Article

Real Time Clock based Energy Efficient Automatic

Dual Axis Solar Tracking System
Krishna Kumar.Na and Venkat Subramaniamb,*
Department of Electronics, PSG College of Arts and Science, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India
E-mail: [email protected], [email protected] (Corresponding author)

Abstract. This paper describes the design, implementation and performance of a real time
clock (RTC) based dual axis solar tracking system and asymmetric solar dish concentrator.
Numerous algorithm and functional program methodologies are implemented in order to
optimizing the energy efficiency of the RTC based simple electromechanical dual axis solar
energy tracking system. In this presented work, a RTC (Real Time Clock) based dual axis
solar tracking system and solar dish concentrator is designed, implemented and tested based
on current time and photodiode sensor based daily tracking method. In daily morning, the
photo diode sensor in solar tracking system is used to align the solar concentrator for the
initial position. The developed solar tracking system can follow the sun at various days,
months and seasons. So, the solar tracking system needs a RTC (Real Time Clock) in order
to leading the solar tracking system in finding sun’s position for the daily, monthly and
seasonal movement. So, the combination of both RTC and sensor based tracking system
gives the designed solar tracking system as an efficient one. Time based algorithm is
successfully performed to various months in order to track the sun. An entire asymmetric
solar dish concentrator is covered by 1 x 1 inch glass mirrors. The solar dish concentrator
has reached maximum solar concentration with the help of this continuous RTC tracking
method. The experiment was conducted in the month of March, April and May 2017. The
maximum temperature of 415 oC was recorded at the time of experiment. It is found that
thermal power gain of RTC based dual axis solar tracking system is 75% compared to the
fixed solar concentrator system.

Keywords: Solar concentrator, embedded, RTC, AutoCAD.

ENGINEERING JOURNAL Volume 22 Issue 1

Received 30 June 2017
Accepted 16 November 2017
Published 31 January 2018
Online at http://www.engj.org/
DOI:10.4186/ej.2018.22.1.15
DOI:10.4186/ej.2018.22.1.15

1. Introduction

In future, the fossil fuels such as gas, oil and coal will be no longer. These are reasoning for global warming
and air pollution problems. The fossil fuel prices increasing day by day due to the demand and rising of the
industries and vehicles. We needed clean and absence of polluting energy. This can achieve from our natural
renewable energy source. Nature provides various renewable sources. One of the important renewable
sources is solar, solar radiation is used to produce the solar thermal power with the help of the solar
concentrators. Presently, the following four methods are used to concentrate the solar thermal power such
as linear Fresnel system, solar dish system, parabolic trough system, solar tower systems. The performance
of the solar dish concentration is strongly depending on the design, sizing the aperture and diameter of the
receiver, diameter of the dish, azimuth and elevation angle [1-2]. In order to track the sun a photosensitive
sensor and coordinate calculation algorithm is used. The sun tracking process is being done with fine tuning
of the photosensitive sensor [3]. Six photo-transistor feedbacks are used to control an automated solar
concentrator system. It is two axis tracking system both elevation and azimuth angle controlled by six photo
transistor sensors covered with lens [4]. PLC based open loop two axis tracking system is used for solar dish
concentrator (SDP) [5]. The efficiency of the manual tracking will be less than the automatic solar tracking
system. The efficiency will be increased when the solar irradiation is perpendicular to the receiver. It is done
by the automatic tracking system [6-7]. The path of the sun was found with the help of analog and digital
techniques along with phototransistors [8]. The PLC based software programming method of two axes solar
tracking is used to increase the energy of 41.34% than the fixed system [9]. Portable Dish Concentrator with
solar tracking system was increased efficiency to 30% [10]. Spherical solar cooker with automatic PLC and
frequency control tracking system produced temperature to 93oC [11]. MPPT algorithm in solar tracking
system has produced in 12 to 30% percentage of energy than the fixed system [12]. The combination of
electronics and mechanical solar tracking system is used for aligning the solar concentrators. The maximum
energy can be yield from this electro-mechanical system [13-14]. FPGA (Field programmable gate array) with
MPPT two axis solar tracking system has the various intelligent functions that can be used to achieve
automatic sun tracking, initial position for the next day and minimizing the power used by the stepper motor
in active time [15]. Hongyi Wang et al designed MPDT (Maximum Power Direction Tracking) with self
powered system; it has the potential of producing maximum solar energy by adjusting a small tilt angle without
human interrupt. The accuracy of the tracking is +/-1.8 degree and gain is 18.4% [16]. Compared to fixed
module, the tracking module generates 13-15% output [17]. The CPC (compound parabolic concentrator)
thermal performance was increased, when the system equipped with dual axis solar tracking system. The
received energy is more than 75% compared with fixed collector [18]. An equation is used to compare
between two collectors. One is fixed and another one is connected with solar tracker. The total amount of
energy yield by the tracking system is 57% than non-tracking system [19].A four photo transistor based solar
tracking is provides enough accuracy in tracking system. This microcontroller system contains the
combination of comparators, sensors output and differential amplifier [20-21]. A solar tracking system
designed with PLC (Programmable Logic Control) controller is utilized to follow the sun. It has the function
of to track the sun in altitude and azimuth motion. The energy produced by this system is 42.6% compared
to non tracking system [22]. In this paper the developed solar tracking system has installed at Thrive
Technology, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India. The main aim of this present solar tracking system is directly
controlled by real time clock (RTC) device, which provides real time. Based on this real time clock, the
tracking device will follow the sun in the atmosphere. This system is not dependent to the sensor. Hence, the
data of current time from the RTC device that directly sends to the microcontroller device without any data
loses. An I2C protocol is used between RTC device and Microcontroller device for data communication.
The main advantage of this protocol is provides quick signal transmission and working in noise environment.
A simple mechanical gearing system was used to track the sun in azimuth motion. Therefore, the solar dish
concentrator receives the maximum solar radiation. The benefit of this present system is low power, low cost
and portable system.

