Redrock led tracker

[loonie]

Just to let you know my experiance. No response to e-mails. After 5 or 6 calls with the response "It will be sent out in a couple of days" I never recieced it. With a 45 day limit on pay pal claims I filed. Seventeen days later they ruled in my favor, because he never responded. It may be a good product IF YOU CAN GET IT! Since I have ordered, recieved, installed a board from campa traka in Australia, and I am very pleased with it's operation.

Loonie

[boB]

That guy usually makes it to MREF in June if you just "happen" to be in Wisconsin at that time.

Maybe he's sick or something ??

boB

[TomW]

loonie;

That Duane guy pulled that same crap on me several years ago when one I bought never worked properly.

Severe lack of communication once I demanded a replacement.

I just decided he was more interested in getting the sale than providing anything resembling support for customers.

I just walked away and left it lie because it wasn't worth the hassle over $35 or whatever. I should have filed a complaint with PayPal but waited too long expecting promised but unfulfilled replacement.

Just my experience. I hate businesses like that and it should be made known he is not a person to trust to do what is right.

Thats my rant.

Tom

[pmurf1]

When I was making my tracker for my two homemade panels I looked at theirs and ended up ordering one off eBay from Australia too. I don't know if it's from Campa, but it was about $50 shipped in a weathertight grey 2 square box. Took a couple weeks to get. Real simple to hook up and autoparks at night. I wired it to a 36 volt 18" satellite dish actuator I got from allelectronics.com for about $40. It's speed and power are perfect at 12 volts for my two glass 2x4' panels. I definitely get more output with the tracker than mounted fixed to a roof. Mine is single axis and it's mounted to a pole that is sleeved by another bigger one set in concrete so I can rotate it if desired. I don't really pick up much more than a couple watts if it's aimed directly at sun rather than offset a bit on the single axis. Mine feeds a semi truck battery and I use the power nightly so I don't even have a charge controller.

[loonie]

Hi boB, I try to give everyone the benifit of doubt, all he had to do is say so and stop telling me no problem it will go out in a couple of days (many times). Any how this guy in Australia has ms and ask that you e-mail him before you order, then he lets you know every step of the way where he is at fromm building it to shipping a stand up guy. Loonie

[chainsaw]

Went through something very similar this past summer. But after two phone calls I did finally receive my order. I believe it was approx 8 weeks for delivery. I will NOT order from this individual again even through he has a good product. He does not seem to have any understanding of good business practices.  

[Volvo farmer]

Wow, I have had nothing but good luck with Redrock trackers, never had a problem getting one either. I think I've ordered from Duane four times now, most recently about a year ago, and always received what I asked for promptly.

I am so hooked on tracking solar panels, that I have two backup units sitting on the shelf here. I had one tracker blow up on me a couple years ago and didn't like looking out the window at an array that was not perpendicular to the sun at all times.

As for Tom's complaint, I think the anti-reversing circuit that is now available would have solved his problem but it was not available back then though. Perhaps problems like his were the catalyst for the improved circuit.

That being said, there is no excuse for poor customer service like that. I think it's a shame that this is happening to people because I have been using these trackers for three years now and I think they are really nifty and affordable. Maybe I need to get a bigger stockpile of them if the supplier is beginning to flake out.

[hydrosun]

I've had similar experiences. Great product, not good service. I have one customer who went directly to Duane to try to get a replacement and kept being told the package must have been lost in the mail. Once he could believe but it happened repeatedly.

 I looked at the campa tracka site. That circuit uses mechanical relays to power the linear motor. They are controlled by a chip that has delays programed in.

 The redrok circuit uses fets driven at 10% pwm to keep the movement slow and not need heat sinks on the fets.  Redrok cost extra to get movement delay to avoid hunting by the sensors. So really the cost is quite close to each product.

If I can get the circuit I'd prefer the Redrok. It's worked well for me for the last 4 years.

Chris

[galeforce jones]

Hi Loonie, I ordered an LED tracker on Nov 29, again no response to e-mail and paypal resolution centre. I phoned on the 29th Dec, he said it will be sent shortly, keeping my fingers crossed while watching deadline to make claim through paypal. Guess I'll be buyimg from campa traka.

[dlenox]

yep,

pretty much the same experience here, took about 60 days to get mine.

according to duane, he is working on an X-project and it is taking a lot of his time.

nice product, but the customer service and communications can be a whole lot better.

Dan Lenox

[Ronnn]

I'm very curious about these trackers. I am completely unfamiliar with this product. I have two ancient and still tracking, passive solar trackers from Zome Works in Albuquerque. These sound active. Is the procuct a controler for moterized trackers? I can't imagine it being anything but circutry at that price. Would someone tell me a little about it please. Or just post a link where I can read about them.

