Wanda Solar Capture Helper v3.6.25

Solar yaw & gimbal planner for fixed-row layouts

This tool suggests a yaw (heading) and gimbal pitch for solar-farm inspection flights over a short time window (e.g., 30 minutes). It works entirely offline from this HTML file. The optional map preview requires internet.

Inputs

Site: (not set) — click to edit

Site name

Latitude (°) Longitude (°)

Date (local) Time (local)

Use current time (auto-refresh every minute)

Duration (minutes) Panel Angle Override (° from straight up)
(optional; otherwise derived from sun azimuth model)

Tracker Max Tilt (° from straight up) (± limit for single-axis rotation, default 60°)

Row geometry (optional) — click to expand

Row geometry (optional)

Enter all fields below to enable shadow / glare / neighbor reflection callouts. No defaults are assumed.

Row axis azimuth (°)

Drag the compass row to set azimuth. Rows are bidirectional (0° ≡ 180°).

Row pitch (feet)

Panel top height (feet) Ground slope

Gimbal Max Pitch (°) (most downward, default -90°) Gimbal Min Pitch (°) (least downward, default -75°)

Ideal Panel↔Gimbal Deviation Threshold (°) (used for scoring/heatmap only — gimbal tracks panel immediately; default 25°)

Minimum Irradiance (W/m²) (fly/no-fly threshold; used for dotted line)

Tip: You can pre-fill values via the URL query, for example:
?site=Uvalde%20Solar%20West&lat=28.937556&lon=-99.108361&date=2025-12-11&duration=30&maxTilt=60&useNow=1

Recommended Orientation

Irradiance

Uses Open-Meteo solar radiation variables to estimate a sun-facing tracker plane-of-array irradiance (W/m²).

— W/m²

—

During flight window

Full day

Dotted line = minimum irradiance threshold.

Location Map

Map tiles load from the internet (Google Maps / OpenStreetMap).

Week Capture Windows

Approximate local time ranges over the next 7 days where a flight of the chosen duration can stay within the 25° camera–panel spec using these rules.

Details

Show technical details

How It Works (Summary)

Uses latitude, longitude, date, time to compute the sun’s azimuth and elevation at the midpoint of the flight window.
Computes solar noon for the selected date/location and displays it alongside your chosen flight window.
Yaw is first computed as sunAzimuth − 90° and then snapped to the nearest allowed heading (90° or 180°) to match fixed-row layouts.
Panel angle (default) uses a simple azimuth-based single-axis model:
- Compute sun azimuth offset from due south: Δaz = sunAzimuth − 180°, normalized to −180°…+180°.
- Tracker rotation follows this offset but is clamped to ±maxTilt.
- Panel angle from straight up is |trackerRotation|.
You can override this with an explicit panel angle if you have SCADA data.
Gimbal rule:
- Target panel↔gimbal deviation is 0° (gimbal follows panel immediately).
- Gimbal is limited by gimbalMax / gimbalMin; once capped, deviation grows naturally.
- Ideal deviation threshold is used for scoring/heatmaps only (not a deadband).
For each flight, the tool checks whether the camera–panel difference stays within 25° for the entire duration and warns you if it does not.
The week chart searches each day for the widest mid-day window where a flight of the chosen duration can stay in spec under the same rules.