I Built a Sun Tracking Solar Generator..

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The Sun sends enough energy to Earth every day to power the entire planet for thousands of years. How can we harness that effectively? In this video, I take on the challenge of building a giant modular, sun-tracking, parabolic solar mirror inspired by NASA's billion-dollar James Webb Telescope design.
From laser-cut frames and 3D-printed brackets to custom-made parabolic mirrors from plexiglass and a automatic sun-tracking mechanism, this project pushed my skills as an engineer to the limit.
You'll see:
How I solved unexpected challenges (like reflective films that don't cooperate with heat!).
Why silver mirrors outperform gold for solar energy collection.
And how I used Arduino, motors, and ingenuity to build a fully automated sun-tracking system.
This video is packed with experimentation, problem-solving, and a bit of disappointment thanks to typical Dutch weather. So stick around and see how far I got-because the real tests are coming in Part 2!

[@bllu]

Apply the reflective film after shaping the plastic....

[@taureviews]

Hard to apply flat sheet cleanly to a curved surface without creasing

[@bllu]

@@taureviews if it's reflective tint, use a heat gun and soapy water, I promise it works.

[@ryanreedgibson]

Dido

[@Bamamarama]

@@taureviews People do it every day wrapping cars.

[@815TypeSirius]

Its not you are wrong ​@taureviews

[@Ava-wu4qp]

Gold paint ≠ gold reflectivity Silver paint ≠ silver reflectivity At least outside of the visible spectrum. Paint just looks the part -it's optical properties are totally different to precious metals and also different to whatever coating is on your plastic mirrors.

[@RedHotBagel]

Yep. In general, even with the reflective film, that will usually still have plastic surrounding the colored pigments or film layer. Either stuff is suface-coated with a metal film or not. So electroplating, true chrome either without a coat or with an IR transparent coating and sputtering are probably the most common ways to get this done. But it doesn't really make sense to use semi-gloss chrome paints or these films where the properties are unknown for these comparisons :/

[@RasaCartaMagna]

I was thinking the same thing.

[@leocurious9919]

This was really strange to watch.

[@hondacivc93]

Golds chemical properties allow it to be polished to such a fine degree, that it can refract the wavelength of infrared light. The color itself doesn't matter.

[@leocurious9919]

@@hondacivc93 Why talk about things you know nothing about? 1. It is not polished, it is deposited on a previously polished surface. The same way any other first surface mirror with silver is made. 2. Pretty much anything can be polished, as that is only a measure of surface roughness. There is nothing inherently preventing a perfectly flat surface. 3. Flatness has nothing to do with how good this flat surface reflects a specific wavelength. That is inherently a property of the material. You can polish coal as much as you want, it will always be black. Gold is always gold colored, no matter how rough you make the surface. 4. The color is said inherent material property and is all that matters for what is reflected. The flat surface just makes sure that the reflection ends up where you want it to, instead of going somewhere else. That is all the flatness is needed for.

[@wingstrongwingstrong]

The heated aluminium disc should be dark, black (but not catch fire) to use enough of the light that is focused on it (as it's well known, the darker the object, the better it heats up). And, I'm sure you've considered this, but just in case: of course each segment must be the shape of the corresponding part of a parabola, not of the parabola's centre.

[@MrMpakobec]

If the focus point will be few centimetres above aluminium disk, trap for light could be made: second disk with small hole that will be few centimetres above main disk and aluminium wall between two disks. that way almost all light will get through the hole in the first disk and then rereflect many times inside our trap, heating everything up. This also will stop wind from cooling main disk. And of course all walls inside trap should be black - main disk heat resistant paint and other walls of the trap could be painted with black 3.0 to really boost performance.

[@wingstrongwingstrong]

@@MrMpakobec Поддерживаю

[@Atom224]

Not necessarily, if all parabolic mirrors (and their respective focal points) are equidistant to the secondary mirror/heater plate. It's way cheaper and faster to have one mold for all mirrors.

[@danielf3623]

3d Printing 6 different forms (as it's rotationally symmetrical, you should be able to reuse them) probbably isn't too much overhead, but I'm not certain it's worth it. In case of remoulding, a vacuum attatched to the negative mold might pull the plates into shape without damaging the mirrors finish by compressing them from the top. A more expensive option might be to get copper-clad plexiglass for the panels, form them and then electroplate them silver. The upside is you should be able to get a very eaven coat by placing the opposite electrode at the focal point of the mirror, so it's fairly equidistant from all points (minus the spherical/parabolic deviation) That would hopefully remove some of the waviness you have in your formed sections from the adhesive releasing and/or the film buckling.

[@danielf3623]

Also needless to say, make sure if you paint the plate black, you use temeperature-resistant paint like the stuff the make to paint mufflers or barbecues. Probably need some sort of primer with it as well, although the more different layers you have the worse the thermal conductivity could possibly be.

[@leifhietala8074]

Since you're trying to catch the light on the big plate, the parabolic shape on your primary mirrors is unnecessary. Each petal or mirror segment can be flat and the secondary mirror can be flat; the parabolic effect will come from how each segment is focused on the secondary. Rather than throw a tiny hot spot onto the receiver, let it be bigger and heat the whole thing more-or-less evenly. Lower deltas are less lossy. Also: you really want a dark receiver. Shiny silver will reflect a lot of the incident energy, shiny black will absorb it without re-radiating it so readily. Your ideal surface should be black chrome.

[@yeroca]

If he wants to achieve a real focus, each mirror should be a section of a paraboloid. Mirrors at the same radius can have the same shape, but the mirrors should be different shapes at different radius values.

[@ahaveland]

I did something like this with a 1.2m satellite dish and aluminium foil, and then a mylar sheet over the dish and partially evacuated the volume behind - it was scary efficient! I used candle soot to coat the bottom of a pan to absorb the energy. At night, I could point it to a clear sky and use it to freeze things!

[@FABBuildit]

Yeah! The aluminum plate needs to be as black as possible. And not gloss black. Matte black

[@agrajag-no]

Agreed. Given that each mirror is similar (or smaller) than the collector-plate, there's no need to concentrate the sunlight, simply reflecting it with a pile of small individually flat mirrors will be sufficient. So he spent a LOT of time and effort doing something of no practical value here.

