Yes there could probably be a automatic adjustment mode, where the head temperature or electric energy output is used to figure at which balance between fotoresistor readings the optimum is... but I think I better make that a manual option! The bootloder came up before I guess thats a chip that is 'Self-programmable under software control' like one of these: 18LF4320 or 18LF4539 those bootloaders are some of the shelf programs? where do I find them? On 7/16/07, Forrest W. Christian wrote: > > Tobias Gogolin wrote: > > >And its worth mentioning that since I am using recycled fiberglass > satellite > >dishes to concentrate the energy, they do need to point straight at the > >source of parallel rays > > > > > Well, that's a whole different problem than optimum pointing of a flat > panel (which has a wide tolerance of misalignment and is pretty > forgiving of not being moved at all). The effective beamwidth of a dish > is relatively narrow, so you're going to have to be really accurate in > this case, which means you're going to have to be moving the dish a > lot. It will be interesting to see the efficiencies you get with doing > this.. > > Personally, I'd be tempted to implement this using an accurate clock and > lat/long data to come up with accurate az/el settings for every moment > of the day so that you could be sure you are pointing *exactly* at the > sun. I'd probably also do some intential misaligns also to ensure I > was tracked ok. > > >For old style PV the controller could get a specific mode where it > actually > >measures the power produced to optimize the positioning, actually I am > >hoping to investigate that soon, also in order to apply the same > electronic > >infrastructure some day to an automatic wifi antenna tuning setup! > > > > > That would work also, but for efficiency sake, I'd probably use a > predicted az/el (using lat,long and date/time) as a starting point, then > optimize from there. This is what I meant by "intential misaligns". > Move to the az/el, then move up, down, left, or right and verify that > there is less sun when you are off-axis. If there's more sun off-axis, > then use this to either warn the operator, or to slightly tweak the > table. If you got really fancy and you had one of the bigger pics (and > you were good at writing tight code), you may even be able to figure out > whether the misalign was due to date/time inaccuracies, az/el > positioning errors, or lat/long inaccuracy. > > I don't remember if your original description included this, but it may > also be interesting to have more than one panel (or to have some sort of > slightly off-axis sensor) to determine if the sun is brighter in any > given direction without moving the dish. > > >Its just that I don't have a pic programmer yet and I want a solution > that I > >could even program with a friends programmer and then continue developing > >here... > > > > > Then the magic word you are looking for is "bootloader". Program the > bootloader on the friends programmer, and then just download your > program to the PIC via the serial bootloader program. > > -forrest > -- > http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive > View/change your membership options at > http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist > -- Tobias Gogolin cel. (646) 124 32 82 skype: moontogo messenger: usertogo@hotmail.com You develop an open source motor controller at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GoBox -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist