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I have been using solar ovens for a number of years. I love to cook food with the Sun's energy, and, more often than not, the food tastes really good. I decided to do this project because I want to use the oven more than just on weekends, when I'm around to tend it. I know that people who do solar cooking sometimes put food in in the morning and come home after work to a cooked meal. I have done that myself. However, it is really hard to have control of the cooking duration and final outcome if you just leave the oven sitting by itself.
This instructable describes how to build a rotating platform that is controlled by an Arduino microcontroller. It follows the Sun until the food has cooked for a
predetermined amount of time and then it will turn the oven away from the Sun. I've only had a few opportunities to use it, because our rainy season just started, but I am
very pleased with the results and I can't wait for more opportunities to use it. After spending so much time on a project, it's very gratifying to know that it will actually be
useful.
Note: These instructions assume that you are using a box cooker. If you are going to use some other type of solar cooker, you will have to make some modifications.
Note: If you live in the tropics, the Sun may be so high that there is no way to completely turn the oven away to stop cooking. In that case, I think the best solution is to
make a mechanism that closes the reflector over the top of the oven.
The system consists of
- a circular platform on a lazy susan bearing
- a geared motor that turns the platform and a circuit that drives the motor
- an optical sensor that the microcontroller uses to determine if the oven is facing the Sun
- a temperature sensor that is stuck into the food being cooked
- the Arduino and a bunch of electronic components
- the Arduino program that I wrote
This instructable describes how to build a rotating platform that is controlled by an Arduino microcontroller. It follows the Sun until the food has cooked for a
predetermined amount of time and then it will turn the oven away from the Sun. I've only had a few opportunities to use it, because our rainy season just started, but I am
very pleased with the results and I can't wait for more opportunities to use it. After spending so much time on a project, it's very gratifying to know that it will actually be
useful.
Note: These instructions assume that you are using a box cooker. If you are going to use some other type of solar cooker, you will have to make some modifications.
Note: If you live in the tropics, the Sun may be so high that there is no way to completely turn the oven away to stop cooking. In that case, I think the best solution is to
make a mechanism that closes the reflector over the top of the oven.
The system consists of
- a circular platform on a lazy susan bearing
- a geared motor that turns the platform and a circuit that drives the motor
- an optical sensor that the microcontroller uses to determine if the oven is facing the Sun
- a temperature sensor that is stuck into the food being cooked
- the Arduino and a bunch of electronic components
- the Arduino program that I wrote
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On the last sunny day of 2010 I made a decent video of the project. There's just a glitch at the end when the end-of-travel switch didn't trip (See step 7), which just shows that I have a bit of work to do to make the device more reliable. Also, for the present, I have abandoned using an LED display, because it is causing the microcontroller to receive faulty temperature readings from the temperature sensor (Update 1/2/11 - I think I've solved that problem - see step 13).
Here's a short video show what the end-of-travel switch does when it works properly (See Step 6 of this instructable).
This video shows the platform working under simulation conditions. A desk lamp was used to simulate the Sun and a cup of hot water was used to simulate the food being heater.
This video shows my oven and platform tracking the Sun for the better part of a day last summer. For this video, I was using a circuit made of discreet components and the platform was not yet programmable.
This video is a benchtop simulation that I ran before running the program on the actual platform. I used a small DC motor to simulate the platform motor, a flashlight to simulate the Sun and a cup of hot water to simulate cooking food. I altered the Arduino program to operate with the lower light level and lower temperature. I also programmed the "cooking time" to be only four minutes.
Here's a short video show what the end-of-travel switch does when it works properly (See Step 6 of this instructable).
This video shows the platform working under simulation conditions. A desk lamp was used to simulate the Sun and a cup of hot water was used to simulate the food being heater.
This video shows my oven and platform tracking the Sun for the better part of a day last summer. For this video, I was using a circuit made of discreet components and the platform was not yet programmable.
This video is a benchtop simulation that I ran before running the program on the actual platform. I used a small DC motor to simulate the platform motor, a flashlight to simulate the Sun and a cup of hot water to simulate cooking food. I altered the Arduino program to operate with the lower light level and lower temperature. I also programmed the "cooking time" to be only four minutes.
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BTW, solar cells could also be mount on the same sun tracking fixture to recharge the main battery for tracking motor power supply, which will makes it stand alone solar cooker.
And add a buzzer to alert you when the cooking is done.
Nice idea....:)
Thanks for sharing!