Tracking the sun. How hard can it be?
A good cheap tracker is needed in poor countries to make unattended solar cooking more reliable.
Basically the sun moves in an arc across the sky at 15 degrees per hour. So, all you have to do, is mount your solar cooker on a turntable, point it at the sun in the morning and turn it at that speed!
Sounds simple but there a few problems.
Electric Motors turn too quickly.
A strong wind blowing on your reflectors can munch up your gears!
Etc, etc, etc. Most trackers have little light sensors to track the sun but the wind problem remains.
What I came up with to solve these problems is dripper trackers.
I took the motor out of a digital clock, put a gearwheel where the hour hand should be and wound string round the wheel.
The string is attached to a little tube that lowers and lets water out of one container and into another. Floats in the containers pull the turntable around. This is so workable! We just need to find the most robust digital clock motors (or an alternative motor).
The little tubes only weigh 2 to 4 ounces (50 to 100 grams).
How hard can it be?
Dripper trackers are on the solarcooking.org website, so if you find a good cheap motor, you can recommend it there.
Brian
Basically the sun moves in an arc across the sky at 15 degrees per hour. So, all you have to do, is mount your solar cooker on a turntable, point it at the sun in the morning and turn it at that speed!
Sounds simple but there a few problems.
Electric Motors turn too quickly.
A strong wind blowing on your reflectors can munch up your gears!
Etc, etc, etc. Most trackers have little light sensors to track the sun but the wind problem remains.
What I came up with to solve these problems is dripper trackers.
I took the motor out of a digital clock, put a gearwheel where the hour hand should be and wound string round the wheel.
The string is attached to a little tube that lowers and lets water out of one container and into another. Floats in the containers pull the turntable around. This is so workable! We just need to find the most robust digital clock motors (or an alternative motor).
The little tubes only weigh 2 to 4 ounces (50 to 100 grams).
How hard can it be?
Dripper trackers are on the solarcooking.org website, so if you find a good cheap motor, you can recommend it there.
Brian
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