rin67630 / soft-power-mppt Goto Github PK

Here the link https://github.com/szbeni/solar

Hardware main parts:
STM32 MCU (bluepill STM32F103)
SZBK07 DCDC module (LM25116 DCDC driver chip and other electroics removed just power electronic parts used)
250W solar panel 36V nominal voltage
Split charge relay for charging from engine, when driving (separate from this circuit)
55Ah and 110Ah 12V leisure batteries in parallel
3x ACS712 current sensors
ADS1115 ADC for current measurement
FAN for cooling power electronics
Bluetooth UART module for communnication

Layout

• Generally pretty good, most important information is V Bat then V Pan in centre top third of screen

Terms

• PV might be a more accepted abbreviation than Pan
• Aux is good, other documentation (including schematics) needs to be consistent

Colour

• pastels are nice on the eyes, yellow would be more naturally associated with PV

Setpoint

• use V rather than mV (regardless of source code) to be consistent with general usage and allow user to focus on number before or fraction after decimal

Gauges

• This is a hard way to interpret data compared to common digital V/A/W meters which often use three colours (eg red/green/blue) to display values
• percentage rather than value can be useful but probably not both at same time

Chart

• simple line charts are a good way of communicating information but things like 3d shading, which appears to be shown on the points, make data harder to interpret

Documentation

• Why is the data shown? That explains how it is used.

It's mentioned in the help but no longer exists? has it all been combined into Thinger_SoftPowerStatistics.json? I don't see the dashboard graphs I can see in the pictures

Conceptually this is a very simple project but the presentation of many options is very complicated and confusing. This is unnecessary because most changes are component specifications requiring small circuit changes. It is suggested to explain common things simply before explaining the detail of the differences. Part of the problem is probably from designing the project in EasyEDA which does not support overlays like packages such as KiCad.

Figure: Overlay of all options demonstrating main changes are buck converter specifications and power sensors

The project converts solar panel power to battery power. Clearly identifying and describing the parts before the custom changes for different components would make it easier to understand. It would allow easy direct reference to components such as the Management Buck which powers the microcontroller. The Converter could be more simply described as usually a small buck and optionally a larger buck.

The schematic wiring would be clearer and more generic if the oled was placed next to the power sensors on the I2C bus. The detail is also inconsistent, for example, the blocking diode is shown but not temperature management and fusing.

http.begin(WifiClient, OPEN_WEATHER_MAP_URL);

this line 173 i believe, gives an error, that error persists when changing WifiClient to WiFiClient and to WiFi