[@DrGkill777]

If you want to concentrate the light back to the back you need a Ritchey Chretien formula so hyperboloid mirrors on the primary mirror and a correspondant hyperboloid secondary mirror. But it's complicated and overkill. I would have use paraboloid mirrors on the primary but would have place the heat plate on the focal point instead of a secondary mirror. It makes the formula way easier to colimate and you get rid of difficult to build optics. As others mention, darkening the hot plate ensure light coming from the primary mirror isn't reflected so lost.

[@mickeyfilmer5551]

One glaring thing that may be a problem... the heat collector is currently reflective. Spray it matt black with heat resistant (stove paint) paint as it will absorb heat much better than the shiny surface.

[@ConceptCraftedCreations]

Good one!👌

[@IvanSpaceBiker]

​@@ConceptCraftedCreations dimple the surface like a golf ball before you paint it for more surface area.

[@elpi2804]

​@@ConceptCraftedCreationsThe fact you're using aluminum gives you an option for making it black: There was research done stating that a simple candle's soot actually forms carbon nanotubes onto the aluminium surface. Simply put, just soot the aluminium disc with a candle and gently have something transparent to protect it from the elements. Used this for my solar space heater, works well, however haven't tested if simply painting it black has any difference. But theoretically the nanotubes would be perfect light capturers.

[@SocialPrime]

@@ConceptCraftedCreations it might be hard to find paint that can resist such high temps, but i hope you do. In either case sand down the surface with a medium grit to make sure there is no reflectiveness, either on the black paint or the bare aluminum.

[@ABaumstumpf]

@@IvanSpaceBiker that would do absolutely nothing.

[@coffeefish4743]

Color isn't really a good indicator for reflectance of infrared light. Actual gold like the stuff used on the telescope would reflect much more light, because the spray paint uses stuff that looks like gold, but isn't, it probably reflects much less light.

[@j.f.christ8421]

Lasers (IR CO2) use gold mirrors, they work well enough up to about 50W. The coating is rather fragile. They're reasonably cheap but small, only 20mm. Telescope dudes will sputter silver onto glass (say 300mm) easily enough, could probably point you towards someone who could do gold. These would have the coating on the front.

[@ralanham76]

​@@j.f.christ8421the silver would be oxidized very fast in the heat. In this case aluminum is probably best

[@j.f.christ8421]

@@ralanham76 Yeah, good point. Aluminium might even be better, it performs only slightly worse in visible (5-10%) but reflects more IR than silver.

[@roqueeugeniostanglerolivei7775]

EU TENTARIA ESPELHO FLEXIVEL A SER COLADO NO FINAL COM TODOS EM SUAS POSIÇÕES;DISCO DEVERIA SER NO PONTO FOCAL E NÃO NO CENTRO DO REFLETOR.

[@springlink3188]

Building all of this just to be hit with the reality that you live in the Netherlands is very relatable. It's like when me and me dad installed solar panel lights on our house and forgot we get an absurd amount of clouds, so we originally thought we bought defective lights XD

[@christopherd.winnan8701]

Send me a version for testing in SEA. I already have a neighbor with a similar set up who sells solar roasted chicken on the highway. I will send back a cut of the profits for further R&D.

[@buddyguy4723]

Do you remember if they were the blue crystalline looking ones or the black ones with stripes? The blue ones have like 4 times the Amp output in relation to surface area but only in direct sunlight. The black ones will output under 4 inches of snow and clouds.

[@CUBETechie]

You need an optimisation for diffuse Licht ut would help

[@violetquinnlaw]

i think it was 2004 the CSIRO in Australia built a large molten/solid salt solar reflector system that reached higher turbine steam temperature than has ever been achieved in a fossil fuel turbine. California put up a system around the same time but little has been done with it considering its potential to generate power for hrs after the sun is off reflectors thanks to molten salts high thermal capacity as for panel systems there's a NUMBER of factors that influence the sun levels needed for power the more line impedance/material to length to diameter to amps the less efficient the cable panel interface and panel cell interface the more resistance in inverter and battery's the less of the 22-24% (average panels ppl use these days efficiency) we manage to capture actually makes it to the destination reflector systems actualy do away with a lot of resistance because your heating a central rod that then boils and turns a steam turbine like a regular coal or gas plant and even in low light u just need a larger mirror footprint and u can get same heat but on a regular PV you can be getting double or triple the power depending on those factors from a system that is technically the same if your just looking at panels rated output tested at a cell level

[@ThLynn-o3c]

yep this is why my new design for a multiple power source green power system will provide for 24/7 365 power production with a scalable design that can be produced for both commercial General grid distribution to a private at point of use (no grid tie in needed, thus reducing demands on a frail public utility system) Also providing a system deigned for very remote points of use. This system's use of several proven green power technologies provides a level of reliability in proper power production that few if any other green power systems can provide ( excluding systems that are anything but naturally occurring that use exotic elements & or fuel sources. { I.E. atomic, oil gas, coal } All of which can cause very harmful byproducts & waist. NONE OF WHICH ARE TRULY NEEDED to obtain large volumes of energy. ) I have the design but do not work for free.

[@dolomighty74]

JWST needs parabolic mirrors to create an image, you do not have the same requirement: you just need all the light from a mirror to reflect on the collector. A plane mirror illuminated by the sun creates a reflection of the same size at most, so the only requirement is to have a collector of the same size of the mirror.

[@Roobotics]

This is a good point, I think a solid compromise that would be especially effective here, is set a reasonable focal goal for the curvatures, small enough to splash the majority of the target for good transfer.

[@timseguine2]

Partially true, but one thing to consider is that the efficiency of a solar heat collector is proportional to the temperature difference you can achieve, and you can get a larger temperature difference for the same size collector by concentrating the light using parabolic mirrors.

[@ahaveland]

Yes, focusing to a point is unnecessary unless you want to melt things - key is to collect energy as heat more efficiently, not concentrate it more than is necessary. The same energy can make a high temperature over a small area, or lower temperature over a larger area, and the latter may be more efficient by maximising heat transfer time to heat the fluid medium by the desired amount. There are a lot of things to consider. Coating the collector with soot from a candle will also increase absorption.

