DUTC Solar Tracker

DUTC Solar Tracker

Points your solar panels at the sun and keeps them there. Works with one rotor, two-axis trackers and big arrays, all from one programmable block.

You tag your rotors and the script works out the rest. It finds the sun, follows it as it moves, and lights up your LCDs with how well every tracker is doing.

☀️ What it does

• Turns rotors and hinges until your panels get the most power they can
• Fast when the panels are far off, slow and precise near the sun
• Locks the rotors once aligned, then checks every 60 seconds (or sooner if output drops) and follows the sun
• Panels facing away? It sweeps around to find the sun on its own
• At night it stops and only checks back every few minutes, instead of spinning all night
• Run as many arrays as you like from one programmable block: one each side of your base, a whole solar farm, anything

🔧 Works with any of these builds

• 1-axis: rotor → solar panels
• 2-axis: rotor (turns) → rotor or hinge (tilts) → solar panels
• Big array: rotor (turns) → a rotor or hinge on each side, each tilting its own wing of panels
• Wing held at both ends? Tag both rotors/hinges. One drives, the other is set to turn freely so they don't fight.
• Pistons, folding hinges or other untagged rotors in between are fine, panels further up are still found

Every tagged base rotor is its own array, numbered on the screen in name order (name them A, B, C... to pick the order).

🛠️ Setup (30 seconds)

• Put [noparse][SOLAR][/noparse] in the name of every rotor and hinge that moves panels, e.g. Rotor [noparse][SOLAR][/noparse]
• Paste the script into a Programmable Block → Check Code → OK. It runs by itself.
• Optional: put [noparse][SOLAR][/noparse] in an LCD's name for the status screen

No need to tag the solar panels, they're found automatically.

🖥️ Status screen

[noparse][SOLAR][/noparse] on any LCD shows total efficiency with a big gauge, total output, and one row per tracker with its state (locked, aligning, searching, dark) and its own % bar. Long lists scroll page by page. The PB's own screen shows it too. Cockpits: [noparse][SOLAR:1][/noparse] = second screen, and so on.

🎛️ Extras

• Toolbar arguments: align = realign now, off = stop and lock, on = resume, rescan = reload blocks. Add a number for one array only, e.g. off 2
• Add [noparse][ignore][/noparse] to a solar panel's name to leave it out
• Only controls blocks on its own grid (rotor/hinge subgrids included), so docked ships keep their own trackers
• Speeds, check timer, night wait and rotor locking are all settings at the top of the script

Requirements

Programmable Block, at least one rotor or hinge with solar panels on it. In-game scripts must be enabled in world settings (Experimental mode).

Changelog

v1.2 — New screen look shared by all DUTC scripts: header with hazard stripes, striped rows and a page scrollbar. New icon and gallery images. v1.1 — Any number of arrays on one PB, each numbered on the screen. Per-array commands (off 2, align 1). Arms and panels found through pistons and untagged hinges in between. v1.0 — Initial release.