In short, it's a rechargeable thing that sits in it's docking station during the day. At night it rolls out along a row of panels and brushes them all off, then moves from row to row and eventually returns to its docking station.
That's a very slick system, but I think it could be a lot simpler. Get brush rolls for vacuum cleaners and put a row of them on an axle as long as the width of the panels. Have a machine roll along the panels and spin the brushes along the way. It could carry a reel of power cord along with it. A belt and pulley sets the speed of the cord reel to sync with the wheels moving the thing along the panel, or it could be a spring loaded reel and just have enough traction and torque to pay out the whole thing. Don't try to have it move from row to row, just install one on each row. No intelligence, no batteries, no charging station, no software. An IR sensor at the end of the panel row triggers it to reverse direction and go back to home. An IR sensor at the home position triggers it to stop. If motor is over current, shut down and set an alarm relay. Over current should cover most of the crises that might develop, like the cord being caught, stuck wheels, or something jamming the brushes. Put a simple 3-sided weather housing at the home position. In the deluxe model add sensors to detect broken belts or other problems and set more alarm relays. -----Original Message----- From: AF <af-boun...@af.afmug.com> On Behalf Of Bill Prince Sent: Monday, August 07, 2023 5:01 PM To: af@af.afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Robot solar panel cleaners Crappola. Wrong link. No idea how that got in there. https://electrek.co/2023/08/04/robot-cleans-solar-panels-without-water/ bp <part15sbs{at}gmail{dot}com> On 8/7/2023 12:54 PM, Chuck McCown via AF wrote: > Que? > > From: Bill Prince > Sent: Monday, August 7, 2023 12:33 PM > To: AFMUG > Subject: [AFMUG] Robot solar panel cleaners > > These are designed for dust, but maybe they might work for light snow > too? > > https://electrek.co/2023/08/04/robot-cleans-solar-panels-without-water > / > -- AF mailing list AF@af.afmug.com http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com -- AF mailing list AF@af.afmug.com http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com
