Solar Tracker Module

**MAX Burner** · January 25

FYI: Quartzite "Proving Grounds" -- We opted-in on a Solar Tracker at the owner's rally last year which Coy and his business partner, Joe designed. It's been running straight through since arriving at the Q last Monday. The tracker uses onboard GPS, MPPT charge controller, and other programs to "track" the sun's progression throughout the day. It stows itself at sunset then "wakes" up after sunrise, resets its position and its 200W solar module angle to optimize power generation. Even with the low winter sun angles here at the Q, the tracker get's our 300A-Hr Battle Borns back to 100%SOC by noon-ish to 1pm. We're still putting it through its "shake-down" cruise during this trip. More later...

**Patriot** · January 25

9 minutes ago, MAX Burner said:

FYI: Quartzite "Proving Grounds" -- We opted-in on a Solar Tracker at the owner's rally last year which Coy and his business partner, Joe designed. It's been running straight through since arriving at the Q last Monday. The tracker uses onboard GPS, MPPT charge controller, and other programs to "track" the sun's progression throughout the day. It stows itself at sunset then "wakes" up after sunrise, resets its position and its 200W solar module angle to optimize power generation. Even with the low winter sun angles here at the Q, the tracker get's our 300A-Hr Battle Borns back to 100%SOC by noon-ish to 1pm. We're still putting it through its "shake-down" cruise during this trip. More later...

Looking forward to hearing about your shake down review Max! 🇺🇸🫡👍🏻

**Ollie-Haus** · January 25

51 minutes ago, MAX Burner said:

FYI: Quartzite "Proving Grounds" -- We opted-in on a Solar Tracker at the owner's rally last year which Coy and his business partner, Joe designed. It's been running straight through since arriving at the Q last Monday. The tracker uses onboard GPS, MPPT charge controller, and other programs to "track" the sun's progression throughout the day. It stows itself at sunset then "wakes" up after sunrise, resets its position and its 200W solar module angle to optimize power generation. Even with the low winter sun angles here at the Q, the tracker get's our 300A-Hr Battle Borns back to 100%SOC by noon-ish to 1pm. We're still putting it through its "shake-down" cruise during this trip. More later...

That’s awesome news! We also invested in the tracker at the rally and are anxiously awaiting the results of your shakedown. I’ve been periodically communicating with Coy since the rally and I couldn’t be more pleased with the attention to detail in there development process. I trust we are going to be more than satisfied with the final product. Thanks for the update! 🤩

**rich.dev** · January 25

@MAX Burner and @Ollie-Haus, very nice, sure this will draw a lot of attention, maybe start a new thread!

**dewdev** · January 25

@MAX Burner I reallly like your solar tracker and would like to purchase one. A few questions:

1. Who can I contact to purchase one?

2. Any idea the cost?

3. How does it connect to the Ollie electrical system?

**topgun2** · January 26

8 hours ago, dewdev said:

1. Who can I contact to purchase one?

Coy Gayle (a member of the Forum - "hardrock") is the person to contact.

Bill

Edited January 26 by topgun2
added detail

**John Dorrer** · January 26

23 hours ago, Ollie-Haus said:

That’s awesome news! We also invested in the tracker at the rally and are anxiously awaiting the results of your shakedown. I’ve been periodically communicating with Coy since the rally and I couldn’t be more pleased with the attention to detail in there development process. I trust we are going to be more than satisfied with the final product. Thanks for the update! 🤩

Looking forward to seeing yours😊

**Ollie-Haus** · January 26

23 hours ago, dewdev said:

@MAX Burner I reallly like your solar tracker and would like to purchase one. A few questions:

1. Who can I contact to purchase one?

2. Any idea the cost?

3. How does it connect to the Ollie electrical system?

This system is in it's final stages of development and looks to be a very compact game changer for boondockers. I would recommend getting hold of Coy Gayle asap and getting into the customer queue. I think these will be a hot item once they go into full production and the word gets out. Coy lives in the Huntsville area and always goes to the Oliver Rally. He'll likely be demonstrating the trackers there this April.

**Ollie-Haus** · January 26

51 minutes ago, John Dorrer said:

Looking forward to seeing yours😊

More than likely we will take possession of ours at the rally this spring. If so it'll be on full display then.

**dewdev** · January 26

@Ollie-Haus How will the unit be connected to the Ollie?

**Ollie-Haus** · January 26

42 minutes ago, dewdev said:

@Ollie-Haus How will the unit be connected to the Ollie?

As I understand it, the supplied cord will simply plug into the external solar jack on the Ollie. Kind of plug an play by design.

**MAX Burner** · January 27

@topgun2 - Good morning, Bill - could you administratively start a new thread for this topic, calling it, "Solar Tracker Module"?

@dewdev, @Ollie-Haus - sorry for the delayed reply. Been on the road and just saw the above inquiries.

The best way to obtain tracker information is to go to the company's website at: solartrackpro.com The tracker company name is, "Solar MaXX RV, LLC", FYI...

The "Tracker" is not in full production yet. Beta and field tests need to be completed on these first three units before production commences.

