Solar Energy System Research - (pt.1)
Background Info
An independent study is an elective course that my university (Rose-Hulman) offers where students can receive academic credit for studying a subject of interest.
I enrolled in an independent study to learn about the implementation and design of solar energy systems by designing my own.
Project Objective
The projects objective was to design a "smart" solar panel combiner box, a device that combines the output cables of many solar panels into a single output cable.
The "smart" prefix refers to the goal of getting some form of data logging/display going for the whole thing. With the intent of being able to track/log the performance/energy generated from the panels over time.
I was not able to ever get data logging implemented, but I the system was somewhat functional by the end
Skills Gained
This project was my first venture into product design.
A specific challenge of system design I encountered was making sure that all the sub-components of the system integrated together well.
One example of a sub-component integration challenge was trying to use single microcontroller to measure a ton of analog signals (up to 32 channels). I was using an Arduino uno, which natively only can measure up to 6 channels.
To overcome this challenge, I ended up designing an analog multiplexor interface circuit, that could consolidate 32 analog channels down to 4
PCB Design
Serial Communication Interface
Surface Mount Components
Testing & Validation
Lessons Learned
1) When doing something completely new, do not plan your schedule, assuming everything is going to go exactly as planned.
2) Schedule time for testing and iteration to design
3) Don't be afraid to try something new and just get started. You will figure out the way as you go.
Summary Document
Click the PDF link to the right to download the summary document for this project.