[@benargee]

I agree, I think for a V1 flat mirrors are fine. Parabolic mirrors should be an improvement as an upgrade for more efficiency.

[@ahaveland]

@ No, flat mirrors only fine if the collector is where all the reflections impinge on it on the end of the boom. There is no shape that can then reflect them all to the collector in the centre of the dish as they would all miss except one. In this case they would need to be partially focused to land on a parabolic convex reflector to then land on the collector in the dish, with a suitable radius to provide a temperature enough to heat the water to the desired temperature.

[@adri1572]

Maybe consider painting the collector plate black?

[@broniusale5987]

slewing bearing ok, but springs expensive?

[@wingstrongwingstrong]

xD (I'm not American) My salary is less than $100 a month, however I recently allowed myself a set of 200 springs for $5 for the sake of 4 springs :) But the springs can really be replaced with alternatives, and the bearing is specific and very important, I guess it's just the man was choosing what to spend money on and what is not worth it

[@MartinMaat]

@@broniusale5987 Yeah, I don't understand what that was about either. Just looked at temu, searched for springs: springs galore for 10 to 20 ct a piece.

[@wdwadindwatri]

@@MartinMaat don't promote cancer temu. it's a bloatware to the economics and healthy market.

[@yjuzverejtjuzverej]

Very good project. 1. Place the heat receiver on the rods, and not reflect the light twice, which only leads to double losses due to light reflection. 2. Paint it black or smoke it with soot. 3. It is possible to apply a reflective coating after forming the bend of the mirror, in order to avoid cracks when heated. 4. Add a protective layer on top of the reflective one, since it is difficult to maintain the integrity of the coating in the sun, wind and rain. Plus, the second layer can be polished with a car polishing machine. 5. Replace tracking by lighting level with a simple table of the sun's location by time of day (but then you need to add potentiometers or decoders to the rotary axes). 6. If you want to leave the installation outside for a long time, you need to add a protective function to avoid strong winds, add a wind sensor or simply take information from the local weather forecast (mirrors are just a big sail)

[@RupertBruce]

I agree with all but #5

[@RasaCartaMagna]

Won’t that table shift by time of year, requiring either manual adjustment or additional complexity? I personally think this method of tracking is super elegant and quite simple overall.

[@korishan]

Instead of allowing the water to flow through the collection plate under acrylic, I would of put copper tubing and soldered it into place to make better contact. Better contact allows for more efficient transfer of thermal energy. Also, the water will get very hot and start to build up pressure which can cause the acrylic to start to flex under the pressure, plus the heat making it softer. On my single solar thermal collector I had on a 2ftx4ft panel, the water would start boiling before exiting the system, which led to a lot of a air locking keeping the water from flowing smoothly. The system *had* to run under pressure to keep the water from boiling so easily.

[@danielf3623]

Yeah, that acrylic backplate is just begging for leaks. The mirror tests already show it can significantly flex at 100C, and there's going to be a lot of water/steam pressure in there.

[@axelBr1]

I suggested in another comment that a car radiator would be a better collector.

[@SolarCookingGermany]

As someone who builds solar cookers I've never seen anyone at that level of engineering (except industrial projects). Very impressive and I also like the design👍Looking forward to part 2

[@Sekir80]

Nah, he overcomplicates it. Keep it simple, that's the recipe of a good solar cooker :D

[@SolarCookingGermany]

@@Sekir80 I agree, but it's always nice to see a different approach.

[@darioferretti3758]

The mirrors away from the center have to continue the parabola, aka, you CAN'T use the same mold for all of the mirrors, the light will be coming at an angle and not go to the focal point, you need 3 different molds for the ones nearest to furthest from the center (also molds will be directional)

[@darioferretti3758]

Also do note, if you want to focus all light onto a single point the secondary mirror will have to be an ellipsoid one, with one focal point matching the one of the large mirrors, if you want the heat to be more evenly distributed a parabolic mirror will do the trick

[@3l389]

What is the energy loss of having a 2 mirror system vs having the alumnium plate take the direct reflection of the first mirrors?

[@p529.]

More complicated piping I assume

[@jpjay1584]

@@p529. same piping. just put the plate into the focus point and its done.

[@fermitupoupon1754]

@@jpjay1584 I'm assuming it's more about the weight of the heat plate versus a mirror than anything else.

[@localism479]

Yeah, the ‘heat plate’ really should be at the focal point of the mirror array, instead of a double mirror.

[@trustmub1]

The weight of the heating plate might be the main reason for the design choices here.

[@yiannchrst]

Yeah, I thought there was no way you could finish the whole project in only a 13 and a half minute video. Well, you are almost done. Can't wait for part two!

[@ConceptCraftedCreations]

Glad you enjoyed it! Part 2 coming soon🤓

[@baileescott401]

test the springs at different temps, cause they might lose their strength when hot from the mirrors

[@rutherford2580]

Every other cut a new piece is printed or a new graphic designed. It is absolutly incredible how much time you spend on this project and its documentation while making it look like a walk in the park right here.

[@jmonsted]

If the mirror puts a large strain on the tilt motor, could you add a counterweight to balance it?

[@ConceptCraftedCreations]

Theoretically that would be possible yeah!👌

[@jpjay1584]

great comment! all gimbals are balanced.

[@shanegibbens]

I like the mirror segmented, easy to replace if any damaged, allowed fine tuning, and cheap compared to a giant curved mirror. Nicely done

[@1chumley1]

I think you should create a solar tracker that only requires grid coordinates and a calendar to operate. With those two pieces of information, one should be able to create a platform for solar collectors that is 100% accurate without worrying about it being exposed to the sun.

[@merlekerle]

for me it would be more of a hassle because you would have to code for it. his solution is pretty straight forward easy

[@ulrichwilsenach4411]

Paint the heat collector black, as silver reflects...no need for individual curved mirrors, as the current setup uses low reflectivity film. Rather user real flat mirrors and get all reflections from the flat mirrors to overlap on the heat collector. More smaller real mirrors may be the way to go.

[@boltzbrain3039]

Amazing project, choosing foil on Plexiglas with foil as reflectors....well its cost effective. The bigger problem i see is with using Plexiglas as the back cover for the heat collector. Years ago i tryed to build watercooling blocks from Plexiglas and found out it gets very soft around 60C already, making the seals leak because the skews loose pressure cuz they sink into the plexi.

