Solar Freaks

The early firmware had a bug where the chip would reset in 8-9% sunlight or below.
This has now been resolved.

The unit has been tested by Ian Gardner to operate perfectly from 2% sunlight and above.
The performance of the unit was measured using a special set of power meters, and the data was recorded and plotted in excel.
A big thank you to Ian Gardner for taking the time to test the unit.

The attached file shows the performance of the Automax MPPT compared to the Box Hill MPPT and the Box Hill Maximiser.
As can be seen, they are very similar performance wise.

The Graphs show the P/V curves at the output of the various units.

EDIT: I should note that the vertical axis is Power, and the horizontal axis is Output Voltage.
I forgot to add this in the excel data. Will fix it soon.

I just had a quick look at the data, it seems that the Automax is consistent and working very well above 4% sunlight.

Just curious about the 51.4% results though, there seems to be a sudden and short drop off initially?

The tests were run on a dynamo using a Faulhaber 2232 motor.

That negative dip at 51% light is showing negative power, which is impossible. Its likely to have occurred due to the loading/unloading on the dynamo, which can also be seen in the curve for 136% sunlight.

TonyB wrote:The tests were run on a dynamo using a Faulhaber 2232 motor.

That negative dip at 51% light is showing negative power, which is impossible. Its likely to have occurred due to the loading/unloading on the dynamo, which can also be seen in the curve for 136% sunlight.

Ahh right,

What panels did Ian use during the testing - Solarex, Engelec, Scorpio?

Engelec for all the tests except the 13.6Watt test where he used 2 x Scorpio No6 Panels.

TonyB wrote:Engelec for all the tests except the 13.6Watt test where he used 2 x Scorpio No2 Panels.

Are you sure? I thought the Solarex Sx 10 panel was used in all tests but the 13.6W one.

miseli wrote:Are you sure? I thought the Solarex Sx 10 panel was used in all tests but the 13.6W one.

Yes im not sure . Your correct. He used the Solarex SX10 panel for all the tests except the 13.6W.

Makes no difference though, we are looking at power levels not panels.
A 6 watt panel at 100% sun is similar to a 12W panel at 50% sunlight.

TonyB wrote:Makes no difference though, we are looking at power levels not panels.
A 6 watt panel at 100% sun is similar to a 12W panel at 50% sunlight.

Yeah, no real difference. Just thought I'd point it out.