Thank you Will - I have joined your solar forum and posted some information about our bus in the "show and tell" section. I am really enjoying the forum - thanks for commenting.
@@BeginningfromthisMorninghi sir good morning could you please send me something with your solar slider setup where you buy the sliders and acturater I thank you so much be safe
Great job! Remember, as long as you have the upper panels on a separate charge controller from the lower panels, you can still be charging your batteries with half the panels when they're retracted!
Coming alone nicely! The only thing I may have done a little differently would be to have two actuators mounted on the ends instead of one in the middle.. but like you said when everything is all bolted down, you will be able to tell if another one is needed. Hell of a good job Juan and family!
Thank you Todd - We considered that also (would remove any wobble for sure). But if we went that route we would likely just put one actuator on each panel. If these things were not so expensive ($200 each) we would have probably just done that.
hi maybe you can answer a side question, you seem knowledgable on the subject. Do they make telescoping actuators....my specific needs is it starts at 28 " then can telescope to 85"? thanks in advance.
The bigger the gob the better the job. The actuator may get a little faster when attached to the bus power with the extra amps. This is an awesome build and you may be getting some orders from your viewers so be prepared.
That is absolutely awesome,... I've watched a great many people building Skoolies & Coach motorhomes with solar of the roof, none of which compare with what you've created here, absolutely awesome,..x
Saw so many cool things in your entire series, enjoyed it so much, and was so amazed at how happily and methodically you two and your whole family happily plugged away at so many tasks from mechanics, to construction to automation to electrical to plumbing to design, I thoroughly enjoyed the entire series. Often wanted to chime in and "suggest" ( read criticize ;-) ) some of the things you did and decisions you made, but couldn't bring myself to given how much you accomplished with basically some home shop tools and materials and just plain old American ingenuity and do it yourself tenacity. But I decided I should try it, if for no other reason but to encourage you and help you get better as I have no doubt your personalities will have you taking on more projects and improvements. First, I know you glued the aluminum, but you seemed to take to the MIG welding pretty well even though you didn't do too much of it, and an inexpensive TIG welder would have allowed you to weld the aluminum as well as stainless if the need ever arose. I have no doubt you have the ability to quickly pick up the skill. Secondly, when you discovered the aluminum angle you chose was too "bendy", you could have tried rectangular tubing, with a wider dimension only along the plain that you were exerting force on. A rectangular tube of say 1 x 2" would have been MUCH more rigid than your angle and achieved your goal. Your videos are great, I am a software developer by trade, and have a complete machine and welding shop in my garage to fabricate things for friends just to relive the nostalgia of working as a boy with my dad who was a diesel mechanic and fabricator, and lovingly if not always patiently taught me all these skills. Later in life I worked as a general contractor to pay for college, so I have all of these frustrated skills that are never called for while sitting in my office cranking out thousands of lines of code. It has been a blast living vicariously through you and your family, and enjoying your travels. Continued success and thank you for letting us share your amazing journey.
Thank you so much for the very thoughtful and kind comment. Many of the things we did we thought of as a sort of "experiment". Before building our bus we had never even owned an RV or built much of anything significant. TIG welding is on the short list of things I REALLY want to learn. The bus has held together amazingly well over the last 2 years of traveling and we are amazingly comfortable living in it even as a family of 6. My oldest is going to college this summer so we are at this strange junction in our lives. Do we continue to travel and roam without him? Should we find a house and settle into a more "normal" looking life? These are the questions we will need to face over the next few months. I have been in software and computers since I was about 17 or so and I 100% understand your need to fabricate and build things - I feel the exact same way. I plan to do a series of videos on how everything has worked as we have traveled the country and a short list of things I would maybe do differently. As I sit typing this in the middle of the desert in Northern Arizona I can't help but feel an extreme sense of gratitude for the time over the last 2 years that I have had with my family.
Great job guys, but being an engineer... a colleague of mine used to say: “Now for the real life test, poor a bucket of dirt over it and see if it still works” ;-) ! Thank you for making these videos.
LOL yes ... most of what we do is somewhat of an "experiment". We figure - even if they get stuck - we should still have 1740 Watts of power. If you look on UA-cam most "HUGE" RV systems hover around 1000 Watts :). We are cautiously optimistic this will work even if the deployment mechanism starts to be an issue.
Beginning from this Morning wow, thats a lot of power. Guess you have the choice to leave the bottom row covered if you don’t need the extra power if the rows are correctly wired or you could sell the excess energy to neighbouring RV’s on camp sites ;-)
I was thinking that those sliders are going to get dirty and bind up. I hope the actuator has a over current protection. They have to unsealed many little parts.
Quick idea to take some stress off actuator, possibly need less of them. Potential power from a coil spring, similar to a garage door to release some of the weight. I'm trying to build a system for a motorhome I just purchased. Thanks for the video, great job.
It has been working really great. We did have some water get into one of the actuators and take out one of the limit switches so we repaired it by wiring the motor to bypass the internal limit switches and installing some IP65 rated toggle switches externally.
Very nice. One thought would be to go from the angle aluminum to square tube aluminum in the same dimensions. That would be more rigid and maybe stop the wobble at the and of the travel. I do not think the wobble you have is anything to be concerned about other than the aesthetics? I think you should use a 48 volt battery and try the hurtle race again (I wounder about longevity of the motor if you were to power with 48 volts? speed would pick up and as there is hardly any load the motor might survive??)! I think it will be plenty strong to resist movement unless powered (movement would have to over come the worm drive gear in the activator) . Only other thought would be to have one liner activator for each panel, at $200.00 each it would only be a total increase in cost of $400. Been looking into costs of building a new barn vs repairing one of the existing barns for my shop. The one I wanted to use for the shop is so far gone that it is cheaper to tear it down and build new (or so I thought) every time I talk with the contractor the price goes up. Started at $35,000 and now we are at $70,000. I put a stop to that and the current thought is to use one of the other buildings for the shop but the same process of increasing costs is happening. May have to wait and do it myself after I move in. Great progress! Glenn
Thank you Glenn - always great to hear from you. The wobble was reduced considerably when I went the 1/4" thick aluminum. I think that when we are able to secure the panels properly and actually fully secure the angle bar across the front that it should eliminate most if not all of the wobble. I agree that it seems to mostly be aesthetic in nature (there does not seem to be any binding happening as evidenced by the constant pitch of the motor (it does not strain at all). I have given some thought to doing one actuator per panel - that one is not off the table yet. Plan B is always: "spend more money" On the barn - that is a shame - do you think the guy is just trying to feel you out for what you are willing to spend? I kind of felt that way when we were getting quotes for the paint job on the bus. Doing it yourself might be a fun project - I built a garage with my dad when I was much younger (maybe 13 or so) and I distinctly recall he used that opportunity to "teach me the value of a dollar". Turns out a dollar is worth about 2 months of hard labor digging trenches, pouring concrete, framing the structure, and painting it! I remember thinking "man this dollar he keeps talking about is not worth it!" Best of luck on the move - I am looking forward to new videos at the new place. Juan
This is a fantastic project! Really. It's going to inspire many folks to follow suit. If you still have that shimmy after bolting everything up tight, perhaps diagonally X bracing the sliders with light stainless wire and "rigging screws" (bi-plane style) would stiffen up the rig without adding too much weight. From what I can see on the current design, you're largely depending on the glass sheet on the solar panel to keep everything squared up. A lil bit risky in my mind. I like that you've used aluminium rivets to attach the actuator mountings to the frame. I would have left the glue off though. If anything binds up on the inward stroke, the first thing to pop should be those soft aluminium rivets... A "shear pin" if you will. I'd suggest adding a load sensitive trip switch to your electrical circuit. Measure how much current the actuator uses while it's operating and get a trip switch rated for ~20% higher than the measured load. If anything binds up later, it'll kill power to the actuator and may save your rig. This $10 trip switch could save you a lot of cussing later.... :-) Looking forward to your next installment!
