Just finished building a medium scale solar cell array panel to power some small electronics outdoors. Here're some pictures of the construction and the end result:
This is a closeup of a solar panel. These are polycarbonate panels that generate about 1.75 watts of power. I got them from this eBay seller http://myworld.ebay.com/rebeccayi0904
A closeup of a 6 panels connected in serial. The multimeter reads 3.20 volts. I was getting an average of 3.1 volts on a sunny day. When it's cloudy the voltage did not drop very noticeably, but the amps did fall quite rapidly.
A closer look at how the panels are connected. These are the "buses" that transmit the electricity from one panel to the next. The front side of the panel is the negative and the back side is the positive.
The final product. Sorry for the lousy lighting. I will try to take a better picture later. Total output on a sunny day: about 30 watts and 2.2 amps with 12.2 volts. These results will be dramatically different under cloudy days.
I definitively suck at carpentry or anything that requires extreme detail wood work. Even with the right tools i make more mistakes than...@#%#@!!
MDF sucks! :)
Connecting these solar cells was harder than i thought. It is an exercise on patience and perseverance. If you've committed lots of sins, this is a good way to atone!
Oh... i also hate plexyglass... but it's better than regular glass
Hopefully you learn a little from my experience and produce a better product from it. Good luck!
He pasado las últimas semanas diseñando un aparato que pueda dispensar comida a mis gatos en una forma sistemática y predecible. El resultado es esta máquina.
El cilindro descansa en dos barras metálicas para darle fuerte soporte y también una forma de girar sin restricción. La rotación viene de un motor servo cuyo cual es controlado directamente por el Arduino.
El cilindro tiene una apertura en su lado. Cuando este gira, la apertura permite que la comida dentro de el salga y caiga por tubos de PVC a los dos contenedores donde los gatos pueden comer.
Un rayo laser es usado para calcular la posición del contenedor. El laser está apuntando a un sensor de luz. En uno de los extremos del contenedor cilíndrico hay un pedazo de madera que actúa como indicador de la posición de la apertura de la comida en el cilindro. Este trozo de madera está alineado con la apertura de comida. Este también está en el mismo plano que el rayo de laser iluminando el sensor de luz. Cuando la apertura de la comida está mirando arriba (y por supuesto no dejando que la comida caiga) el pedazo de madera bloquea el rayo de laser y no deja que ilumine el sensor. De esta forma el Arduino sabe cuando el contenedor no está dando más comida.
La idea de usar el rayo laser para detectar la posición del contenedor viene de este blog.
Finalmente, el aparato tiene un reloj en el Arduino que le comanda a dar comida cada cuantas horas. Un usuario también puede conectarse al aparato por medio de una página de internet y observar su operación por medio de una cámara conectada a otro computador. El aparato tiene un modulo de comunicación inalámbrico (Xbee) que recibe y manda datos a un computador servidor. El usuario, por la misma página de internet, puede mandar comandos para dar comida inmediatamente, activar o desactivar el reloj, y otros. Los videos, aunque narrados es Ingles, tienen una buena explicación grafica de cómo funciona y se usa.
Obstáculos mayores Mi mayor problema fue controlar el motor precisamente. Debido a que los motores son susceptibles a cambios de voltaje y corriente, los motores deben ser conectados en una forma especial. El proceso de “de-coupling” debe ser implementado para que el motor no se vuelva loco en media de su funcionamiento. Esta página tiene una muy buena explicación de esto.
¡Finalmente! Los videos. Excuse que este en Ingles. ¡Espero poder traducirlos en el futuro!
Cualquier comentario productivo será my agradecido. Muchas gracias por leer. Por favor excuse my español. :)
I have spent the last several weeks building a device to automatically dispense dry food to our two adorable cats. The cats need to be ona diet due to weight issues. So a certain amount of food must be given to them throughout the day.
i learned about the Arduino board soon before starting this project. So this little hobby has given me the perfect opportunity to learn more about this amazing device and its ever-expanding capabilities.
The cat feeder is basically a cylindrical container that has an opening on its side. The cylinder rests on its side and is supported by wooden dowles and rollerblade ballbearings which allow it to rotate with ease.
