Tracking the sun......

7:30 am - Sunday - December 22nd - TWW - 36° F, humidity 30%, wind 7 mph out of the southeast......partially cloudy today with a forecast high of 64° F.  On this date in 2014 we were boondocking at Rincon Parkway, north of Ventura, CA....I know I've posted a lot of pictures this month from our last time on Rincon Parkway, but isn't this morning view just magical?......

....the sun is just hitting the Pacific Ocean from the east, and we are just feet away from the breaking waves....Anacapa Island in the background.  A million dollar view for $38/night.

We began day three of the Dual Axis Solar Tracker (by Eco Worthy) assembly with the simple goal of getting the six 100 watt solar panels installed, wired together, and the system tracking the sun.  Let's face it, nothing is ever simple, or straightforward with something as complicated as this, especially when the 'Hockwald way' is involved.  Up until Saturday morning the instructions have been fairly straightforward.  It didn't take us long to attach the solar panels, and wire them together, but when it came time to activate the solar tracking module it didn't seem to be working as it should.  By that I mean, it was moving, but pointing the solar array in the wrong direction.....

Just after installing the panels and activating the solar tracker....its facing the wrong way right now?

Wiring the six 100 watt bi-facial solar panels together

Sunday morning....waiting for the solar tracker to catch the sun

The wind speed generator

.....by this time it was after 12 pm, and time for a break, so I headed inside to do just that, and watch a YouTube video on the installation to determine what we had done wrong, or why the system wasn't tracking correctly.  The first video I watched gave me two clues.  The first was the sun sensor must be oriented in a very specific way, and I could see by watching the video that ours was 180° off in orientation.  The second was a wiring issue identified by the YouTube guy that showed the east west wires were reversed when installed at the factory.  I was pretty sure these two items were our issue, so TLE and I headed back out to reorient the sun sensor, and then reverse the two east/west wires (black on top, and red on the bottom).  Once we made those changes and turned on the control panel once again the system corrected its orientation, and began to follow the sun the rest of the day.  What would we do without YouTube?!

Once we knew the tracking system was operating correctly I set about installing the wind speed generator, and then put away my tools.  the wind speed generator is very necessary to protect the solar array from high winds.  When it senses sustained winds over a certain speed (what that is I don't know right now) it will move the panels back to the 'neutral' position, or parallel to the ground, just as it does at the end of the day when the sun has set. We won't be able to connect the solar tracker to the Bluetti AC200MAX battery bank until next Friday when the 100' cable arrives.  Until then we are very happy with our progress.  

After putting away the tools I headed inside to watch some NCAA college football playoff games.  The one I was really interested in was Texas vs. Clemson.  My brother-in-law, and very good friend, Glenn Parker (owns the 1984 Newell I found for him up near Sacramento back in 2019) lives in Austin, TX and is a very big UT fan.  The game began in sort of a lopsided way with Texas getting out to a big lead, but in the second half Clemson made a run to get within 14 points, but never any closer, however, it took a gutsy goal line stand by Texas late in the game to keep the lead at 14 points.  Ultimately Texas won 38-24 and will advance to the second round of the playoffs.  The evening game between Ohio State and Tennessee was a rout in favor of Ohio State, who won 42-17, and it really wasn't even that close.  I really just want to see competitive games, and so far only one of the first 4 playoff games was what I would call competitive, and interesting.

I'll follow the sun....The Beatles

Thanks for stopping by!