hello ))
dark months are over and i overcome procrastination and did start to build one more tracker.
i would like to share the progress in this thread.
frame construction, parts used and kinematics can be seen in video of the first tracker built 5 years ago.
it is still working and has harvested lots of kilowatt hours.
this is second one, built a year later.
tracker is built mostly from car/tractor/truck parts that can be obtained in scrapyard.
only custom parts to be machined are the worm shafts that work with starter ring gears.
this time instead of truck hub i will use a part from forwarder tractor.
it is basically a big ball bearing and has many mounting holes, some smooth and some threaded. very convenient.
i only heat seated a starter ring gear on it.
car flywheel works fine for altitude adjustment, but it has rather narrow and fine teeth, i will try some big gear instead of flywheel for more contact surface and because i do not have any flywheel at hand. ))
Very interesting to see your solutions Andris.
I have by the way never seen someone fastening their four jaw chuck in a three jaw chuck before, it has not crossed my mind that it is a possibility
@Johan, @Kent method of clamping equally sized 4 jaw in 3 jaw can be dangerous or even lethal if used recklessly. in best case it leads to round indent in ceiling and shattered chuck. ))
i was not one who did that, but a friend was too lazy to replace jaws and ran unbalanced piece at 380 RPM.
that happened long time ago, but i think, this is same set of jaws. nice set. i am still using them.
regarding tracker, i plan to purchase necessary bits for top side this Friday.
meanwhile i will work on bottom side - must make something that would connect bearing to the pole and hold the worm shaft. cut two plates and now i have to dig some metal, preferably a couple pieces of U profile from under the snow. ))
Yes, I can imagine fastening a chuck in a chuck can be sketchy. When very slow speeds are necessary anyway a shortcut like that could be ok (i.e. big stuff)
A self centering four jaw is probably not ok put in a self centering three jaw chuck like that as they are rarely exactly true but good for most jobs. A new center probably has to be set as ok + ok is less ok.
Not going to be done by me, I only have a three and a four jaw chuck but they are both self-cebtering.
As I said before, interesting to see. Keep up the good work
i have doubt that 80 watt 33 RPM motor has enough torque to move 12 solar panels with 53 teeth smaller diameter gear, so i put an angle grinder reducer in between.
48 volt motor is running at 37 volts make one full revolution of the tube in 4 minutes.
next job is to attach rotary encoders on worm shafts for position feedback and solder a control circuit.