Great suggestions Kevin! I went back and forth about adding the glue. I finally decided that if I use the actuator to keep the panels in I am more concerned about them breaking loose than breaking something while pulling them in. The actuator is only rated to pull about 200 lbs - so hopefully a monitor on the Amp draw of the motor should catch a potential problem before I break anything. Love the ideas - thanks!
Unfortunately, I'm not too familiar with boat stuff, but the hinges are stainless. That being said, the ocean water is brutal. Another solution I've thought about is making a hinge like a gate that latches in place when fully extended and folds away when under way.
@@BeginningfromthisMorning Was thinking that also, but then the view would be removed. since it would fold over the windows. and yeah, I'm fearful of saltwater. What about something more simple. no wheels at all. just a slideable soft material. Can't think of the name, but, a form of plastic? not sure if that's worse
@@BeginningfromthisMorning folds away like onto the side of the vehicle yes? I'm contemplating this to mount my solar panels on my brick fence. they can store away with the fence when there is a windstorm, and then hinge around on 1 axes later
Thank you JW - our original design called for tilting on the top level of panels but I was not clever enough to figure out a strong enough mounting mechanism that I felt comfortable with. The wind forces that act on these panels are substantial and I didn't feel I could design something I was sure would withstand these forces and still allow us to safely tilt up. Maybe my next design will incorporate that :)
Nicely done. SOME SWEET FABRICATION IDEAS APPLIED ON YOUR BUILD. i DO HAVE SOME CONCERNS THOUGH. A 35 foot coach will have some flex on the chassis and coach body. Since the frame is quite rigid and if you bolt down solid to the rivet line on roof there is a possibility that overstressing could occur and crack panels. I have had some nasty service station approach entrances that have caused some stress on rigid applications such as you have built! Keep the great ideas flowing..
Thank you Ron - very interesting points. I agree with you that the coach will have some flex it in it but I am not sure it would be enough to cause a panel to break. Our bus is approaching 55 years old and probably has over a million miles on the chassis - yet along the entire roofline, there is not even a single wrinkle that would indicate a significant amount of flex. The aluminum skin is only about 1/16 of an inch thick - so I would think that any flex significant enough to damage the panels would show up in the aluminum skin as well. Here is a picture of the roof and as you can see it is very smooth: photos.app.goo.gl/nSAxE4Cd5XLpA1qh7
You guys have done a really great job with this! I was thinking the other way...with 2-12VDC actuators (car seat motors) on each panel that drive a long screw. This seems a bit more expensive but might work a lot better in the long run.
hi maybe you can answer a side question, you seem knowledgable on the subject. Do they make telescoping actuators....my specific needs is it starts at 28 " then can telescope to 85"? thanks in advance.
It seems strong enough. Nice work. I hope you won't have too many challenges getting it installed on the roof. The roof isn't exactly flat. So you'll probably have to do some shimming.
Thanks Kevin - this was one of the reasons we went with SuperStrut on the base - it should be pretty effective at making a reasonably flat base for the install. Of course, we won't know until we get it back from paint ... fingers crossed.
Awesome project. How are the slides holding the rain? are the slides balls made also of stainless steel? Same thing with actuator ,they do not seems to be waterproof. Thank you
Thank you - they seem to be holding up great - they have been installed and sliding back and forth 2 to 4 times per day 4 times per week for the last year and half. They are stainless and I do not see any evidence of rust on them at all. I did lube the bearings with a lithium grease but I think that was mostly a mistake I think "dry lube" is probably a better idea. We have had one slider come apart because our alignment was not 100% perfect - it still functions and slides but we will be replacing it soon.
I totally need you to help me attach an actuator to the legs of my current desk to push it up to standing level ;) I've been looking everywhere for ideas on how to attach actuators to my existing desk legs.
Thank Roman - that shouldn't be too bad. Drop me a line at juan@beginningfromthismorning.com with some pictures and details of what you are looking for and maybe I can make some suggestions.
I have concern with the way you are attaching the operating end of the actuator. With the droop your panels have at full extension, having the end of the actuator fixed will cause the operating rod to bend. This may cause binding and excessive wear on the actuator. It will likely be better to have that end float.
hi maybe you can answer a side question, you seem knowledgable on the subject. Do they make telescoping actuators....my specific needs is it starts at 28 " then can telescope to 85"? thanks in advance.
@@jackduplechain7592 non-hydraulic actuators can only extend to less than twice the contracted distance. Hydraulic adds weight and complexity to the setup.
I think there is a psychological resistance to relying on adhesives ( which I understood you to be doing primarily). I struggle with this. We need to see those bolts but adhesives are rated to do the job and I think we should trust those ratings. I love watching this series. I really admire your families ingenuity and work ethic.
Thank you David - I agree my resistance to relying on the glue is completely in my head - they are even using adhesives instead of welding on many car parts now - they have come a long, long way. I just need to wrap my head around that - I am slowly learning to trust the adhesives.
A few ideas for y'all to think about Concerning the wobble. I'd recommend putting at least 2 bolt in each slider for the rail to connect to and that should help with the play. If that doesn't fix the problem then the next thing you could do is look into something that would act as a shock absorber on the farthest out rails. I was thinking something that you could spray on that would be thin but have a rubbery texture. Maybe even something like electrical tape. Put it on the inside the sliders where the rollers roll. The small amount of resistance should reduce its tendency to wobble when the roller wheels are on it. You'd only need to put it on the last 10 inches or so of the roller bar since it doesn't wobble till it gets extended. Concerning if the actuator will be strong enough to hold the panels in. It might be. But it doesn't hurt to put some sort of safety strapping at the middle or end of each panel for when you are going down the highway. Just put a note above the actuator switch to remind you to disconnect the straps before trying to extend the panels.
I like it! Nice progress, but I see 3 more actuators in your future for added stability. In addition you could have a smaller solar panel and charge controller and it's own 24v battery for the actuator too. Not much different from the step down but it feels more direct, like not dependent on an oxymoron situation. In other words, it doesn't feel right to have your solar panels deployed by the very system that is charged by those solar panels. I guess it works on cars, they just get a jump start if their batteries go dead. And technically only half of your panels will be without power so it seems like as long as the sun is shining you should have the power to deploy. So now I realize that either way works, but I still like the idea of the mini solar panel.
Alex, I agree with you about adding something to keep force equally distributed. But, additional actuators might not run at the exact speed and really get things out of whack. I think something mechanical needs to be in place to keep the extension force equal. And, a force limiter on the actuator would be something I'd like to have. Do I recall correctly that the actuator will push 100 pounds? This much force in the middle or at one end with a bind at the other can bend/break stuff.
I would be worried about wind while parked, but maybe if its super windy the odds are it won't be a bright sunny day? I wonder if you could install a safety like the RV awnings that will retract automatically when they start to bounce around from Wind. I think it would be a few sensors and will only activate if the panels are deployed. Would be easy... Are you going to add it to home automation? even better they sell aftermarket kits, Lookup. Carefree SR0093 Awning Motion Detection Retractor As for the build out, I might have built the sliders like a Garage Door using roller blade wheels and steel, kind of like a slide out on a RV
Thank you Stephen - the wind is a big concern but we are hoping to minimize it with sensors (as you describe) and common sense (like not leaving them out and having systems in place that will retract them when there is danger or it is nighttime etc.). Even when the lower panels retracted we should still have 1740 Watts available. Garage Door sliders is an interesting idea. Thank you for the feedback
This was done 6 years ago ! I will go through your other videos but first how are they holding up ? The link for the actuators is no longer good on Amazon. Another question I had was what happens when the actuator fails are you able to push the panels in overriding the actuator? Also, how have the gliders been in your state with the dust and the dirt?
