International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research Volume 10, Issue 4, April-2019 1323

ISSN 2229-5518

Design and Implementation of Tracking System

for Dual Axis Solar Tracker Using PIC 16F887
Yu Yu Mon Win, Ye Myat Thu

Abstract— The paper describes a tracking system of Dual Axis Solar Tracker using PIC 16F887 microcontroller. Four LDRs are used as
sensor to sense the sun light. The sensing signals are applied to the microcontroller as input signals. The controller compares the input
signals and directs the two servo motors to track the sun. The two servo motors are attached horizontal and vertical axis of solar panel
stand each. The tracker then rotates the solar panel to get the maximum sunlight. Automatic Sun Tracking System is a hybrid
hardware/software prototype, which automatically provides the best alignment of solar panel with the sun, to get maximum output
(electricity).

Keywords— Dual Axis Solar Tracker, LDR, PIC 16F887 microcontroller, Servo motor, Solar pannel

——————————  ——————————

1 INTRODUCTION
HE position of the sun in the sky is varied both with sea-

T sons and time of day as the sun moves across the sky.A
solar tracker increases how efficient such equipments are
over any fixed position at the cost of additional complexi-
ty to the system.The two main types of solar tracker are Single

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axis and Dual Axis Solar Tracker.In this paper, Dual Axis
Tracker can track the sun both East to West and North to
South.It has two degrees of freedom that acts as axes of rota- Additional functions may include A-D converters,serial
tion.The two axes are typically normal to each other.The ad- communication, flash program memory and more. The Mikro C
vantage of Dual Axis Tracker is catching the position of the programming language is embedded in this PIC to control the-
sun anywhere in the sky due to seasonal variations automati- overall processes.
cally.
.
3.2 Light Dependent Sensor Design
2 BLOCK DIAGRAM A light dependent resistor, LDR, photo-conductive cell, is
light-controlled variable resistor. The resistance of LDR de-
creases with increasing incident light intensity.

Fig. 3. Light Dependent Resistor

Fig. 1. System Block 3.3 Servo Motor (MG995)

A servo motor ia a rotary actuator or linear actuator that al-
3 HARDWARE COMPONENTS REQUIRED lows for precise control of angular or linear position, velocity
and acceleration. It has three wires: power, ground and sig-
The main parts of the system required are PIC 16F887 microcon- nal.Servo motor accepts the signal from controller that tells it
troller, servo motors, light dependent resistors (LDRs), L 7805 what angle to turn to.
and L7806 voltage regulators and solar panel.

3.1 PIC 16F887 Microcontroller

The PIC 16F887 is a type of microcontroller. The main pur-
pose of the PIC is to control the positions of servo motors. The
microcontroller accepts from its input ports/ transduc-
ers,processes the input commands and sends out the required
Fig. 4. Servo Motor
output through its output ports to the output devices.
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International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research Volume 10, Issue 4, April-2019 1324
ISSN 2229-5518
3.4 Voltage Regulators (L7805, L7806) The four input voltages sent to the PIC are calculated as:
Voltage sources in a circuit may have fluctuations resulting in V1 = Vcc { R1 / LDR1 + R1 } ,
not providing fixed voltage outputs. A voltage regulator IC V2 = Vcc { R2 / LDR2 + R2 } ,
(Integrated Circuit) maintains the output votage at a constant V3 = Vcc { R3 / LDR3 + R3 } , and
value.7805 IC and 7806 IC are members of 78xx series of posi- V4= Vcc { R4 / LDR4 + R4}.
tive fixed linear voltage regulators.7805 IC provides +5 V reg- The built-in analog to digital converter will convert these val-
ulated power supply with provisions to add a heat ues into digital values. The ADC conversion for 10 bits is cal-
sink.Similarly, 7806 IC provides +6 V power supply. culated as follow:
Vout = (value * 5)/1024
It can be tested using Proteus Simulation and is shown in Fig-
ure 8.

Fig. 5. L7805 and L7806 Voltage Regulators

3.5 Solar Pannel

Solar panels absorb sunlight as a source of energy to generate
electricity. Solar energy is the photovoltaic cell which converts
light energy received from sun into electrical energy. A photo-
voltaic system typically includes an array of photovoltaic

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modules, an inverter, a battery pack for storage, interconnec-
tion wiring, and optionally a solar tracking mechanism. Fig. 8. LDR Sensing Circuit

4.2 Interfacing Servo Motors and PIC 16F887

Interfacing servo motor with PIC is very easy. It has three
wires coming out of them, one for positive voltage (5V), an-
other is for Ground and the last one is for position setting.
Servo motor can be controlled using microcontroller with
Pulse Width Modulation signals on the control wire as shown
in Figure 9.
Fig. 6. Solar Pannel
0 degree
4 IMPLEMENTATION HARDWARE Minimum Pulse
To implement the hardware for the complete system, there are Pulse Width 1ms
90 degrees
three general parts: LDR Sensing circuit part, Servo motor in-
terfacing with Microcontroller and Solar panel charging. Neutral Position
Pulse Width 1.5ms
180 degrees
4.1 LDR Sensing Circuit
Four LDR sensors are connected to PIC 16F887 microcontroller Maximum Pulse
analog pin 2,3,4 and 5 (RA0, RA1 RA2 RA3). One sensor con- Pulse Width 2ms

sists of one LDR and a complementary Resistor (10 k) Ohm as

a sensor as shown in Figure 7. Figure 9. PWM controlled Servo Motor rotation
It can be tested as Proteus Software and then seen in Figure
10. The result is acceptable.

