NON CONVENTIONAL SOURCES OF TRACKING AND GEO

POSITIONING SYSTEM USING EMBEDDED SYSTEM

Prepared By:

S. DURGA - II IT

DEEPITHA- II IT

MAIL ID

1. durga.soman@yahoo.in

2. vcdeepi@gmail.com
 ABSTRACT

In today's climate of growing energy needs and increasing environmental concern, alternatives to the use

of non-renewable and polluting fossils fuels have to be investigating. One such alternative is solar energy.

Solar panels consists of photovoltaic cells,converts the solar energy into electrical energy. Solar energy is

a time dependent energy resource,at night or during heavy cloud cover,solar panels cannot produce

energy.

The system is designed to detect the presence of the sun and can position the solar panel towards sun's

direction automatically. Provision is made in this system,so that during daytime,if the sky is clouded and

the panel is not receiving any sunlight,then the system itself switched off automatically,by which precious

energy of the sun, which is stored in the lead acid battery can be saved.

In this system two LDR's are used as light sensing devices. The first LDR is used for the intensity of

sunlight irrespective of its position, for energizing the system, and the second LDR is used for detecting

the position, to drive the panel towards the sun direction. The output of second LDR is fed to ADC

(analog digital converter) for converting the analog information is fed to the microcontroller chip.

According to the digital information received from ADC, the microcontroller energizes the stepper motor.

Having four windings, and it is capable to drive up to 3Kg loads. This motor rotates in step wise and the

step angle is 1.8o . The required digital pulses to drive the motor are produced y the microcontroller. The

speed of the motor can be increased or decreased, by increasing or decreasing the pulse rate produced by

the microcontroller.

INTRODUCTION
 Nowadays with the advancement of technology in the field of Microcontroller, all the activities in
our day-to-day living have become part of information technology and we find microcontrollers in each
and every application. Trackers are used to increase the daily output of PV modules by keeping them
faced as directly as possible towards the sun. the sun sees a wider surface,and the increased reflectivity
that occurs at low angles of incidence is avoided. During the long days of summer when the sun is rising
north of east and setting north of west,a tracker can increase the daily output of modules by 25 to 40
percent. During the winter when the sun takes a low,short arc above the horizon,the tracker will contribute
much less,perhaps 10 to 15 percent.

In this system controller is used for sensing the presence and position of the sun,according to the
received information from the sensors,controller controls the panel automatically. Microcontrollers are
increasingly being used to implement control systems. It is therefore important to understand control
system well.

The microcontroller-controlled system contains essentially four parts, i.e.,the process,the analog to
digital converter,the control algorithm,and the clock. The times when the measured signals are converted
to digital form are called the sampling instants;the time between the successive sampling is called the
sampling period and it is donated by h. The output from the process is a continous signal. The output is
converted into digital form by A-D converter. The conversion is done at the sampling times.

One way to utilise solar energy is to generate electricity directly from the sunlight by photovoltaic
conversion. Since photovoltaic modules have now become extensively available in the country. Solar
energy has long been regarded as an ideal energy source but for the fact that we knew little to tap or use it
to our advantage. The advancement in science and technology brought out by mankind had lead to
developments like the photovoltaic cell. Solar panels comprise of a number of such PV cells. The output
of the solar panel is proportional to the intensity of the incident radiation from the sun.
 PHOTOVOLTAIC SYSTEMS

(SOLAR CELL)

Photovoltaic cells, by their very nature, convert radiation to electricity. This phenomenon has been known
for well over half a century, but until recently the amount of electricity generated were good for little more
than measuring radiation intensity. Most of the voltaic cells on the market today operate at an efficiency of
less than 15%; i.e., of all the radiations that falls upon them, less than 15% of it is converted to electricity.
The maximum theoretical efficiency for the voltaic cell is only 32.3%, but at this efficiency solar
electricity is very economical.

solar cell

This lower efficiency is not usually considered economical by most power companies, even if it is fine for
toys and pocket calculators. However for recent scientific advances have created a solar cell with an
efficiency of 28.2% in the laboratory. This type of cell has yet to be field tested. If it maintains its
efficiency in the uncontrolled environment of the outside world, and if it does not have a tendency to
break down, it will be economical for power companies to build solar power facilities.

Solar cells convert sunlight directly into electricity. Solar cells are often used to power calculators and
watches. They are made of semiconducting materials similar to those used in computer chips. When these
materials absorb sunlight, the solar energy knocks electrons loose from these atoms, allowing the electrons
to flow through the material to produce electricity. This process of converting light(photons) to
electricity(voltage) is called the photovoltaic(PV) effect.

WORKING OF SOLAR PANEL:

Solar panel draw energy from the sun that is converted to electricity to recharge the battery. The panel is
at its maximum effectiveness during hours of peak sunlight and at other extreme, makes no contribution at
night. In the space of a few sun hours, a panel provide enough energy to keep the battery charged.
Normally the cells are connected to form PV modules, which can be mounted on your roof to give you
your own mini power station.