Hello! They are holding up very well. Gliders have held up surprisingly well - in the 6 years we have replaced 3 because they wore out and the little ball bearings fell out. Getting the alignment nearly perfect is the key to having the sliders live a very long time. The sliders are stainless and have not rusted or anything like that. Both actuators have been replaced once because the limit switches inside were exposed to water and corroded. The next time I replace them I am going to mount them upside down (so that the limit switches are on top vs the bottom of the tube). If the actuator fails (this has happened twice as I mentioned) there is a pin at the front of the actuator that we remove and we push them back by hand.
I need to make a sliding rack what did you use for the sliders? I built a huge 2 rack tilting solar arrays out of EMT and unistrut on my flatbed trailer and I still have 6 small panels that are suitcases right now 200 watts each case 2 100 watt panels.and my other 2 arrays are 2 300 watt panels each everything is 120v the 1200 watt panel array is hooked to my breaker box then 100 amp EPEVER 200v mppt controller and the 600 watt suitcase 120v array is on the 80 amp EPEVER 200v mppt controller. I have 2 linear actuators 18 inch 1000N or 210 pounds push .and a wireless remote system.and a 3 ton HYDRAULIC ram to lift the back array up 19 inches and the linear actuator to tilt the 2 arrays to match each other. If I can make a sliding rail I would mount them underneath both arrays and have the smaller panels slide out from the sides that would be cool. Her is a video of my first array using 3 ton HYDRAULIC ram to tilt before I bought the linear actuators.and the second array wasnt done yet I havent done my update video yet. I will post it. But definitely i would like some more information about the sliders.
I bought the sliders from Amazon (amzn.to/32Hi6vn) - they are heavy-duty sliders that are supposed to be rated for 400 lbs - but I would be surprised if the actual rating was 1/2 that. That is the primary reason I used 3 per panel.
Hi Juan Are you going to build the complete solar rack system in the garage then use possibly something like a forklift with extension Forks to raise it up and set it on top of your bus when it's done or are you going to try and build it again while it's on top of the bus?
Hi commandyne - I THINK we are going to try to piece it together using scaffolding and some tall friends :). Fortunately, the individual pieces are actually pretty light. We briefly considered putting it all together and then hiring a crane to come to lift it all up on to the bus but I think that will be much more trouble.
@@BeginningfromthisMorning - yep, Manitou Springs is part of Colorado Springs but we drove out to San Francisco for my school residency last May, and then just got back from DragonCon in Atlanta this week.
You can use a pair of bearings at each end to maintain parallel movement. Best to have a manual actuation system located in the luggage compartment to avoid accidental operation on the road.
Thank you Josie. We are still researching options to be prepared if we get some wobble after we tighten everything down. Yes, we will have to have some kind of "lockout" setting or just cut power to it while we are traveling. Thank you for the suggestions.
did you have any luck finding the flexible cable trays. I think most electric supply houses can order it in to your specs. I don't think they keep it on hand,
Looks great, you will want to use non yellowing UV rated Clear-coat over those plastic pieces otherwise i am sure they will degrade quite quickly in that AZ sun. Easily available at Lowes/Home/Amazon? Depot. 5-10$ Also do those slides require maintenance or lube? are the stops plastic and susceptible to breakdown?
Thank you - I am sure the plastic pieces would benefit from some type of treatment. I will be looking into this because the solar install is quickly approaching. Supposedly everything on the slides is stainless steel and "weatherproof" - but I would feel better if they were coated.
I have a concern with your design. Though it seems to work fine, if there's a bind anywhere in the system due to dirt/debris in one of the roller slides or by another obstruction, the actuator has enough force to destroy the sliding system. I'm not sure what the "fix" for this would be... or if one is needed. It's just that I have this vision of being off somewhere with the family in the RV and while extending the solar rack, the extension system gets trashed and now you're in trouble, unable to even drive due to broken panels on the roof.
Hi Hakuna Matata - A bind could represent a significant problem. This actuator is rated at just under 200 lbs of force - enough to bend things up for sure. For a "fix" I am thinking of putting a circuit to monitor the load from the motor. If the motor encounters a significant load the Amps will spike and it will trip an alarm to alert me that something went wrong (before anything gets destroyed hopefully). This will allow me to go inspect the slides etc and see if something is wrong before attempting again. It's not a perfect solution but it should hopefully keep things from getting too bent. The worst case scenario would mean I needed to unbolt the solar panels and just manually push the sliders in (and store the panels somewhere while I get it fixed). I am crossing my fingers that it works well - thank you for sharing your concerns.
A simple current-limiting switch in circuit with the motor will provide some of that protection for you without requiring any fancy automation. These are used everywhere on RVs, from slide motors to blinds... pretty cheap insurance.
Brother, If you replace your 1.25 x 1/4 inch angle with a rectangle bar laying flat-all your wobble problems disappear. For good. Nice idea. Each level of panels should have its own charge controller. Then you can remove that extra space/weight/mass/gap etc.
I don't think it's rigidity that's causing the wobble. I think the rack is "teetering" on the center point where the actuator's pushing because either end of the movable rack is independant. Imagine a gear rack on either end of the movable rack with intersecting cogs on a common shaft so that one end of the movable rack is kept in line with the other. I've seen mechanisms like this on file cabinets so the drawer pulls out evenly.
@@craigberube9890 Probably not too much less - the panels alone account for about 450lbs (each panel weighs about 55 lbs) of that weight and they are big panels so the aluminum would need to be thicker than the steel we used to keep flex to a minimum. In my estimate you could probably shave off maybe 150 to 200 lbs by using aluminum at the most but the cost would be considerably higher.
Well done guys, I like it how much to build one for me? Its a very cool idea. Oh and its not called little man problems it little man syndrome.Lol keep up the great work you guys rock!
Thank you Brian - It is probably a good idea to wait to see if this actually works out for us ;) LOL - Oh man, the faster I was trying to get out of that rack the most I kept tripping up on it! I was starting to stress there!
All you had to do to prevent “wobbling” is have the center slider turned 90 degree’s perpendicular to the two outer ones. If you would have done that you didn’t need to over engineer this all.
I did find companies that claim to sell telescoping actuators, but when you look into it they want you to call a sales person ... that sounded expensive ;). With a little clever engineering I bet you could create one with two actuators and a few brackets ...
I don't understand how you don't have 100s of 1000s of subscribers....even if people aren't interested in converting a bus...just the way y'all engineer stuff w/o being engineers
Thank you so much Jerry - we really appreciate the kind words. Much of what we do is a big experiment and I think that makes people a little nervous. We are also pretty terrible at marketing and playing the UA-cam "game" - "SOLVE ALL YOU SOLAR NEEDS WITH THIS ONE SIMPLE TRICK!!" We are trying to make videos that we wish we had access to when we started our build.
You're guy's welding and fabrication skills kinda scare me but thank you 10x for the idea of how to make a sliding roof solar rack. The other video I found used arduino and pneumatic slides, way too complicated. If your welder has the option to use an aluminum spool gun, that and a bottle of Argon is all you need to weld aluminum. you could also braze it. round or square tubing in 1.5 inch or bigger would have been stronger than angle, but trivial stuff like that aside, your design is brilliant, thanks again! also for your wife, I would buy her an OV (organic vapor) rated respirator. 3M 6001 cartridge on amazon is your best bet, plus you need the dust filter and holder that fits over that. they also sell chinese knockoff respirators , but I can't recommend those because their certifications are literally made up, like an electrical cord without the UL rating
hi maybe you can answer a side question, you seem knowledgable on the subject. Do they make telescoping actuators....my specific needs is it starts at 28 " then can telescope to 85"? thanks in advance.