Regarding the question of connecting the Tracker to the OTT - the real answer is, "it depends". Not all owners have configured their trailer the same. For an unmodified factory trailer, the Tracker can either be connected directly to the battery bank with supplied alligator clips or plugged into an owner-installed SAE outlet while insuring correct polarity.

In our case, we installed an SAE outlet on the battery compartment hatch for our Renogy 400W suitcase solar module, where the negative lead goes to the Victron Smart Shunt and the positive lead to the battery terminal block. After insuring correct polarity, we simply plug the Tracker into the SAE plug on the hatch allowing us to record the Tracker's output into the 3 Battle Borns using the Victron app.

More news to come...

Edited Wednesday at 01:53 PM by MAX Burner

**topgun2** · January 27

4 hours ago, MAX Burner said:

Good morning, Bill - could you administratively start a new thread for this topic, calling it, "Solar Tracker Module"?

No problem - I'll work on that later today.

Bill

edit: Mission accomplished - new thread established. And, thanks to both Max Burner and rich.dev for getting us moving on getting this thread split from the original thread.

Edited January 27 by topgun2

**Geronimo John** · January 27

On 1/26/2025 at 5:15 AM, Ollie-Haus said:

More than likely we will take possession of ours at the rally this spring. If so it'll be on full display then.

Art (MaxBurner) likely will have his there as well. After 6 years, I finally will be able to attend the Alabama rally. Looking forward to it for sure.

Generally were I boondock there are extreme winds daily. Morning one direction, evenings the other. So wind stability is always top of my mind. My solution is to keep our 200 watt panel close to the trailer and sand bagged down. I'll turn it during the day 1 - 3 times to optimize solar collection. This could work nicely, but it likely would need a lot of weight to stay earth bound.

In the mean time I'm stoked to see this idea in action. Great post

GJ

**MAX Burner** · January 28

18 hours ago, Geronimo John said:

Generally were I boondock there are extreme winds daily.

Excellent point @Geronimo John !

I should have mentioned the rather high wind conditions in Q earlier. We had several days with back-to-back winds in excess of 25mph. Fortunately, Steve ( @ScubaRx ) brought his hand-held Kestrel 1000 anemometer and measured 27mph+ sustained with gusts over 30. The Tracker's control module has accelerometers on board and will stow the solar "sail" when winds are dangerously high to avoid an inadvertent launch. Not sure where they're set to stow but the Tracker kept the solar module deployed throughout these windy conditions.

One thing we noted is that the module accumulates quite a bit of dust (almost like talcum powder at Q) and needs to be wiped down a few times daily to maintain optimum output.

All in all an impressive unit.

@topgun2 -- thanks for your assist in splitting this thread!

More later....

**Geronimo John** · January 28

6 hours ago, MAX Burner said:

Steve ( @ScubaRx ) brought his hand-held Kestrel 1000 anemometer and measured 27mph+ sustained with gusts over 30. The Tracker's control module has accelerometers on board and will stow the solar "sail" when winds are dangerously high to avoid an inadvertent launch.

I use the same Kestrel every day we are flying HG and PG's. We also like to avoid "inadvertent launches".

Great idea being able to automatically Stow the sail ... errr panel in high winds. Will discuss this in Alabama.

Thanks for the follow-up post.

GJ

**Geronimo John** · January 29

On 1/25/2025 at 5:30 AM, Ollie-Haus said:

detail in there development process

From the pictures, it appears that the tracker pivots around this end as the sun transverses the sky. Is that correct?

GJ

**Ollie-Haus** · January 29

23 minutes ago, Geronimo John said:

From the pictures, it appears that the tracker pivots around this end as the sun transverses the sky. Is that correct?

GJ

Yes there is a pin or foot at this end which acts as a pivot. They demonstrated on a concrete slab at the rally, so it will work on various surfaces. The frame folds up quite compact, sort of like a folding camp chair. Coy told me yesterday the company that makes the solar panel is developing a light weight panel that folds in the middle that will weigh about 11 lbs. This should greatly improve the portability of the whole system. The panels are the same brand that Oliver installs on the new campers.

**MAX Burner** · Wednesday at 02:14 PM

The production model will likely have a folding light-weight (about 11lbs) solar module like @Ollie-Haus describes which will make packing/storage/hauling/set-up much better. There were discussions at Q that included having a digital power output register incorporated into the frame and greater traction tires. It's interesting that the weight of the Tracker assembly (frame = 15lbs; solar module 23lbs) is the same as our 200W Renogy suitcase. This idea of an 11lb folding 200W module is a great one.

An interesting feature discovered just yesterday after setting up the Tracker in front of Casablanca's "Man Cave" -- when the Tracker senses a 100% SOC, it stops tracking the sun. So, if you're out and about and within sight of the assembly, when you see that the Tracker has fallen "behind" the sun's path, you'll know've reached full SOC. Cool.

**topgun2** · Wednesday at 03:08 PM

52 minutes ago, MAX Burner said:

An interesting feature discovered just yesterday after setting up the Tracker in front of Casablanca's "Man Cave" -- when the Tracker senses a 100% SOC, it stops tracking the sun. So, if you're out and about and within sight of the assembly, when you see that the Tracker has fallen "behind" the sun's path, you'll know've reached full SOC. Cool.

Does that also mean that it is "5 o'clock somewhere"? 😎

Bill

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