Coresundrive solar tracking system
The suntrack controller can be easy setup to work with Coresundrive dual axis solar tracking motors. This a a proof of concept with a demonstration setup. The end sensors are inductive contactless. The accuracy is extremly high because the reduction of the slewing drive is 1:62 plus the motor 1:575. The encoder with double precision has 8 pulses per rotation. This makes the final rate 62 x 575 x 8 = 285200 pulses per rotation. 792 pulses per decrees. With this gear ratio a full rotations takes 15 minutes. The motor load is only 250mA at 24V.
Here documentation of the setup. This demo uses Kit#2 and Kit#3
Coresundrive suntracking
Custom hardware
It is possible to use the suntrack controller with your custom motors. Some requirements:
DC motor 12 or 24 Volt, 5 Ampere maximum.
Incremental rotary encoder type 5 Volt. For good result at least 30 steps/ decrees.
End switches on minimum and maximum position. These two are in parallel. Minimum is used for recalibration, maximum is used to learn the controller the working area. It is possible to work without end switches, they are recommended for safety
The movement of the motor axes has to be exactly horizontal and vertical.
How to connect to motor,encoder and and two normally open parallel wired switches:
Custom motors can be attached to the suntrack controller. The PID parameters can be changed, see the advanced manual.
Advanced users can change the parameters of the controller. All parameters are stored in nonvolatile memory.
To configure the controller the advanced manual
Once the parameters are correct for your hardware some checks:
Press x-zero, the motor has to turn anti clockwise, if not change the motor wires.
When the message HAL occurs the A and B signals of the encoder has to be changed.
Press y-zero, the motor has to run toward the ground, if not change the motor wires.
Now start with step 3 of the installation manual
When you have own solutions for moving the mirrors our controller can also be usefull. If you use 12 or 24V motors nominal 3A with A-B encoders, we may have a solution for you.
Special versions of the controller are possible for industrial use, a strain controller (with pc and Ethernet interface) can control up to 32 suntrack systems by CAN 2.0b.
DC motor 12 or 24 Volt, 5 Ampere maximum.
Incremental rotary encoder type 5 Volt. For good result at least 30 steps/ decrees.
End switches on minimum and maximum position. These two are in parallel. Minimum is used for recalibration, maximum is used to learn the controller the working area. It is possible to work without end switches, they are recommended for safety
The movement of the motor axes has to be exactly horizontal and vertical.
How to connect to motor,encoder and and two normally open parallel wired switches:
Custom motors can be attached to the suntrack controller. The PID parameters can be changed, see the advanced manual.
Advanced users can change the parameters of the controller. All parameters are stored in nonvolatile memory.
To configure the controller the advanced manual
Once the parameters are correct for your hardware some checks:
Press x-zero, the motor has to turn anti clockwise, if not change the motor wires.
When the message HAL occurs the A and B signals of the encoder has to be changed.
Press y-zero, the motor has to run toward the ground, if not change the motor wires.
Now start with step 3 of the installation manual
When you have own solutions for moving the mirrors our controller can also be usefull. If you use 12 or 24V motors nominal 3A with A-B encoders, we may have a solution for you.
Special versions of the controller are possible for industrial use, a strain controller (with pc and Ethernet interface) can control up to 32 suntrack systems by CAN 2.0b.
Industrial version
Large solar tracking systems are possible with a central controller. The central can communicate to each device and can update the firmware. With a pc connections the system can be maintained. For redundancy is is not recommended to create larger systems, it's better to use multiple of these. By using a smart power management it is possible to keep the peak power low.