@@jackduplechain7592 I'm not sure if telescoping is the same as linear actuator but yes they make them. on ebay search for linear actuator and add in the travel in mm such as 1600mm. do you actually need it to move 85" or just the difference of 85- 28? 85" is very long travel distance and uncommon. it's possible you need to research the common design. it might also be possible to combine 2 actuators that are shorter such as one that travels 40". again it would depend on what you're making and what you absolutely need it to do. I'd start googling other people's designs and as a backup get advice from a metal fabricator shop. also consider if you can have a manual slide , they have ones made for vehicles and the bearings are sealed from the weather, they use a spring loaded latch to go into a hole to lock them in place.
How hard are those actuators going to be to get to once everything is mounted? I only ask because once they're exposed to dirt and driving rain you're going to be changing them often. 48" pneumatic cylinders are pretty easy to come by and would be a much better option. They will cost more up front, but will last forever in an application like this. I'm not trying to be critical, just years of experience with things like this tell me the electrics won't last on the roof of your bus.
I agree, I am afraid that they are going to be finicky. (But they sure look cool right now!) I know you are most of the way down this automated path already, but is there a reason you couldn't just move the panels in and out manually? With your beefy rack system, it seems so convenient just to have a basic latching/lock setup for in and out and just spend a minute or two unlocking and pushing or pulling the things in and out when at camp. Is it because getting up to the roof is going to be hard?
Thank you Dirt Road Sailing - I have approximately 0 years of experience with this so I appreciate your input. We searched for quite a while to find 48" pneumatic cylinders but the largest we could manage to find was about 32 inches or so. If you wouldn't mind sharing your source for things like this it would be very much appreciated. If you don't want to post it publicly you can email me juan@beginningfromthismorning.com
LOL thanks Ben - it's good to hear from you. We thought automating them might allow for some cool automation scenarios (like automatically bringing them in at night, or if the wind picks up, or of the batteries are fully charged already and we are just floating the solar). Plan B is just doing it manually and a reason that we attached the actuators with a pull pin that would be really easy to undo and allow for manual overriding. We don't think we will be getting on the roof much after this contraption is installed on the roof (it slopes down pretty drastically on what is left to walk on up there) - but just putting a ladder on the side of the bus and pulling the panels out doesn't seem like THAT much of a pain and as you said - building a manual locking mechanism would be pretty easy.
I guess I should have looked a little before I opened my mouth. 48" pneumatic cylinders are available, but the bore goes up exponentially with stroke length. The company that we bought most of our cylinders from was a distributor for Parker Hanifin (parker.com). I configured a 48" cylinder on their website and it required a 4" bore which won't work for you and you'd have to sell one of your kids to afford it if it would. Not to give up on pneumatics, if you look on automation direct, they have some really affordable 24" cylinders that I think you could make work if you can mount 2 of them back to back or have an actuator mounted to a pivot point where 24" of stroke (or less) would give you 48" of travel.
I like the idea of going pneumatic as well, so for fun I had a look at Grainger Supply. They have a 48" double acting (rodless) cylinder with a 1" bore. Price is $640 though. Ouch!
An interesting engineering exercise - but! How much more extra weight is all of this costing. I am all for ‘automation’ but figure your talent may have been better spent on a simpler, lighter and manual deployment system.But well done anyway.😀👍
Thank you Norman. This should not a significant amount of weight. The actuators are very light weighing about 6 pounds each and the aluminum bar is only another 10 lbs or so. I am trying to keep everything as light as possible while still being strong enough to withstand the wind forces - it is a delicate balance.
Beginning from this Morning Thanks for this answer. I am now subscribed after watching this video and am now playing catch up to see the genesis of this project and get familiar with the (your) back story.😀👍
prob need more bracing to keep it from wobbling. maybe two steel pipes with ball bearing wheels as stabilizers. maybe something like this www.ebay.com/i/252166288163?chn=ps
Good job, but not worth the effort as if and when you have a vehicle accident....it is over, for all the efforts. Flexible panels would have been best !.
We all have to decide what is worth our effort. If I got in a vehicle accident the last thing I would be worried about was my solar panels. It's funny that you mention flexible solar panels - I strongly considered those when I first started researching solar. I quickly found out that they are a bad, bad idea. The problem with flexible panels is ... well, quite honestly, almost everything. They have lower output, cost much, much more, and generally fail after only 2 years or so of service. The AZ sun would have almost certainly destroyed them already by now. Of course, you don't have to take my word for it - here is what AM Solar has to say about flexible panels: amsolar.com/solar-panels-for-rv/2018/8/23/flexible-panels. If you don't want to read the article they sum the whole thing up in the final three sentences: "AM Solar will not install flexible solar panels. You're welcome. There is a reason AM Solar has been in business so long. It's because we don't work with garbage."
That is so cool. Wow
Thank you Will - I have joined your solar forum and posted some information about our bus in the "show and tell" section. I am really enjoying the forum - thanks for commenting.
@@BeginningfromthisMorninghi sir good morning could you please send me something with your solar slider setup where you buy the sliders and acturater I thank you so much be safe
@@kroberts6583 The blog post as the exact items we ordered: www.beginningfromthismorning.com/solar-rack-part5/
Wow that build is awesome. You are the "over engineer" if I ever saw one - I am impressed.
Thank you so much - We do tend to over-engineer things just a bit but hopefully not too much :)
Great job!
Remember, as long as you have the upper panels on a separate charge controller from the lower panels, you can still be charging your batteries with half the panels when they're retracted!
They don't need to be on a separate controller, just need to be wired in parallel.
Yet again you're both just so cool! We love seeing how you've figured this challenge out!
I had this very same idea. Maximizing solar potential with limited space. Great job and can’t wait to see more!!!!!!
Thanks Robert - we are just working out the kinks but it is almost all fully mounted on the bus. Videos will start coming out in a couple of weeks
Love your setup and work area. You're going to miss your shop traveling full time.
Thank you Steven - Yes I have thought about this a few times - pairing down my tools to the "essentials" is going to be difficult
Coming alone nicely! The only thing I may have done a little differently would be to have two actuators mounted on the ends instead of one in the middle.. but like you said when everything is all bolted down, you will be able to tell if another one is needed. Hell of a good job Juan and family!
Thank you Todd - We considered that also (would remove any wobble for sure). But if we went that route we would likely just put one actuator on each panel. If these things were not so expensive ($200 each) we would have probably just done that.
hi maybe you can answer a side question, you seem knowledgable on the subject. Do they make telescoping actuators....my specific needs is it starts at 28 " then can telescope to 85"? thanks in advance.
Excellent design Juan..........."You the Man"...
LOL thank you MrMudstud - now we are waiting for the bus to get back to see if it fits ... fingers crossed ....
Now that's some engineering. Wow, I like it.
Thank you frankie - it's getting there :)
Great video. Looks like it’s going to work well.
Great job, can't wait to see it on the bus
Thank you Shawn! You and me both! We'll see how good my model was when the bus finally comes back from Mexico.
Good work nice sliding mechanism
Thank you! We have been using it a lot and it has held up well.
all right now, all most there, can not wait to see the bus ya hope it looks good.
Thank you sir!
Holy smokes! That’s awesome! I’ll take 4 racks please. ;)
Thank you Mike - We'll see how good our model was when the bus comes back from paint.
Nice! I like this series- Well Done!!
Thank you! We have our bus back from Mexico and should begin the solar rack install shortly! Thanks for tuning in!
Love it. I will be employing some of your ideas.
Awesome Gary! Glad you are enjoying the channel.
The bigger the gob the better the job. The actuator may get a little faster when attached to the bus power with the extra amps. This is an awesome build and you may be getting some orders from your viewers so be prepared.
That is absolutely awesome,... I've watched a great many people building Skoolies & Coach motorhomes with solar of the roof, none of which compare with what you've created here, absolutely awesome,..x
Thank you!
This is a great idea if for a van. You could try to add rainwater collection.
If it's raining you will want those panels retracted because where there is rain there is wind!
Nice work! Lots of time & thought there.
That works pretty slick.