2. The Equation of Solar Position

The tracking system must know the sun position in order to follow the sun. There are two methods to track
sun in the day time. One is active mode and another one is passive mode. The passive mode is linearity based
system. It is purely dependents on sensors output. In this sensor senses the sun’s position at the atmosphere
and sends the signal to controlling device. The disadvantage of the linearity based tracking system may affect

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by the environmental condition and physically. The solar radiation and the angle of solar will change depends
on seasonal climates. The maximum solar energy could be yield from concentrators, when the altitude and
azimuth angle of concentrators are in solar position. The tracking device is required to place the concentrator
at the sun’s position. In order to utilize this solar radiation, it is important to calculate the azimuth and altitude
angles.
The general solar angle terms are declination angle, azimuth angle, Elevation angle, Incident angle, Zenith
angle, Hour angle and inclination angle. Figure 1 shows the angle position of the sun.

δ – Declination angle
Ψ – Azimuth angle
α – Altitude angle
φ – Zenith angle
P – Ground Plane
H – Horizontal Line

Fig. 1. Solar angle position.

The declination angle is represented by δ. Though, the earth rotation is tilted by 23.5o and the range of
the declination angle is -23.5o ≤ δ ≤ +23.5o. This angle is can be calculated by Eq. (1).

360
  23.45  sin[  (d  284)] (1)
365

where ‘d’ is the day of the year. The solar azimuth angle will vary throughout the day and year. The sun rises
from east side and sunset’s west side. The azimuth values are 0o for due north, 90o for due east, 180o for due
south and 240o for due west. The following Eq. (2) provides the azimuth calculation,

sin( ) sin( L)  sin( )

cos( )  [ ] (2)
cos( ) cos( L)

where ’L’ is the latitude (Positive in hemisphere). The vertical angle ‘α’ is denoted as altitude angle. It falls
between the of ground plane ‘P’ and sun. The altitude angle is calculated using the following formula,

sin( )  [cos( L)  cos( )  cos( H )]  [sin( L)  sin( D)] (3)

where ‘H’ is the hour angle. Solar Elevation at Northern hemisphere and southern hemisphere as calculated
using the following Eq. (4) and (5),

