1.

Aim and Why to use it:

The position of the Sun with respect to the solar panel is not fixed due to the rotation of the Earth. For an efficient
usage of the solar energy, solar panel should continuously rotate in the direction of Sun.

the Solar panels should absorb energy to a maximum extent.

This can be done only if the panels are continuously placed towards the direction of the Sun. So, solar panel should
continuously rotate in the direction of Sun.

[Link]:
 Solar panel
 ATmega328 Micro Controller
 Light Dependent Resistor (LDR) x 2
 10KΩ x 3
 Servo Motor
 16MHz Crystal
 22pF Ceramic Capacitors x 2
 Push Button
 Breadboard
 Cardboard
 Connecting Wires

3. About Block diagram:

ATmega328 Microcontroller

ATmega328 is an AVR family micro controller. It is based on advanced RISC architecture. It is an 8-bit
controller. It has 32K Bytes of Programmable Flash memory, 1K Bytes of EEPROM and 2K Bytes of SRAM. It
has 23 programmable I/O pins. It supports peripheral features like two 8-bit timers, one 16-bit timer, 6 channel
ADC with 10-bit resolution, programmable USART, Serial Peripheral Interface, 2 wire serial interface (I2C), etc.

Solar Panel

Solar panel is placed on a piece of cardboard (just for demonstration) and the bottom of the cardboard is
connected to Servo motor. Solar panel consists of photovoltaic cells arranged in an order. Photovoltaic cell is
nothing but a solar cell. Solar cell is made up of semiconductor material silicon. When a light ray from Sun is
incident on the solar cell, some amount of energy is absorbed by this material. The absorbed energy is enough for
the electrons to jump from one orbit to other inside the atom. Cells have one or more electric field that directs the
electrons which creates current. By placing metal contact energy can be obtained from these cells.

LDR

Light Dependent Resistors or LDRs are the resistors whose resistance values depend on intensity of the light. As
the intensity of light falling on the LDR increases, resistance value decreases. In dark, LDR will have maximum
resistance. LDR will output an analog value which should be converted to digital. This can be done using analog
to digital converter. ATmega328 has analog to digital converter internally. It has six ADC channels from ADC0
to ADC5 (Pins 23 – 28). The two LDRs are connected to ADC pins i.e. 27 and 28 in a voltage divider fashion with
the help of individual 10KΩ Resistors. ADC conversion is done using successive approximation method.

Servo Motor

Servo motor is used to rotate the panel. To drive the servo motor, a PWM Signal must be provided to its control
pin and hence Pin 17 (which has PWM) is connected to the control pin of the servo motor.

By connecting a battery to the solar panel, you can store the energy generated by the solar cells and this energy
can be used when required. There are separate charge controller circuits dedicated to efficiently control the
charge acquired from solar panels and charge the batteries.
[Link] Description:

[Link]:
LDRs are used as the main light sensors. Two servo motors are fixed to the structure that holds the solar panel. The
program for Arduino is uploaded to the microcontroller. The working of the project is as follows.

LDRs sense the amount of sunlight falling on them. Four LDRs are divided into top, bottom, left and right.

For east – west tracking, the analog values from two top LDRs and two bottom LDRs are compared and if the top
set of LDRs receive more light, the vertical servo will move in that direction.

If the bottom LDRs receive more light, the servo moves in that direction.

For angular deflection of the solar panel, the analog values from two left LDRs and two right LDRs are compared. If
the left set of LDRs receive more light than the right set, the horizontal servo will move in that direction.

If the right set of LDRs receive more light, the servo moves in that direction. In the noon time, Sun is ahead and
intensity of light on both the panels is same. In such cases, panel is constant and there is no rotation.

Two light dependent resistors are arranged on the edges of the solar panel. Light dependent resistors
produce low resistance when light falls on them. The servo motor connected to the panel rotates the
panel in the direction of Sun. Panel is arranged in such a way that light on two LDRs is compared and
panel is rotated towards LDR which have high intensity i.e. low resistance compared to other. Servo
motor rotates the panel at certain angle. When the intensity of the light falling on right LDR is more,
panel slowly moves towards right and if intensity on the left LDR is more, panel slowly moves towards
left. In the noon time, Sun is ahead and intensity of light on both the panels is same. In such cases,
panel is constant and there is no rotation.

LDR - The resistance of a photoresistor or LDR decreases with increase in incident light intensity.

[Link] of Sun Tracking Solar Panel

 The solar energy can be reused as it is non-renewable resource.

 This also saves money as there is no need to pay for energy used (excluding the initial setup cost)
 Helps in maximizing the solar energy absorption by continuously tracking the sun.

[Link] Tracking Solar Panel Applications

  These panels can be used to power the traffic lights and streetlights
 These can be used in home to power the appliances using solar power.
 These can be used in industries as more energy can be saved by rotating the panel.

Limitations of Sun Tracking Solar Panel Circuit

1. Though solar energy can be utilized to maximum extent this may create problems in rainy season.
2. Although solar energy can be saved to batteries, they are heavy and occupy more space and required to
change time to time.
3. They are expensive.

[Link]

Push button:

• A push-button is a simple switch mechanism to control some aspect of a machine or a process.

• Buttons are typically made out of hard material, usually plastic or metal.

• The surface is usually flat or shaped to accommodate the human finger or hand, so as to be easily
depressed or pushed.

• Buttons are most often biased switches.

• Terms for the "pushing" of a button include pressing, depressing, mashing, slapping, hitting, and punching.

One end of 2 LDRs are connected to the Arduino board along with the 2 resistors. A servo motor, the other end of
the 2 Ldrs are connected to the bettery.