Orientation sensor (and actuator)

[AWI]

@Fat-Fly a sun panel tracker based on this circuit is in place on my roof. My major issue is mechanical. How to seal the (stepper) motors from the environment.

[koen01]

@AWI said:

@Fat-Fly a sun panel tracker based on this circuit is in place on my roof. My major issue is mechanical. How to seal the (stepper) motors from the environment.

I once saw someone on YouTube that mounted them in pvc pipe with a cap.
He used electric drill motors for the actuators though.

https://youtu.be/HnwTqx-INes

[Fat Fly]

How to this sensor knows where is the sun?

[koen01]

@Fat-Fly said:

How to this sensor knows where is the sun?

I guess 4 ldrs with a cross between ?

[Fat Fly]

Okay. But why for this mpu9250? These ldr's not working correctly if cloudy. Turn with sun coordinates is possible but i do not find cheap system. Raspberry PI and with arduino + mpu9250 or 6250 + linear actuators.

[AWI]

@Fat-Fly the position of the sun is very predictable :wink:. I use a simplified algorithm to calculate where it will come from. So no DOF sensor needed here only the actuator.

[Fat Fly]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEmGntpX-Dk

[Fat Fly]

How to drive this ?

[koen01]

@AWI
Is it possible to sleep the node and wake it up by external interrupt ?
I have a use case for this but it has to be battery powered.

[AWI]

@koen01 I assume you are refering to the orientation sensor.. You can sleep the node and have it wake up by external or internal (timer) interrupt. Power consumption when powered down is minimal. Look at API for "Sleeping". I am using a setup with solar power for a wind/weather station (on-going development ..)

[koen01]

@AWI
Thank you for answer.
See this link for an project based in this.
Its basically a scène controller in the shape of a cube.
I got the idea from the original poster in the thread over at home-assistant.

https://community.home-assistant.io/t/rubiks-mood-cube-magic-cube/9965/8

I will post a BOM, sketch and pics if someone wants me to.

[koen01]

@AWI
This is how it looks like at the moment.
Still taped together as everything is beta stage. ;)

https://youtu.be/_hbFNwnpov0

[koen01]

Some more info on the cube can be found at the homeassistant forums
https://community.home-assistant.io/t/rubiks-mood-cube-magic-cube/9965/11?u=koen01

[hek]

@koen01, really like this cool cube project.

Couldn't you add it as a new project on openhardware.io? This enables me to show it on the mysensors.org build pages as well.