Manual No More! Quick Guide to Auto-Solar Power (out of date) (WIP)

Wanna fix that pesky Solar issue! Well i've got news for yah. This is your luckly break as this guide will give you a slight run down on what you will need to get to that oh so sweet automated solar power.

Welcome To Auto Solar world - Have fun ;)

Just letting you know that this isn't just a bam and done. It does take time to get the needed resources.
After you get a good stock of iron, gold, copper and some silicon, you will be in the right place to get started.

And There are many options to pick from so do consider your layout of base before going with a setup.

LOGIC Unit based setup (WIP)

LOGIC BASED SETUP ON THE TABLE
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BEING WORK ON NOW.

NOT ALL INFO IS COMPLETE.

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Logic Setup: First step - Needed Parts

You will need to use the Autolathe to make and get access to the Electronics Printer.

Side note: when i mean they are also something else, I mean you can scroll wheel to get the other modes of the Logic units when you are about to place them down.

Speical Note: If you write a value into the Memory Unit and shut it off. It will retain the Value for use.
This is very useful for smaller compact setups for future use.
Credit to Evie.Codes for discovering this aspect of the Memory Units.

After that, Gather your resources and print out the Following Logic units below.
- Logic I/O
Is also Logic writer - Writes Data given to it to other devices.
Is also Logic reader - Reads Data from Devices to pass on a value or data.
Is also Batch writer - Writes to a network of simlar devices.
- Logic Memory
Is Just a Memory unit for values you input or can store values made on setup.
- Logic Processor
Is also Logic math - Two Side Input Values with a single output value
Is also Logic Compare -
Is also Logic select -
Is also Logic Min/Max -
Is also Logic Unary -

Logic Setup: Second Step - Power Gains and Drains

--------WIP--------

True Logic Time: Images and Info

DISCLAMER:
These are not my setups. I plan to do a setup myself but time forbids me at this current moment and i am waiting for more updates to finalize the features we will have at our disposal. These are Images made by the some of those very folk i was talking about early on and are pretty awesome, if you ever get the chance, tell them that they did a great job beacuse its pretty awesome.

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SEMI-SIMPLE LOGIC SETUP
MEDIUM AMOUNT OF SPACE NEEDED
DAYLIGHT SENSOR NEEDED
POINTED AT SUN ON EMPTY FRAME
FULL TRACKING - EQUATION F(X) = X/1.8

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Credit for Setup: Hardly
Links: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1236169037

REQUIRED UNITS:
- 2 LOGIC I/O (READER and BATCH WRITER)
- 2 LOGIC MEMORY Units
- 2 LOGIC PROCESSORS (MATH) Units
- 1 BATCH WRITER FOR ALL SOLAR PANELS

IMAGE BELOW IS OLD. YOU CAN USE JUST ONE BATCH WRITER

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SEMI-COMPACT LOGIC SETUP
SMALL AMOUNT OF SPACE NEEDED
DAYLIGHT SENSOR NEEDED
POINTED AT SUN ON EMPTY FRAME
FULL TRACKING - EQUATION F(X) = X .55

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Credit for Setup: Evie.Codes
Links: https://www.twitch.tv/eviecodes
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvQubaJPD0D-PSokbd5DAiw/featured

VIDEO LINK BY Evie.Codes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgBhz1I7eyw

REQUIRED UNITS:
- 2 LOGIC I/O (READER and WRITER)
- 2 LOGIC MEMORY Units
- 2 LOGIC PROCESSORS (MATH) Units
- 1 BATCH WRITER FOR ALL SOLAR PANELS

IMAGE BELOW IS OLD. YOU CAN USE JUST ONE BATCH WRITER

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SEMI-STEPLADDER LOGIC SETUP
MEDIUM AMOUNT OF SPACE NEEDED
DAYLIGHT SENSOR NEEDED
POINTED AT SUN ON EMPTY FRAME
FULL TRACKING - EQUATION F(X) = 2/3x-10

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Credit for Setup: Woodii
Links: https://imgur.com/a/xvMty


REQUIRED UNITS:
-
-
-
-

More being added later!

Oh and If you have a setup and would like to add it to the listing here, just post a comment below with some info and a image with some graphics to explain number values and pathing of cables.

