Product Manual

• Switch off:
Turns the light off at sunrise
• Switch on before sunrise:
This option switches the light on at a configurable time interval before sunrise, and then switches the light off at sunrise.
In case the dimming feature is enabled
1
an interval of more intense light can be configured during early morning rush hour.
Together with the Sunset action, you can now configure three dim levels: one for the sunset rush hours, one during the low
traffic hours, and the third for the early morning rush hours.
Midnight
The charger has no real time clock, and therefore does not know when it is 12 o'clock at night. All references to midnight refer to
what we call solar midnight, this is the mid-point between sunset and sunrise.
Midnight and Sunrise synchronisation
The solar charger needs to have its internal clock synchronised with the solar cycle so it can set the solar midnight and sunrise
anchor points in the timer program.
After the streetlight settings have been programmed and the solar charger is powered up, the solar charger will start
unsynchronised. It will first assume that midnight is 6 hours after sunset, and that the full night last for 12 hours.
Once in operation, the solar charger will check the time between each detected sunrise. After three full day/night cycles, where
the detected time is approximately 24 hours (one hour of deviation is allowed), it will start using its internal clock, instead of the
fixed 6 and 12 hour timing.
A loss of power (no battery power together with no PV power) will cause the solar charger to loose its
synchronisation. It will take 5 days before it is re-synchronised. Note that the streetlight configuration settings
and all other settings will never be lost, they are stored in a non-volatile memory.
Sunset and sunrise detection
The sunset and sunrise detection voltage settings can be used to adjust the detection to match the panel configuration. The
sunrise detection voltage must be 0.5V higher than the sunset detection level. The lowest detectable voltage is 11.4V. Set this
option to 0 to use the built-in defaults, which are:
• Sunset = Vpanel < 11.4V
• Sunrise = Vpanel > 11.9V
The default setting is 0, which uses built-in default voltages.
Use the "Delay" periods to avoid the system making an accidental switch when clouds pass over the panels. The valid range is
between 0 and 60 minutes. The "Delays" are disabled by default (0).
Gradual dimming speed
The gradual dimming option can be used to slow down the response of the timer program. This is useful when multiple
streetlights are used in a row. This helps to mask the fact that each timer uses its own detection and will have a transition moment
which will vary from unit to unit.
The dimming settings can be adjusted. You can input the number of seconds required to achieve each percentage-point of
change (x seconds/per 1% of dimming). A number from 0 to 100 can be entered. Two examples:
• 0 = immediate response (gradual dimming disabled):
A setting of 0 will achieve an immediate response, this effective means that the gradual dimming option is disabled.
• 9 = dim from 0 to 100% in 15 minutes:
Setting the dimming speed to 9, for example, slows down the dimming speed to 15 minutes (9 seconds for each percentage
point of dimming x 100 percentage points = 900 seconds = 15 minutes.
Make sure that the TX port function is set to "Light dimming" mode (as described in point
1
at the beginning of
this chapter) and connect a VE.Direct TX digital output cable to the PWM dim input of your LED driver.
Mid-point shift
The time of midnight is estimated based on solar activity, and depends on your geographical location. Daylight saving times can
cause a further deviation between the "solar" and the "clock" midnight. The Mid-point shift function will compensate for these
differences. Use 0 to disable the shift (default).
The Mid-point shift setting is only relevant when your streetlight setting program uses "Midnight" as a
switching moment.
Calculation Example:
For calculation we use a day of 1440 minutes, where Sunset is at 19:00 (1140 minutes) and Sunrise is at 6:25 (385 minutes):
MPPT solar charger manual
Page 26 Configuration and settings