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Slidegate · 10-27-11, 01:51 PM

Well I started out making some homemade panels as kind of an experiment because I replaced the old windows in my house and had a bunch of storm windows left. I had 3 panels made. after my first one flopped ergo no encapsulate. I had them stationary initially feeding 2 batteries to my garage. I wanted this system to be an extreme emergency backup cause of maybe the inability to get gas for the generator. This system is off grid and I don't intend to connect to the grid since everything is mostly homemade and not UL approved. I then wanted to track the sun so I found 2 auto window motors and took the motor out of the second one and cut the worm gear of the armature and then coupled the 2 gear boxes together. I then got a starter gear and a flywheel. I bolted a front rotor to the fly wheel and put a spindle into a pipe and installed the bearings. I spring loaded the motor drive so that I can disconnect very easily. The thing runs so smooth and the torgue is so great I could not hold the frame from rotating. 180 degree rotation takes about 25 min. so when the sun is out there is no overshoot. Runs pretty accurate. I got the tracker circuit from MTM Scientific and dont have any problems with it. It has the 3 amp relays on the board but my motor only takes 1 amp. I put 2 sets of limits on the frame. One for the circuit board and one set directly for the motor circuit as a backup in case something failed on the circuit board. All the panels are fused with a disconnect. The batteries have 250 fuses on the pos posts with a 250 amp breaker going to the pure sine inverter. The charge controller is a 30 amp PWM. The control box has 30 amp fuses going to the batt. from the controller. I am using the load on my controller to power the tracking circuit and motor fused at 4 amp and I have a manual control switch fused at 3 amp for east and west so I dont have to go outside when the sun is not out. There is also a solar panel disconnect in the control box. I also have 3 more stationary panels facing south so on a bright sunny day I am cranking out 25 amps. Each panel puts out 19 volts and 67 watts in full sun. Here is also a pic of the battery compartment. If there are any specific questions feel free to ask.

10-27-11, 01:51 PM	#5
Slidegate Lurking Renovator Join Date: Oct 2011 Location: Mercer, Pa. Posts: 19 Thanks: 1 Thanked 4 Times in 3 Posts	Solar Tracker Well I started out making some homemade panels as kind of an experiment because I replaced the old windows in my house and had a bunch of storm windows left. I had 3 panels made. after my first one flopped ergo no encapsulate. I had them stationary initially feeding 2 batteries to my garage. I wanted this system to be an extreme emergency backup cause of maybe the inability to get gas for the generator. This system is off grid and I don't intend to connect to the grid since everything is mostly homemade and not UL approved. I then wanted to track the sun so I found 2 auto window motors and took the motor out of the second one and cut the worm gear of the armature and then coupled the 2 gear boxes together. I then got a starter gear and a flywheel. I bolted a front rotor to the fly wheel and put a spindle into a pipe and installed the bearings. I spring loaded the motor drive so that I can disconnect very easily. The thing runs so smooth and the torgue is so great I could not hold the frame from rotating. 180 degree rotation takes about 25 min. so when the sun is out there is no overshoot. Runs pretty accurate. I got the tracker circuit from MTM Scientific and dont have any problems with it. It has the 3 amp relays on the board but my motor only takes 1 amp. I put 2 sets of limits on the frame. One for the circuit board and one set directly for the motor circuit as a backup in case something failed on the circuit board. All the panels are fused with a disconnect. The batteries have 250 fuses on the pos posts with a 250 amp breaker going to the pure sine inverter. The charge controller is a 30 amp PWM. The control box has 30 amp fuses going to the batt. from the controller. I am using the load on my controller to power the tracking circuit and motor fused at 4 amp and I have a manual control switch fused at 3 amp for east and west so I dont have to go outside when the sun is not out. There is also a solar panel disconnect in the control box. I also have 3 more stationary panels facing south so on a bright sunny day I am cranking out 25 amps. Each panel puts out 19 volts and 67 watts in full sun. Here is also a pic of the battery compartment. If there are any specific questions feel free to ask. Attached Images Last edited by Slidegate; 10-27-11 at 05:56 PM..