01-02-2014, 01:53 PM
Kander,
"tracking has a lot more headache with linear actuators. I can only imagine how long those wont last in the most conditions of Hawaii."
You are correct, basic linear actuators won't hold up here in Hawaii. Be they gate openers or be it a worse scenario installed on a tracker, angled and exposed all around. The actuator on my driveway gate crapped out within its first 3 years of service and I had to replace some internal components. Proper sealing simply isn't feasible for a tracker application.
That's what my original question was aimed at, the average power increases. I knew this region would show better than 1.5X increases but wasn't sure how much more, 2x sounds reasonable although I based my original calculations on a 1.5X increase. The more, the merrier.
I'm going to start with Gabriel's algorithm from http://cerebralmeltdown.com and work from there. I'm not yet literate in the more current programing languages and for that matter the whole digital electronics world has changed leaps and bounds since the late 80's when I did my electronics study. All the things available today were mere pipe-dreams back then. So building the whole thing from scratch has demanded some time just to catch up the modern changes, brushless steppers, driver controllers, breakout boards and microcontrollers, etc.
- Armed citizens provide security of a free State.
"tracking has a lot more headache with linear actuators. I can only imagine how long those wont last in the most conditions of Hawaii."
You are correct, basic linear actuators won't hold up here in Hawaii. Be they gate openers or be it a worse scenario installed on a tracker, angled and exposed all around. The actuator on my driveway gate crapped out within its first 3 years of service and I had to replace some internal components. Proper sealing simply isn't feasible for a tracker application.
That's what my original question was aimed at, the average power increases. I knew this region would show better than 1.5X increases but wasn't sure how much more, 2x sounds reasonable although I based my original calculations on a 1.5X increase. The more, the merrier.
I'm going to start with Gabriel's algorithm from http://cerebralmeltdown.com and work from there. I'm not yet literate in the more current programing languages and for that matter the whole digital electronics world has changed leaps and bounds since the late 80's when I did my electronics study. All the things available today were mere pipe-dreams back then. So building the whole thing from scratch has demanded some time just to catch up the modern changes, brushless steppers, driver controllers, breakout boards and microcontrollers, etc.
- Armed citizens provide security of a free State.