[@anthonyanglim7147]

Great Idea! For the Parabolic Curve. . . You could just Keep the Mirrors Flat Since they already Follow a parabolic curve. Otherwise Each Mirror would have to Have the Individual Corresponding Curve for that Segment of the Overall Parabola of the Dish. Without that Exact Arrangement you will loose Light Density, I personally believe Flat Mirrors Arranged along the Parabolic Curve would Give an Overall Higher Density of Reflected Light though not 100 percent.

[@0niichad]

That's what I was thinking. I'm sure there are quite a few scientific journals on what's best. there's no need to reinvent the wheel with how much effort is being put into it.

[@jpjay1584]

the focus points would be too big but yes its easier to do.

[@GMPranav]

6:58 missed opportunity to give a gold medal to silver and a silver medal to gold.

[@MartinMaat]

Did you apply the paint at the front of the acrylic panes? It wasn't clear to me, it would be best to apply it at the back like with any mirror. Then the aluminium core plate must be painted matte black of course, you do not want that to act as a mirror too. I expect some issues with boiling, tubes may burst or come off. You may need to control the water flow based on the plate's temperature, making sure it won't exceed 90 degrees Celcius or so. And using astronomical data tables for your date and location seems more effective than trying to figure out where the sun is in real time. This is how all trackers for solar panels work. Overall I am impressed once again.

[@danielf3623]

Yeah, he's going to need a lot of water pumping through that block to keep the sink below boiling temperature, which means needing a constant use for the hot water. Recycling got water will also make it boil. Honeslty, being able to form the plexiglass mirrors at 100C means getting any where close to boiling will cause the seals around the plexiglass backplate to pop. The tempreature and constant water/steam pressure will warp it.

[@KeithOlson]

Great project! Some thoughts: 1. Probably the best, cheapest mirrors you can find are the aluminium discs in mechanical hard drives, which are regularly used as front-surface mirrors for laser builds. Sure, that means a *LOT* more mounting points, but the better efficiency should make it worthwhile. For mounting, you could cut some discs into washers, which will reduce mounting to a single screw. Also, as aluminium is fairly soft they should be easy to form into a parabolic shape. 2. As the amount of screw adjustment needed for focusing each mirror will be relatively small, slices of PVC pipe would be sturdy enough and provide enough spring while being _dirt_ cheap. Alternatively, as you should only need to worry about tilting towards/away from the center, you could 3d print a mount with built-in compliant joint and just use a screwed wedge to set the angle. That would make printing and assembly *MUCH* faster and easier. 3. Rather than depending solely on light to determine where the sun is, just use one of the many Arduino solar tracking libraries to ballpark the position using lat/long/time/date. It can not only always aim your mirrors directly at the sun, but can automatically reset the array for morning. You'll need an IMU to feed back the array's direction and inclination, as well as an RTC, but those are cheap and easy to incorporate. 4. That vertical mount is... sketchy, at best. I would pivot the array around its center of gravity in the center of the platform, then tilt it using a tight non-elastic cord/belt/chain that is anchored to the top and bottom edges of the array and travels around a gear in the middle if using toothed belt or chain or wrapped around a powered drum in the middle if not. Cheers!

[@ABaumstumpf]

Aside from using flat mirrors to make it easier and painting the disk black: The heatdisk should also have some sort of transparent casing as to trap more heat. A large hot metal disk also is good at giving off heat to the surrounding air. And the cover would also protect whatever dark coating you use.

[@mohamedbelafdal6362]

a suggestion for building the mirrors: 1) 3d print a parabolic plate in plastic 2.a) spray it with a reflective paint 2.b) or tape aluminium length wise to cover the parabolic plate 3) cover it in epoxy resin to make it more durable a suggestion for the design: -instead of moving a huge and heavy mirror, focus smaller sized mirrors. (for example if the motor is reliable for 50 kg, instead of using a 75 kg mirror, use 4 smaller 40 kg mirrors) good luck and I hope this was useful

[@dougcox835]

Your tracking system looks good and it's probably easy to do it digitally but it could actually all be done with a few op amps. One thing though about the heat collection. Your plate should be black to absorb as much heat as possible using black chrome or black nickel. And it should be a very heat conductive metal such as copper as well. Those tubes should be copper to transfer as much heat as possible. I even considered iron but that's not as good a heat conductor as copper or aluminum. I think it would be funny to grab an old iron frying pan (your plate looks about that size) and cut off the handle and braze the copper tubing to that. Solder might actually melt if your machine works. I've seen much smaller solar cookers and they get amazingly hot. A recessed collector or a semi-spherical collector is more efficient because it traps light and minimizes heat loss. Ask Chat GPT about this. I did and it gave me a lot more than I put here. Everything about this is subject to cost and ability to actually do it. I think since you already have an nice aluminum plate you should just keep that and coat it black and replace the tubing with copper. One thing that popped into my head is, how do you make aluminum black? Then it occurred to me that all you need is a cantle to coat it with soot. That's plenty black. Or paint it with black stove or BBQ paint.

[@hjacobson22]

The necessity for a parabolic mirror shape instead of a spherical shape was unexpected. I learned something today!

[@PlatinumDragonProductions999]

I boggled by how you have the time and energy to do this, even more so by how you take the time to make such a great video about it! Well done, sir!

[@stratos2]

try to cover the heat plate in something extremely dark. Maybe soot for a simple solution, or vantablack (or similar) if they can withstand the heat. That should absorb nearly all the light energy

[@ahaveland]

I would put the collector at the 1st focus and make it a sphere with a hole in the side to let the light in and stop any reflections from leaving. Imagine machining channels into a hollow sphere with a hole in the side, then coat the inside with candle soot. This way, you won't have to worry about machining a secondary mirror. The parabolic segments reflect just once through the hole in the sphere and everything is captured. I made a solar tracker using an Arduino, GPS module and two servos, (later two steppers) and some code to translate time of day and lat/long location into elevation and azimuth in degrees. Works even when overcast. Add an anemometer then set to elevation to 90° if wind exceeds a limit. Use a linear actuator for elevation - this can take a lot of load. Raise the dish and add a counterweight to reduce static torque. Servos are a pain - they want to slew suddenly to another position at power-on, and that can break things if they don't have a clutch mechanism!

