Solar Designer, Why secondary reflectors are needed for unattended solar cookers.

[dpconnell]

Nice, but hard to follow what you're describing.

One piece of advice; lose the whiteboard. Download the trial version of rhino3d. It's an industrial cad package, super easy to use and learn. The trial version lets you save 25 times, but if you're just playing round like this you shouldn't need to save too often.

[dpconnell]

As well as developing surfaces from curves, it also lets you bounce 'light' rays off those surfaces, so gives you perfectly mathematically accurate reflective optics for any shape you can draw. It also has presets for parabolas and other curve types. And you could then show us rendered 3d models of your shapes.

I've been using it for 3d animation for about 13 years, but am currently developing a solar tracker, and it's been utterly invaluable for developing the reflectors.

[dpconnell]

If you (or anyone) has any questions about using rhino, just message me here. I see so many people struggling through with hand drawn and mathematically calculated curves, it doesn't need to be so difficult.

[gaiatechnician]

Thank you. You have talent in software use and I have none.

I simply cannot do it!

So I have to stick with the whiteboard.

(Others can remake it if they wish).

I just checked out your sunflower. Its an impressive piece of work. And open source too.

Well done.

I do have a reason for hand drawn stuff and my ultra low tech methods. I want to get people in really poor countries at this too. If necessary they can make the dishes with mud, on a wicker frame.

[dpconnell]

That is actually quite a good point, lo-fi is more accessible.

Fair enough then. If you have any reflective surface designs you want analysed, feel free to send me some sketches. It's a LOT quicker for seeing how light is going to interact. It's also then easy to print off very accurate templates.

This also goes for anyone else working on similar projects...

[gaiatechnician]

Thank you for that. It is very early in the project. (I made several errors in the whiteboard explanation but nothing too terrible).

I have only made a couple of models and at this stage, I do not even know what curves work best. My latest task is to make up a procedure to build a full scale one . And I have not made one myself so I got to go into my imaginary world

and imagine a low tech way to make one!

A few people are now interested.

Hurah!

Brian

[IronHorsez88]

Your didicated work has inspired some ideas to me. If they appear useful, I will post as soon as I can. I think I'd like to create a permanently mounted commercial quality community solar oven that reaches 400 deg. f. (able to cook anything in standard alloted time frame)

[marthale7]

It would help to see an example of the collector you are talking about. I have been using a mirror in addition to my solar collector to double how well it works. I have been trying to find the optimal place to locate the mirror around my setup. I have been thinking about getting a heat gun to test the change in temperature as I move the mirror to different locations.

[gaiatechnician]

Sorry

I have another recent video that shows the basic shape.

It is called "jig for solar reflector design" The shape I show there is just a mock-up, a general idea of it. (I have not yet figured out a good way to hold the pieces in place as I adjust the model in the jig).

Brian

[hantides22]

good work!!!