Designing and Prototyping a Microcontroller Device for Measuring the Main Parameters of Solar Panels

This article presents the results of prototyping and designing a device for measuring the basic characteristics of solar panels (photocurrent and voltage) and climatic conditions (temperature and illumination). This device is being developed to identify potential faults in the solar panel-microinverter system, as well as the causes of reduced efficiency in converting light energy into electrical energy. As a result of prototyping, a prototype of the measuring device was assembled using an Arduino Mega 2560 R3 with a W5100 Ethernet module. Cur rent is measured by an ACS712 sensor. Voltage is measured via a voltage divider connected to the microcon troller's analog-to-digital converter input. OPT4003 light and DS18B20 temperature sensors are used. The IoT device is assembled using a RAK3172 sensor module and INA228, OPT4003, and DS18B20 microcir cuits. A power module based on two IRFP460 field-effect transistors was developed to measure the solar panel's current-voltage characteristics. Software has been written for the developed prototype and the IoT de vice.