LED's for Home Lighting

[CyberKID]

Great work @CyberKID.

Some questions:

1. If you're using a DC Geared Motor wouldn't it require a huge current just to stay in place, ie., balance the torque?
Do you have a gear system to lock the mechanism into place, at a required angle?

2. Where are you sourcing your Solar panels from? How expensive are they?
How much current can you source from them?

3. Maintaining (or plan on) a inverter - battery - charger system with this?




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To mention some of my work :

I had made a 5W LED string using five 1W LEDs (3V,300mA).

*Powered by a 19V Laptop charger
*Controlled by a MOSFET circuit, with PWM on the gate by a microcontroller..
*I'm using inexpensive aluminium channel as a heatsink.
(The aluminium channel is the one the carpenters us for holding sliding cupboards onto place)

Some pics:
(I dont have the image with the LEDs turned on, will post them next time)

Spoiler

*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=14423&d=1401121566


View attachment 14423






*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=14424&d=1401122121

View attachment 14424







*i.imgur.com/5mDcGOf.jpg






*i.imgur.com/AE1jRiS.jpg

That's some great work there, quagmire. Just a week back, I bought a lot of 50 - 1 watt LED's from Ebay. Will source 1 watt x 3 and 7watt x 3 LED drivers locally. Locally the drivers seems much cheaper than getting from Ebay, as the regular 1 watt x 3 LED driver costs ~150 bucks on Ebay, while locally it costs just 50 bucks, while the 6-7 watt one costs a 100 bucks. I plan to LEDfy the recently completed first floor of my house.
Coming to both of your query, @quagmire, mastercool8695:
I am using two geared DC Motors running @ 10RPM @12VDC, to track the Azimuth (the direction of the sun, relative to the a fixed point on the earth) and the Zenith (The elevation of the sun, travelling from east to west, along it's course, during the day). These motors have a stall torque of 45kgs each, which, for the time being, I think, is sufficient to handle the entire load of the tracker with a pair of 100 watt multicrystalline solar panels, with each panel weighing ~8 kg's, and the frame of the tracker , I'm planning to make out of Aluminium, which would be lighter, and strong enough to hold the thing in place (with the entire setup estimated at around 30-35kgs, well below the max capacity of the motors). As such, the power requirement of the tracking as per my estimates aren't much, because, the motors have to be driven just for a couple of seconds, with each alignment, that too, mostly one motor, that will be tracking the diurnal movement of the sun. Along with that, an element of delay can be added with the arduino code to fetch the data from the sensors, and based on this delay element, the arduino will command the motors to adjust the position of the panels relative to the sun, thus curtailing the power requirements further, with the constant supply of power needed for driving the arduino board only. Additionally, I can try accommodating a separate 10-20 watt panel to drive the motors and other electronics required for tracking purpose, of there is a requirement.
As far as driving the tracker and the panels in place, these geared motors seem sufficient, as one can't move them without applying large amounts of force, but, to be on the safer side, I plan on using a gear mechanism based on a set of Worm gears, with the worm gear having a property of not being able to be moved by the attached gear, and thus can be relied upon to support the motor shafts sufficiently to hold the panels in place.
With regards to the panel sourcing, the best source to me, seems to be Ebay for now. I've tried checking out the commercial solar-hybrid power backup systems, but, was largely disappointed by - the cost, and the capacity, where an 850 VA system from Sukam, consisting an 850VA Solar-Hybrid inverter and an 80 watt panel costs ~30,000, while, such a system can be built well under 20K and with an additional 10K bucks, I can build a 2KVA inverter setup with 200 watts of solar power. The ones available to be installed on demand usually cost upwards of 1.5L for a 1KW system with the inverter and batteries, while, a similar 1KW system would cost half of that cost, ~ 25K for a 1.5KVA inverter and another 30-40K for the panels. Additionally, I can't afford to shell out a 1.5L for a 1KW solar power backup system, so, plan on to gradually increase its capacity.

 

[Chetan1991]

Thanks, Chetan. What I do is purely hobby DIY stuff and working on things, and at times, takes a lot of time to complete, and sometimes, I have to let it midway to take care of something important, so, having a blog or something like for the DIY stuff, I work upon, won't be feasible, because, a blog needs frequently updated content, while, I can't feed that much stuff to a blog to keep it alive for long.

You don't need to update a blog of that nature very frequently, only occasionally. You might not get regular visitors that way, but there will surely be lot of new visitors.
Consider how many engineering students are in our country, and how many of them are in sub standard colleges with teachers who have little to know practical knowledge. You'll be doing them a favor and could make some money through advertisement or affiliate links as well.

