Building - The Panels Pt. 1

At this point, I had enough things drawn out that I could start the build process. I started by buying two pieces of 2mm plexiglass from a local glass shop and getting them to cut the pieces to size. Exactly 177mm wide and 678mm long.

Tracing is much easier than measuring!

I then got a 5'x5' sheet of 1/8" (approximately 3mm) Birch plywood from a local building supply store and traced the plexiglass onto the plywood, this ensured that even if the plexiglass wasn't exactly the right size the two would still fit together.

Thankfully I have access to a table saw which makes cutting straight, right angle cuts much easier than with a hand saw. I also have access to a chop saw, which makes angled cuts more accurately than by hand.

Cutting Corners!

I was able to cut the plywood backs of the housing and the plexiglass with the same set-up. I wasn't sure how the plexiglass would handle being cut with a chop saw but it seemed to be fine.

Once I had all the angles cut, I ripped some pieces of plexiglass to make the lip and the surrounding edge on the panel.

A notebook with measurements is very helpful.

The thin pieces are 3mm wider and the other pieces are 7mm wide. Both are cut from 3mm plywood.

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Designing - The Cells

A distinction I should make before going any further is the difference between solar cells and solar panels. When I am talking about the solar cells I am talking about the individual square parts inside of the panel. The panel being the housing for the cells, some sort of stiff material for the back and a sheet of glass over the front. The cells produce power and the panel houses and protects the fragile cells. The first step of designing the solar panels was to get the actual solar cells I'd be using since literally, everything was dependent on their size. I was able to find some panels for fairly cheap on eBay, so I officially began the project with the purchase of 10 A Grade 4.8W 19.6% 156mm Mono Silicon Cells. Here's what that means: A Grade - Panels are completely intact. B, C, or D Grade will have increasingly large chips missing from the cells. Read more here. 4.8W - This is the power output. 19.6% - This is the claimed efficiency of the cells. ...

Update - Drive System

Right, so my suspicions about the bond between the drive arm and drive arm were correct. When I tried to extend the panels using a pair of pliers the epoxy joints cracked and the axle broke loose. The panels did not extend at all. I've drilled a hole through the drive arm and axle, I epoxied a nail into the hole and it seems to be holding. I can now extend the panel with pliers. It takes quite a bit of force to do it. I kinda doubt a servo will be able to handle it.

Building - Arms Pt. 1

Building the arms was by far the most time-consuming task. If only I had a cnc.... The rim of wood around the bearing was needed but I didn't like the really thick arm, I drew this up in Fusion, printed out the drawing, and stuck it down with a glue stick. The slot in the middle was an idea to make the arms lighter and look cooler. I tried it with one arm and then ditched the idea, it really didn't work and was a lot of work. All cut-out, at this point I didn't have access to a scroll saw so this was all done with a regular handsaw and files. It's pretty rough but I cleaned it up as best I could. Already looking much better. The next step was mass production, I needed 20 arms total. For this, I bought a used Craftsman Scroll saw. It was very, very useful. All cut and drilled out. Removing the paper was annoying, I used the top edge of a file to scrape it off. Since I put it on with a glue stick it wasn't very difficult to scrap...

Martens Solar

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