dual axis solar tracker using arduino

DUAL AXIS SOLAR TRACKER USING ARDUINO

Submitted to: - Submitted by: -Mr. Vaibhav Sharma Mr. Swetansh M.

Shrivastava

ELECTRONICS & COMMUNICATIONRAJ KUMAR GOEL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

CONTENTS: Introduction Component description AVR IC – ATMEGA168 Sensors Tracking mechanism

INTRODUCTIONSolar energy is a very large, inexaustable source of energy.

The power from the sun intercepted by the earth is approximatel 1.8*1011 MW.

Solar energy could supply all the present and future energyb needs of the world on a continuing basis. This makes it one of the most promising of the unconventional energy sources.

PROBLEM WITH SOLAR Problem associated with the use of solar

energy is that its availability varies widely with time. The variation in availability occurs daily because of the day night cycle and also seasonally because of the earth’s orbit around the sun.

To rectify these above problems the solar panel should be such that it always receive maximum intensity of light.

INTRODUCTIONSolar Tracker: - Solar trackers are devices used to orient photovoltaic

panels, reflectors, lenses or other optical devices toward the sun.

Since the sun’s position in the sky changes with the seasons and the time of day, trackers are used to align the collection system to maximize energy production.

Dual Axis Tracker: Dual axis trackers have two degrees of freedom that act as

axes of rotation. These axes are typically normal to one another.

Dual axis trackers allow for optimum solar energy levels due to their ability to follow the sun vertically and horizontally.

Here we have divide sun position into five areas and those are EAST, WEST, NORTH, SOUTH, CENTER.

Arduino Severino Board Arduino is a development platform for the purpose of

programing AVR microcontrollers. Arduino Severino board is used to program 28 pin DIP

ATMEGA168 IC. Here we are using 16MHz crystal for operating frequency.

ARDUINO SEVERINO BOARD:

ATMEGA168: The ATMEGA168 is a modified Harvard architecture 8-bit

RISC single chip microcontroller which was developed by Atmel in 1996.

Features: - Flash : 16KB EEPROM : 1024B SRAM : 512B Clock freq. : upto 20MHz Supply voltage : 2.8-5.5V Ext. Interrupt : 24 PWM : 6

Sensor: We are using LDR’s as a sensor to track the position of sunor density of sun light. Here we have made potentialdivider with LDR and register. Output voltage (Vo)is proportionalto light incident on LDR which isfurther processed to move solarpanel. Here we are using five sensors toTrack Sun position.

Servo Motor: Servo motors has three wires. Among those 3 wires, 2 wires provide power supply to the

motor and one is used to send PWM signals {50Hz (analog servos) or 400-500Hz (digital servos)} to the motor for required shaft positions.

Servo shaft is rotated by an angle depending on the ON-Time and OFF-time of the pulse.

Here we are using two servo motors- One for Horizontal movement and another for Vertical movement.

Servo motor

Tracking Mechanism:EAST- West movement

North – South movement

Thanks for Watching…

EXPLOREDEVELOPIMAGINE

SWETANSH