BTW, do you think this little decorative item can be made cheaply here?
*ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/410d2ZDFkgL.jpg
Could you elaborate from where can one procure parts to make one, and how to power it through USB?

 

[CyberKID]

This is actually something that is debatable. I already own a blog, and beyond managing my professional responsibilities, it's quite hard to manage this single blog itself, so, it'd be quite hard managing a new one. Though, I've thought of a host of tutorials blogs, but, adding a DIY electronics blog is something I haven't thought of.
I don't know whether you have a blog or not, but, with whatever experience I've gained in the last 1.5 years of my blogging career, it's mandatory that you update your blog regularly with new stuff, every once in a while, or your blog will die. When you start a blog, and add contents regularly and attract readers, you need to serve new content to them, or there are thousands of other blogs to serve them stuff.
As far the decorative piece is concerned, I planned on making one like that long ago, about 3-4 years back. I used some wires pulled out from the CAT-5 lan cable and soldered some 5mm led's at one end and the other end to power source, but, it never saw light of the day: P all you need is some creativity with this kind of stuff, some LED's, a soldering iron, a bunch of wires (preferably single strand wires) and some other components to make a power source (a cellphome charger will do good) You can use an unused one, by removing the charging connector, or get an appropriate jack from a nearby cellphone repair shop. Try it out, you'll love it.

 

[Chetan1991]

I think those are fibre optic cables not copper ones. You know where I can get some? The difficult part will be to make a good looking base.

When you start a blog, and add contents regularly and attract readers, you need to serve new content to them, or there are thousands of other blogs to serve them stuff.

AFAIK know, there aren't many sites explaining electronic circuit design and its practical aspects well. You seem like one who could do that. If you are aware of sites that teach circuit design, could you please mention them.

 

[mastercool8695]

I think those are fibre optic cables not copper ones. You know where I can get some? The difficult part will be to make a good looking base.


AFAIK know, there aren't many sites explaining electronic circuit design and its practical aspects well. You seem like one who could do that. If you are aware of sites that teach circuit design, could you please mention them.

this seems good :
*www.electronicsforu.com/electronicsforu/lab/

 

[CyberKID]

I think those are fibre optic cables not copper ones. You know where I can get some? The difficult part will be to make a good looking base.


AFAIK know, there aren't many sites explaining electronic circuit design and its practical aspects well. You seem like one who could do that. If you are aware of sites that teach circuit design, could you please mention them.

I think the copper ones too would work just fine. Optical fibre cables are good for carrying light and are not very much suited to carry electricity. You can use the neck of cold-drink bottles big and small, suitably cut, (small one placed inside a big one and both acting as a mould to create a vase like structure, using some cement/plaster of paris, and decorated using some paint. This can easily be used to house the circuitry and some detachable connectors and wires to easily detach it from the power source.
With Regards to sites explaining electronic circuit design, there are literally thousands of such sites that guide you how to design and develop electronic circuits for a variety of purposes, like, a circuit to make an emergency light to as big as building full fledged inverters and such. All you need to do is search the mighty google for the words and you'll get hundreds of pages with the results.

 

[Chetan1991]

Thanks. Optic fibres look beautiful when they carry light. Where can I get some?

 

[CyberKID]

Thanks. Optic fibres look beautiful when they carry light. Where can I get some?

Can't say where can you get some. But, you can actually get the Optical Patch up cables used for digital audio equipment, but, mind you, these are expensive.

- - - Updated - - -

If you want something like this, I'll suggest buy one locally. it shouldn't cost any more than a 100 bucks.

*i.imgur.com/ysP2fV0.png

 

[quagmire]

[MENTION=96386]CyberKID[/MENTION] at #101 : Awesome bro. This is some pro stuff.

Some questions (again)

1. Can you tell what kind of power supply you're using for the 50 1W LED lights?
AC rectified DC or something else?

2. Buddy, what are you doing for Power Factor Correction of the LED light systems?

3. Are you implementing some smart dimming in the LED arrays for power optimisation? If yes, which ICs are you using?


Please do keep us updated on your project..

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this seems good :
Circuit lab, Diagrams,Free circuits, Electronics periodical, Design: India

Yeah they are good but their content feels archaic.. Some of their circuits in their magazine use individual transistors for logic.
There's nothing wrong with that and its good for learning about discrete components, but often the entire 10+ transistor circuit can be easily replaced by low cost ICs like ATtiny, MSP430 etc..
Its pointless to even look for some of the old 70's logic ICs that they use..

