On 3/13/2010 11:06 AM, Larry Jaques wrote:
On Sat, 13 Mar 2010 01:45:55 -0600, the infamous Morris Dovey
scrawled the following:

On 3/13/2010 12:30 AM, Morris Dovey wrote:
On 3/12/2010 11:44 PM, Nonny wrote:
With the rapid and frequent movement of the small Hobie, wouldn't a
solar tracking system be large, complex and take a good deal of power to
operate effectively?

Not necessarily. The control portion can be as tiny/simple/inexpensive
as this:

http://www.redrok.com/electron.htm#led3x (warning: large page!)

and small 12 VDC automotive motors with appropriate reduction gearing
driving lead screws should be adequate for positioning. I'd guess that a
marine/deep discharge battery should be enough for the test drive.

Oops - I meant to point out (but forgot) that the tracking system's
primary job will be to accommodate the inertia of the collector - to
keep it in the same orientation while the boat moves under it. This
should provide minimal loading on the motors.

Tracking the apparent movement of the sun will, I think, be smallest
part of the job.

How about air-loading some cylinders connected to the collector
system's (weighted) base to allow semi-free pivoting? It would
counteract the rocking motion of the boat to a great extent so
feedback from the position sensors would be diminished, lessening the
collector's "need to adjust" sensing.

I like the idea, but am /really/ trying to avoid "scope creep" here.

There's another aspect - I plan on posting photos and videos of whatever
I end up with, and I don't want any of that to be easily adapted for
pickup truck mountable fire control or weapons platforms.

Are you using some sort of time delay, too?

Duane Johnson's (redrok.com) little LED-based controller incorporates an
adjustable delay feature that I suspect will end up being tweaked
immediately before and during the voyage.

--
Morris Dovey
DeSoto Solar
DeSoto, Iowa USA
http://www.iedu.com/DeSoto/