[@helmholtz817]

That's so cool. I think that the segments should be offset paraboloids. Also i wonder what geometry does the secondary mirror has

[@dougcox835]

This is a cassegrain antenna design. The formulas are all over the antenna design websites. It is very critical though. and actually you usually want to focus in a single point but for this you should try for a focal point past the plate just where the cone of light would evenly cover the plate.

[@Spectre4490]

Why you chose paint insted of space blanket? I think second can be more effective But anyway project looks cool

[@DimaZheludko]

Very good quality of video overall, no junk or filler. As for tilting mechanism, consider redesigning it. Main problem with current iteration is that it is relatively weak. It may hold light frame with reflectors, but then it'll need to be strong enough to withstand the winds. And winds will potentially double or tripple the loads.

[@a_skellington]

If you paint the aluminium heat sink with an ultra black paint like vanta black, or even just regular black itll absorb more of the light as heat, the water you pump through the sink could be salt water as well since salt water is more conductive and reaches boiling point easier. Those are my suggestions, great video!

[@stockdam]

Really interesting project. My thoughts. Gold paint and gold are obviously different but that’s not important as cost is a factor. You could try using aluminium foil or even “speed tape” (aluminium tape). I don’t think using parabolic mirrors is important if the overall shape is parabolic. You’re just trying to focus the light onto the central mirror and then onto the heat collector. The central mirror may need to be parabolic to focus the energy roughly onto the collector. Why not just stick small mirrors onto a TV dish and try that. Much cheaper especially if you get a scrap one. The dish and mounts are also designed to work in high winds but the weight will mean larger motors and you may need to use a counterbalance to help lessen the load on any motors.

[@yeroca]

I'm guessing the JWST used a gold coating because it is good at reflecting IR, because imagining in the IR spectrum is what the JWST's main mission is.

[@runowood6810]

have you thought about using a "black body box" collector instead of the plate?

[@jasongralding3222]

I enjoyed watching this very much. Many other comments have addressed my thought that each of your segments needed to be a different section of the parabolic curve (like on the JWST), but as many have said, this is only necessary to focus a sharp image. Looking forward to seeing video #2

[@trealin4730]

9:58 so many simple mistakes made. Why not apply the film after shaping the panels?

[@JS4TUBES]

First of all I would like to commend the meticulous work you have done. It's just fantastic problem solving ! I have few observations 1) the spherical mirrors should have been ok too because you are aiming for heating and non imaging application. The only requirement was that reflected sun rays must fall on aluminium collector and not miss it. 2) you need to apply some black absorbing material on aluminium having water pipes, which I guess you would be doing. 3) As I understand the acrylic mirrors have to direct and focus on some mirror which will reflect back that light to aluminum collector having water channel. Designing that will be more challenging as it is duplicate of your acrylic mirror design but with constraint of smaller dimension and more temperature capacity. 3) finally you need to keep appropriate flow rate in water channel to avoid steam formation. Goodluck to you However you must calculate the photo to thermal efficiency of your system and the benefit associated with it.

[@yudhistirahayuatma]

1. You can apply film with heat gun and soapy water. Just like car window film applications. 2. You do not need parabolic fancy mirror for heat collection. Especially if your heat receptor is as big as individual mirrors. You can even use flat mirror. 3. Paint your heat receptor black.

[@mordiev]

I really enjoy your videos and creative projects. My mind is still obsessed with the tree wind generator. I see a potential problem with your heat collector plate. Let's assume you solve all the other issues and create the perfect solar energy collector/concentrator. In that situation you will have a very hot plate with water trapped into a VERY small diameter channel. That water will turn to steam very quickly and you won't be able pump water in fast enough (or with enough pressure) to stop the steam forming process. Once it starts you will not be able to stop it without removing the heat. I have seen the same thing happen when people attempt to heat water using 1/4 or 1/2 inch copper tubing with rocket stoves. After it gets warmed up to a specific point the steam creates back pressure and water doesn't flow through the system anymore. To solve this on the rocket stoves they use 3/4 inch (or larger) copper tubing. Then they can collect more heat with a slower flow of water. I would suggest you consider creating a new heat collector with a wider (or deeper) water channel so you can get a larger volume of water in contact with the heat. This will enable you to use slower moving water at lower pressures. Keep up the great work.

[@Sekir80]

I don't really understand the spherical/parabola difference in your application: why are you so concerned to focus the light into one point (parabola) instead of leaving it a bit spread out (spherical) if you use a gigantic solar collector (aluminium plate)? By the size of the collector the hexagonal patterns could even remain flat. Another thought: you should have just bought a satellite dish second hand and coat that one. Easy, no?

[@FangornTiger]

For the sun tracking I'd seriously consider an equatorial aligned single axis drive, just like a German Equatorial telescope mount, it will allow for counter weight balancing to lessen strain on motors. There's a market for second hand mounts with some sophisticated tracking software more than capable of following the sun even over multiple days. You don't need your primary reflector segments to be curved either, they can be flat as you are not trying to cast the image of the sun on a focal plane, you just need the maximum of light from each reflector to reach a common surface area which will be your collector. If you could position your collector in front of the reflectors instead of needing a secondary reflector to send the light back down again then you avoid losing energy to a second reflector which will itself also be getting quite hot as it is nor reflecting 100% of the light/heat.

[@dmitribovski1292]

Tip. Have a look at a polar aligned equatorial wedge. You will find tracking easier as all the tracking for the day can be done with one motor running at 1/24 revolution per hour.(the earth is rotating not the sun moving) Why is the disk in the middle silver it will reflect heat & light, it should be the darkest matt black you could find.

[@projectrc4978]

id reccomend applying the reflective film after shaping if possible, a heat gun may help with this like applying a wrap to a car maybe? i would also recomend making the centre plate black so that absorbs the light energy rather than reflectibg it away, if you could give it a black anodising that could work great. Good luck!

