Resumamos al principio; Podemos elegir entre controladores ópticos, astronómicos e híbridos. Optical tiene la mejor relación calidad-precio, aunque a algunas personas no les gusta por ser demasiado "diligente". Astronomical es bastante caro y, desafortunadamente, rastrea el sol en lugar de la radiación. REI HYBRID Solar Tracker es el más preciso y eficiente, pero no tanto como para que su precio sea razonable. Además, tanto Astronomical como Hybrid requieren que el magnetómetro se calibre después de cada corte de energía, un desastre.
Diferencia Astro / Óptica: 200 USD
Diferencia Híbrido / Óptica: 300 USD
Solar Tracker sin un controlador seleccionado correctamente es solo una construcción. Se necesita un buen controlador para lograr el objetivo de eficiencia. En la etapa de prueba o investigación, se pueden omitir muchos aspectos importantes que afectan la forma en que funciona todo el conjunto o su seguridad. Al probar varias soluciones a lo largo de los años, hemos logrado romper muchos elementos e incluso derribar todo el rastreador. Intentaremos compartir nuestras experiencias con usted.
Es hora de interrumpir la división artificial de los controladores para aquellos que operan en sistemas cerrados y abiertos. Esta división resulta de la asignación de ciertos precursores de soluciones particulares a la tecnología, lo que provoca además un estancamiento en el desarrollo de los controladores. En el mercado actual, solo hay algunos productos que brindan resultados satisfactorios en las pruebas. Todas las soluciones restantes se centran principalmente en cuestiones teóricas y no en el aspecto constructivo para las necesidades del mercado.
Al utilizar la nomenclatura desarrollada, los sistemas cerrados funcionarán bien en las regiones tropicales con una ocurrencia insignificante de nubosidad - solo en lugares donde las estaciones lluviosas o cualquier otro cambio climático en el entorno entre las estaciones son mínimos. Los sistemas de circuito abierto, en forma de algoritmo puro, podrán resolver problemas de irradiación inestable, sin embargo, su utilidad es más bien de laboratorio.
La visión de REI asume un diseño de un controlador que excede el nivel actual de la tecnología, un controlador que realiza con éxito un concepto de sistema híbrido y que al mismo tiempo es totalmente configurable y manejable. Un controlador que deja la elección al usuario. Eliminamos las restricciones producidas por un división convencional resultante de una lógica operativa codificada de manera inflexible.
REI Driver abre posibilidades ilimitadas, gracias al uso de plataformas IoT eficientes, que permiten cambiar la implementación de algoritmos primarios y secundarios de manera relativamente fácil, por lo tanto, controlar el comportamiento de todo el sistema.
Al complementar los cálculos del algoritmo con transformaciones de datos en curso de sensores y un número ilimitado de periféricos, es posible ejecutar la autocalibración del sistema incluso en las condiciones de campo más duras.
Abrimos el camino para facilitar la recopilación de datos para futuras investigaciones. Permitimos una corrección mutua del funcionamiento de los racks cooperantes en una configuración maestro-esclavo. Por lo tanto, creamos una oportunidad para utilizar el aprendizaje automático o la inteligencia artificial para aplicaciones más sofisticadas
Es bueno saber cuáles son
It's good to know what my options are, but most of all to have a choice. If I decide to build a solar tracker for my own needs. Do I have to invest in a great solution that requires internet access, a data collection server, artificial intelligence and many other elements. Of course not. Let's think about what we will need for the tracker to do "the job" and his "mistakes" and awkwardness will not cause us significant loss in tracker performance.
Exactly: The division of trackers into astronomical and optical was not brought up by accident. The one mentioned earlier (open / closed system) is, so to speak; "Off the topic." As a recent tracker owner, I will focus on its accuracy. This means that none of the listed ones will meet my expectations. ... what is the accuracy, after all, tracking is about performance, not accuracy. I will explain this using the example of disadvantages. From a performance perspective - not a sun position, but the direction of the radiation does matter. (look at this photo)
The Astronomical Controller - Ad.1 works well only in perfect weather, the position of the sun is consistent with the angle of incidence of the light radiation. It works very badly if we are partially cloudy (thin layer of high clouds). While the azimuth is quite often consistent with the direction of the light, then the elevation of the sun has nothing to do with the angle at which the light falls on cloudy days. When this happens - early spring, 1/2 summer, autumn. So the astronomical driver in our climate, will work well only for 1/2 of the year and single days of spring, the other days of the year it looks towards the sun - not where it needs to be. As for point 2, we tested many magnetometers and inclinometers that play a very important role for the controller - without them, the controller does not know how actually the tracker is set. It turns out that it's either expensive or not accurate at all. Devices need to be properly calibrated and still "afraid" of any changes in the magnetic field. Power lines, steel structures, warehouses, a magnet in a pocket will cause the so-called "ironing" or de-calibration of the device - the sun positioning will be incorrect. The controller will set the structure with slight inaccurracy even on those long-awaited sunny days with clear skies, the tracker will not be as effective as it should be.
