Specifications

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but will also generate heat. We will need to find a way to remove heat from the system
such that it does not heat the solar panel too much. As discussed earlier, the more heat
that is added to the system the less effective the solar panels are and we do not want to
lose energy through the addition of heat. We will need to find a way to balance the heat
as well as energy creation because we don‟t want to create to much loss. This will
defeat the purpose of adding the mirrors to the system.
In our design we will be implementing many sensors to measure the current produced
as well as the amount of voltage that will be send to the battery. In the solar panels we
will be using a current sensor to measure the amount of current that is being sent to the
battery. This information will be converted into a voltage which will be sent to the
MSP430 so that it can read the data that is coming out of the sensor. This will then feed
to the display so that the user can be informed of the amount of energy that is being
produced by the system.
Figure 49 - Current Sensor with DC lines going to battery as well as data lines going to MSP430
Permission Pending
In the figure above you can see that we will be connecting the solar panels through the
current sensor. This will then go to the blocking diode which blocks energy from feeding
back into the panels. It will then be stored in the battery and used by the user. The data
lines coming out of the sensor measure 1.6-4.6 volts. This is what the MSP430 will use
to calculate the information that will be sent to the user. The current is mapped to a
voltage in this range. As you can see in the figure above there is a fuse, which protects
the system. We will determine the max range of the sensor and then use that to
calculate the fuse value such that we don't damage the components of our system.