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  900  (   ) (4)

  900  (   ) (5)

The solar hour angle will raise 15o by every hour interval. The hour angle will be zero degree at noon
time. It can be calculated by the below formula,

cos( H s )   tan(L)  tan( ) (6)

The sun rise of an hour angle (Hs) is -180o < Hs<0o and sun set is 0o < Hs<180o.The solar zenith angle
(φ) is the angle between sun and the vertical line from the ground plane to the zenith. Summer and winter
solstice zenith angle can be calculated using the following Eq. (7) and (8) respectively,

  L  23.5 (7)

  L  23.5 (8)

From the above equations we can find the sun’s position in a day. According to the sun’s position
equation, the tracker system can able to track the sun. The sun’s position can be programmed into the
microcontroller in order to follow the sun. The tracking system will be independent to the linearity system.

3. Design of Solar Dish Concentrator

Concentrator is a component used to increase intensity of energy flux incident on the receiver. A compound
conical concentrator can be of two design namely, symmetric and asymmetric type. Using computer aided
design (CAD) tool, the asymmetric oblique compound conical concentrator was designed and tested. The
entry aperture of the solar concentrator is elliptical based, and it contains two axes. One is major axis and
another is minor axis. Here, the major axis is x and minor axis is y. The half of the major axis ‘a’ and half of
the minor axis is ‘b’. The area of an ellipse is calculated in the following Eq. (9):

x2 y2
 1 (9)
a 2 b2

According to the Ramanujan approximation formula for perimeter (C) of an ellipse is,

C   [3(a  b)  (3a  b)(a  3b) ] (10)

  [3(a  b)  10ab  3(a 2  b2 ) ] (11)

3h
  (a  b)[  1] (12)
10   3h  4

Whereas h is (a-b)2/(a+b)2. The focus point of the elliptical aperture entry oblique compound cone
concentrator is calculated as the following formula,

y3
f  (13)
16  d  x

Whereas f is the focal length of the concentrator, y is the minor axis and x is major axis. Ray trace has been
done with the help of AutoCAD tool. Figure 2 is the concentrator design using CAD tool.

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Fig. 2. Concentrator design using CAD tool.

Fig. 3. (A) Top view; and (B) bottom view of the concentrator.

Figure 3(A) is the top view and Fig. 3(B) is the bottom view of the designed concentrator. In Fig. 7(A),
the half of the major axis a value is 69cm and half of the minor axis is b value is 61cm. Depth of the
concentrator is 7.5cm. The focal length of the designed system is 109.65cm. The system is a simple electro-
mechanical system, easy to maintain, low cost and portable. The proposed electro mechanical system is used
to produce the maximum amount of energy from the sun energy for various heating applications such as
melting, boiling etc. It could be achieved with the help of embedded system automation. The dimension of
each mirror on surface of concentrator is 1 by 1 inch. The proposed dish concentrator collects the sun's
energy incident on the surface and using 1450 mirrors.

4. Design and Experimental Process of an Automatic Solar Tracking System

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Sun’s position changes all the time. Hence, the sun tracking system must be aligning and the tracking system
must produce the highest possible solar power. The total amount of power generated by solar system depends
on the total amount of sunrays which it is uncovered. The solar tracking systems can be categorized as single
axis, dual axis, and multi-axis tracking system. Single axis solar tracking system is can be used to track the sun
in either east-west direction or north-south direction and it allows the mechanism to rotate only one direction.
The dual axis solar tracking system can be track the sun in both directions i.e. from east-west and from north-
south. The efficiency of single axis tracking system is lower than that of two axes tracking systems. Figure 4
shows the model of the present solar concentrator with tracking system. The present system divided into two
main parts.

A. Mechanical Design Part

B. Electronic Control Unit (ECU) Part

Fig. 4. Experimental system.

