RUNNING HEAD: LAB NOTEBOOK 5

Jarrett Lash & Hahnbee Lee

January 10, 2017
Solar Energy: Out on a Limb
Weve consolidated the tangible aspects of the technology and reordered and assembled small
necessary parts of the electronics.

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2
Materials and Methods

Our tree is slowly starting to be created. We were able to reprint the whole trunk of the
tree in one solid piece so we no longer require need to epoxy the parts together. By printing one
solid piece for the tree, there will not be large stress points on the seams we create.
Through methods of 3D printing, the branches will soon be printed. This next week we will be
conducting test prints with the Ninjaflex Semiflex filament so that we understand its properties
under the conditions that will optimize its print quality. Once we have the correct print bed
temperature, extruder temperature and print speed we will start printing the whole branch
system.
Additionally this past week we soldered the wires for our panel to single wires so we can
begin to condense the wires we have inside the tree (Figure 1 & 2). Each branch (five panels)
will break down to one wire. These three wires for each branch will then soldered to one wire to
then be moved into our data collection sensors and power converting units. This condensing of
wires will allow for a streamlined system of electronics within our photovoltaic tree.
We also got a battery pack that will power our Adafruit servo hat (Figure 3). This hat
requires four AA batteries. Through the USB capabilities that our tree will have to charge small
electronics, our plan is to use rechargeable batteries that will be charged by the tree to then
power these servos. The servos will not use much energy considering the simple 3.3v output, but
to further optimize their output we will completely shut down the servo hat in between the
system checks of optimized angles toward the sun. Seeing that our tree will only run the
optimization sequence every thirty minutes, we can easily stretch the lifespan of these batteries,
that would then be recharged through the tree itself.

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For the following week, we will finish soldering the branch system so that once the
branches are printed we can fabricate the panels onto them. Additionally, we will order the
sensor that will act as our embedded multimeter so that we can track the input of electricity from
the panels for data.

Figure 1 & 2 We soldered and tinned the wires together in order to consolidate all the solar
panels into one capacitor.

Figure 3 Battery pack to power the servo HAT.

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4
Data and Results

As stated in our last Lab Notebook, we have not collected any data. We are still in the
process of forming our design so we can construct our PVTree for testing. But the quantitative
data we plan on collecting is the amount of solar energy collected when we change the different
angles at which the panels will be set and program different pattern at which our tree will move
in accordance to sunlight. We plan on making a logger pro-esque system that will inform us on
how much energy we have collected over a specific time period in a day. Qualitative data will be
in the different features and structures we end up deeming the most effective which is evidently
the characteristics that allow us to gain the most sunlight in a day. Data will be measured in ratio
between lux detected and electricity harnessed to ensure a common pattern as well as steady and
reliable results.

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5
References

Cockfield. B. (2015). Two Axis Solar Tracker. Retrieved October 25. 2016 from:
http://hackaday.com/2015/08/25/two-axis-solar-tracker/
Dimitrokalia, E., Mackrilla, J., Jones G., Ramachersb Y., Caina R. (2015). Moving away from
flat solar panels to PVTrees: exploring ideas and peoples perceptions. Retrieved
September 15, 2016 from:
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/about/environment/carbon/solar_trees/downloads/proceeding
_paper2015.pdf
Sarokin. J. (2014). How to: Build a Solar Powered Raspberry Pi. [Video File]. Retrieved
October 20. 2016 from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpAYDcW_Jx0
Verma, N., Mazumder, S. (2014). An Investigation of Solar Trees for Effective Sunlight Capture
Using Monte Carlo Simulations of Solar Radiation Transport. Retrieved September 27,
2016 from:
https://kb.osu.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/1811/68744/Navni_Verma_Hayes_Research_
Forum15.pdf?sequence=1
Zhr, M., Friedrich, D., Kloth, T. Y., Goldmann, G., & Helmut Tributsch, H. (2010). Bionic
Photovoltaic Panels Bio-Inspired by Green Leaves. Retrieved September 19, 2016, from
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/49293285_Bionic_Photovoltaic_Panels_BioInspired_by_Green_Leaves