{"id":1584,"date":"2025-06-02T21:48:34","date_gmt":"2025-06-02T21:48:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.tecnico.ulisboa.pt\/~ist1102662\/automatedsolarpanel\/?p=1584"},"modified":"2025-06-14T21:56:07","modified_gmt":"2025-06-14T21:56:07","slug":"%f0%9f%94%84-designing-the-rotation-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.tecnico.ulisboa.pt\/~ist1102662\/automatedsolarpanel\/%f0%9f%94%84-designing-the-rotation-system\/","title":{"rendered":"\ud83d\udd04 Designing the Rotation System"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This week, we focused on building the <strong>horizontal rotation system<\/strong> for our solar tracking platform \u2014 the part that allows the entire structure to turn and follow the sun throughout the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To achieve this, we\u2019re using a <strong>Lazy Susan bearing<\/strong>, which allows smooth and stable rotation with low friction. On top of this bearing sits the entire structure: the box, the tilt mechanism, and the solar panel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To rotate everything, we designed a pair of <strong>3D-printed gears<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>A <strong>large 14\u202fcm gear<\/strong> will be mounted around the Lazy Susan, fixed to the rotating upper part.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A <strong>small 4\u202fcm gear<\/strong>, attached to a <strong>stepper motor<\/strong>, will be positioned at the edge.<br>When the motor turns the small gear, it drives the larger gear, rotating the whole structure slowly and with control.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This gear-based approach gives us more torque and precision, making it easier for the motor to move the structure even under load.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We already have the Lazy Susan bearing and finished the 3D model of the gears. The next step is to 3D print the parts and begin testing the system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Here are some preview images of our setup!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/web.tecnico.ulisboa.pt\/~ist1102662\/automatedsolarpanel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/20250519_201506-4-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1593\" style=\"width:462px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/web.tecnico.ulisboa.pt\/~ist1102662\/automatedsolarpanel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/20250519_201506-4-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/web.tecnico.ulisboa.pt\/~ist1102662\/automatedsolarpanel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/20250519_201506-4-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/web.tecnico.ulisboa.pt\/~ist1102662\/automatedsolarpanel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/20250519_201506-4-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https:\/\/web.tecnico.ulisboa.pt\/~ist1102662\/automatedsolarpanel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/20250519_201506-4-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/web.tecnico.ulisboa.pt\/~ist1102662\/automatedsolarpanel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/20250519_201506-4-scaled.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"948\" height=\"504\" src=\"https:\/\/web.tecnico.ulisboa.pt\/~ist1102662\/automatedsolarpanel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Captura-de-ecra-2025-06-14-224523-1.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1589\" style=\"width:463px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/web.tecnico.ulisboa.pt\/~ist1102662\/automatedsolarpanel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Captura-de-ecra-2025-06-14-224523-1.png 948w, https:\/\/web.tecnico.ulisboa.pt\/~ist1102662\/automatedsolarpanel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Captura-de-ecra-2025-06-14-224523-1-300x159.png 300w, https:\/\/web.tecnico.ulisboa.pt\/~ist1102662\/automatedsolarpanel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Captura-de-ecra-2025-06-14-224523-1-768x408.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 948px) 100vw, 948px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This week, we focused on building the horizontal rotation system for our solar tracking platform \u2014 the part that allows the entire structure to turn and follow the sun throughout the day. To achieve this, we\u2019re using a Lazy Susan bearing, which allows smooth and stable rotation with low friction. On top of this bearing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.tecnico.ulisboa.pt\/~ist1102662\/automatedsolarpanel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.tecnico.ulisboa.pt\/~ist1102662\/automatedsolarpanel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.tecnico.ulisboa.pt\/~ist1102662\/automatedsolarpanel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.tecnico.ulisboa.pt\/~ist1102662\/automatedsolarpanel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.tecnico.ulisboa.pt\/~ist1102662\/automatedsolarpanel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1584"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/web.tecnico.ulisboa.pt\/~ist1102662\/automatedsolarpanel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1584\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1594,"href":"https:\/\/web.tecnico.ulisboa.pt\/~ist1102662\/automatedsolarpanel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1584\/revisions\/1594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.tecnico.ulisboa.pt\/~ist1102662\/automatedsolarpanel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.tecnico.ulisboa.pt\/~ist1102662\/automatedsolarpanel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.tecnico.ulisboa.pt\/~ist1102662\/automatedsolarpanel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}