A. Mechanical Design Part

Designing the mechanical part is the most difficult part of this present system, because the important
objective is to design an efficient energy solar tracking system for developed concentrator. In this solar
tracking system, the mechanical design part consists of stepper motor, gear wheel, screw, bearing, bolt and
base stand. There are two stepper motors used to rotate the concentrator in order to follow the sun. One of
these motor is used to rotate the concentrator in azimuth direction, which is consists of two gear wheels.
One is 16 teeth small gear is attached to the stepper motor which is called driving wheel. Another one is 120
teeth gear, which is connected to the rotatable circular rod. A base plat is connected on the circular rod,
where the solar concentrator is placed with tilting adjustment. The larger number of teeth gear is driven by
the small gear. The ratio between these two gears is 7.5:1 and other motor is used for zenith angle alteration.
Normally one of these motor is used for initial position alignment of the solar concentrator in east direction
with the help of photodiode sensor. After this, it starts daily rotational moment using RTC (Real Time Clock)
and other motor for linear motion.

B. Electronic Control Unit Part

The entire electronic control unit (ECU) is including sensor unit, control unit and measurement unit. Various
parameters such as time and position are senses by sensor unit and send the signal to the control unit. After
receiving the signal from the sensor unit, the control unit controls the stepper motor direction (clock and
anti-clock wise direction) by sending appropriate signals to the driver unit. The driver unit receives the
electrical signal from the control unit and adjusts the direction of the stepper motor which is connected with
the gear wheel. After aligning the concentrator to the sun’s position, the temperature sensor at the receiver
point senses the focused solar radiation temperature and converts it to electrical signal. Then it will send to
the measurement unit in order to display the obtained temperature.

a) Sensor Unit

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The sensor unit includes two sensor modules. One is RTC (Real Time Clock) sensor and another one id
photodiode sensor. RTC sensor is a device that gives real time and used to track the current time. We have
used DS1307. The RTC device provides date, time, year and the device which automatically adjusts the month
(30 days or 31 days) and leap year. The RTC device is always connected with the 3V lithium backup battery
and it has inbuilt power sensing circuit which is used to detects the power failure and switched to backup
battery mode. So, it has the facility to keep track of the real time when the power failure is arise.
Microcontroller and RTC device is connected I2C protocol, which is bidirectional bus. The data can be share
via these two lines namely SCL (Serial Clock) and SDA (Serial Data). RTC device stores the data in the BCD
(Binary Coded Decimal) format. The microcontroller device used BCD data format to send the data to RTC
and receive the data from the RTC via bidirectional bus. Microcontroller receives the minute’s values from
the RTC device and controls the tracking position of the solar concentrator. Another sensor is photo diode
sensor which is used to detect and measure the light intensity. The initial position of the sun is detected by
using photo diode sensor which gives corresponding output when it faces the sun.

b) Control Unit

The control unit consists of microcontroller, stepper motor, gear, driver unit, SMPS. This developed
mechanism can be rotate in two axes. One is azimuth motion and one is zenith motion. The developed
tracking system will track the sun according to the real time. Tracking details are programmed into
microcontroller unit as per season. The microcontroller device fetches the timing data from the RTC in order
to track the sun in azimuth motion.

Fig. 5. ECU unit.

Real time clock (RTC) is used as timing device and this RTC device uses a DS1307 serial real-time clock
IC. It has 64K bytes of NV- RAM. The data are stored in BCD format into RTC. It can provide
clock/calendar in the form binary coded decimal format. This clock/calendar provides the information of
time (seconds / minutes / hours), day, date, month and year. The device automatically adjusts the end of the
month date and correction for leap year. It also provides hour format with indicator i.e. 12/24 hour or
AM/PM. The important feature of this device is in-built power sensing circuit. A 3V lithium back up battery
also connected with this sensing circuit, which is automatically switches to back up battery mode when the
primary power supply failures. A simple I2C bidirectional bus concept is interfaces between RTC and
microcontroller, which provide an effective communication between these two devices. RTC completely
supervises time regularity functions. The present system is designed with master and slave concept. The data
are controlled by a device is called as master. In this system microcontroller unit act as master device. RTC
is a slave device and it is controlled by master device. The entire messages are transferred within START and
STOP condition. Standard mode of data transfer in I2C bidirectional bus is in the rate of 100 kHz clock rate
and fast mode is 400 kHz. An external 32.768 kHz crystal oscillator is used RTC device. The clock accuracy
depends upon crystals accuracy.
Figure 5 shows the control unit of the experimental system. It contains microcontroller, RTC device,
drive unit and LCD (Liquid Crystal Display). When power supply is switched on the microcontroller fetches