[@jpjay1584]

awesome project. it's on my list for years now. 1. what if you molded the acrylic first and then put the silver foil on it? and did you check other foils, such as a rescue "blanket" or using real silver like they do for DIY telescope lenses? 2. the liquid for heating, I would have used oil as it goes easily to 300C without damaging or boiling. 3. what about a heat storage? a highly insulated barrel that stores all the energy and used when needed? 4. the solar tracking sensor: great! how did you solve that at the end of the day it goes back to the morning position? (otherwise it's impossible to find the sun when in evening position) 5. the aluminum disk you can easily ANODIZE in black. at home. that should last forever.

[@PackthatcameBack]

Anything I would have done? Not use gold and silver paint for one. When it comes to energy, paint is not the same as the actual materials; it's a case of pigment versus metallic elements. Sure, I get that neither one is cheap, but you can only go so far with just substitutes.

[@ConceptCraftedCreations]

I get what you mean! What's your opinion on the test with the laser to test reflectivity if i may ask?

[@PackthatcameBack]

@@ConceptCraftedCreations Seemed accurate enough to me, so kudos on that. Seriously though, real silver mirrors will beat just about any substitute in this kind of situation.

[@johndough8115]

@@ConceptCraftedCreations Gold paint, isnt the same color, nor reflectivity, of high purity Gold. For that test, you should use Gold-Leaf. Gold Leaf, is real gold.. just incredibly thin... making it semi-affordable, for coating things like Picture Frames.

[@PabloCabovianco]

I love your project! I think the mirrors being identical and parabolic might not focus the sunlight as efficiently as possible. For a perfect focal point, the entire array might need a unique parabolic curvature across the structure, like the JWST design. That way, the mirrors would need to have 3 different types of curvatures instead of all being the same. Just a thought!

[@davidteichman3102]

On your motor controller, add standard tracking/motion for the solar calendar (xyz angle and speed) and only allow a certain % deviation from photorestors so random clouds and over cast days it still tracks as it should. that way photoresistors are never totally out of scope and can correct the last few degrees and won't go crazy scanning everywhere for the sun if it loses track due to environmental reasons and or freezes because everywhere is the same brightness. The pan/tilt should be almost 100% predictable on a calendar basis but id imagine there is some deviation based on location and local weather witch could be problematic (especially being so far in the far north). And if your looking to go real fine grain, testing photoresistors to to find common resistance for a given light emittance. then adding small resistance so it doesn't have a bias to one quadrant would help with accuracy and balance (apologize in advance if wording is out of place or slurred, having a few beers finishing another mechatronics problem for the night and love projects like this...thank god for spellllll check) love what your doing and want to do some similar stuff here in warm Florida. my comments are not supposed to be "HEY THIS IS WHAT YOUR DOING WRONG " but what id love to add if and or when i do the same thing i appreciate showing your pitfalls in MFG because id do all of those to otherwise :)

[@Lux158]

Some improvements.. 1. to form the mirrors, use two molds that will cover the entire mirror (the edges looked a bit like they where not evenly molded.. ) 2. you could place the tracker on the sun facing side of the secondary mirror, just an idea. 3. if you have the machines, you could make the mold and former out of aluminum/metal and heat the mirrors within them. (Using the mounting points to Aline)

[@QuinnMallory-od1hw]

Issue, their is a maximum amount of energy a solar panel can convert, in fact as the solar panel heats up the conversion rate of the crystals drop. Layered solar panels with water cooling is now a better method to increasing the energy efficiency. So focusing on less solar panel material probably won't help much unless your in winter.

[@alexnelson6196]

Make sure to keep it secured when the wind picks up. Thank you for the cool video!

[@greggv8]

See if you can get Spaz Stix Ultimate Mirror Chrome paint in the Netherlands. It works on glass and glass smooth plastics to create a truly mirror reflective finish. It can do that on the front or rear surface. On the front surface, to protect it, the company makes a special clear coat. For use on the rear surface they have white or black backing paint. It was originally made for use on the inside of vacuum formed Lexan bodies for radio controlled cars. It works on most plastics and fully dry paints. Spray some on the lid from a CD jewel case for an instant mirror. Of course the lid has to be clean and not all scratched up. Rustoleum has a similar paint called Mirror Effect. It's not quite as reflective and it only works on the back surface of clear glass and some plastics. Unlike the Spaz Stix paint, this Rustoleum will not work on styrene.

[@floppydisk4500]

You should get a light gray projection sheet or paper to put down on your table when you're using your projector like this, it'll increase contrast and color, as well as reducing reflectivity from the surface as it stands.

[@reddragon7030]

There is so much here..! I really enjoy your projector table! You’ll need glass or quartz, if you want better lenses (10x power, 100x cost) Aluminum reflects better than silver and gold, but it more prone to oxidizing. Copper transfers heat best Charcoal is ideal for light absorption, so a copper cup coated with charcoal will pull heat off the coal. Copper grounding rods into an insulated sand box (or crushed brick) will trap heat.

[@daniellapain1576]

This is the concept I needed for my design and I know the algorithm brought me here for a reason lol. We are working on different light spectrum's though lol. I need less heat and a more solar panel friendly spectrum. The telescope concentrates the light and sends it indoors over photonic or fibre optic lines and spreads the light out to a server rack full of stack-able solar panels, mirrors, and diffusers. Not built yet but I would like to see just how far a system like that could be pushed. We should share notes lol.

[@wiktorchojnacki9746]

If you're worried about the spindle not handling enough force to move and support the arm, consider adding a hydraulic arm support and letting the spindle only drive the movement.