SOLAR PANEL ON THE ROOF OF THE HOUSE

The main application of PV in Scotland is to provide some electricity for buildings, which dont have
mains electricity, supply. That includes remote houses, cabin, boats and caravans. In that situation PV
electricity can be more attractive than the alternative of a diesel or petrol generator. Sometimes PV can be
combined with wind power. That can reduce the amount of battery capacity needed for all off-grid
applications.

TYPICAL SOLAR TRACKER

In the solar tracking system two LDR’S (light dependent resistors) are used as light sensing device. The
first LDR is used for detecting the intensity of sun light irrespective of its position, for energizing the
system, and the second LDR is used for detecting the position, to drive the panel towards the sun
direction. The output of the second LDR is fed to ADC (analog digital converter) for converting the
analog information into digital information which is fed to the microcontroller chip. According to the
digital information received from ADC, the microcontroller energizes the stepper motor. This stepper
motor rotates the solar panels from west to east and again from east to west for tracking the sun. When the
panel is positioned towards the sun, the microcontroller de-energizes the motor automatically. The speed
of the motor can be increased or decreased by increasing or decreasing the pulse rate produced by the
microcontroller.

This is how the sun is tracked and positioned using microcontroller

 TRIGGER relay
LDR-1
CIRCUIT

+5V
Relay
+12 contact
POWER VOLTAGE
SUPPLY REGULATOR
UNIT com (+5V)

MICRO
LDR-2 CONTROLLER
(89C51)

ANALOG TO
DIGITAL
CONVERTOR
STEPPER
MOTOR
DRIVECKT

CLOCK Limit s/w- 1 to stop STEPPER

GENERATOR the motor at west end MOTOR

Limit s/w-2 to stop the

motor at east end
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE BLOCK DIAGRAM:

The components in the tracking system are described as follows:

LDR-1:

• Light dependent resistor(LDR-1) used to detect the intensity of sunlight.

• LDR is connected in series with the 10k resistor and it is configured as potential difference
network.
• The intensity of sunlight is inversely proportional to the resistance.
• This can be arranged over the solar panel to detect the natural light irrespective of the position.
• It is also called as “SURFACE MOUNTING SENSOR”.

TRIGGER CIRCUIT:

• The output voltage of the LDR which is proportional to the intensity of the light is fed to trigger
circuit.
• The trigger circuit is designed with LDR, lamp and 555 timer
 LDR-2:

• It is used to detect the position of the sun.

• When LDR-2 is exposed to the sunlight,the stepper motor should position the solar panel towards
sun position automatically.
• The output of the LDR is fed to pin no:26 of A/D converter and then to microcontroller.
• Whenever the sun is tracked ,the following operation takes place,

1.The resistance of the LDR decreases.

2.The reference voltage decreases.

3.The decreased voltage will de-energize the stepper motor,

therby the panel remains at that particular position

A/D CONVERTER:

• This section act as an interface between the LDR-2 and the microcontroller.
• The method of conversion used is “SUCCESSIVE APPROXIMATION TYPE”.

ADC REGISTER

Analog I /p
DATA A/D CONVERTER

Block to convert analog to digital form

CLOCK GENERATOR: It is designed using 555 timer.

• It is of Astable configuration
• The required frequency is more than 100 KHz.
• This frequency can be varied.
MICROCONTROLLER:

• Microcontrollers are “embedded” inside some other device so that they can control the features or
actions of the product and therefore is “EMBEDDED CONTROLLER”.
• Microcontrollers are dedicated to one task and run one specific program.
• They are often low power devices.
• A battery- operated microcontroller might consume 50 milli watts.

ADVANTAGES :

• The microcontroller has got all memory peripherals within a single chip
• It reduces the PCB size and cost of the design

STEPPER MOTOR:

• It operates on phase switched DC power.

• Bipolar drive-the direction of current flow through the winding will be controlled.
• Unipolar drive- the center tap of each winding is used and connected to the power source.
• The commonly used motor in this system can drive up to 3kg loads with a step angle of 1.8 deg

REPRESENTATION OF STEPPER MOTOR

Advantages of stepper motor:

• Drift free.
• The step angle error is very small and non-cumulative.
• Rapid response to starting, stopping and reversing.
• Brush-less design for reliability simplicity.
• High torque per package size.
• Stable at zero speed.
• Bidirectional operation.

FUTURE ENHANCEMENTS:

AUTOMATIC SUN TRACKING SYSTEM:

• The computer and system control unit would have a wireless communication with a mechanical
structure of solar panels.
• More sensitive sensors would be used.
• To reprogram the PIC microcontroller a wireless boot loader would be used.

Nellis AFB Solar panels EuroDish

CONCLUSION:

The paper on “ TRACKING & GEO POSITIONING SYSTEM USING MICROCONTROLLER” which
is one of the application of EMBEDDED SYSTEM has been clearly explained and submitted.

REFERENCE:

• The concepts and features of microcontrollers- By: Raj Kamal.

• Linear Integrated Circuits By: Rai Choudhury.