Ron

[ghurd]

Try "redrok".

It is a tracking motor controller, with lots of bells & whistles.

A lot of people do not particularly care for all the bells & whistles.

There are many easier ways to make one, in my opinion.

I intend to show a working model of a simple, cheap, repeatable, tracker circuit pretty soon.

'pretty soon' keeps getting pushed back due to issues not related to the circuit.

G-

[TomW]

G;

I told you the check is in the mail. So get it done already.

Our neural net tracker [me] is pretty unreliable. I think its got Alshiemers or something. Always has the thing pointed the wrong direction which is critical with these 6 hour days ;=)

Only snagged 41 KWH solar in December. Most months it is up above 100 KWH.

A whopping 21 KWH from the turbine too. That is double most months collection.

Geeze. Our approximately  8  grand investment in an RE system produced six bucks worth of power last month. Woot.

Good thing we are simple enough to think that is actually OK.

Tom

[Volvo farmer]

Bells and whistles?

To me, "bells and whistles" means unnecessary, extraneous features, not required for basic operation. In automotive jargon, this would be things like heated power seats, trip computers, double zone climate control, and auto dimming rear view mirrors.

The Redrok trackers I have used track the sun and park in the east at the end of the day, and that's all. By "bells and whistles", do you mean unnecessarily complex?

[DamonHD]

I had a pretty poor solar December too...  Bv<

Happy Global Warming^W^W New Year to us both!

Rgds

Damon

[ghurd]

Mostly related to the sun only moves West.  A lot of places have enough clouds and cloud patterns to make some trackers wig-wag all day.

And my personal luck with the LEDs as sensors has not been all that great.

G-

[RogerAS]

Ghurd,

You wrote:

"There are many easier ways to make one, in my opinion."

You are very much "on the money" here.

I've designed and employed my own, which is a derivative of the redrok CDS tracker, but with only one axis of travel. I've mentioned this design a couple other times here but the responses were sortta nil.

If one looks into my files there is a pdf of my design. Here is the link.

http://www.fieldlines.com/images/scimages/93/rogertrackerschematic.pdf

I used relays for the motor drive, but I am looking into FETS for this function. I don't have a lot of time anymore to spend with a soldering iron, but if there ever is any interest in this I'll make time.

I used the 555's to set up a delay in both the time between tracking movements and duration of these movements.

I really need to start a thread where I show implementation and details of how it works. After one of our tornadoes a year or so ago I stopped using the tracking until I can fabricate a much more robust mounting system. The panels are on my engine room roof now, bolted down with 1.5" angle iron. I really didn't want to lose all of my panels in one go. I had the old C-band satellite dish mounted to a cedar post, and watching the whole thing flex like it was on rubber scared me stiff. Next spring I hope to have the tracking back online as it did make a huge difference in output. I just need to get a matching pipe and dig a good footing for the whole affair.

Anyway, there it is if anyone cares, and freely available to all.

[RogerAS]

Ghurd,

As a follow up to my other posting in this thread my design does not allow this "wig-wag" action as the tracker can only travel east to west until sunset at which point it resets the array for the next day, parks and shuts down. The delays I worked in via the 555's can be adjusted for just about any drive system. This system also overcomes transient light such as lightening or headlights, as the CDS cells must "see" a condition for the entire delay period before activating the motor drive. Note that in my design the light source must be intense enough to activate the system so cloudy days don't waste power tracking a useless trickle of sunlight.

Does anyone think I should I offer these as kits and or ready-built units? I could use the extra cash, but time is a real issue for me these days.

Hope this helps.

[Basil]

I posted to this store the other day. I did not see my reply today.

Redrock trackers work great. But you have to stay on him for some reason. Not to good of a buissness man. Just wanted to add a link to my hame made tracker that works real well. It might help some one.

http://www.fieldlines.com/story/2008/6/20/224052/555

Happy new year to all on the board.

[ghurd]

Pretty sure there is not enough demand to be worth the effort (which I expect is why Duane is not devoting lots of time and effort into it).

And everybody wants something different to match the hardware they found.

I did think about a 'parts pack' for the one I think is good... IF it works!

It is simple enough to not need a custom board.  Or tech support.

It's only maybe $5~6 worth of parts by the 100?  Maybe $15 in ones and twos?  Then that minimum order thing some places do, and that $10 S&H for a box via UPS (when a bubbleope via USPS is $2).

Not including the light sensors (mini-PVs).

Anyway, I figure most people tinkering with trackers are more apt to build one because they are tinkerers.