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the real time information from the slave device RTC and controller unit checks the real time with predefined
time which is programmed into microcontroller unit. The RTC device changes into a low current backup
battery mode, when the power supplies failure or falls below the backup battery voltage (1.25xVBat). The
ampere in lithium battery is 48mAh which provides 10 years in the absence of power. When the current time
matches with programmed time, the microcontroller unit sends the signal to the stepper motor driver unit.
The output from the driver unit will operate the stepper motor. It will rotate step by step. Stepper motor was
attached with two gearing system. One is 16 teeth small gear and one is 120 teeth big gear. Azimuth movement
of the concentrator is controlled by this gear system. Hence, the concentrator observes the maximum of solar
radiation on the surface of solar concentrator and the rays are reflected into receiver area in order to reach
maximum temperature. LCD is used to display the temperature. A slight tilt angle variation is also helped to
attain a maximum temperature. Tilt angle variation can adjust manually by once in a month. Location of the
sun can be identified based on time, so the tracking system moves the concentrator in sun’s path. Solar
collector is a concentrator to collect solar energy on its surface. Small pieces of glasses are used as a reflector
on concentrator surface and reflected rays are received by the receiver. To achieve better concentration and
better performance, the concentrator is equipped with automated embedded system. The objective of present
work is helps to provide collector performance using RTC based embedded automation. The current time
will display on LCD and user can also changes the time by using push button proficiency.
Initially, the solar concentrator is mounted towards the sun’s position. Microcontroller unit will fetch the
present timing data from the real time clock device and also check the current time whether it has reached
10.00am. The tracking system will rotate the concentrator at every 3 min with an angle of 3.6o from 10.00 am
to 12.00 pm. When the timing reaches 12.00 pm, the embedded system will change the rotation of the
concentrator at every 4 min with the angle of 3.6o from 12.00 pm to 2.00 pm. The solar tracking system is
rotating the concentrator in different timing interval and also in different angle. The entire set up is software
driven. The main advantage of the developed system is linear, sensor independent and low power
consumption. The mechanical unit receives the inputs from the microcontroller and places the solar
concentrator into respective degree. Microcontroller unit sends command data to the motor depending upon
the time from the RTC. When the time reaches at 3.00 pm the automation will stop and the system will go
back to 10.00 am position for next day. The measurement of energy is done using the microcontroller based
embedded system can be recorded in the regular interval of small duration of time using RTC. The amount
of total steps of the stepper motor is programmed.

Fig. 6. Temperature measuring unit.

c) Measurement Unit

Figure 6 show the temperature measurement system using k-type thermocouple sensor. LCD is used to
display the received temperature. The received temperature is also measured using infrared thermometer gun.
The infrared thermometer gun temperature measurement range is -50℃ to 530℃.

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Fig. 7. (A) and (B) temperature recording using thermal gun.

Figures 7(A) and 7(B) show various temperature measurement using thermometer gun during the
experiments. The temperature was recorded from the month of February and March. The highest
temperature of 415 oC is recorded using thermal gun at the time of experiment. The solar tracking device will
re-arrange the concentrator for next day’s beginning position.

5. Experimental Results and Analysis

The performance of the proposed system was studied and report taken for the month of February and March
2017. The solar tracking mechanism was tested from morning 10.00 AM to 3.00 PM and the temperature
were recorded. Received temperature has been measured by two methods. One is K-type thermocouple
temperature sensor and temperature range of the K-type thermocouple is -200 to 1350 oC. The output voltage
of the thermocouple is 0.041 mV per degree. Microcontroller can’t operate 0.041 mV level. An amplifier
circuit is required to convert from 0.041mV into 41mV. So, the microcontroller can able to calibrate this
voltage level. Another one is an infrared thermometer gun and temperature measurement range is -50oC to
530oC.
The temperature values were noted with a different time interval. The experiments were tested for a total
amount of 90 days. Temperature measurements were executed in the specific time interval as per software
driven program. To calculate the performances of the developed tracking system is compared with fixed
system. Both the system experimented simultaneously and temperatures were recorded for both system.
According to the obtained results and environmental conditions, the monitoring days were categorized as
three sections,

