Solar Charge Controller with a Data Acquisition System
Based on Arduino
Byou Abdelilah, Abarkan Mouna, Nk M’Sirdi, Abarkan Hossain
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Byou Abdelilah, Abarkan Mouna, Nk M’Sirdi, Abarkan Hossain. Solar Charge Controller with a
Data Acquisition System Based on Arduino. International Conference on Electronic Engineering and
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Solar Charge Controller with a Data Acquisition System
Based on Arduino
Byou Abdelilaha, Abarkan Mounaa,b, Nacer Kouider M’Sirdib, Abarkan El Hossaina
a Laboratoire Signaux, Système et composants(LSSC). FST. Fès. Maroc.
b Laboratory of Informatics and Systems (LSIS). AMU, France
byou_2009@yahoo.fr, mabarkan_28@yahoo.fr
Abstract. This paper presents the design of a solar charge controller with the
Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT). The proposed design uses a microcon-
troller (Arduino Nano) which is able to acquire the current and voltage measure-
ments, of the panels and the battery and to apply a certain algorithm which allows
to deduce the PWM cycle that will power the converter DC-DC (buck converter)
to control the charge and discharge of the battery. The system incorporates a WiFi
module for data acquisition and can be used to study the state of the battery and
help for maintenance. The results obtained from the implemented on hardware
demonstrate the change of the duty cycle with the change in load and thus mean
the variation of the buck converter output voltage and current controlled by the
algorithm of charge.
Keywords:Solar energy, MPPT, Charge controller, DC-DC converter, Battery,
Microcontroller.
1 Introduction
Global demand for energy is rapidly evolving and natural energy resources such as
uranium, petroleum and gas decreased due to a great diffusion and development of the
industry in recent years. The increase in energy costs and environmental constraints are
pushing for the development of technological solutions allowing better control of the
resources and the exploitation of the renewable energies in specific photovoltaic en-
ergy. Photovoltaic energy is a clean and renewable energy resource. Moreover, solar
panels are a silent energy producer because there is absolutely no noise when convert-
ing sunlight into electricity, [1].
In order to exploit solar energy to power the DC loads and to store electricity, a solar
charge controller is needed to monitor the State of charge of the batteries and protect
them from overcharging and full discharge (deep discharge). This monitoring and this
permanent protection helps to extend significantly the performance and life of the bat-
teries. This controller is used in many areas such as systems not connected to the electric
network, ensure the autonomy of an embedded system, monitor solar installations...
2
This paper includes a MPPT circuit in order to extract the maximum power from the
solar panel using the algorithm P&O (perturbation & Observation) and the DC /DC
Converter.
2 PROPOSED SYSTEM
The block diagram shown in the figure 1 represents the complete system. It contains a
solar panel, DC-DC buck converter, Arduino Nano, battery, and Loads. The solar panel
is used to generate the current and voltage from which the voltage will be converted by
a DC-DC converter. After calculating the power from the data transmitted by the cur-
rent and voltage sensors, we used perturb and observe algorithm to calculate the maxi-
mum power point.
Fig. 1.Block diagram of the whole system.
2.1 DC-DC Buck Converter
The buck converter it used to convert the higher DC input voltage from PV Panel to
lower or equal DC output voltage suitable for charging the battery and supplying the
DC loads. The DC-DC buck converter circuit is shown in Figure 2.
3
Fig. 2.DC-DC Buck converter
After designing the buck converter, we need to find the values of the inductor and the
capacitor. It is most critical part in designing as the efficiency of the converter depends
on these values. For a solar panel of 50W and a 12V battery, the value of the inductance
L = 33uH and the capacitance valueC2 = 220uF, [2].
2.2 MPPT Algorithm
Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) algorithms are needed to maximize the power
output at any moment. Many MPPT techniques have been proposed in the literature. In
this controller we chose worked with the method perturb and observe due to its easy
implementation. Note that the point of maximum power P (n) =V (n) I (n) is obtained
𝑑𝑃
when the condition = 0 is accomplished, regardless of the sun irradiance, [3]. In this
𝑑𝑉
work polycrystalline Silicon panel is used. Electrical characteristics of the PV Panel
(Values at STC (AM1.5, 1000W/m², 25°C)).
■ Maximum Power (Pmax): 60W
■ Open-circuit voltage (Voc): 26.4V
■ Short-circuit Current (Isc): 3.00A
■ Maximum Power voltage (Vmp):22.0V
■ Maximum Power current (Imp):2.73A
■ Tolerance (Tol): +3/-3%
The figure 4 show the Flowchart of the Perturb and Observe method.
4
Fig. 3.The flowchart of the P&O method
3 EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
A prototype was built using various electronic components, this prototype was tested
block by block before the realisation of the global circuit. The DC-DC converter is the
most critical part, the experimental results are presented in the figures5 and 6. The LCD
screen was used to display the results obtained. The observations ahead show the results
of the hardware implementation.
5
Fig. 4.Hardware Prototype
3.1 Buck Converter
In order to verify the design efficiency of the solar charge controller system, an exper-
imental DC-DC Buck converter was built. The PV array was replaced by a battery of
12V. The PWM signal was generated with Arduino Nano board.
For Vin an input voltage and to obtain an output voltage Vout, the duty cycle is:
𝑉𝑜𝑢𝑡
𝛼= 𝑉𝑖𝑛
Figures5 and 6illustratesthe PWM signal and the output voltage of the DC-DC con-
verter for the different Duty cycle.
Fig. 5.Output voltage of the DC-DC converter and the PWM signal with duty cycle equal to 0.5
6
Fig. 6.Output voltage of the DC-DC converter and the PWM signal with duty cycle equal to 0.5
3.2 Charge Controller
Figure 7 illustrates the proposed control strategy for the battery charger. It has four
states on, off, bulk and float, the four states talk of the process in which either a battery
or a charge or both come into action.
Fig. 7. Flowchart the proposed control strategy for the battery charger
7
ON State - the solar watts input is between the low and minimum solar power but not
low enough to go into the off state. In this state the Load turns OFF and the Battery
charging turns ON.
OFF State - The charger controller goes into this state when there is no more power
being generated by the solar panels. In this state the Battery charging turns OFF and the
Load turns ON if the battery voltage is higher than the minimum value.
BULK State – The Solar energy is greater than the minimum value. This is where we
do the bulk of the battery charging and when we execute the Peak Power Tracking
algorithm. In this state, we try to run the maximum current that the solar panels generate
in the battery. The Load turns ON and the Battery charging go into the Bulk state.
FLOAT State – the battery voltage gets to the maximum Value. In this state we try and
keep the battery voltage at maximum by adjusting the PWM value. The Load is turned
ON and the Battery charging go into the Float state.
Figure 9 and 8 shows the experimental results of the charge controller in Matlab.
Fig. 8.Battery Current and PWM signal curves
Fig. 9. Battery Voltage and Solar Power curves
Data acquisition system helps to collect data about solar PV system and battery for
many purposes. Figure 10 illustrates variation of PV power and battery voltage with
time.
8
Fig. 10. Solar Power and Battery voltage curves with time.
4 Conclusion
The realisation of this solar charge controller using Arduino was done at low cost but
effective for small DC loads, and we can use this controller to implement other algo-
rithms or to make comparisons. In this paper we have presented the experimental results
using the Matlab environment (panel power, current and voltage of the battery, state of
charge controller, PWM signal ... ..).
References
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