Thank you Jerry - we have our fingers crossed that it will work on the bus
Saw so many cool things in your entire series, enjoyed it so much, and was so amazed at how happily and methodically you two and your whole family happily plugged away at so many tasks from mechanics, to construction to automation to electrical to plumbing to design, I thoroughly enjoyed the entire series. Often wanted to chime in and "suggest" ( read criticize ;-) ) some of the things you did and decisions you made, but couldn't bring myself to given how much you accomplished with basically some home shop tools and materials and just plain old American ingenuity and do it yourself tenacity. But I decided I should try it, if for no other reason but to encourage you and help you get better as I have no doubt your personalities will have you taking on more projects and improvements. First, I know you glued the aluminum, but you seemed to take to the MIG welding pretty well even though you didn't do too much of it, and an inexpensive TIG welder would have allowed you to weld the aluminum as well as stainless if the need ever arose. I have no doubt you have the ability to quickly pick up the skill. Secondly, when you discovered the aluminum angle you chose was too "bendy", you could have tried rectangular tubing, with a wider dimension only along the plain that you were exerting force on. A rectangular tube of say 1 x 2" would have been MUCH more rigid than your angle and achieved your goal.
Your videos are great, I am a software developer by trade, and have a complete machine and welding shop in my garage to fabricate things for friends just to relive the nostalgia of working as a boy with my dad who was a diesel mechanic and fabricator, and lovingly if not always patiently taught me all these skills. Later in life I worked as a general contractor to pay for college, so I have all of these frustrated skills that are never called for while sitting in my office cranking out thousands of lines of code. It has been a blast living vicariously through you and your family, and enjoying your travels. Continued success and thank you for letting us share your amazing journey.
Thank you so much for the very thoughtful and kind comment. Many of the things we did we thought of as a sort of "experiment". Before building our bus we had never even owned an RV or built much of anything significant. TIG welding is on the short list of things I REALLY want to learn. The bus has held together amazingly well over the last 2 years of traveling and we are amazingly comfortable living in it even as a family of 6. My oldest is going to college this summer so we are at this strange junction in our lives. Do we continue to travel and roam without him? Should we find a house and settle into a more "normal" looking life? These are the questions we will need to face over the next few months. I have been in software and computers since I was about 17 or so and I 100% understand your need to fabricate and build things - I feel the exact same way. I plan to do a series of videos on how everything has worked as we have traveled the country and a short list of things I would maybe do differently. As I sit typing this in the middle of the desert in Northern Arizona I can't help but feel an extreme sense of gratitude for the time over the last 2 years that I have had with my family.
Great job guys, but being an engineer... a colleague of mine used to say: “Now for the real life test, poor a bucket of dirt over it and see if it still works” ;-) ! Thank you for making these videos.
LOL yes ... most of what we do is somewhat of an "experiment". We figure - even if they get stuck - we should still have 1740 Watts of power. If you look on UA-cam most "HUGE" RV systems hover around 1000 Watts :). We are cautiously optimistic this will work even if the deployment mechanism starts to be an issue.
Beginning from this Morning wow, thats a lot of power. Guess you have the choice to leave the bottom row covered if you don’t need the extra power if the rows are correctly wired or you could sell the excess energy to neighbouring RV’s on camp sites ;-)
I was thinking that those sliders are going to get dirty and bind up. I hope the actuator has a over current protection. They have to unsealed many little parts.
Quick idea to take some stress off actuator, possibly need less of them. Potential power from a coil spring, similar to a garage door to release some of the weight. I'm trying to build a system for a motorhome I just purchased. Thanks for the video, great job.
Great idea - I have considered doing something like this but have not come up with a good design.
NIce and loud audio. Thank You!
Thanks Aaron - buying a mic is on the list of "to-do" but I try to speak loud enough to be cleary heard.
With sliding panels is my new plan too. But at first I thought an actuator would just be too much but I think it can be a good lock in place now.
It has been working really great. We did have some water get into one of the actuators and take out one of the limit switches so we repaired it by wiring the motor to bypass the internal limit switches and installing some IP65 rated toggle switches externally.
Very nice. One thought would be to go from the angle aluminum to square tube aluminum in the same dimensions. That would be more rigid and maybe stop the wobble at the and of the travel. I do not think the wobble you have is anything to be concerned about other than the aesthetics?
I think you should use a 48 volt battery and try the hurtle race again (I wounder about longevity of the motor if you were to power with 48 volts? speed would pick up and as there is hardly any load the motor might survive??)!
I think it will be plenty strong to resist movement unless powered (movement would have to over come the worm drive gear in the activator) . Only other thought would be to have one liner activator for each panel, at $200.00 each it would only be a total increase in cost of $400.
Been looking into costs of building a new barn vs repairing one of the existing barns for my shop. The one I wanted to use for the shop is so far gone that it is cheaper to tear it down and build new (or so I thought) every time I talk with the contractor the price goes up. Started at $35,000 and now we are at $70,000.
I put a stop to that and the current thought is to use one of the other buildings for the shop but the same process of increasing costs is happening. May have to wait and do it myself after I move in.
Great progress! Glenn
Thank you Glenn - always great to hear from you.
The wobble was reduced considerably when I went the 1/4" thick aluminum. I think that when we are able to secure the panels properly and actually fully secure the angle bar across the front that it should eliminate most if not all of the wobble. I agree that it seems to mostly be aesthetic in nature (there does not seem to be any binding happening as evidenced by the constant pitch of the motor (it does not strain at all).
I have given some thought to doing one actuator per panel - that one is not off the table yet. Plan B is always: "spend more money"
On the barn - that is a shame - do you think the guy is just trying to feel you out for what you are willing to spend? I kind of felt that way when we were getting quotes for the paint job on the bus.
Doing it yourself might be a fun project - I built a garage with my dad when I was much younger (maybe 13 or so) and I distinctly recall he used that opportunity to "teach me the value of a dollar". Turns out a dollar is worth about 2 months of hard labor digging trenches, pouring concrete, framing the structure, and painting it! I remember thinking "man this dollar he keeps talking about is not worth it!"
Best of luck on the move - I am looking forward to new videos at the new place.
Juan
This is a fantastic project! Really. It's going to inspire many folks to follow suit. If you still have that shimmy after bolting everything up tight, perhaps diagonally X bracing the sliders with light stainless wire and "rigging screws" (bi-plane style) would stiffen up the rig without adding too much weight. From what I can see on the current design, you're largely depending on the glass sheet on the solar panel to keep everything squared up. A lil bit risky in my mind.
I like that you've used aluminium rivets to attach the actuator mountings to the frame. I would have left the glue off though. If anything binds up on the inward stroke, the first thing to pop should be those soft aluminium rivets... A "shear pin" if you will.
I'd suggest adding a load sensitive trip switch to your electrical circuit. Measure how much current the actuator uses while it's operating and get a trip switch rated for ~20% higher than the measured load. If anything binds up later, it'll kill power to the actuator and may save your rig. This $10 trip switch could save you a lot of cussing later.... :-)
Looking forward to your next installment!
Great suggestions Kevin! I went back and forth about adding the glue. I finally decided that if I use the actuator to keep the panels in I am more concerned about them breaking loose than breaking something while pulling them in. The actuator is only rated to pull about 200 lbs - so hopefully a monitor on the Amp draw of the motor should catch a potential problem before I break anything. Love the ideas - thanks!
This is very cool. We would like to add this to our catamaran boat. Any thoughts or info about salt water and dirt?
Unfortunately, I'm not too familiar with boat stuff, but the hinges are stainless. That being said, the ocean water is brutal. Another solution I've thought about is making a hinge like a gate that latches in place when fully extended and folds away when under way.
