(Comments from Blogger)
2016-10-17 by Aaron
For having the panels only go out so far, if it’s slightly forward leaning (it’ll keep swinging out) just a simple rope & tie-off could work, although if you have wind coming from the other direction it won’t really work so well.
Otherwise, what about a door hold-open arm, something like http://us.allegion.com/products/dr_cntrl/mountedsurface/4000_lcn/lcn4010/pages/default.aspx?
Or if you want to truly geek diy it, get a solenoid or motor and work up a push system which automatically deploys and moves from one position to another. If you really want to go wild, add a microcontroller and do some voltage measurement and have it automatically deploy and move ever 15-30 minutes to maximize power delivery!
2016-10-19 by Ned Funnell
Thanks for the explanation of MPPT, I wondered how it worked. Neat setup.
2016-10-21 by Russell Graves
That’s entirely overkill - I can just manually deploy it… This is the secondary set, I’ve got the 8 main panels sitting in the sun too.
2016-10-25 by Aaron
Who cares about manual overkill, it’s yet another Project! Of course you don’t have any other ones to occupy your time, right? 
2016-11-30 by HyperMiler
Russell:
Love your Blog. With all the space that you got out there, your next project you should consider building everything a bit larger. In my experience, the effort of doing the wall, the door or the hinge is equal no matter what the size of the product. However, down the road, the size of your building project makes all the difference.
2016-11-30 by Russell Graves
Thanks!
It would be nice if this were a bit larger, but I’ve managed to make it work with efficient use of space - and it’s really just me in here, almost all the time.
If I do have people visiting, with three people in here, there’s not much space to work. But this is a solo solar shed, for 99.9% of the time I’m in here.
Another upside is that the heating/cooling requirements are fairly minimal.