Computer Kit based setup (Completed)

Computer Setup: First step - Required Parts

You will need to use the Autolathe to make and get access to the Electronics Printer.
Once there you can print out the two key items needed to make this work.

Gather your resources and print out the Computer kit and a Logic motherboard for the computer.
Take your time to find a good place for the computer and make sure there is enough space for whats next.

Computer Setup: Second step - Power/Network setup

Take the time to connect a power cable to the red lightning bolt for the computer to power it.

Make sure that your power grid has power coming from the output of the Access Power Controller. Do Not connect both ends of the APC together.

Its important to know that because the APC acts as a buffer for power to machines and you'll have problems with one big circuit.
Having your network clean makes it much easier to find the solar panel/s you need to use.

Now Connect a power cable to the three green boxes for network connection and link the cable to the Power Input for the APC. See first image below to understand what i mean.
The Computer is now connected to your Direct Line of power to the APC. Plus the computer should be able to see the other machines that power it I.e Solid fuel gen. and Solar Panel/s.




Then after that Connect up your Daylight Sensor to have the green sensor pointing toward the sun.

Its important to know that when pointing the Daylight sensor at the sun, it starts reading the solar angle at 0. if the daylight sensor is pointing away from the sunrise, it will start reading the Solar Angle at 181 degrees.

Make sure the Daylight sensor is on a Vertical surface. see screenshot below.

Be careful about the Daylight sensor being blocked, so make sure its kinda high up. It is able to still detect the sun angles on a empty iron/steel frame. See image for reference.
Construct the frame half way if you are having some trouble getting the Daylight sensor on the empty frame, then just deconstruct it.

Computer Setup: Third step - Inputting to Computer

This won't be too hard because i'm just gonna tell you what i did condition wise and action wise but it will take you a good amount of time to just put this in and make sure that it works.

You can also tweak it to see if you can get a better constant power intake.
Before we go to the Computer side of it, make sure to set your solar panel to direction of the rising sun.

Also Important side note. When i mean direction and vertical % for Solar Panels.

The way to tell which side of the Solar panel's Vertical value is 0, is by looking at the cable output coming from Solar Panel. This will give you an understanding for what values you need and How to face your Solar panel toward the sun.

So Rotate the Solar panel till the Vertical Value of 0% is facing the sun. This will allow you to have your Starting postion for the cycle loop be Vertical % 0

In relation to this guide. That would be State 11 in the image Below.

It's Computer logic time

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SMALL SIMPLE STATE SETUP
4 STATE SETUP
NO DAYLIGHT SENSOR NEEDED

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State 1
Condition 1: Solar Panel 1 ---- Charge > 400
Action 1: Solar Panel ---- Vertical ---- 80 or 20 depending on direction of sunrise
Next state: State 2

State 2
Condition 2: Solar Panel 1 ---- Charge < 150
Action 2: Solar Panel ---- Vertical ---- 50
Next state: State 3

State 3
Condition 3: Solar Panel 1---- Charge < 150
Action 3: Solar Panel ---- Vertical ---- 20 or 80
Next state: State 4

State 4
Condition 4: Solar Panel 1 ---- Charge == 0
Action 4: Solar Panel ---- Vertical ---- 80 or 20 Depending on Direction of sunset
Next state: State 1


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LARGE 11 STATE SETUP
CONSTANT 400 POWER INTAKE FOR SOLARS
REMINDER TO POINT SENSOR TOWARDS SUNRISE
DAYLIGHT SENSOR NEEDED

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State 1
Condition 1: Daylight Sensor ---- SolarAngle > 26
Action 1: Solar Panel ---- Vertical ---- 90 or 10 depending on direction of sunrise
Next state: State 2

State 2
Condition 2: Daylight Sensor ---- SolarAngle > 41
Action 2: Solar Panel ---- Vertical ---- 80 or 20
Next state: State 3

State 3
Condition 3: Daylight Sensor ---- SolarAngle > 56
Action 3: Solar Panel ---- Vertical ---- 70 or 30
Next state: State 4

State 4
Condition 4: Daylight Sensor ---- SolarAngle > 71
Action 4: Solar Panel ---- Vertical ---- 60 or 40
Next state: State 5

State 5
Condition 5: Daylight Sensor ---- SolarAngle > 86
Action 5: Solar Panel ---- Vertical ---- 50
Next State: State 6