@@BeginningfromthisMorning Was thinking that also, but then the view would be removed. since it would fold over the windows. and yeah, I'm fearful of saltwater. What about something more simple. no wheels at all. just a slideable soft material. Can't think of the name, but, a form of plastic? not sure if that's worse
@@BeginningfromthisMorning folds away like onto the side of the vehicle yes? I'm contemplating this to mount my solar panels on my brick fence. they can store away with the fence when there is a windstorm, and then hinge around on 1 axes later
Smart design, maybe you could tilt the panels using the same device
Thank you JW - our original design called for tilting on the top level of panels but I was not clever enough to figure out a strong enough mounting mechanism that I felt comfortable with. The wind forces that act on these panels are substantial and I didn't feel I could design something I was sure would withstand these forces and still allow us to safely tilt up. Maybe my next design will incorporate that :)
Nicely done. SOME SWEET FABRICATION IDEAS APPLIED ON YOUR BUILD.
i DO HAVE SOME CONCERNS THOUGH. A 35 foot coach will have some flex on the chassis and coach body.
Since the frame is quite rigid and if you bolt down solid to the rivet line on roof there is a possibility that overstressing could occur and crack panels. I have had some nasty service station approach entrances that have caused some stress on rigid applications such as you have built!
Keep the great ideas flowing..
Thank you Ron - very interesting points. I agree with you that the coach will have some flex it in it but I am not sure it would be enough to cause a panel to break. Our bus is approaching 55 years old and probably has over a million miles on the chassis - yet along the entire roofline, there is not even a single wrinkle that would indicate a significant amount of flex. The aluminum skin is only about 1/16 of an inch thick - so I would think that any flex significant enough to damage the panels would show up in the aluminum skin as well. Here is a picture of the roof and as you can see it is very smooth: photos.app.goo.gl/nSAxE4Cd5XLpA1qh7
You guys have done a really great job with this!
I was thinking the other way...with 2-12VDC actuators (car seat motors) on each panel that drive a long screw.
This seems a bit more expensive but might work a lot better in the long run.
Thank you Gregory
hi maybe you can answer a side question, you seem knowledgable on the subject. Do they make telescoping actuators....my specific needs is it starts at 28 " then can telescope to 85"? thanks in advance.
How does your manual clipping to battery cut power, once open/closed ?
Beautiful Execution 👍🏼
Thank you! The actuator has an internal limit switch
Real Nice -
by seeing this i got other idea for car roof top thank in future electrical car it work handy.
Glad you enjoyed the video. Wishing you luck on your project.
It seems strong enough. Nice work. I hope you won't have too many challenges getting it installed on the roof. The roof isn't exactly flat. So you'll probably have to do some shimming.
Thanks Kevin - this was one of the reasons we went with SuperStrut on the base - it should be pretty effective at making a reasonably flat base for the install. Of course, we won't know until we get it back from paint ... fingers crossed.
Is there any way to get better mileage with solar? Augment ac? Truck battery etc
Awesome project. How are the slides holding the rain? are the slides balls made also of stainless steel? Same thing with actuator ,they do not seems to be waterproof. Thank you
Thank you - they seem to be holding up great - they have been installed and sliding back and forth 2 to 4 times per day 4 times per week for the last year and half. They are stainless and I do not see any evidence of rust on them at all. I did lube the bearings with a lithium grease but I think that was mostly a mistake I think "dry lube" is probably a better idea. We have had one slider come apart because our alignment was not 100% perfect - it still functions and slides but we will be replacing it soon.
Impressive!
Awesome, do you have a link to the actuator
This is the actuator we used: amzn.to/37WIFCv
@@BeginningfromthisMorning thanks my brother, im in the bahamas and this platform will definately come in handy
Thank you much
I totally need you to help me attach an actuator to the legs of my current desk to push it up to standing level ;) I've been looking everywhere for ideas on how to attach actuators to my existing desk legs.
Thank Roman - that shouldn't be too bad. Drop me a line at juan@beginningfromthismorning.com with some pictures and details of what you are looking for and maybe I can make some suggestions.
The suspense! He's prepared for the CG shift righht? Whew. Now on to THE HURDLES OF DEATH! Nice Rack btw! lol
oh man! The closer it got the more nervous I got!
I have concern with the way you are attaching the operating end of the actuator. With the droop your panels have at full extension, having the end of the actuator fixed will cause the operating rod to bend. This may cause binding and excessive wear on the actuator. It will likely be better to have that end float.
Hmm that is a good point - I will need to take a closer look at that - Thank you for sharing.
@@BeginningfromthisMorning Just make sure the motor can pivot at both ends so it adjusts to the droop.
hi maybe you can answer a side question, you seem knowledgable on the subject. Do they make telescoping actuators....my specific needs is it starts at 28 " then can telescope to 85"? thanks in advance.
@@jackduplechain7592 non-hydraulic actuators can only extend to less than twice the contracted distance. Hydraulic adds weight and complexity to the setup.
@@leebiggs2844 thanks for your response
Great work man I like it but lol instead of the rivets you need to bolts good job
Thank you Jeff - we are still experimenting with stuff.
I think there is a psychological resistance to relying on adhesives ( which I understood you to be doing primarily). I struggle with this. We need to see those bolts but adhesives are rated to do the job and I think we should trust those ratings. I love watching this series. I really admire your families ingenuity and work ethic.
Thank you David - I agree my resistance to relying on the glue is completely in my head - they are even using adhesives instead of welding on many car parts now - they have come a long, long way. I just need to wrap my head around that - I am slowly learning to trust the adhesives.
A few ideas for y'all to think about
Concerning the wobble. I'd recommend putting at least 2 bolt in each slider for the rail to connect to and that should help with the play. If that doesn't fix the problem then the next thing you could do is look into something that would act as a shock absorber on the farthest out rails. I was thinking something that you could spray on that would be thin but have a rubbery texture. Maybe even something like electrical tape. Put it on the inside the sliders where the rollers roll. The small amount of resistance should reduce its tendency to wobble when the roller wheels are on it. You'd only need to put it on the last 10 inches or so of the roller bar since it doesn't wobble till it gets extended.
Concerning if the actuator will be strong enough to hold the panels in. It might be. But it doesn't hurt to put some sort of safety strapping at the middle or end of each panel for when you are going down the highway. Just put a note above the actuator switch to remind you to disconnect the straps before trying to extend the panels.
Great suggestions Luke - Thank you.
Luke L Or they could use a rectangle tube of aluminum, laying flat. Problem solved.
I like it! Nice progress, but I see 3 more actuators in your future for added stability. In addition you could have a smaller solar panel and charge controller and it's own 24v battery for the actuator too. Not much different from the step down but it feels more direct, like not dependent on an oxymoron situation. In other words, it doesn't feel right to have your solar panels deployed by the very system that is charged by those solar panels. I guess it works on cars, they just get a jump start if their batteries go dead. And technically only half of your panels will be without power so it seems like as long as the sun is shining you should have the power to deploy. So now I realize that either way works, but I still like the idea of the mini solar panel.
Thank you Alex. As you mentioned we should still have about 1740 Watts of solar with the panels pulled in - I get what you are saying though.
Alex, I agree with you about adding something to keep force equally distributed. But, additional actuators might not run at the exact speed and really get things out of whack. I think something mechanical needs to be in place to keep the extension force equal. And, a force limiter on the actuator would be something I'd like to have. Do I recall correctly that the actuator will push 100 pounds? This much force in the middle or at one end with a bind at the other can bend/break stuff.
I would be worried about wind while parked, but maybe if its super windy the odds are it won't be a bright sunny day?
I wonder if you could install a safety like the RV awnings that will retract automatically when they start to bounce around from Wind. I think it would be a few sensors and will only activate if the panels are deployed. Would be easy... Are you going to add it to home automation?
even better they sell aftermarket kits, Lookup.
