Side Stepping Some with Solar One
By Corporal Willy, 7/23/09
No I am not running out of steam, I do hope to make some however, but in order to proceed I need information which required me to head off in another direction temporarily. That direction forced me to spend some time on the computer designing a tool that would help me get the information I need to help keep Solar One of Engineering.com on tract, with the sun that is. Allow me to go over the problem once again. In the screen shot down below here you see the silver colored CAM Guide Rail System that I intend to use to keep Solar One on target to follow the sun. The picture down below is only my conceptualization on how to do this. The idea needs work of course, but no one had an already done part like this that I can adopt for my use, so yes, this is a real prototype for me to design and build.
Now in order to make a cam guide rail system like this, I intend to use a ten foot piece of EMT electrical tubing and my ¾ inch hand bender, But I need to know what kind of angles from the horizontal horizon plane the sun makes in my back yard. I also needed to know how long of a circular arc to make that rail system around the inside pivot table. I believe that there should be a beginning and an ending or start and finish of this part that will represent the hourly time segments. My reasoning here is simple enough. You aren’t going to make much heat from the early morning sunlight at around 5, 6, or 7 am in the morning. I have to start somewhere I know so I was thinking about 7:21 am. (only kidding) Actually 8 am was what I was thinking about for a beginning time and an ending time of about 5 or 6 pm but I know that could change with my studies that I will be doing over the next week or so. I thought about logging in the sun’s angle and time on the half hour or maybe just each hour. Still this will all be decided upon with the various tests I have to do. I will also use a radiometer (to judge by observing the spinning) to get some idea on when to set the timing too. Very unscientific of me I know but I do not have a laboratory and I have very little else to go by so I use what I can.
So how do you measure this sun angle? With a pencil and paper of course. Gotcha. Actually, that is what this article will be about. I’m retired so I cannot just go out and by such a device. I have to design one and then make it. Down below here are my conceptualization ideas for this tool. I don’t know any ship’s captains here in the desert so I tried my hand at making one of these sextants. I named it my “sexy sextant” by reason that I did not want anyone confusing it with a real one. But first, let us look at the screen shots of my conceptual ideas for one. The white sight tube has copper wire cross hairs at the back end of it. It will cast a shadow on the small metal plate that will have a paper cross hair inscribed within a circle and pasted on it. When the two line up pretty good I am going to assume (that is dangerous I know) that it is aligned with the sun at a perpendicular angle. Then I will read what angle that is on the vertically mounted protractor through the slot in the end piece that holds the small piece of PVC. I will also make note of the time and what angle is made on the protractor that is mounted horizontally. That latter measurement will tell me how to position the rail inside of the mechanical top section of this Solar One project.
Here down below are two closer or larger screen shots. Both the horizontal and vertical axis turn or pivot and I can keep it mounted to a camera tripod or lay it flat on top of solar one with it facing due south using a military lensatic compass. It got me through mine fields so I hope it will work on this.
This all wood model has some clear plastic 360 degree protractors, metal clamps, machine bolts and a short piece of PVC pipe too. Of course the two 360 degree protractors used here are for those angular steps of measurements I will need to record this solar event. The desert is very hot now and only very early hours are used to work on the Solar One Project. I must wear head, face and neck protection when working there. Plus I have a new puppy and a parrot that need my attention now that my wife and son flew back east for a few weeks. That is more time away from Solar One. But I have brought things inside to build the “sexy sextant” and down below here you will see what I mean. I present to all of you my idea of how to do these measurements in an actual prototype that I built. After positioning the tripod where I want it to be I use a very precise inclinometer to set the horizontal axis perfectly in all directions. The only problem I can for see with this setup is if a bird lands on it, a desert wind storm occurs or my next door neighbors kid’s golf balls hit it. He is practicing his chip shots now and he will be the world’s next Tiger Woods and I have about three dozen of those golf balls saved now. I will have to get him to autograph them for me.
As I mentioned up above here I will use a radiometer to try judging the strength of the sun for a start and a finish time to make hot water, and I will observe the rotational speed of the device in order to assess what those times will be. Let’s face it folks, this is a low budget project with no hope of selling anything. Oh yeah, did I tell you that I have very poor eyesight. Really low budget, huh? Anyway, down below here is my Corporal Willy’s interrpretation of an all in one low budget lab.
You have to wonder if Leonardo DaVinci started out like this? Sir Issac Newton would have had better ideas I’m sure. But don’t laugh it works. J Last two on this.
So I quit for today. Solar One of Engineering.com is a wash out, litterally. It don’t work without sun light so there was no reason to get wet any longer. Maybe if I set up shop in Alaska????? Bye for now.