I have even seen EFY "steal" (read repost) from other blogs, DIY sites etc..


I would recommend magazines like Circuit Cellar, Everyday Practical Electronics, New Electronics, Nuts and Volts, Embedded Systems Design etc over EFY anyday.

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Can't say where can you get some. But, you can actually get the Optical Patch up cables used for digital audio equipment, but, mind you, these are expensive.

- - - Updated - - -

If you want something like this, I'll suggest buy one locally. it shouldn't cost any more than a 100 bucks.


[IM]*i.imgur.com/ysP2fV0.png[/IMG]

Cool. I also wanted to make a completely controllable mood light using cheap fibre optics lights, even bought some 3W RGB LEDs from Dealextreme, but couldn't get the fibre optics..
Will try again during Diwali time..

 

[CyberKID]

@CyberKID at #101 : Awesome bro. This is some pro stuff.

Some questions (again)

1. Can you tell what kind of power supply you're using for the 50 1W LED lights?
AC rectified DC or something else?

2. Buddy, what are you doing for Power Factor Correction of the LED light systems?

3. Are you implementing some smart dimming in the LED arrays for power optimisation? If yes, which ICs are you using?


Please do keep us updated on your project..

I'm not planning to use all those 50 LED's in one place. I don't need a floodlight for now.
Will use the LED's in series along with some locally procured LED drivers (1Watt x3) and (1Watt X 6~7). Have bought some the last time I visited the electronics market to get some stuff. It's ridiculously cheaper (almost half the price) than for what we get these things at ebay, so, it was the way to go. Each of those 6-7 watt LED lamps shouldn't cost any more than 160 bucks, (Rs. 100 for the driver-bought in retail, and 45-50 for 7x1 watt LED's), so, there goes the PFC question. However, you can use an MOV (Metal Oxide Varistor) rated at around 400-450 volts to guard any ac powered circuit against voltage surges, PFC.
Dimmers normally use resistances, which would waste energy. So, for a different implementation of LED lights I'm having at my home, I planned to use pairs of LED's along with some 2-3 way switches, that would be able to control the light intensity along with the battery usage.
And yes, I do intend to keep you all guys updated with the progress that's why I bumped this thread.

---

Yeah they are good but their content feels archaic.. Some of their circuits in their magazine use individual transistors for logic.
There's nothing wrong with that and its good for learning about discrete components, but often the entire 10+ transistor circuit can be easily replaced by low cost ICs like ATtiny, MSP430 etc..
Its pointless to even look for some of the old 70's logic ICs that they use..

I have even seen EFY "steal" (read repost) from other blogs, DIY sites etc..


I would recommend magazines like Circuit Cellar, Everyday Practical Electronics, New Electronics, Nuts and Volts, Embedded Systems Design etc over EFY anyday.

---

Cool. I also wanted to make a completely controllable mood light using cheap fibre optics lights, even bought some 3W RGB LEDs from Dealextreme, but couldn't get the fibre optics..
Will try again during Diwali time.. [/QUOTE]

 

[CyberKID]

So, now works on the final prototype based on the actual design are underway. Got some wood last sunday, collected some other required pieces, including some gear sets, got some cylindrical iron shafts fabricated to hold on to the motor's shaft on one end and also to allow mounting one of the gear from the set.

Here's a new design we're thinking of building.

*i.imgur.com/XKQ5QFz.png

This is a Dual Axis Solar Tacking system design that we're planning to build. The system has been thought of to accommodate a couple of solar panels initially, around 100-250 watts for experimental purposes, with the scope to expand it further, upto a maximum weight of 130 kilograms for the current motor-gear mechanism combination.
Further, we can expand it more with changing the motors to something more capable, and it should work great. This design beyond being a dual axis tracking setup is being planned to be safe from other environmental factors, like storms, like the dust storms we've had here in Delhi a couple of days back, with the wind blowing in at speeds in excess to 110kmph. What we are planning is that based on inputs from a freely moving small dc motor attached to a fan blade, we'll accomplish the speed of wind based on the electricity it produces as the fan blade moves the copper coil in motor's core between the magnets to produce electricity. Beyond a certain threshold, we'll program the system to first align the panel's sun facing face downwards towards the floor, then aligning the panel horizontally parallel to the floor, to reduce the panel's resistance to the air/wind, and then a third motor attached to some kind of pulley mechanism will start on to enclose the entire system within a self contained frame.
We started off with the wooden prototype frame, did some work, then got stuck because I didn't have a drill to take it any further. Without a drill, it becomes a cumbersome task to make holes and such in it. So, ordered a drill, got it today, and, will carry on the work from today onwards.
Here are a few pics of the wooden frame work that has been done.

