Arduino based MPPT solar charge controller
If you are going to harvest solar energy with photovoltaic elements you need a proper charge controller that would take power from panels and convert it to suitable voltage that can be further used for charging or simply powering devices of your choice. The main problems with charge controllers are associated with efficiency. We need that controller power losses were minimal as possible, another point is to take as much power from solar panels as possible. In order to take the most of panel, controller should keep track of maximum power point in element’s I-V curve. This is how modern converters work. This is already third version of solar controller built by deba168. It uses Arduino Nano which controls series of thing including reading voltage and current flowing from solar panel, driving buck converter so that maximum power could be drawn. Then senses voltage on a battery which is being charged. Optionally it controls load MOSFET which drives loads from battery. Arduino is equipped with LCD and WiFi adapter for user interactions. Using MPPT method solar harvesting efficiency can be… Continue reading
