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The Canuckle

Our first solar tracker design provides single vertical axis solartracking controlled by a computer. It uses a small 12 volt 2 watt solar panel that would be good for trickle charging a 12 or 6 volt battery. This design does not use our LM339 solartracking circuit but instead uses a stepper motor connected to a parallel port. The circuit uses a L6221A stepper motor control chip to drive the stepper motor. There are several programs available on the internet that can be used to drive the digital inputs required for the L6221A. You can see a video of this solar tracker in action on my youtube channel solar tracker cost $12. Building this simple solar tracker design requires only a few basic tools and easily obtainable parts. First you need to locate a scrap printer. Inkjets are the most common but an old lazer printer will also have the required parts. The ABS fittings can be purchased at any hardware store. You will also need a small PCB hobby board which can be purchased at any electronics outlet. See the parts and tool list for details..

The first step is to disassemble the printer. You will be using the stepper motor, the stepper motor drive IC and a few capacitors, resistors and connectors, the power supply and the paper feed spur gear. The paper feed spur gear is pressed onto a shaft and can be removed using a socket and hammer. The IC, caps and resistors can be removed by carefully heating the solder side of the circuit board with a propane torch until the solder melts then tap the board on a hard surface and the parts will simply fall off.

Bearing Assembly

To make a bearing cut a hole out of the top of a 2" deep cap** using a 1.5" hole saw making sure the cut is centered. Then cut the skirt of the cap to the required length as in the drawing.

File flat the bottom of the square on the drain plug, drill a bolt hole. Place the drain plug into the cap as shown and attach the main gear with a bolt nut and lock washer. Cut a .250" slice from the end of a 1.5" fitting collar which will be inserted and glued into the cap to hold the bottom drain plug in place and form the main bearing.

The remaining skirt piece of the deep cap is placed on the bottom of the cap top to form a collar around the main gear. The gear should extend about .125" above the edge of the collar. You will also need to cut out a piece of the collar to accomodate the stepper motor gear head and shaft. Next cut off about .5" of the square piece on the second drain plug. Cut about .5" of the top of a 3" cap and center drill a 2" hole out of the top. This will be used to protect the top side of the main bearing. Glue this to the bottom of the second 1.5" drain plug collar. Then glue this assembly to the top of the main drain plug as shown. Glue a small piece of ABS to the bottom of the cap and one piece on each side of the collar to form 180 degree rotation stops. The T-fitting will thread onto the second drain plug and will be used to extend the arms to hold the PV solar panel. The thread fitting can be secured by a small through hole and wood screw.

Housing and Stepper Motor

Using a 4" cap first drill a small offset hole then a large centered hole. Glue the assembly made above onto the 4" cap as shown being careful to center it as closely as possible to the large hole.

Place the stepper motor in position and drill pilot holes for the stepper motor collar screws. Drill a pilot hole for the tensioner o-ring screw and install the o-ring screw. Place the o-ring around the bottom of the stepper motor and secure the stepper motor screws but only tighten them lightly. Make sure the stepper motor gear meshes with the main gear and stretch the o-ring tensioner over the o-ring screw. Make sure there is no binding by rotating the T-fitting 360 degrees. Once you have tested the rotation make a small cover from ABS for the exposed stepper motor gear head and glue it in place. You can make a cover for the bottom of the cap housing and also drill small openings to feed the wires through. The power wires from the solar panel can be left exposed as they should already be weather proof.

Assembly Details

Parts and tools required to build the Canuckle solar tracker (not including control circuit or mountings) include; ABS 4" cap, 3" cap, 2" cap, 1.5" T-fitting with drain plug, 1.5" drain plug, O-ring from drian plug, 1.5" elbow, 1.5" pipe. ABS cement, .625" 1.5" and 2" hole saws, utility knife, screw driver, drill and drill bits, fine flat file. The circuit board can simply be placed inside the base housing. The cover for the motor gear head is not shown in this diagram. 1.5" ABS pipe can be used as arms extending out from each side of the top T-fitting and cut to suit the PV panel dimensions.

Schematic L6221A

This circuit controls a stepper motor with a L6221A IC. The power supply from a printer can be used to supply the DC voltages. Tie all the ground pins on the Centronics connector to ground. Be carfull when hooking up the system to your PC. The PC parallel port can be damaged quite easily if you make incorrect connections. A good idea is to buy an inexpensive I/O card which has a parallel port and use it for your tracker. The L6221A chip can be found in many older inkjet printers. You can also easily adapt a floppy drive PCB for the same purpose. Here is a good site that explains the basics of using a parrallel port of a PC to control a stepper motor. Code Projects. We do not have any customized software to run the Canuckle solar tracker as of yet. We would appriciate any information on any available program on the net.

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