The rotation is provided by a wheel attached to a small motor. the signal and power is provided by an Arduino Duemilanove.
When the cylinder spins, the opening allows food to fall off when the opening faces down. A funnel system then drives the food to a Y type PVD junction which distributes the food evenly to two bowls. Since the food is dispensed to both bowls at the same time, the cats eat toegether and therefore minimizes the chances that one cat its share and then try to eat from the other's.
When the cylinder needs to be refilled, my wife or I can just pick up the cylinder, open one side, and fill it up. Then we replace the cylinder and make sure the plastic cover is properly set and positioned. This is important because otherwise the food will start falling off.
When the motor runs, it makes the cylinder rotate a certain amount of times. However, since the cylinder may provide varying resistance due to its weight (due to the amount of food in it) then a laser-driven sensor is also put in place to make sure the cylinder is repositioned in the right place to prevent premature spillage.
The plastic cover that closes the lid of the cylinder has a piece of wood that acts as a signal blocker. This piece of wood basically blocks a laser bean from illuminating a light-dependent resistor (LDR). When the piece of wood is positioned correctly, it will block the laser. If the LDR detects the laser, this is a notification to the Arduino controller that it needs to readjust the cylinder. It will continue doing this until the LDR no longer receive light from the laser. I must provide great thanks to the author if this blog for his use of laser and LDRs
Here are some videos detailing the various elements that make up the feeder...
UPDATE: I've added some other videos to show the device details...
Improvements as of 6/22/09
Connection between PC and feeder is now wireless using Xbee modules. Now the cat feeder is free to be anywehere around the house. Just needs a power connection.
A web interface has been created which allows the control of the device via a web site. A web cam with live video feed has also been setup to monitor the feeder and the cats.
Challenges
By far, my biggest challenge was something called "de-coupling" The idea that a motor, or any device that generates electromagnetic force, can disrrupt the circuit and cause devices to go nutty. i found this web site , as well as the Arduino.cc forums, very useful while trying to figure out how to use capacitors to resolve this issue.
Ongoing Development
Improve the way the container rotates. I don't really like the way i have to fill it at this time.
Implement a better timer solution in the Arduino. I'm looking at the MSTimer2 libraries, will see if this have better results. While my current solution works fine, i am sure there are better ways to solve this issue.
Constructive and helpful comments and suggestions are always welcomed!
I think i just found the best tool to help me document and diagram my Cat feeder Arduino project. It is a diagraming tool dedicated to the Arduino environment. It is called Fritzing (http://fritzing.org/) and runs on the same environment as the Arduino and Processiong Java environment. I must admit, though, that this IDE is way nicer and easier to use. Can't wait to start document my project with this!
One of the most anoying issues i encountered as i started working with the Arduino board was what kind of power adapter should i use? Thankfully, the good folks of Arduino.cc have provided an excellent description and provided a great page for it. Go to http://www.arduino.cc/playground/Learning/WhatAdapter and make an intelligent decision now that you have all the necessary information.
this is a video about south Florida Fight Club. This is the Jiu Jitsu gym i attend on a regular basis. I wish i could come more often. They are a great group of people, very friendly and always ready to help and teach!
I was looking at this image (http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap080723.html) this morning and started thinking about its quote. It said that a long time ago water could have fallen off from these cliffs and could actually have been the force that formed these impressive precipices.
Then I realized that the whole “travel in time” idea is impossible. This is why: People who claim that time travel believe can be so if they can travel faster than the speed of light. However, what I think would happen if you were able to travel faster than light is that you would be able to catch the IMAGE of the events that have taken place in the past. Just as it takes 8 minutes for light to reach earth from the sun; we say that we are now looking at what happened on the sun 8 minutes ago. If we could travel faster than light, our starting point was the sun, and we headed toward earth, all we would achieve is reaching earth BEFORE the image of the sun at the time we left was able to get to earth. The event, no matter how fast we traveled, would have already happened; and there is nothing we could do to go back before that event.
So what I was thinking was that if we could travel much, much faster than light we would be able to SEE what happened in the past. We could determine if lava, water, or Diet coke was the culprit for such wonderful canyons in mars. Perhaps this would be an even better power than actual time travel since we would not have to worry about the whole time and “killing your own parents” paradox!