1. The frame that will hold on the solar panels. Since this is a prototype, I'm not going to mount any panels, just the sensors to check if it's working properly.
*i.imgur.com/CRAuSMB.png

2. The part of the tracker frame which will hold the above frame with the solar panel. This frame is the one on which the motor and the gear sets for aligning the sun vertically (for tracking the sun East to west, during the day), will be fitted. We plan to mount the motor on the this frame, along with the smaller gear on this frame, while the larger gear would be directly mounted and joined with the above frame holding the solar panels. Apart from that, this second frame will be the one, joint to the main body of the entire frame set fixed on the floor. This frame will be joined to the rest of the body with the help of some ball bearing sets and the second DC motor to provide the horizontal tracking, tracking the sun from north to south.

*i.imgur.com/L0Q2jz1.png

3. This is the final setup of the above two parts of the frame, we are trying to achieve.

*i.imgur.com/WXgzroE.png


And this is what we are trying to achieve:

*i.imgur.com/HG7FJL7.png

Will post the pics of the shafts, gears in the evening, maybe, by that time, we'll move a bit further with the design part.

 

[CyberKID]

So, here's the progress.

First, some parts, that we got.

The motor, and some shafts that we got fabricated to facilitate the transfer of rotary movement from the motor to the frame, and a ball bearing to allow easy movement..

*i.imgur.com/mgenfWx.png

We were waiting for the drill to arrive so as to start the work on the frame. We completed the mounting of the frames, for the single axis tracking part only, for now. Had mounted the gears on both the frames, and the motor was attached to the gears.

*i.imgur.com/KJMgMW2.png

*i.imgur.com/MgcWp1N.png

Then we found a fatal problem with design. The motor mounted independently, was not capable enough to handle the entire frame mounted on and being driven by the gear. As such, this was a design defect that we didn't seem to figure out, before actually working on it. We had more issues with the mounting. The bolt, which we used to fix the smaller gear with the motor was obstructing the movement of the entire frame. We'll need to replace the bolt with a different one, to allow hinderance free movement of the frame.

*i.imgur.com/giIAuyr.png

So, we moved on to try it out without the gear mechanism. While we search for answer to the problem at hand, we thought to give it a try by mounting the frame directly to the frame, as the motor was capable enough to handle the load of this small wooden frame. So, here's the resultant frame. This will atleast let us try on the arduino code to check it's proper functioning with an actual working model. Again this will probably be a single axis initial test, as actually getting the second axis is a tricky part, and we need to sort out priorities first, as the vertical movement tracking is the vital part, horizontal movement tracking is still manageable, as there won't be too frequent changes in the sun's direction.
Before we again go back to the design table, redesigning the mounting of the gear mechanism, the motor and the frame, we will give another try with some "jugaad" to work out the design defect with design. I will be keep this area updated with the progress of the project, and we are trying our best to finish this off atleast before the last week of June.

 

[CyberKID]

Finally got the code working proper enough to let the hardware decide and track on both the axis.
There were a few issues, with the earlier code, which was running the tracker on one axis, so, we had to indulge deep in the code again to modify and fine tune it enough to to make the code for dual axis tracking proper enough to work in tandem. Earlier code was making both the tracking take place independent of each other. I tested it yesterday, out in the open, will put it on test on Sunday, again, probably the whole day, out in the sun, to be sure of it's working conditions.

 

[truegenius]

considering current electricity situation in delhi ( ache din ) , this project very well worth the effort it takes

 

[CyberKID]

considering current electricity situation in delhi ( ache din ) , this project very well worth the effort it takes

Probably yes, and given the expected hike in the electricity tarrifs (after the meeting of DERC today, and courtesy achche din) , it'll probable save me some money as well.

 

[CyberKID]

After years of planning and dozens of design changes, and of course, not much, but still a couple thousands in investment [though the biggest chunk of investment is yet to be done], today morning, I have finally installed the tracker assembly on my rooftop. This means that the hardware part is almost over (almost, because I still need to install the Azimuthal rotation mechanism on the vertical shaft, which shouldn't take a lot of time, since I have planned how this will be done.)
Here are a few pictures I took before and after installation.

