For the 2nd phase of prototyping I considered the technical complexities involved, the information I received from my interviews, and overall size and design of the solar tracker. When putting all of the pieces together I came to the conclusion that the SunUp portable solar tracker may not be the best idea to move forward with. Although the technical aspects are very interesting to me, the resulting product is for a very small niche market and would add little benefit to the person carrying it around. However, it would be interesting to use direct feedback from a PV panel to utilize PID controls for tracking the movements of the sun.
In summary, I feel the best thing to do at this point, especially given this is for a senior project, is to make the command decision to scrap this idea and move forward with a new design that features a stronger concept and purpose which can reach a much wider audience.