[@qasw1234]

-I'd redesign this to have the collector plate be smaller and mounted at the focal point of the parabola and not try to reflect it back to the center as you are introducing unnecessary inefficiency with the extra reflection. -like many other people have pointed out, the collector plate should be black as you want to trap as much heat as possible, not reflect it away -I think it would have made more sense to 3d-print the segments of the dish then electro-plate them as that would reflect a lot better than any paint would and it would mean you could print each segment with the correct curve instead of trying to bend it afterwards and having to create molds which would be inaccurate as you would need to create a different molds to have the correct curvature in each segment. The segments could also be designed to interlock with each other to reduce their size(to allow to fit in your 3d-printer) and reduce the mounting points. Either that or bend the plastic before applying the reflective film -the angles of the mounts for the dish segments didn't really need to be adjustable. The shape of the parabola isn't variable. It should have been designed in CAD first then each mount printed at the correct angle. It would have saved you complexity and weight and cost. You could have even designed a spine right into the segments of the parabola and avoided mounts altogether. s of the parabola and avoided mounts altogether. Domes are fairly sturdy structures on their own so a spine might not even be necessary. -since this device is meant to be used outdoor and presumably in the elements, considerations need to be made for wind and rain. The joints need to be sturdy enough to take a strong gust given the surface area and shape and the device needs to have proper drainage

[@jackie.p6891]

I have to say, it looks amazing :) I'm curious how effective it would be, but it seems like a great project and would want one for myself, so I think I'm going to steal your design when you're done :D Also, being a neighbor from the south, I feel your pain trying to test solar panels in the rain. much love from Belgium! you have my subscription

[@jamesbaratheon2711]

i didnt notice any seal used on the heating disc, when heating up the water the pressure will rise, i hope it wont leak on test day, nice projekt dude.

[@stuartelle4117]

A gas strut would help take the weight off the hinge.

[@thenotoriousyumz]

So, you've made a solar concentrator that was invented over 2 millenia ago. There are even modern versions that use molten salts instead of aluminum. I think you should have done more investigation on what has already been done. There are even studies about the best materials to use as receivers. This is inventing in a bubble.

[@fuccasound3897]

Sometimes if you invent 'in a bubble', you may come up with something new and better than what was done previously, that said examining what has gone before can be helpful and shortcut the design process. Pointless to reinvent the wheel but you could invent something that does the same job but better? Besides he did look at the JWST design for inspiration.

[@joshg469]

Really cool project, I'd use mylar blankets though. You can shape that to acrylic or even ASA structure basically using vacuum wrapping. It's far more reflective and reflects heat better

[@gdpirahna]

I thoroughly enjoyed watching this project, and I look forward to seeing more of it. Your mount appears more complicated than necessary. An equatorial mount similar to that used by many telescopes seems more practical. If you tilt the rotation axis so that axis points to Polaris you can rotate the mirror structure to track the sun, while north-south adjustment can remain constant (nearly) through the day.

[@31337ification]

This is very cool, as a total novices' suggestion : maybe make a cover that the system can close over itself if it detects low/no water to prevent it catching fire. Something simple on a hinge attached to the lazy susan base should work fine.

[@kululv]

very interesting! use one of the car wrap foils. They stretch and you can apply them after bending the plexiglass. And they are highly reflective! Cant wait for your followup video!

[@keshnikov]

Using windows tint should allow you to apply it to the curved acrylic AFTER shaping. There is a technique using heat guns that tint shops use to shape the film to curved surfaces. I believe this would allow for a cleaner/smoother surface finish, thereby a more efficient system.

[@Sembazuru]

Because he uses heat to shape his mirror segments, then using heat to apply the mirror film might change the shape of the mirror segments. Though, I'm of the opinion like other people that he really doesn't need to focus each individual mirror segment since his collection plate is nearly the same size as the mirror segments. He isn't trying to capture an image of the sun, just collect the light.

[@jacobe2995]

The only thing I would have done differently is just make one huge parabolic instead of segmented ones. I also would like to see how it's going to be used because I'm having trouble understanding how other than just heating water what use is it? granted heating water is pretty useful too.

[@daemenoth]

Humanities scientific advancement is pretty much measured by how complicated a way we can devise to boil water.

[@christopherd.winnan8701]

home made solar water heater powered by a fresnel lense kzbin.info/www/bejne/qKOqfpyamMSDbdU

[@unknownhours]

One huge mirror is more difficult to make. That's why the Webb uses that hexagons. Of course, individual mirror segments have their own issues....

[@michaelsorensen7567]

Easier to replace a single failed mirror from an array, rather than having to replace the whole thing. Also easier to make small mirrors than big ones Also easier to correct for flaws etc with small mirrors than one big one. There are some advantages to a solid mirror. There are some advantages to a mirror array. 🤷‍♂️

[@zetahurley7323]

If you point it at a solar panel you can get a lot of power out of it. Most aren't rated for that level of power though so for consumers a heat based generator might be more plausible

[@user-wl7sy8et6l]

you can spray silver nitrate on the shaped plexy glass, that will deposit a smooth reflective layer of metallic silver.

[@wibblywobblyidiotvision]

2 things I would do differently. Firstly, I'd apply the reflective film after shaping the mirrors, a bit of heat and job's a good 'un. I also wouldn't bother with the extra complexity of the arduino, sun tracking using ldrs or even leds can be done in a totally passive manner using very few components. But you've done it now, so hey... I probably wouldn't use water as the working fluid, and would almost certainly not use perspex on the back of the collector. That's gonna get hot.

[@blackdog6969]

Black automotive paint on the heat collector would likely help a lot. Protects the part from weather and increase heat absorption. A rough finish would increase the surface area as well by the tiniest bit to collect as much as possible.

[@egirlbadeline]

A few things i noticed: 1. The parabola molded disks aren't serving much benifit because your collecter is relatively large. 2. The reflective film is likely much worse at reflecting heat than other accessable materials. (My pick would be a reflective desert safety blanket) 3. The aluminum collector loses a large amount of heat because its reflective. Ideally your collector should be dark black to maximise absorbtion. Darkening your existing part can be done easily with an aluminum blueing kit. 4. TPU degrades quickly in UV light, making the printed springs less than ideal for longterm, outdoor use. 5. Clearly a lot of time and passion is being put into this project. Dont let complainers like me stop you from persuing creative ideas, and making discoveries!

[@truffatorenapoletano90tratbas]

about the mirror, you shold FIRST bend the plexiglass and AFTER apply the mirror film, this avoid it to be damaged by hot of microwaves oven. anyway the project is amazing, i subscribed your channel!

[@norfolkflyingboyz2404]

I love the raw honesty. What great video. Thank you

[@ryanreedgibson]

I wish PCBway was located in a different country. I'm not allowed to do business with them. What a cool project. It would work well in my winter home in Paradise Valley Arizona.

[@robcuthbert8257]

LOL, I love the sad teddy laying face down in the lane. speaks to the moment !!

