This solar panel tracks the sun using solar cells. It’s a pretty interesting technique, and can be done on the cheap.
The rectangular panels are doing the actual energy harvesting. The circular modules seen below are solar cells from some landscaping lights. They’re being used as sensors to help judge if the device is aimed directly at the sun. We’ve already seen this type of thing done with a quartet of light dependent resistors. In this case, if the negative leads for both landscaping lights are connected, a voltage may be read from the positive lead of each panel. If you measure that voltage, and use a rotating stand to adjust the position until the readings balance, you can be assured that your array is getting the optimal amount of sunlight.
[Gtoal] had been trying to drive motors directly from the output lines of these panels without success. We’re sure there’s a simple analog comparator circuit which would facilitate this. Grabbing a small microcontroller is another option (and some chips have an analog comparator built in).