State 6
Condition 6: Daylight Sensor ---- SolarAngle > 101
Action 6: Solar Panel ---- Vertical ---- 40 or 60
Next State: State 7

State 7
Condition 7: Daylight Sensor ---- SolarAngle > 116
Action 7: Solar Panel ---- Vertical ---- 30 or 70
Next State: State 8

State 8
Condition 8: Daylight Sensor ---- SolarAngle > 131
Action 8: Solar Panel ---- Vertical ---- 20 or 80
Next State: State 9

State 9
Condition 9: Daylight Sensor ---- SolarAngle > 146
Action 9: Solar Panel ---- Vertical ---- 10 or 90
Next State: State 10

State 10
Condition 10: Daylight Sensor ---- SolarAngle > 161
Action 10: Solar Panel ---- Vertical ---- 0 or 100 depending on direction of Sunset
Next State: State 11

State 11
Condition 11: Daylight Sensor ---- Activate ---- NOT ---- On
Action 11: Solar Panel ---- Vertical ---- 100 or 0
Next State: State 1



Also, If you do use this guide or like this guide in any way. Please rate this and link this guide if you end up making a video about this so i get some credit, along with all the good folk that took the time to put all the setups together.

Adding more solar panels!

Also one last thing.
For more solar panels, Add the same amount of solar panels to the actions of each state, Make sure to Select each different solar panel for those actions or you will have three of the same solar panel doing what it already was asked for 3 times.

NOTE: We will soon be able to GROUP solar panels into an array, so that we won't have the whole "adding more actions" anymore.

An example would be like this:

State 1
Condition 1: Daylight Sensor ---- SolarAngle > 26
Action 1: Solar Panel 1 ---- Vertical ---- 90 or 10 depending on direction of sunrise
Action 2: Solar Panel 2 ---- Vertical ---- 90 or 10
Action 3: Solar Panel 3 ---- Vertical ---- 90 or 10
Next state: State 2

An example for No Daylight Sensor setup, Charge based Positions:

State 1
Condition 1: Solar Panel 1 ---- Charge > 400
Action 1: Solar Panel 1 ---- Vertical ---- 80 or 20 depending on direction of sunrise
Action 1: Solar Panel 2 ---- Vertical ---- 80 or 20
Action 1: Solar Panel 3 ---- Vertical ---- 80 or 20
Next state: State 2

[Jimmio92]

So... now you take a solar sensor from the sensors kit... put it on the side the sun sets... and then a logic reader to grab the vertical angle, and then a batch writer Logic I/O writes that to all of the solar panels. Then just turn the stem (yaw) of the panels to face the sun. Done. 3 parts + wires and panels.

[robert.harrison97]

Ooohh Myy, here I thought it's just a simple single solar panel tracker computer like the real world that will turn the unit to keep it facing the sun at max power, simple. Most auto sun tracker in real world have sun sensor on the center of panel so it can aim the panel directly at sun at all times. Man, why so complicated in here? Will there be...update with that feature? That will definitely simplify things.

[Noah Park]

So you can actually just use a memory chip and a batch writer to output the angles from the computer to your solar setup, if you do it that way it means you can add as many panels as you want and you dont have to individually add them to the computer

[(★(★)Deso]

https://youtu.be/GA7po3Q9VHk this circuit is alot easier to do than any of these circuits. took me ages to try follow some of these the video is a short clip explainin how to setup a solar tracking circuit with only 2 logic i/o 1 processor and 1 memory and a sensor

[Kiryuu Sonya]

So I attempted the computer kit setup, and for some reason, the solar panels don't change. I used the 4 step setup, and the system recognizes when the panels receive less than 150 charge, but it doesn't change the vertical.

[Tomaz]

You can add reader from tracker for "Acticate" and multiply result by that value. That way panels will return to 0 at the sunset. This could help if you don't have a stationary battery and run out of energy at night. The power starts to flow as the sun rises up.

[KK]

Love woodii’s method though there is an improvement. No need to setting 2/3 for memory, you can just divide by 1.5 instead of multiplying action. Same results.

[GhostWalker]

Why the multiplication of .66 at the beginning?

[Wuping]

Yep that's what it was thanks a lot

[woodii]

@Wuping hey, a common mistake are the min/max units check them and try to swap less and greater