Portable solar panel tripod mount by rasarmg

Last crawled date: 3 years ago

Unpack pspt_mount_1.2_170124.zip and open the documentation with your favorite web browser or PDF viewer:
$ firefox build_1.2/html/index.html
$ firefox build_1.2/latex/refman.pdf
Select a pre-built part and print.
Description
Wanted a portable articulating mount for a 5 watt solar panel that charges a small power system that I use when camping. Decided on a design that made use of a broken tripod and sturdy but lightweight poles from an old folding camping chair that were lying around awaiting to be re-purposed.
The top of the tripod was cut off with a hack saw and four straight tube segments were cut from the folding chair as needed to assemble the panel support frame. The lengths will depend on the dimensions of your panel.
Parts
There are 14 total printed parts and 7 types as shown in the following table. There are three version for part number 2 and 5 (I was not sure if a printed open frame would be study enough so I generated closed versions). I am using version d1 for both parts as it turned out to be sufficient for my use. For convenience several build plates have been rendered that include the required parts.
Parts
p1: Pole Cap - qty 1
p2d1: Pole Bracket - qty 1
p2d2: Pole Bracket - qty 1
p2d3: Pole Bracket - qty 1
p3: Pole Nut - qty 1
p4: Pole Knobs - qty 1 set
p5d1: Panel Bracket - qty 1
p5d2: Panel Bracket - qty 1
p5d3: Panel Bracket - qty 1
p6: Panel Tee - qty 4
p7: Panel Mount - qty 4
Build Plate - 174x194x71mm
Build Plate 1 of 2 - 146x129x35mm
Build Plate 2 of 2 - 138x109x71mm

Parameters
The design parameters can be easily modified in one location for the tube dimensions you have on hand (ie: EMT, rigid, ABS, copper, etc). As rendered, it makes use of M3 hex-bolt socket-head cap-screws and hux-nuts, although this too can be reconfigured via root parameters.
When modifying the parameters for your sizes, be sure to check the resulting fit with a sample print of a test fitting (ie panel_tee) before printing a build plate! Try to insert the pole into the side without the tab first to make sure it passes freely but snuggly in the fitting.
Time
The total render time for all the parts in the table above on a 1.6Ghz AMD E-350 dual core processor running Linux is summarized below:
Elapsed time
User time
System time
318m 40.379s
580m 48.948s
4m 25.644s

The openscad-amu design flow will dispatch a separate render process for each compute core/thread of your CPU. This is why the Elapsed time is roughly half of the total user time on this dual core system. This dramatically reduces the total build times for multi-part designs on multi-processor system.
Here is a breakdown of OpenSCAD render times, by part (The reduced CPU usage for the first several parts were due to system time sharing during this writeup).
Part ID
Elapsed time (h:mm:ss)
User time (s)
System time (s)
CPU use (%)
Memory Max. (KB)
psptm_assembled_pole
2:47:11
8777.90
82.84
88%
3005816
psptm_assembled
2:40:55
8453.30
77.08
88%
2503588
psptm_build_1of2
54:05.61
3147.12
13.37
97%
2216748
psptm_build_2of2
35:09.63
2049.29
5.85
97%
1532896
psptm_build_all
1:34:29
5630.57
7.19
99%
3399788
psptm_panel_bracket_d1
13:55.22
829.20
1.96
99%
1247092
psptm_panel_bracket_d2
12:50.97
765.79
2.05
99%
1231040
psptm_panel_bracket_d3
13:25.89
801.30
1.81
99%
1225344
psptm_panel_mount
3:43.91
222.04
0.83
99%
586756
psptm_panel_tee
9:42.08
578.83
1.34
99%
864232
psptm_pole_bracket_d1
2:20.80
139.30
0.50
99%
414632
psptm_pole_bracket_d2
2:02.54
121.26
0.50
99%
349924
psptm_pole_bracket_d3
2:01.11
120.11
0.48
99%
340284
psptm_pole_cap
4:27.57
265.68
0.98
99%
664500
psptm_pole_knobs
5:11.75
309.73
0.96
99%
662996
psptm_pole_nut
5:39.39
337.00
0.94
99%
660408

The time from concept to finished assembly and writeup took approximately 48 hours over a few days. The omdl design library and the openscad-amu design tools greatly reduced the overall effort to both design and document this result. I imagine that this solution could be used in other scenarios that seek to mount an articulating panel to a vertical post. Let me know what you come up with!
Dependencies
To re-render the printed parts you will need to obtain omdl, version 0.4, and mstscrewlib. To use the auto recompilation and/or rebuild this documentation, you will need to obtain and install openscad-amu. This design was completed using version 1.7 of the tools.
openscad-amu
To install openscad-amu open a BASH shell and type:
$ mkdir tmp && cd tmp
$ wget https://git.io/setup-amu.bash
$ chmod +x setup-amu.bash

$ ./setup-amu.bash --branch v1.7 --yes --build
$ sudo ./setup-amu.bash --branch v1.7 --install
omdl
To install omdl open a BASH shell and type:
$ mkdir tmp && cd tmp
$ wget https://git.io/setup-omdl.bash
$ chmod +x setup-omdl.bash

$ ./setup-omdl.bash --branch v0.4 --yes --install
mstscrewlib
To install mstscrewlib download the library and copy to OpenSCAD library path (or the current directory together with the design files).
Once openscad-amu, omdl, and mstscrewlib are installed, build:
$ make info # (design flow information)
$ make all # (build everything)

$ firefox build_1.0/html/index.html # (view documentation)
This will render all of the design parts, the assembled demo, the build plate, and this documentation.
Once done, use your favorite browser to review the documentation as described in the initial paragraph.
Template
To use Doxygen to document your OpenSCAD designs or utilize a similar auto design flow, see the introduction to openscad-amu and design template. If you release a design that uses omdl or openscad-amu support these efforts by tagging your design with omdl and/or openscad-amu.