jamius.com

My attempt at a quick schematic for the "Box"... you might also want a resistor somewhere in there plus a status LED after the switch... dunno

I do think the diodes are a good point and I think they are fairly cheap. There are videos on youTube about people doing stuff like this, although I haven't watched them in a while. I would recommend looking there.

A friend sent me this link just a few days ago. It seems like there's a lot of good pictures and useful information:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Build-a ... lar-Panel/

There are comments on that site about the diodes also. I guess if you don't have one diode for every single "cell" in your panel you will end up losing most of your energy as soon as just one cell has a problem (like a shadow or damage). So, as others have said, the diodes are SUPER important.

Also, if you want to be REALLY cool, you make your solar panels follow the sun. A couple of photo transistors, a mount, and a motor would make that work pretty well. It's pretty easy, you mount a couple of photo transistors a little bit apart (a foot maybe), then if the left one is seeing more light (more voltage) than the right one, you turn the panels (and photo transistors) left, until the "light" seen by both photo transistors is roughly the same. I know there are ways to do it without any programming, but I don't know how. I'd do it with a micro controller. (Way overkill)

Don't know if this will help but: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4BKuH8m ... ure=relmfu
im making my own soon to power the electrics in my recycled hut, i like the idea of the panel following the sun! if you can think of any more info please do share!
Jack

Team Orr wrote:Don't know if this will help but: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4BKuH8m ... ure=relmfu
im making my own soon to power the electrics in my recycled hut, i like the idea of the panel following the sun! if you can think of any more info please do share!
Jack

That video does look cool.

The ability of solar panels to follow the sun is extremely important. If you want to get the most out of your panels this is a must. Just look at any solar power plant.

Anyway, they did it on "The Colony" a show on Discovery a while back. I'll see if I can find the video.