Week 3 Solar Tracker

Initial tinkercad 2 pivot circuit

Initial 2 servo motor pivot solar tacker

This code essentially works using 4 LDR photoresistors, depending on which sensors the light is hitting more of determins where vertical and horizontal motors move to, for example if the top 2 LDR’s are hit with light it will signal the vertical servos to move up “else if ( avt > avd), “servov = ++servov;

INitial wiring

I attempted to wire up this circuit using the Arduino kit and the extra photoresistors i purchased, however i was definitely rusty with the wiring and my circuit initially would not work, at first this was down to program errors shown bellow nevertheless when i fixed these the circuit itself would not work. after multiple attempts to fix the circuit and to no avail i decided to wire a basic servo circuit as i thought maybe my servos where the issue and not the wiring. the problem turned out to be my wiring, I had wired up the servo’s the wrong way round.

Initial error
Motor test tinkercad
Motor test code
Motor test circuit

Parts list

For the components i need for this projects final prototype i will initially purchase the top 6 parts and if i have enough time to create a most likely in efficient solar charger i will buy the last 3 parts on the list:

  • 1x Solar cell
  • 4x DR
  • 1x arduino uno
  • 1x bread board
  • 2x servo motors
  • 8x female to male wires
  • ABS 3D printing filament
  • 1x Rechargeable battery (if possible)
  • 1x solar lipo charger board (if possible
  • 1x lipo charger protector (if possible)