I've been playing with different park options for the SunTuras and seems the RF remote windynation caries for the actuators will work nicely. There are several control options one could configure these for. I'll concentrate on North & South operation here. I'll use the north to park for high wind and the south for tilting for the heavy snow falls in my location. The remote will override the suntura light sensor as it will be wired into the N/S buttons on the sunturas controller. A few things your going to need for this project 1: a Suntura kit (single or dual axis) 2: a Windynation remote 3: a soldering gun (fine tip) 4: two mini 12 volt relays (I'll be using the 5 pin relays here) 5: liquid flux (preferably) and solder both designed for electrical not plumbing. 6: Some small gauge wire (black and red) 6 inches of each will be enough 7: 12 volt power supply or battery for testing 8: a voltmeter will be handy but not required if directions are followed closely 9: a Philips screwdriver and wire cutters 10: glue 11: 1/4 inch drill bit and drill ( larger if you wish to use a Waterproof Connector Gland simular to what is already at the bottom of the case). Over the summer (during rainy days) I'll continue this. I have a spare suntura controller for experimenting with so I don't have to disassemble my operational tracker. However with all the materials at hand the project shouldn't take more then a few hours.
First we need to attach two relays together (I used hot melt) so the ends with three pins are next to each other. Next bend over pins shown and solder: this is to cut down on wiring. while working on the relays cut the pins 4 & 5 shown so they aren't confused when wiring. Connecting these could blow the fuse or worse. There are two place which these will fit nicely without obstucting any thing on the suntura board. Beside the spare fuse or beside the incoming wires on the oposite side of the case. I'll be using the spot beside the wires. with the pins cut and soldered as shown place the relays into position adding a small dab of glue. Not to much as you don't wish to make it to difficult to remove it needed.
Next, Drill a small about 1 inch from the end & 1/2 inch down into the bottom of the controller to slide wire from RF remote module through. The common pins you solder together will be the negative wire The two wires from the remote will be our positives depending on which button is pressed Solder red (up)wire to pin 1 & black (down)wire to pin 2 Next run a negative wire from our common pins we solder together to the black(negative) wire plugged into the suntura wire terminal. Alternatively you can connect to the board in any negative terminal. pins 3 & 6 will get wired to our north and south button positive pins on the suntura board ( picture to follow)
Here is the relay for the RF unit all wired in: I used the negative wire from the North button since I already had it in place for the Wi-Fi mod. It is possible to disassemble the RF case and fit the RF board directly into the Suntura case. However if you go that route take notice of the wire colors at the board you'll want to use a multi meter for sure!
I decided to put in a Kill switch which will totally lock the arrays positioning. I had a few small rocker type snap in switches laying around which just push into a hole. No soldering is required for this just a couple of simple grommets. I just moved the red wire from the terminal on the sun tura and placed it on one terminal of the switch then ran a new wire from the switch back to where the red wire was. If you just wished to lock the E/W or N/S actuator movements you could do that instead using one of the wires for the actuator you wished to lock.
I have yet to use the RF control for the array this is attached to as I want it to be a parking control and currently I don't have a N/S actuator mounted to this. This array requires a much heavier duty actuator then WindyNation currently offers and these are expensive. I may rewire this to a E/W controller however the need to park or move E/W is not usually required. And with the suntra handling E/W tracking very well I suspect I'll only rewire if the LED sensors fail. However the Kill switch works nicely for a safety stop of the array while I do work on it (greasing pivot points)
