Using Nudge in schedule?

I was going to edit my previous thread, but decided they were different enough to not confuse the issue.

I've made some changes to my system to day to permit the Cbus system (incl old B&W ctouch without logic) to control the positioning of my solar arrays during the day. It's not ideal, but it's functional.

In short, shortly before sunrise, I drive the arrays fully east. A time after sunrise, until sunset, I drive the arrays west a little several times an hour. A while after sunset I drive the arrays east half-way to an evening "park" position.

I've added manual east/west controls (timed steps and full drive-to-extent) incase it's ever wanted (for now, only really for testing, but could be used to catch up to the correct position if they get out of step for some reason).

An Enable/Disable mode for auto tracking enables all the timed functions.

I thought I'd get a little more creative with a sliding scale to indicate approximately where the arrays should be, which I did with a horizontal slider and a "spare" group address. I can make the slider move left and right perfectly with buttons to "nudge" the group address - but I can't see any way of nudging this group by a schedule, or as a triggered group (trigger it to nudge up/down by the positioning signals) etc.

There's no analogue input currently available to indicate the actual position, and I don't have a logic engine. Anyone know any tricky ways to do this?

I'd also like to set the (slider) group to 0%/50% when I "know" where it should be.

Thanks in advance!

 

Im not 100% sure but what about a phantom group which is dimming on a time ramp and is tied to the logic of this. As the time decreases the slider moves.

I was under the impression more than 15% of tilt was not viable due to the interference of the panels with each other or due to the loss of power at a low angle of the sun. I'm assuming a gable roof though.

I assume you have the panels in parallel. That appears to be the primary failing of solar panel designs.

 

Can a ramp run over a period of 9+ hours? Another problem is it wouldn't actually indicate where they are if I've manually "stepped" them.

There's so much FUD about these things. Most of it is BS. I'm tilting the arrays about 75 degrees either side of centre (150 degrees total). It makes a *SUBSTANTIAL* difference in power over the day. I'm talking in the order of 30-50% more kWh, which when you're entirely off-grid makes the additional complexity worth the effort.

There are 6 series panels on each array, and 6 parallel arrays (each array is seperately metered and protected via appropriate DC breakers etc), schottky isolation diodes so arrays don't get back-fed from the remaining arrays in the event one or more are shaded (clouds most commonly).

The arrays are not roof-mounted as my house has no "roof". It's burried. The arrays are spread out specifically to avoid shading each other. Based on their size, the sun angle etc, I worked out I think, that 9 metres between arrays was adequate. I'd have rathered align them north/south and eliminate the problem, but that wasn't practical.

 

Oh nice.

 

I can't think of any way of doing this without logic. If it is critical, you could add a PAC to your system and have it set the level of the phantom group based on the pulses you send to move the panels.

 

I just had another look to see if I could think of an alternate way to do it.
One of the (various) button functions is "On/UP". This is sort of similar to "nudge" but perhaps it's better supported, somehow?

Let me throw into the mix some other details that *might* give someone with a sneeky mind a clue how they might achieve it. (I'm not beyond skullduggery!)

The arrays take 1 minute 24 seconds to move from one extent to the other. That is near enough 1.5 minutes, which IS one of the supported ramp rates.

Using On/Up to drive the "phantom" group which has my slider on it, drives at near enough to the right rate. If only I could do an "on/up" by triggering a scene or a group. I could make it increment (or decrement, in the case of driving east for some reason) at the right rate.

I still have two channels unused on my opto-isolated 8-gang NEO (yeah, yeah, Shhh!). I suppose I could run a pair back from the actuator to that, two diodes so when the actuator is driving east it operates one switch (that is set as dimmer/down), when driving west it operates the other set as dimmer/up, both to the same "phantom" group, and monitor the level of that. This has the advantage that it'd actually track pretty well the "real" state - if I've manually tweeked the panel positions.

Looking for ideas, reluctant to ever say "too hard", and "can't be done" isn't in my vocabulary.

 

That sounds like it might be your best bet.