[@nirjharbhatnaagar1982]

I don't know but if you spray a 'clear' automotive coat on the gold and silver paint...this should reflect much more..! Nice build and research...Sir ~Regards and Namaste~

[@djieffe]

2:07 graphite paint and gold/nickel plating or mylar and vacuum to shape it. 5:54 diy spring with welding wire.

[@hakon.j.d.johnsen]

I love the design and engineering! Also great to see the experiments along the way to compare different possible solutions! I do research in nonimaging optics & solar concentration, and wanted to share some input on the optics. Using JWST as the inspiration leads to a very nice-looking design, but there is one important difference in the optics to be aware of: - JWST’s optics are designed for magnification - it is designed to take the light from a super-narrow region of the sky, and turn in into a relatively large image on the sensor. - A solar concentrator has the opposite goal - it should take all the light from a wide region in the sky (the sun + some area surrounding the sun), and focus it down to a very small area. These different goals leads to some different tradeoffs. In this specific case, it will mean that it will be difficult to redirect all the light from your secondary reflector down to your aluminum heat plate, without very tight tolerances in the whole system. The simplest way to get a much better tolerance vs concentration-tradeoff would be to skip the secondary mirror and put your aluminum receiver directly in the focus from your parabola. (This is similar to existing parabolic dish concentrators that have been used for power generation.) Another option for getting better performance would be to use just a flat mirror on your solar tracker to send the sunlight horizontally, and then mount your nice concentrator in a fixed orientation to receive this horizontal sunlight. This is known as a solar furnace, and is how research facilities use sunlight to do experiments with highly concentrated sunlight without having to move their experimental setup as the sun moves a cross the sky. Looking forward to seeing your follow-up!

[@Nikolaos34]

I'd recommend putting two pistons on the back of the mirror assembly to the frame. This will strengthen the hinge and prevent wobbling from the single connection. The shot at 12:30 shows exactly what I am referring to.

[@Anaxiphanes]

You can absolutely thermoform your mirrors but it requires precise oven temperature control to avoid bubbles and under and overheating the glass transition temperature of your plastic (scientific not kitchen style controls etc). I have made image worthy shaped mirrors from safety mirror (secondary mirrors). I assume there is also micro arcing in your film in the microwave. I'd apply (for primary mirrors) reflective film or aluminum tape to the plastic after forming.

[@Hizenhawer]

For tracking the sun use data for your geo position instead of sensors. You don't have to worry about reflections of clouds. Far more reliable and fully software solution.

[@siz1700]

Two Russian youtubers made sun tracking based on math, location and date. They decided that tracking on light resistors was not a good fit

[@TheChristmasNinja12]

The center should be as dark/non-reflective as possible if you want to absorb the most amount of heat. Consider either: a black anodized coating; a cast iron attachment; or really scuffing the surface (easiest but least effective option).

[@fonephix7222]

Careful of that heat.You're going to melt your springs! Awesome work! I'm looking forward to seeing the next version for sure. This step one really is davici level work

[@rommelfcc]

When making the solar water heater Try painting to black with "Mizzou black paint" and try to have it in a vacuum so it can't radiate the heat out I don't know if you can make a clear dome to use as the vacuum chamber... Actually I'm not sure if Mizzou black paint can we stand high temperatures... What you could do is get a candle and lighters and catch the soot coming off it to coat the disk or a glass pipe and put that inside a vacuum tube and find a glass worker to join the tubes, when it cools, it will have some vacuum not sure how much... Good luck

[@JohnJackson66]

You could align the horizontal drive parallel to the equator so the vertical drive has much less to do. Since the design is trying to be energy efficient this may be significant

[@isaacinnis]

I don't know what CAD software you are using. In Solid Edge, if you use the material properties correctly, the software can identify the center of gravity (CoG) of both a part and an assembly. If you place the CoG of the upper mirror assembly directly above the central point of your turntable and are able to figure out a method for pivoting the mirror assembly up and down on an axis which passes through this CoG, there will be no moment arm to contend with. The motors required for motion will only be fighting friction and inertia. They won't be battling many newton meters of torque.

[@Eidolon1andOnly]

I'd use metal springs as well as mylar applied to the plexiglass after it has been shaped. If that aluminum plate is meant to heat the water then it should be painted, or better yet powder coated, matte black.

[@jimbillyjenkims]

Honestly, you should flip the water disk over so the transparent side catches the light, and pack the channels with steel wool. It's about surface area here. Of course, you'll need to replace the plexiglass with glass glass, but it'll boil that water faster than you can say, "PCBWay!"

[@korishan]

For your solar mirrors with the painted acrylic plates, I'd suggest using several layers of the paint, and then buffing the paint to give it a nice shine, then clear coat it to seal it. This would get around the dullness of the paint you showed in the video.

[@mdski95]

Since you havent mentioned it - you may want to test LDRs for individual deviations under controlled light levels and software-correct. I can imagine a lot of motor jittering so a rolling average filter or other may be considered as well The mirrors are sick-cool! best of luck

[@taith2]

I would change a lot, but that would be complete rework Like investigating aluminum as mirror surface Using inflatable design pretty much balloon within balloon and could also use lift gas and attach everything with rope system But also had a lot of weight constraints, could get bigger for better lift of anything that's will get focused sun at

[@StaK_1980]

Really like the presentation with the beamer onto the desk! :-) I would probably consider adding a counter-weigh of sort to the mirror if you want it to be more stable. But then you'd have to redesign the base section as that is not fit for an opening in the middle.

[@userunfriendly9304]

rub the aluminum disk with really fine grit sandpaper and then rub some artist charcoal all over it.

[@ConceptCraftedCreations]

Is that also heat resistant that you know of?

[@peaxoop]

@@ConceptCraftedCreations I'm sure that because the charcoal is carbon it would combust easily especially as a powder.

[@userunfriendly9304]

@@ConceptCraftedCreations since it's pretty much pure carbon, it shouldn't burn, but should increase the amount of light energy being absorbed into the aluminum. You could also just hold the sun facing side of the aluminum over a campfire until it collects a good coating of soot.

[@jpjay1584]

@@ConceptCraftedCreations anodize it. DONE!