Fig. 7. LDR Sensor Model

————————————————
• Yu Yu Mon Win is currently holding masters degree in electronic engi-
neering in Technological University (Magway), Myanmar, PH-
959455650005. E-mail: [email protected]
• Ye Myat Thyu is currently Holding Bachelor degree in electronic engineer-
ing in Technological University(Banmaw), Myanmar, PH-9595902070. E-
mail: [email protected]
Figure 10. Interfacing Two Servos and MCU
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International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research Volume 10, Issue 4, April-2019 1325
ISSN 2229-5518
4.3 Complete Circuit Diagram 4.5 Flow Chart

Figure 11. Circuit Representation

Table 1. Pin Assignment for Complete Circuit

PIC16F887 Pin Components
Pin 2 RA0 LDR1 , R1
Pin 3 RA1 LDR2 , R3
Pin 4 RA2 LDR3 , R2
Pin 5 RA3 LDR4 , R4

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Pin 25 RC6 Horizontal Servo Signal Figure 12. Flow Chart Representation
Pin
5 TESTS AND RESULTS
Pin 26 RC7 Vertical Servo Signal Pin
5.1 Main Frame Construction

4.4 Principle of Complete Circuit

The working principle of Dual Axis Solar Tracker is
described at below:
• Solar tracking system is done by Light De-
pendent resistor (LDR)
• Four LDR sensor are connected to PIC
A6F887 analog pin 2,3,4,5,
• LDR analog voltage values set to the PIC
• Analog-to-Digital Converter will convert the
analog value of LDR to digital values,
• According to this digital values PIC direct the
movement direction of the two servo motors.
Figure 13.Screwing Servos and Fitting Four LDRs at Coners
4.5 Algorithm of Flow Chart 5.2 Hardware Test with Phone Flash Light
Step 1 : Start Tracking Mode,
Step 2 : Read Input from LDR Sensors,
Step 3 : Convert From Analog to Digital,
Step 4 : Compare the Reading Value of Four LDR Sensors,
Step 5 : if LDR3 > LDR4, vertical servo motor rotate counter
clockwise,
Step 6 : if LDR3 < LDR4, vertical servo motor rotate clockwise,
Step 7 : if LDR2 > LDR1, horizontal servo motor rotate coun-
terclockwise,
Step 8 : if LDR2 < LDR1, horizontal servo motor rotate clock-
wise, and
Step 9 : End the Program. Figure 14. Hardware Test Representation

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International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research Volume 10, Issue 4, April-2019 1326
ISSN 2229-5518
5.3 PCB 2D Track Line using Proteus tion”,IEEE Transcations on Power Electronics,Volume 17,Issue
6,Nov.2002.

Dual Axis Solar Tracker using PIC16F887

Supervisor : Daw Yu Yu Mon Win
Student : Ye Myat Thu
TU (Banmaw) 2017-2018
Electronic

09695902070

5.4 Top View of Main Circuit PCB(Printed Circuit Board)

6 CONCLUSION
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The controller circuit used to implement this system has
been designed with a minimum number of components and
has been integrated onto a single PCB for simple assembly.
The use of servo motors enables accurate tracking the sun’s
position. The program specified the various actions required
to wor properly. As a result, successful tracking is achieved.
.Acknowledgment
The authors wish to thank their parents, and all teachers. This
work was supported in part by a grant from Mg Ye Myat Thu.

REFERENCES
[1] Dr.AndrewJ.Marsh,2014
http://andrewmarsh.com/apps/releases/sunpth-om-map-html
[2] “PIC 16F887 microcontroller” available at www.eng.uwi.tt/depts/
elec/staff/Feisal/ee25m/resources/ee25m-lect2.pdf
[3] “mikro C user manual” available at www.mikroe.com/pdf/mikroc/
mikroc_manual.pdf
[4] Shanmugam and W.Christraj,”The Tracking of the Sun for Solar
Paraboloidal Dish Concentrators”,ASME Transcations, Vol.127, Feb-
ruary 2005Tse, M.T. HO,Henry S.H Chung and S.Y Hui,”A novel
Maximum
Power Point Tracker for PV Pannels using Switching Frequency Modula-

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