Arduino Solar Tracker Using LDR Sensor & Servo Motor

Arduino Solar Tracker Solar energy is one of the fastest growing industries in India; today more than 13 GW energy is produced by solar power. Since solar energy is renewable, it is a good power source, especially for developing countries. In this project, I am going to show you how to make a solar tracker using Arduino. The solar panel tracker is designed to follow the sun movement so that maximum light intensity hits on the solar panel, thus increasing the power efficiency. Use of a solar tracker circuit in the field of energy production will increase its efficiency by almost 25%. This system can also be successfully implemented in other solar energy based projects water heaters and steam turbines. There are basically two types of Arduino sun trackers. One of them is the single axis solar tracker and the other is dual axis. Single axis solar tracking system moves the solar panel from east to west in a day to point in the direction of the sun. Dual axis solar trackers uses the motor to move the solar panel in all four directions (North-South & East-West). South to north is not a viable or big movement, because this movement covers only 20 degrees in half year and in remaining half year it moves from north to south and we can set this, manually in a week. Since the East-West tracking is more important, I will be explaining more of the single axis solar tracking. Arduino Solar Tracker – Working In this project an Arduino Nano is used, which works as a controlling unit. Two LDR’s (Light Dependent Resistor) are also connected to analog pins of the Arduino. A dummy solar plate is attached in parallel to the axis of servo motor and both the sensors are kept on the dummy solar plate as shown in the figure below.   The arrangement is made in such a way that the movement of sun is from sensor 1 to sensor 2, as shown in the mage below.   There are three conditions to be followed:- Condition 1: Sun is in left side – Light on sensor1 is high because shadow of barrier falls on sensor 2 so solar plate moves clockwise. Condition 2: Sun is in right Side – Light on sensor2 is high because shadow of barrier falls on sensor1 so solar plate movie anticlockwise. Condition 3: Sun is in the middle – Light on both sensors are equal so, plate will not rotate in any direction. Output is shown in the demo video below. You can see that the plate moves in the direction of light, but some fluctuation is visible in video because light is coming from multiple sources. Fluctuation is automatically removed when system is placed in direct sunlight. Components Used Circuit A PCB (Printed circuit board) is designed for this Solar Tracker Arduino. Using a breadboard or Zero PCB are also other simpler options to create this solar tracker circuit. For PCB printing refer the PCB design shown below.   The circuit diagram shown below. This is useful for ZERO PCB or breadboard circuit.   In the circuit two LDR (Light Dependent Resistors) sensors are used to sense the light. Since LDR is an analogue sensor they are connected to the analog pins A0 and A1 of Arduino. The sensors are connected in series with 10 k ohm resistors. A servomotor is also connected to the digital pin D10. D10 is a PWM (pulse width modulation) pin. A momentary switch is also connected to digital pin D2, mainly for calibration purposes. When the switch is pressed D2 pin...
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