Optical Control - Ad.1 Only works well when the weather is stable. What I mean? the point is that the direction of the light changes depending on cloud density. When we have days with high volatility, e.g. every hour the clouds change their thickness, the driver has to work hard. Sometimes he even rushes to that position that it was unable to find the direction of the light. This happens around 1/3 spring and 1/3 autumn. The solution to the problem is adding parameters (light force, displacement times) so as to reduce the sensitivity to variability. However, this in most cases forces us to use limiter switches (mainly E - W) so that the tracker would not be able to twist so much that the light fell directly on his back.
Summarizing; both solutions have disadvantages. We checked the impact of these disadvantages on the efficiency of the installation for 3 years. It turns out that the simplicity and low purchase costs of optical driver do not detract its quality of work. The installation working under its control is 5-7% more efficient per year than an installation based on an astronomical driver, even with an expensive magnetometer and inclinometer.
REI HYBRID Solar Tracker. Solution with light sensors, implemented astronomical algorithm, magnetometer and limiters (ampere and physical) is by far the best. We produce such solutions with dedication to the most demanding. Compared to Astronomical controller, we obtain 10% more energy per year, compared to the optical one, about 3-4% Is that a lot? To explore this, a new article must be written. The REI HYBRID controller costs approx. USD550. (in the basic version)
Difference: 200 USD
The wind force sensor is a very necessary element - do not leave the tracker turned on without it. The day will certainly come when the tracker will become a wind collector like a sail. BUT ATTENTION - without exaggeration you do not need an accurate anemometer, only a sensor that will generate an impulse to the controller at a given wind force. Very often I see professional devices that unnecessarily increase costs. After all, this is only an indicator that is supposed to act as a threshold and not serve as a weather station.
Because it's always about cost, and believe it or not, housings often cost more than electronics alone (if you don't take software into account). All drivers look the same and have the same pinout. Differences are inside. Mostly the type of processors used. They have additional modules (PCBs, power supply, passive components, peripherals). We have not been able to keep the same derivation for 240V AC motors. AC 240V has higher voltages and we had to take care of insulation. Nevertheless, the housings themselves will always be the same, so one day we will order a mold for an injection molding machine and especially for you and for the "cause" we will lower the production costs. *** If you want your driver to look different than one or another using such 3D printed - for a fee, we can design and print everything for you.
The upper side of the controller has a fuse and terminals for sensors, wind and light. The light sensor is made of small photovoltaic cells and not diodes / photoresistors. Photoresistors are sensitive to different wavelengths of light than a photovoltaic panel, therefore, although the diode is cheaper, photovoltaic cells provide better results. Connection according to the colors.
The wind force sensor is a simple DC element that generates a voltage appropriate to the wind force, thanks to which the controller will perform the adjustment procedure in the event of appropriate signal. Green connection is "- minus", red is "Signal" *** Other linear anemometers can be used. Configuration allows you to change the procedure activation threshold.
The lower side of the controller has terminals for power supply, outputs for DC motors, and outputs for movement limiters (limit). We connect a DC power supply not smaller than 15A to the power supply. We connect motors not larger than 140W to the motor outputs. As limiters, we use the cheapest two-wire "NO" magnetic reed switches (eg from the alarm system). So that one wire from all reed switches is connected to "COM", while the other wire of individual reed switches is connected to individual outputs N, S, W, E .
REI Solar Tracker Controller have implemented logical limit switches noise-resistant and lets You manage construction in safe way. In that way You can really stop supply power to motors. You can also control any type of motors by external drives. Even more. You can control DC and BLDC/stepper or AC motor at the same time. Imagine some construction where in one function You are using linear actuator and to other direction You need AC 3 phase motor. Rei Controller lets You do that. See example schema bellow.
The optical driver is configurable with six buttons. To control the tracker manually press the "M" button for 1s To enter the configuration menu, press the "M" button for 5 seconds. To return to the automatic operation of the system (save the settings) press the "C" button.