The World’s Simplest Sun Tracker

Solar panels are truly amazing devices, allowing us to generated electrical energy – literally out of thin air. Where things get more complicated is if you want your soar panel to be pointing directly at the sun at all times for ideal energy collection. This could mean using a number of sensors and a microcontroller, or even more advanced programming based on sun tracking data. As shown in the video below by 3D Printer Academy, you don’t actually need a microcontroller at all, or even sensors beyond panels themselves.

This ingenious system leverages a pair of panels at an angle to each other. Each is wired to a turning motor in an opposite polarity, so that when one panel overpowers the other, it rotates in the opposite direction in a sort of H-bridge setup. This angles the point of the two-panel arrow shape toward the sun, thus tracking out dominant celestial orb with very little in the way of components.

The big challenge for the build was selecting a motor slow enough – 10 RPM – so that it didn't continuously overshoot the sun and oscillate back and forth. Print files are available on 3D Printer Academy's site.

While an interesting way to point at the sun, it would also appear that neither panel ends up really optimized for collection in this configuration. Perhaps where such a setup would really “shine” is as a sort of “pointer panel” assembly, which properly drives a larger power producer panel. It’s a clever concept that could have a wide range of uses!