Using the App
Setting Your Panel to the Degree
Panel Mode is the precision tool. Lay the phone on the panel and it shows you exactly how to reposition your setup:
- which way to turn it
- how many degrees to lift or drop it
So you're set bang on instead of about right. Precision every time.
What a guess actually costs
On a clear winter day at around 35° latitude, a guessed setup — angled, but not quite facing towards the equator and usually set too flat — returns about 67% of what the same panel gives set properly. That's a third of the day's charge, lost to an angle nobody checked. In summer, with the sun high, a guess costs far less — winter is when it bites. The setup guide has the rest of the ladder.
The catch is that a guessed setup doesn't look like one. A panel tilted to 40° on ground that falls away 5° actually sits at 35° or 45°, depending which way the slope runs. You got the angle you set — just not on the ground you assumed, and you can't pick 40° from 50° by eye very easily.
How to use Panel Mode
Open AR Solar Alignment from the menu and choose Panel Mode. The app puts it in one line — “Lay your phone flat on the panel. Sensors read tilt and direction directly — no camera needed.” — and in practice that's three steps:
- Sit the phone on top of the panel, screen up, resting against the face of it.
- Line the top edge of the phone up with the top edge of the panel. That's what makes the direction it reports the panel's, rather than the phone's.
- Move the panel until the circles line up.
The tilt sensor works off gravity — it knows which way is down. Sitting on the panel like that, it reads the panel's true angle from level, which is your stand and the ground under it in one number. The compass handles the direction. No camera, no scanning, no waiting for it to find a surface, and no LiDAR.
Reading the screen
Line the two circles up and your panel is set. Colour does the work before you read a number: red is off (Gone Walkabout), amber is close (Close Enough), green is there (Spot On). Green arrives at 5°, amber holds out to 15°, and inside 2° is as good as it reads.
- Direction gets its own line, with an arrow and the degrees to turn, then turns green with DIRECTION ✓ when you have it. That split is there for panels with a fixed tilt: they can't change tilt, but they can still turn, and the half they control is worth getting exactly right.
- Tilt shows your current angle beside the target, with an arrow and the degrees to move.
- Aim Score is a percentage that climbs as you line up — but it's alignment and the sun actually available, not alignment alone.
That last one won't flatter you. Nail the alignment under heavy cloud and it still reads low, because that low number is the day's real ceiling rather than a fault in your setup. It's a guidance figure, not a watt meter — it isn't reading your panel's output.
Move the panel until the circles sit on top of each other and go green. That's it — you're set.
If the badge reads Calibrate ∞, the compass isn't sure of itself. Move away from metal — the vehicle, a steel frame — and wave the phone in a figure-8 until it clears.
Set it for the hours you'll be there
Panel Mode carries the same time toggles as the rest of the app, so the target isn't stuck on this minute. Up to five choices: Now, +3h, +6h, Planned — the hours you set yourself, which shows once Planned Charge is on in the menu — and BCW, the Best Charging Window the app works out for today, which shows once a forecast has loaded. Pick one and the circles move to that new target, so you're aligning to the hours you want to charge, not just for right now.
It only opens while the sun is up. To set up for the morning, come back at first light.
Set it with precision, then get on with enjoying the great outdoors. Getting the most out of your solar is only ever the means — the point is staying out there longer, with the comforts and gear you rely on still running.
Or set it by ear
Your phone is sitting on top of the panel, so as you tilt and turn the panel the screen goes with it — angled away from you, often straight into the glare, while both your hands are busy. Sound fixes that. The tones climb as you close in and change when you land it, so you can watch the panel instead of the phone.
Under Settings → Audio & Feedback, choose rising tones, or voice cues that tell you when you're close and when you've got it. There's a third option in there as well. We'll let you find that one.
Haptics live in the same place, and they are the ones you'll actually notice: a buzz as you land it, which still gets through with gloves on.
Where this helps
Overlay Mode is the quick visual check — camera up, overlay on the ground, close enough in seconds. Panel Mode is the precision one: it measures the setup you've actually got and tells you exactly how to reposition it.
- Aligns your panel for the timeframe you've chosen, and gravity adjusts for any ground slope to give the true tilt you need.
- Works the target out for your exact spot and today's date, not a seasonal table. Any latitude, either hemisphere.
- Runs with no signal, which is generally where you are — boondocking, a long overlanding leg, a camp well off the highway. All of it on the phone: nothing leaves it, no account, no tracking. One-off purchase.
Common questions
What does Panel Mode actually measure?
The plane your panel is sitting on — the tilt up from flat, and the direction it faces — read from the phone's tilt sensor and compass while it lies on the panel. That already includes the slope of the ground, which the tilt you set on the panel doesn't account for.
Do I need a recent phone, or LiDAR?
No. It uses the tilt sensor and compass and never opens the camera — lay the phone on the panel and it reads.
Why doesn't the tilt match the one on the compass?
The compass tilt is a live readout — it follows wherever you're pointing. Panel Mode shows the tilt for the timeframe you've chosen. Both cover Now, +3h, +6h and your planned window (or the BCW, which shares its place on the compass), and pointing the compass at one of those bearings turns it coloured and lands it on the same answer.
Can I use it without looking at the screen?
Yes, and it's the better way to work. With sound on in Settings — it's on to start with — the tones rise as you close in, so your hands stay on the panel. Plain tones or spoken cues, whichever suits the camp.
Does it work without phone signal?
Yes. Sun position is worked out on the device from where you are and the date, so it runs in flight mode, deep in a valley, or a week from the nearest tower.
Set it, don't guess it
Panel Mode is part of Solar Spotter Pro — a one-off purchase, no subscription, and your data stays on your phone.