They may like a 'parts pack' because of the cost and convenience, but I bet 100 packs would last a really Really Long Time, like years.  Serious tinkerers have all the parts (for mine) in the junk box.

Don't underestimate the time involved.

G-

[Volvo farmer]

You might be right about the demand not being worth the effort. However, don't lump all tinkerers into one box. I'm not very strong in electronics, and between family and job, I'd much rather pay for a ready built, or kit tracker than figure out the whole thing by myself. For me, I'd buy a simple kit with good instructions in a heartbeat.

If you have any interest in pursuing a kit, I'd gladly put one of your circuits on one of my tracking arrays and review it for you. Have you built and tested this circuit yet?

Duane's customer service might be lacking but if you have never seen a finished board, I'll tell you, they are a very professional looking, nice board. The thing will work on anything between 12 and 48V with no modifications too. Having used one for three years, I gotta tell you, they work pretty well. Personally, I want the thing out hunting for the sun on a cloudy day. On many occasions, I have seen things clear up an hour or so before sunset and there's my arrays pointing right at the sun and making me smile.

[ghurd]

I have no doubt Duane's boards look great and work as intended, and I have never heard anything to the contrary.

Hunting for the sun is good.  Hunting for the sun to the east is not quite necessary.

"don't lump all tinkerers into one box".

Good point.

My thinking related to kits contains 3 boxes; knows more than me, knows enough, or not sure what a resistor looks like.  It is directly related to "Don't underestimate the time involved".

I would not exactly call you a tinkerer.

If a tinkerer's project is not working, he will try again next week. Or next month.

No rush for a tinkerer.

I can see it being worth your money to next-day-ship a 25 cent item to get your system up and running.

When I was seriously considering a parts kit, I thought I had a line on some dirt cheap mini-PVs, which fell through, taking any thoughts of a parts kit with it.

I learned my lesson ("I bet 100 packs would last a really Really Long Time, like years").

"IF it works!" meant I have not got the complete unit prototype built or tested, but it is too simple to Not work,

at least 'I think' it is too simple to Not work (reinforced by someone in the 'knows more than me' box).

Multiple individual prototype subsections seem to be functioning exactly as expected (much less frightening than it sounds).

Probably needs some tweaking somewhere.  Or at least some charts related to mini-PVs?

In my opinion, it is sort of a simplified hybrid of a few different trackers.

Nothing new or ground breaking, just simpler circuit for a tinkerer to build and understand.

'Understand' being a key word because it reduces the time involved for everyone.

Anyway, There are many easier ways to make one.

G-

[RogerAS]

VF,

Yep, as I said earlier I had mine running for a couple years then a tornado came by and scared the hell outta me. My mount was an old C-band dish base which I had on a cedar post. I need to find a new pipe and start over again.

If you wanna test one I can send you the old one with the relays. Give me a few days to dig it out and make sure it still runs like its supposed to.

[Ronnn]

Well I'd like to know more about yours when it's ready. Living where I do simple is a good idea. Are people building their own trackers for this circuitry to push around. Speaking of simple, does this type of active tracking provide significantly more watts that passive tracking?

Ron

[coldspot]

 A few years back I ordered one from him,

And I got in about a week, No problem at all!

 I still have not done more than take it out

 of the box and look it over.

 Named it, like a pet, put a couple of holes

  in the box for letting air get in and have showed it to a few people.

[Volvo farmer]

Cool, sounds interesting!

Sorry, I'm too lazy and/or stupid to look at circuits and analyze them. This thing you built... It parks in the east every night?

If I can get it in a weathertight box and it will run of my 24-30V  voltage that I run my system.. I will gladly test it! All my arrays are firmly attached to the ground so no worries about it blowing away

[RogerAS]

VF,

Yep, parks to east at dusk, senses if it's too cloudy to make it worthwhile, and is adjustable for different drives systems. If it's cloudy at dawn and clears up it will track to pointing, or catch up. With proper dusk settings it could sense a dangerous thunderstorm and go to parking.

The voltage regulator should allow use with voltages up to 30VDC.

Supply power, when I ran it, was taken from the B bank. An alternate could be used.

It will require a couple days of fine tuning to match tracking movements with the drive. Duration times of these movements is changed via a simple varible resistor, as is a separate time between movements.

Let me get it dug out of my junk box and make sure it's functioning and I'll get it mailed to ya. You might need new overun limit switches, just STSP NC jobs. I'll check and see if those are still on the mount. I can't remember and it snowed 6" yesterday so it's burried outside. Still snowing too.

You can email me your mailing address here;

theropod AT yahoo DOT com (with correcting factors for antispam).