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Assembling the Arduino Sun Harvester
Electronics System
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Previous version of this system can be found hereif you need the documentation.
We will start by listingall of the different components that you willneed to build the circuit.
Note that this component list is meant formedium (about 1m^2 of collector surface area)sized sun
trackers and heliostats. Larger machines can be controlled by using more powerful driver boards,
stepper motors, and a larger power supply, but that is not covered here yet. (I eventually plan to
develop a board that allows you to easily connect larger driver boards to the existing system, but more
on that in the future.)
Component List
Note that the various Sun Harvester circuit boards required for this project are currently only
available throughThe Cerebral Meltdown Store. Click thelink to learn more about the item.
1 of 6 21/06/17 19:33
Assembling the Arduino Sun Harvester Electronics System Cerebral Meltdown http://www.cerebralmeltdown.com/assembling-the-arduino-sun-harvester-electronics-system/
The cheapest, best option that I have been able to find is landscape wire, frequently used for outdoor
lighting. As the name implies, it is designed to be used outside and will thus hold up to the elements.
Since it is just a signal wire, it need not be a heavy gauge. It should ideally be something that will hold
up to the elements though. Either the Ethernet or landscape cable mentioned above could be made
towork for this, although the Ethernet cable contains thinner gauge wire which will plug easily into the
screw terminals on either the Sun Harvester Shield or Driver Board.
2 of 6 21/06/17 19:33
Assembling the Arduino Sun Harvester Electronics System Cerebral Meltdown http://www.cerebralmeltdown.com/assembling-the-arduino-sun-harvester-electronics-system/
3 of 6 21/06/17 19:33
Assembling the Arduino Sun Harvester Electronics System Cerebral Meltdown http://www.cerebralmeltdown.com/assembling-the-arduino-sun-harvester-electronics-system/
to use the Sun Harvester Shield to Driver Board Adapter. Both methods are described in the link below.
Connecting a Driver Board for Controlling a Single Machine
The wind protection mode switch is optional. Leaving it disconnected from the circuit will only prevent
you from putting the machine(s) into wind protection mode. Note that the wind protection mode
switch should not be the only fail safe you implementto prevent your machine from damage in high
winds.
Click the link below to view the wiringfor this step
Connecting theTarget Changer Potentiometer and Wind Protection Mode Switch to the Sun
HarvesterShield
The wiring for the Arduinos power supply is pretty obvious. Just plug it into the Arduino. If you happen
to have a supply with no plug, you can also wire it directly to the Sun Harvester Shield by connecting
the wires to the screw terminal in the upper right hand corner of the shield. Positive goes to Vin, and
negative goes to Gnd.
Also note that the Arduino is powered through the USB cable as well, so remember to unplug both it
and the power supply when working on the circuit.
4 of 6 21/06/17 19:33
Assembling the Arduino Sun Harvester Electronics System Cerebral Meltdown http://www.cerebralmeltdown.com/assembling-the-arduino-sun-harvester-electronics-system/
the driver board. Positive goes to M+, and negative goes to GND on the driver board.
If you are controlling multiple machines, then you will wire the driver board power supply to the
breakout boards instead. You can technically use any of the terminals wired M+ or GND, but I usually
use the one located at the upper right hand corner of the breakout board. If using more than one
breakout board, I would then use the terminal on the left side of the first board to transfer power to
right side the second breakout board. (This is shown more clearly in the Connecting Driver Boards for
Multiple Machines using Breakout Boardssection.)
The positive wire of the supply goes to M+ and the negative wire goes to GND on the breakout boards.
This color scheme will most likely be different if using anotherstepper motor. Bipolar stepper motors
(4 wires) tend to be the easiest to wire to the driver board since they have fewer wires compared to
the unipolar variety of stepper motors. Unipolar stepper motors can be wired as bipolar stepper motors
if needed. Refer to the manufacturers datasheet for the correct wiring if possible. Otherwise, a quick
websearch will reveal several websites with greatinstructions on stepper motor wiring.
RelevantForum Link
If youre curious, the history of this circuit along with information on how it works is available at the
following page on this sites forum. Note that the topic drifts around a bit since it is just a forum
thread. Also, the more recent posts are more accurate than the earliest ones.
http://cerebralmeltdown.com/forum/index.php?topic=335.0
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5 of 6 21/06/17 19:33
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