 section A:Clear sky

 section B:Dull sky
 section C: Partially Clear sky

Figure 8 shows various temperature outputs in particular days of March, April and May 2017. The output
temperature in various solar irradiation conditions: clear, dull and partial clear sky. The received output
temperatures of the concentrators are evaluated as a utility of time. In section A, the temperature varies
usually at the day time; maximum temperature reaches at the noon time, as shown in Fig. 8(A). The output
temperature gradually increases from morning to evening. It clearly show that the efficiency of the solar
tracking system. The output between tracking system and fixed system is reached as expected. In section B,
the environmental condition cracks the solar tracking system actions. In this case the expected output does
not reach. When the total amount of power spent to shift the concentrator will not be compensated by the
received output temperature, as represented in Fig. 8(B). In section C, the use of solar tracking system as
illustrated in Fig. 8(C). Based on this experimental system, the sun tracking system is able to produce the
maximum temperature output of the solar concentrator. The output temperature varies according to the
environmental conditions. It was noted that the sun tracking device is regularly active for few seconds, when
adjusting the solar concentrator position for predefined timing interval. In conclusion, it is noted that an
automated asymmetric solar concentrator with solar tracking system provides the maximum output. It can
be concluded that the automated solar concentrator can be effectively utilized for heating application. A

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software program was written into microcontroller device in order to capture maximum temperature at every
minutes of time. A small title angle and azimuth rotation generates the highest possible energy. Figure 8
shows the graphical representation of the various environmental conditions. The total amount of energy
produced by the concentrator in various days has represented as graphical diagram. The graphical
representation clearly tells that the efficiency of the developed solar tracking system. Figure 8(D) shows the
percentage of efficiency between solar tracking system and fixed system. The maximum temperature reaches
in noon time and decreases on sunset. The results of the designed RTC based embedded automatic tracking
system is used to reach the maximum temperature which was 415 oC recorded.

Fig. 8. A) Clear sky; B) Dull sky; C) Partially clear sky; and D) Percentage of efficiency.

6. Conclusion

In this presented work, the design, implementation and performance of a RTC based dual axis automatic
solar tracking system with I2C protocol (Bi-directional Bus) is presented. The performance of the developed
system was tested and compared with fixed solar tracking system. This presented work reveal that the RTC
based dual axis solar tracking system can assure higher solar thermal generation compared to fixed solar
concentrator. The result shows that the real time clock based solar tracking system has 75% more average
thermal gain when compared to fixed solar tracking system. In this RTC based dual axis solar tracking method
one motor rotates the solar concentrator in azimuth angle and as well as adjust the initial position of the solar
concentrator and another motor adjusts the concentrator in zenith angle. The RTC based solar tracking
system can rotate the concentrator in both clock and anti-clock wise direction as per the seasonal climatic
program which is programmed into the microcontroller chip. Thus the presented solar tracking system is
producing solar thermal power generation which is 3 times more than the fixed solar concentrator. The main
objective of this present work is to attain maximum temperature by using RTC based solar tracking. The
temperature output of the tracking device is deeply compared with fixed solar concentrator system. The
performance comparison of both the solar concentrator, two asymmetric solar concentrator experimental

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setups were developed and investigated for 90 days observation. From the observed results, it is clearly proves
that the RTC based solar tracking system output is more than the fixed system. While tracking, the mechanical
errors are arrested by correction factor in software. Absence of sensors may not introduce environmental
and physical errors. Automatic power failure detection and switching circuit is added advantage in RTC device.
As the lithium backup battery provides supply to RTC device, hence the real time data will not get loss. The
presented system can also be implemented for solar PV system. However, the developed system is low cost,
low power consumption and compatible.

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