Carefree SR0093 Awning Motion Detection Retractor
As for the build out, I might have built the sliders like a Garage Door using roller blade wheels and steel, kind of like a slide out on a RV
Thank you Stephen - the wind is a big concern but we are hoping to minimize it with sensors (as you describe) and common sense (like not leaving them out and having systems in place that will retract them when there is danger or it is nighttime etc.). Even when the lower panels retracted we should still have 1740 Watts available. Garage Door sliders is an interesting idea. Thank you for the feedback
You can use a boost converter to get 24V DC from 12V DC
Jason Garland ,
A 24vdc actuator actually CAN run under 12vdc, it loses speed but not force...
This was done 6 years ago ! I will go through your other videos but first how are they holding up ? The link for the actuators is no longer good on Amazon. Another question I had was what happens when the actuator fails are you able to push the panels in overriding the actuator? Also, how have the gliders been in your state with the dust and the dirt?
Hello! They are holding up very well. Gliders have held up surprisingly well - in the 6 years we have replaced 3 because they wore out and the little ball bearings fell out. Getting the alignment nearly perfect is the key to having the sliders live a very long time. The sliders are stainless and have not rusted or anything like that. Both actuators have been replaced once because the limit switches inside were exposed to water and corroded. The next time I replace them I am going to mount them upside down (so that the limit switches are on top vs the bottom of the tube). If the actuator fails (this has happened twice as I mentioned) there is a pin at the front of the actuator that we remove and we push them back by hand.
Can you share the link to that actuator? I also have large panels and need a 46" throw. Your's seems to be way lower profile than what I looked at.
You could use a shorter arm with a pitman arm to extend the reach.
Man chops himself in half, see it on UA-cam! ;-) You were trying to go faster as the panels approached, priceless.
LOL - yes - it seemed like the faster I tried to get out of there to more I was blundering it up!
I still think you should double the voltage and do the jumping hurtles again.
hahaha!
I need to make a sliding rack what did you use for the sliders? I built a huge 2 rack tilting solar arrays out of EMT and unistrut on my flatbed trailer and I still have 6 small panels that are suitcases right now 200 watts each case 2 100 watt panels.and my other 2 arrays are 2 300 watt panels each everything is 120v the 1200 watt panel array is hooked to my breaker box then 100 amp EPEVER 200v mppt controller and the 600 watt suitcase 120v array is on the 80 amp EPEVER 200v mppt controller. I have 2 linear actuators 18 inch 1000N or 210 pounds push .and a wireless remote system.and a 3 ton HYDRAULIC ram to lift the back array up 19 inches and the linear actuator to tilt the 2 arrays to match each other. If I can make a sliding rail I would mount them underneath both arrays and have the smaller panels slide out from the sides that would be cool. Her is a video of my first array using 3 ton HYDRAULIC ram to tilt before I bought the linear actuators.and the second array wasnt done yet I havent done my update video yet. I will post it. But definitely i would like some more information about the sliders.
ua-cam.com/video/O6M1kX0d74k/v-deo.html
I bought the sliders from Amazon (amzn.to/32Hi6vn) - they are heavy-duty sliders that are supposed to be rated for 400 lbs - but I would be surprised if the actual rating was 1/2 that. That is the primary reason I used 3 per panel.
@@BeginningfromthisMorning wow thanks man I couldn't find these a anywhere before. Especially that size.
ua-cam.com/video/S39RZoypwa8/v-deo.html
Where did you source your linear actuator from?
From Amazon - amzn.to/3CFo8yH
Hi Juan
Are you going to build the complete solar rack system in the garage then use possibly something like a forklift with extension Forks to raise it up and set it on top of your bus when it's done or are you going to try and build it again while it's on top of the bus?
Hi commandyne - I THINK we are going to try to piece it together using scaffolding and some tall friends :). Fortunately, the individual pieces are actually pretty light. We briefly considered putting it all together and then hiring a crane to come to lift it all up on to the bus but I think that will be much more trouble.
Beginning from this Morning - If you go the friends route, we happen to know of a tall guy who would be happy to help. :)
Ronin and Marie - aren't you guys in CO?!
@@BeginningfromthisMorning - yep, Manitou Springs is part of Colorado Springs but we drove out to San Francisco for my school residency last May, and then just got back from DragonCon in Atlanta this week.
You can use a pair of bearings at each end to maintain parallel movement. Best to have a manual actuation system located in the luggage compartment to avoid accidental operation on the road.
Thank you Josie. We are still researching options to be prepared if we get some wobble after we tighten everything down. Yes, we will have to have some kind of "lockout" setting or just cut power to it while we are traveling. Thank you for the suggestions.
@@BeginningfromthisMorning Like a Normally closed relay the opens when the ignition is turned on?
You can also power the actuator with 12v ! It will only loose speed but the force will stay the exact same.
Bravo Zulu!
did you have any luck finding the flexible cable trays. I think most electric supply houses can order it in to your specs. I don't think they keep it on hand,
Hi Roy - I only did a preliminary search but it did yield positive results - seems like something like this might work nicely: amzn.to/2PoodOy
Looks great, you will want to use non yellowing UV rated Clear-coat over those plastic pieces otherwise i am sure they will degrade quite quickly in that AZ sun. Easily available at Lowes/Home/Amazon? Depot. 5-10$ Also do those slides require maintenance or lube? are the stops plastic and susceptible to breakdown?
Thank you - I am sure the plastic pieces would benefit from some type of treatment. I will be looking into this because the solar install is quickly approaching. Supposedly everything on the slides is stainless steel and "weatherproof" - but I would feel better if they were coated.
@@BeginningfromthisMorning It might be better to leave them alone if they're stainless. Spraying any kind of oil will just attract dust buildup?
Alright Nacho! Very exciting. That's plenty fast enough! Do the actuators have built in limit switches?
Hi Travis - yes they have limit switches on both ends :)
Great job, but if one of the drawer slides ever sticks that will self destruct
Thank you J.G Conumdrum - I hope not!
Could even destroy PV panels!
Far more likely the linear actuators will overload and stop running until reset.
I have a concern with your design. Though it seems to work fine, if there's a bind anywhere in the system due to dirt/debris in one of the roller slides or by another obstruction, the actuator has enough force to destroy the sliding system. I'm not sure what the "fix" for this would be... or if one is needed. It's just that I have this vision of being off somewhere with the family in the RV and while extending the solar rack, the extension system gets trashed and now you're in trouble, unable to even drive due to broken panels on the roof.
Hi Hakuna Matata - A bind could represent a significant problem. This actuator is rated at just under 200 lbs of force - enough to bend things up for sure. For a "fix" I am thinking of putting a circuit to monitor the load from the motor. If the motor encounters a significant load the Amps will spike and it will trip an alarm to alert me that something went wrong (before anything gets destroyed hopefully). This will allow me to go inspect the slides etc and see if something is wrong before attempting again. It's not a perfect solution but it should hopefully keep things from getting too bent. The worst case scenario would mean I needed to unbolt the solar panels and just manually push the sliders in (and store the panels somewhere while I get it fixed). I am crossing my fingers that it works well - thank you for sharing your concerns.
A simple current-limiting switch in circuit with the motor will provide some of that protection for you without requiring any fancy automation. These are used everywhere on RVs, from slide motors to blinds... pretty cheap insurance.
Beginning from this Morning, how about a sheer pin somewhere, as a final “fuse” against catastrophic failure? Just a thought.
Brother, If you replace your 1.25 x 1/4 inch angle with a rectangle bar laying flat-all your wobble problems disappear. For good.
Nice idea.
Each level of panels should have its own charge controller. Then you can remove that extra space/weight/mass/gap etc.
I don't think it's rigidity that's causing the wobble. I think the rack is "teetering" on the center point where the actuator's pushing because either end of the movable rack is independant. Imagine a gear rack on either end of the movable rack with intersecting cogs on a common shaft so that one end of the movable rack is kept in line with the other. I've seen mechanisms like this on file cabinets so the drawer pulls out evenly.
Good job! Take my money.
how much did it all weigh?
