AMSAT MPPT
https://www.electronics-lab.com/amsat-mppt/
by Bryce Salmi @ faradayrf.com: The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation, AMSAT, recently designated RadFxSat as AO-91 after its successful deployment from a Delta II rocket as a secondary payload to NASA’s JPSS-1. RadFxSat is the first of several AMSAT satellites which are flying a Maximum Power Point Tracker (MPPT) designed and built by Brent and […]
Grid-connected solar microinverter reference design
https://www.electronics-lab.com/grid-connected-solar-microinverter-reference-design/
A PDF from Microchip on the theory behind inverter design connected to grip power.: There are two main requirements for solar inverter systems: harvest available energy from the PV panel and inject a sinusoidal current into the grid in phase with the grid voltage. In order to harvest the energy out of the PV panel, […]
MPPT solar charger
https://www.electronics-lab.com/mppt-solar-charger-2/
Lukas Fässler from Soldernerd has been working on revised version of his MPPT Solar charger project: Over the last few weeks I have been quite busy with my MPPT Solar Charger project. I’ve built up a first board and started writing firmware for it. Since the last version was not too different in terms of […]
LiFePO4wered/Solar1 – Solar power supply for IoT devices
https://www.electronics-lab.com/lifepo4weredsolar1-solar-power-supply-iot-devices/
Patrick Van Oosterwijck @ hackaday.io writes: Solar power is not trivial, especially if it needs to be reliable and have a long lifetime for outdoor deployment such as IoT sensor nodes. This project is an effort to create a complete, easy to use solar power system that provides the following features: – LiFePO4 battery for […]
Circuit implements photovoltaic-module simulator
https://www.electronics-lab.com/circuit-implements-photovoltaic-module-simulator/
José M Blanes and Ausiàs Garrigós writes: Electronics engineers often use photovoltaic-module simulators to test dc/dc-power converters, inverters, or MPPT (maximum-power-point-tracking)-control techniques. The use of these simulators lets you work in the laboratory with predefined photovoltaic conditions, thus avoiding the drawbacks of real photovoltaic modules. Various commercial simulators are available, but they are often expensive. […]
MPPT solar charger
https://www.electronics-lab.com/mppt-solar-charger/
Lukas Fässler show us his progress on the MPPT solar charger: One of my main goals with this design is to achieve very low standby current, somewhere in the tens of microamps. The basis for this is a low-power buck on the basis of a Texas TPS62120 where the microcontroller can switch the output voltage […]
MPPT Solar Charger Design based on PIC18F26J50
https://www.electronics-lab.com/mppt-solar-charger-design-based-pic18f26j50/
Lukas Fässler shares his Maximum Point Tracker Solar Charger Design based on PIC18F26J50: At the core of the design is a PIC18F26J50 in a 28 pin SOIC package. It’s capable of running at down to 2.15 volts and consumes extremely little power when running at lower clock speeds. And apart from that it features USB […]
PV cell string optimizer boosts solar panel output up to 30%
https://www.electronics-lab.com/pv-cell-string-optimizer-boosts-solar-panel-output-30/
Maxim presents its Cell-String Optimizer as the first IC to perform MPPT (maximum power point tracking) at low level in a panel; it allows photovoltaic (PV) panels to harvest significantly more energy and simplifies design complexity for solar installation projects. by Graham Prophet @ edn-europe.com Maxim’s cell-string optimizers are highly integrated DC-DC converters that replace […]
Photovoltaic simulator system adds automated MPPT Efficiency Test
https://www.electronics-lab.com/photovoltaic-simulator-system-adds-automated-mppt-efficiency-test/
An added test facility enables test of a 1,500V photovoltaic (solar energy) inverter’s static and dynamic maximum peak power tracking (MPPT) according to European Standard EN50530, with a single command, creating downloadable photovoltaic I-V curves, plus static and dynamic EN50530 test reports. by Graham Prophet @ www.edn-europe.com Photovoltaic simulator system adds automated MPPT Efficiency Test […]
Build a $1 per Watt parallelizable MPPT controller
https://www.electronics-lab.com/1w-true-mppt/
Jonathan Bruneau designed a $1/W maximum power point tracker used to extract maximum power from solar panels and published his project on hackaday.io: Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) is a technique whereupon special electronics attempts to extract the optimal amount of energy from a solar panel. This optimal point fluctuates in function of a variety […]