*farm6.staticflickr.com/5800/23494373582_d04ba25b45_c.jpg
DSC_0470 (Custom) by CyberK1D, on Flickr

*farm6.staticflickr.com/5835/22975850443_b20a7bc40e_c.jpg
DSC_0467 (Custom) by CyberK1D, on Flickr

*farm6.staticflickr.com/5725/23602907275_cfd83be4c2_c.jpg
DSC_0468 (Custom) by CyberK1D, on Flickr

*farm1.staticflickr.com/760/23494356662_4013288259_c.jpg
DSC_0485 (Custom) by CyberK1D, on Flickr

*farm6.staticflickr.com/5631/23494367212_284e14a513_c.jpg
DSC_0491 (Custom) by CyberK1D, on Flickr

*farm6.staticflickr.com/5648/22975872073_674d649750_c.jpg
DSC_0492 (Custom) by CyberK1D, on Flickr

The part covered inside that black polybag is the gear and motor mechanism that will be driving the zenithal axis. For now I have kept it covered because I will need some time to assemble up the remaining things, on the software and electronics and control front to make it fully functional. The panel mounted is the 40 watt panel I had bought earlier this year, and am using to directly drive 3 arrays of 1 watt x 5 LED's that are currently lighting up the ground floor kitchen in my house, which needs light to be switched on, even in the afternoon.
This setup will help me test and refine the mechanism before the foggy days set in, which, if not done within time, will further delay the project by a month or so. And singlehandedly, (because my brother, who was quite enthusiastic till the prototype phase, didn't really get the idea beyond the drawing board, and has thus mostly abstained in the development of this project, since.) it will be hard to me to work on this for a couple months starting March. So, I want to finish the design, implementation and testing phase over this month (December), and have a new year's present from January 1, 2016.

What's been done: The Tracker platform is ready. Almost all of it has been done with crude tools with hands, and a power drill, except for the small bits of welding that has been outsourced. The electronics control systems have already been worked upon while making the small prototypes that we have been working on for around 2 years now. This means that part of the electronic control systems along with software is already there, all I need to do is to hook it up to this platform. The Altitudinal or the Zenithal tracking has been readied, which means that once I hook up the power cable of that DC motor to the motor driver, it will begin working. The Azimuthal tracking too has been set up, except that this has not yet been attached to the power systems, and the DC motor, and gearing mechanism for this is yet to be attached, but this one shouldn't take too much time, maybe, less than a week, if I work for around 1 hour everyday, in the evening, after getting back home, from office. In the last couple of days, I have also worked over the LDR based sensor assembly, which, I intend to use with this platform to provide inputs for an active tracking of the sun.

What's Left: As described above, most of the complex things have been done. What's left is not much time consuming, but is definitely, money consuming. I have got to set up the Azimuthal tracking motor and the gear mechanism so that this could be called a Dual Axis Solar Tracker, as I wanted it to be. After that, I will be working on finetuning the Arduino code that we wrote for the prototypes, to make sure that it works as I want it to. Also, some more securing of the tracker platform needs to be done, to ensure that the really expensive stuff costing around 25K doesn't fall down two floors in the neighbour's empty plot, or even on my own roof, and get damaged. The money consuming part too is left. I am planning to hold a meeting with the guy who will help me get the two 250 watt panels for the initial setup, within this week or the next week. Next will be the Charge controller, which, I need to make sure that it is able to take in the power generated from the remaining two panels I have already planned to add in, to make a 1KW system comprising of 4x250watt panels, maybe, around 2 years from now. Also, I need to keep in mind that the charge controller should be a hybrid one, which accommodates input from both, the Solar array, and the grid mains, which will be charging the inverter battery from which the inverter will provide the power to run the appliances.

Future Goals: Though, it's too early to set up future goals, since, I am yet to set up the system, and make it functional, anyhow, I have something in mind, to expand the system over time, to try and be self reliant in terms of my electricity needs. For now, the system will have two panels 250 watt each, both of which will generate a combined power of 500 watts in an hour, which translates to close to 3-3.5KW through the day, if we take the most conservative figure for a sunny day. Further, I have planned to include two more panels of 250 watts my modifying the panel frame to accommodate two more panels and make the system a 4 panel one. Once this has been done, I will need to upgrade my inverter, and batteries too. The motive is to move as many appliances to solar power as possible. This includes the ones that are currently not running on my inverter, like the heavy wattage appliances.

 

[Zangetsu]

^^Awesome

from where u brought that solar panel board ?

 

[CyberKID]

Thanks, Bought this from eBay.

 

[NIGHTMARE]

CyberKID Man long time I was busy with work no time for forum. Bro you done great work. Started from the normal led and now solar panel. Awesome

 

[satinder]

Which Solar panels are vfm ?
Please suggest low cost but efficient panels to start with some portable and some for home/ one or two rooms led lighting.