@innerspaceavailable it ended up weighing about 900lbs after it was all said and done.
@@BeginningfromthisMorning.if everything was switched to aluminum what would you guess it would weigh then?
@@craigberube9890 Probably not too much less - the panels alone account for about 450lbs (each panel weighs about 55 lbs) of that weight and they are big panels so the aluminum would need to be thicker than the steel we used to keep flex to a minimum. In my estimate you could probably shave off maybe 150 to 200 lbs by using aluminum at the most but the cost would be considerably higher.
Well done guys, I like it how much to build one for me? Its a very cool idea. Oh and its not called little man problems it little man syndrome.Lol keep up the great work you guys rock!
Thank you Brian - It is probably a good idea to wait to see if this actually works out for us ;)
LOL - Oh man, the faster I was trying to get out of that rack the most I kept tripping up on it! I was starting to stress there!
All you had to do to prevent “wobbling” is have the center slider turned 90 degree’s perpendicular to the two outer ones. If you would have done that you didn’t need to over engineer this all.
Slick!
A dc 12v to 24v buck converter will definitely work .
do they make telescoping actuators....my specific needs is it starts at 28 " then can telescope to 85"? thanks in advance.
I did find companies that claim to sell telescoping actuators, but when you look into it they want you to call a sales person ... that sounded expensive ;). With a little clever engineering I bet you could create one with two actuators and a few brackets ...
I don't understand how you don't have 100s of 1000s of subscribers....even if people aren't interested in converting a bus...just the way y'all engineer stuff w/o being engineers
Thank you so much Jerry - we really appreciate the kind words. Much of what we do is a big experiment and I think that makes people a little nervous. We are also pretty terrible at marketing and playing the UA-cam "game" - "SOLVE ALL YOU SOLAR NEEDS WITH THIS ONE SIMPLE TRICK!!" We are trying to make videos that we wish we had access to when we started our build.
You're guy's welding and fabrication skills kinda scare me but thank you 10x for the idea of how to make a sliding roof solar rack. The other video I found used arduino and pneumatic slides, way too complicated. If your welder has the option to use an aluminum spool gun, that and a bottle of Argon is all you need to weld aluminum. you could also braze it. round or square tubing in 1.5 inch or bigger would have been stronger than angle, but trivial stuff like that aside, your design is brilliant, thanks again! also for your wife, I would buy her an OV (organic vapor) rated respirator. 3M 6001 cartridge on amazon is your best bet, plus you need the dust filter and holder that fits over that. they also sell chinese knockoff respirators , but I can't recommend those because their certifications are literally made up, like an electrical cord without the UL rating
hi maybe you can answer a side question, you seem knowledgable on the subject. Do they make telescoping actuators....my specific needs is it starts at 28 " then can telescope to 85"? thanks in advance.
@@jackduplechain7592 I'm not sure if telescoping is the same as linear actuator but yes they make them. on ebay search for linear actuator and add in the travel in mm such as 1600mm. do you actually need it to move 85" or just the difference of 85- 28? 85" is very long travel distance and uncommon. it's possible you need to research the common design. it might also be possible to combine 2 actuators that are shorter such as one that travels 40". again it would depend on what you're making and what you absolutely need it to do. I'd start googling other people's designs and as a backup get advice from a metal fabricator shop. also consider if you can have a manual slide , they have ones made for vehicles and the bearings are sealed from the weather, they use a spring loaded latch to go into a hole to lock them in place.
@@eksine thank you so much, lots for me to unpack here, great stuff!
How hard are those actuators going to be to get to once everything is mounted? I only ask because once they're exposed to dirt and driving rain you're going to be changing them often. 48" pneumatic cylinders are pretty easy to come by and would be a much better option. They will cost more up front, but will last forever in an application like this.
I'm not trying to be critical, just years of experience with things like this tell me the electrics won't last on the roof of your bus.
I agree, I am afraid that they are going to be finicky. (But they sure look cool right now!)
I know you are most of the way down this automated path already, but is there a reason you couldn't just move the panels in and out manually? With your beefy rack system, it seems so convenient just to have a basic latching/lock setup for in and out and just spend a minute or two unlocking and pushing or pulling the things in and out when at camp. Is it because getting up to the roof is going to be hard?
Thank you Dirt Road Sailing - I have approximately 0 years of experience with this so I appreciate your input. We searched for quite a while to find 48" pneumatic cylinders but the largest we could manage to find was about 32 inches or so. If you wouldn't mind sharing your source for things like this it would be very much appreciated. If you don't want to post it publicly you can email me juan@beginningfromthismorning.com
LOL thanks Ben - it's good to hear from you. We thought automating them might allow for some cool automation scenarios (like automatically bringing them in at night, or if the wind picks up, or of the batteries are fully charged already and we are just floating the solar). Plan B is just doing it manually and a reason that we attached the actuators with a pull pin that would be really easy to undo and allow for manual overriding. We don't think we will be getting on the roof much after this contraption is installed on the roof (it slopes down pretty drastically on what is left to walk on up there) - but just putting a ladder on the side of the bus and pulling the panels out doesn't seem like THAT much of a pain and as you said - building a manual locking mechanism would be pretty easy.
I guess I should have looked a little before I opened my mouth. 48" pneumatic cylinders are available, but the bore goes up exponentially with stroke length. The company that we bought most of our cylinders from was a distributor for Parker Hanifin (parker.com). I configured a 48" cylinder on their website and it required a 4" bore which won't work for you and you'd have to sell one of your kids to afford it if it would.
Not to give up on pneumatics, if you look on automation direct, they have some really affordable 24" cylinders that I think you could make work if you can mount 2 of them back to back or have an actuator mounted to a pivot point where 24" of stroke (or less) would give you 48" of travel.
I like the idea of going pneumatic as well, so for fun I had a look at Grainger Supply. They have a 48" double acting (rodless) cylinder with a 1" bore. Price is $640 though. Ouch!
An interesting engineering exercise - but! How much more extra weight is all of this costing. I am all for ‘automation’ but figure your talent may have been better spent on a simpler, lighter and manual deployment system.But well done anyway.😀👍
Thank you Norman. This should not a significant amount of weight. The actuators are very light weighing about 6 pounds each and the aluminum bar is only another 10 lbs or so. I am trying to keep everything as light as possible while still being strong enough to withstand the wind forces - it is a delicate balance.
Beginning from this Morning Thanks for this answer. I am now subscribed after watching this video and am now playing catch up to see the genesis of this project and get familiar with the (your) back story.😀👍
Thanks Norman! Glad to have you along!
prob need more bracing to keep it from wobbling. maybe two steel pipes with ball bearing wheels as stabilizers. maybe something like this www.ebay.com/i/252166288163?chn=ps
Interesting - thank you for the link and suggestion - I will look into these further.
Your sound like ( jehugarcia)
I like that guy ... so thanks!
Good job, but not worth the effort as if and when you have a vehicle accident....it is over, for all the efforts. Flexible panels would have been best !.
We all have to decide what is worth our effort. If I got in a vehicle accident the last thing I would be worried about was my solar panels. It's funny that you mention flexible solar panels - I strongly considered those when I first started researching solar. I quickly found out that they are a bad, bad idea. The problem with flexible panels is ... well, quite honestly, almost everything. They have lower output, cost much, much more, and generally fail after only 2 years or so of service. The AZ sun would have almost certainly destroyed them already by now. Of course, you don't have to take my word for it - here is what AM Solar has to say about flexible panels: amsolar.com/solar-panels-for-rv/2018/8/23/flexible-panels. If you don't want to read the article they sum the whole thing up in the final three sentences: "AM Solar will not install flexible solar panels.
You're welcome. There is a reason AM Solar has been in business so long. It's because we don't work with garbage."
@@BeginningfromthisMorningagreed. Power density is king. Panels are cheap batteries are not.
Patent pending.