I'm going to this camp and the instructors asked us to be prepared tomorrow to build a sun tracker for a solar panel. Does any one have any ideas, tips, or advice?
tbls0 has a good idea for the tracker, but let's take this one step farther. A clock motor large enough to move a solar panel, unless it is a very small one is going to be large, and expensive. Use the timer motor, as suggested, but attach a slotted disk to it, with a light source on one side, and a detector on the other side. As each slot comes up and allows light to pass through, this creates a one shot pulse which is used to cause a stepper motor to move position to keep the panel aimed at the sun. At the end of the panel travel for the end of the day, a switch could be set to close, bypassing the step control to put the motor into full constant speed reverse, this causing the panel to swing back to the morning position. The whole affair gets it's start up call by means of a light detector, similar to those used to turn lights off at sun up. The control would, of course be set to turn the system on to track the sun during the day. While some digital control is going to be needed, the system would not need a computer to run it.
Since the sun moves in the sky on a very predicatable course you don't need a closed loop control system to track it. All you need is a clock-drive motor and the proper gearing for your latitude. The clock drive motor will move at a constant rotational velocity based on time, and when it is geared down properly the angle of the shaft will follow the sun. Make sure the clock motor is powerful enough to move the solar panel, etc. That's a start, anyway. .
