Actuators and moving this dish

[scotty562]

Hello everyone. I just found a dish and brough it home and powerwashed it. Anyway, I'm going to need to be able to move my dish in 2 axis for my project which means I'm going to be buying two actuators. I

'd like to learn more about these actuators and which ones to buy. I see them on eBay for $50 shipped. Is it as simple as buying the inverter, wiring up the positive and ground and it'll move, or does it need power, ground, and then to send it information over some sort of signal wire. If there is a signal wire, how do you send information to it? I don't want to use the controller box that it came with. I'd like to be able to hook up the positive and negative and it move in one direction and be able to reversie the polarity and it move in the other direction.

Please excuse my ignorance, I'd really like to learn!

 

[crackt]

most actuators require 2 control wires and 2 sensor wires. the motors are just a dc motor so reversing polarity on the control wires, reverses the direction of movement. now... most actuators use a magnet wheel / reed switch to communicate motion to a controller. the magnet wheel generates pulses which can be counted.

crackt out,.

 

[scotty562]

So I can just wire up the + and - on the motor to move the dish if I wanted and not need to worry about the controller?

 

[crackt]

yep. i leave two short wires for aiming at my dish. i use an 18v cordless drill battery to move it. simply switching polarity on the wires changes the direction of dish travel. without a controller though it will be hard to ever find the same spot twice.

crackt out,.

 

[scotty562]

I'll be tracking the sun so I just need to get it close . I'll be using a laptop as a controller baseically. The 18v battery is a great idea. I'll need a way to convert 120v down to 18-36v. A few old battery chargers should fit the bill.

 

[FaT Air]

I cooked an egg with a P-star Ku dish.

 

[scotty562]

I'll be lining my dish with 4" x 4" mirrors. Much like THIS guy did except I'll be circulating water through mine.

 

[SatelliteAV]

I'll be lining my dish with 4" x 4" mirrors. Much like THIS guy did except I'll be circulating water through mine.

You could automatically track the sun using two actuators with two controllers. Use a computer to calculate the sun position and send a DiSEqC command to each positioner. The azimuth motor would need to be repositioned every few minutes for optimize reflectivity.. The elevation motor would be positioned every day or two for the polar mount to correctly track the solar arc.

 

[Anole]

Much like THIS guy did . . .

What a waste of a beautiful dish.
That guy should be hung... out in front of his monstrosity. - :rant:

 

[FaT Air]

I built a sun tracker also, inspired by Red Rock Energy Heliostats stayed withing 1 or 2 degrees of the sun. Have fun, but when it's over, put her back into FTA.

 

[scotty562]

I'll be using multiple photelectric sensors and meassuring their voltage. Which ever is highest is closer to the sun so I'll move the dish in that direction until the middle sensor is highere than the other sensors.

Sorry guys, but once this baby is pumping out hot water she'll never go fta again.

 

[SatelliteAV]

I'll be using multiple photelectric sensors and meassuring their voltage. Which ever is highest is closer to the sun so I'll move the dish in that direction until the middle sensor is highere than the other sensors.

Sorry guys, but once this baby is pumping out hot water she'll never go fta again.

As the sun follows a specific track that the dish polar mount is design to precisely track, why reinvent the wheel? The motors and controllers are only waiting on DiSEqC commands from a device reading tables from a solar position calculator. Several solar position calculators are available online and the tables could be used to issue DiSEqC 1.2 commands to track both azimuth and the declination offset.

A luminance detection system would be difficult to manage. I would suggest that control would be difficult on an overcast day with diffused light or when heavy cloud cover with openings of indirect strong light. Predictive reflector aiming would maximize solar collection under minimal or occasional illumination opportunities.

 

[ynnedibanez]

at least you will be putting it to use heating water.
interesting idea, should be a good source of clean energy:up
that other guy just used it as a toy to melt and burn stuff like an idiot, and wasted a good dish in the process.
rather than go through the trouble of lining a dish with lots of mirrors, if i was you, i would search out an old fiberglass c-band dish and smooth the face of it out as much as possible with a DA and really fine grit sandpaper, then primer it with some good primer and paint it with several coats of chrome paint and then buff it really well till you can see your face in it.
should be able to get a much better focal point and it should be a lot easier to do than line hundreds of small mirrors up, and you wouldn't have any gaps between reflective surfaces so it should give you better efficiency
hope this helps,
Denny

 

[scotty562]

As the sun follows a specific track that the dish polar mount is design to precisely track, why reinvent the wheel? The motors and controllers are only waiting on DiSEqC commands from a device reading tables from a solar position calculator. Several solar position calculators are available online and the tables could be used to issue DiSEqC 1.2 commands to track both azimuth and the declination offset.

A luminance detection system would be difficult to manage. I would suggest that control would be difficult on an overcast day with diffused light or when heavy cloud cover with openings of indirect strong light. Predictive reflector aiming would maximize solar collection under minimal or occasional illumination opportunities.

I don't know anything about DiSEqC command and it sounds like I'd need to buy more stuff. I have all the parts to track it the way I mentioned. It won't take long. The computer will do most of the work . If there is heavy cloud cover, the dish probably won't work very well anyway.

Actually managing this system would be really easy. Once I have my programming set up it should smooth sailing from there.

at least you will be putting it to use heating water.
interesting idea, should be a good source of clean energy

that other guy just used it as a toy to melt and burn stuff like an idiot, and wasted a good dish in the process.
rather than go through the trouble of lining a dish with lots of mirrors, if i was you, i would search out an old fiberglass c-band dish and smooth the face of it out as much as possible with a DA and really fine grit sandpaper, then primer it with some good primer and paint it with several coats of chrome paint and then buff it really well till you can see your face in it.
should be able to get a much better focal point and it should be a lot easier to do than line hundreds of small mirrors up, and you wouldn't have any gaps between reflective surfaces so it should give you better efficiency

hope this helps,
Denny

Yep. I'll end up putting what is essentially a small boiler at the focus point to collect the heat. It should get pretty hot!

I considered buffing it and chroming it, but from what I hear the chrome will end up peeling and buffing that whole thing would take forever. I'd probably go nuts part way through . I do agree I'd get a much better focal point though.

And yes it does help. Thanks for the advice! I'm always looking for better ways to do things.

 

[Auric]

I'll be lining my dish with 4" x 4" mirrors. Much like THIS guy did except I'll be circulating water through mine.

There is a way I like a little better then mirrors, check it out.

Thumb through a few of this guys vids
YouTube - GREENPOWERSCIENCE's Channel

Question!
How are you going to keep your water from boiling away?
Is this for radiant heat or potable water?
I would probably skip this idea it it's for potable water

 

[scotty562]

I won't be able to look at those vids till I get home, but greenpowerscience does have some pretty cool videos.

To answer your questions:

1. I am going to keep the water from boiling away by ensuring I have a high enough flow rate to prevent this from happening. I'll also have saftey measures in place that will ensure no dangerous temps are reached. For instance, if the collector gets above temp x, then move dish away from the sun.

2. This will preheat my domestic hot water. I could use it as radiant heating if I wanted, but it'll be easier just to hook it up to a system that's already in place.