancing for home batteries/ebikes and only do balancing when the cells are at or near top of charge. Continuous balancing is pointless and wasteful.
When the weakest module reaches 3.0V, then stop everything... if it has a significantly lower capacity than the others, then change or add to it.
I'm using 18650s instead of leaf cells, but the principles are the same - you have 96 cells with 12 groups of 8, I have 784 cells as 14 groups of 56.
You do *not* need a monitor for each and every cell because they are connected in parallel - every cell connected in parallel in a module has *by definition* the same voltage! So you only need *one* longmon for every level of series, 12 in your case, 14 in mine and the basic Batrium would do the job perfectly.
Then you can forget spending weeks hunting down cheap Chinese BMSs that may burn your house down and/or kill your batteries with no hope of compensation! Capiche? :-)
ps... The BMS in DIY Tech's video from here www.aliexpress.com/item/14S-60A-active-bms-2017-new-Li-ion-smart-bms-pcm-with-android-Bluetooth-app-UART/32824233108.html
This is what I bought for my 1.5kW ebike but it's 14S. They have a 12S version too, but would only possibly be useful for you to monitor the cells via bluetooth as 60A is not enough for your 3kW.
If you got another 16 leaf cells, you could go to 14S as well with 58.8V max and be able to use more of the battery capacity with the inverter - I don't know what its max and min cutoff voltages are, but I think the 42-58.8V range of 14S would be better suited to the inverter than the 36-50.2V range of 12S, though I would use a smaller range and set cell max and min to 4.10V and 3.2V to extend battery life.
If you want smooth rotation use hdpe plastic (cheap white cutting boards from walmart) vs pvc pipe rings
Hi John, Thanks for the suggestion. Does it work the same way, as in heat in oven to curve around the pipe?
I'm sure you'll do it soon, but I'd be interested in your thoughts/ideas on how to change the angle automatically. I would think linear actuators might be too "weak" for the weight of the panels. Then I was thinking maybe a threaded rod type mechanism but not sure how it would attach.
Hi Joe, I haven't yet decided which way I'm going to go. It could be a long ways out given all the things I still need to do for the whole solar/powerwall system. Right now I'm thinking a windshield wiper motor connected to a scissor jack.
Well the panels should be balanced on the pivot so your actuator takes no extra stress.
And the simplest actuators people make are usually a threaded rod attached to either a windshield wiper motor or a cheap drill motor, then a slow timing switch to move it every couple of minutes.
Thx!
David,
As always your videos are informative and well done. Thank you.
However, you make a consistent "mistake" that is common to almost all RUclips DIY construction/assembly/fabrication videos. That is, your videos would be more effective instructional devices if you would show us the finished device, or assembly, at the very start of the video. That way viewers can much more easily visualize and understand the various steps as you go through them. Show us what you are attempting to accomplish first, then show us how you chose to get it done.
heya that is 1 way of tilting your panels lol
Dave a real good place to look for a BMS is altstore.com everybody there will be very helpful and will help you size the proper BMS to manage your batteries. Expect to pay about half of what you paid for your batteries for the proper BMS think of it as an insurance policy for your family. Also check your homeowner's insurance Co worker has a Tesla powerwall and he had to submit something showing that it was installed by a licensed electrician for his insurance.
www.batrium.com is also a good place for information about BMS