27
JMJ Marist BrothersCollege of Engineering and TechnologyNOTRE DAME OF MARBEL UNIVERSITY
City of Koronadal, South Cotabato
Chapter IV
Hardware Testing and Results
In this chapter the results of the hardware testing and discussions relevant to the
results are presented. The data were collected and then processed in response to the
problems posed in chapter1 of this paper.
1. Testing of Solar Panel
The solar panel was set under a bright sunlight and attain about 18.76V as shown
in figure 4.1.
Figure 7. Open-circuit voltage of solar panel –18.76V
2. Testing of Charge Controller
To be able to charge the 12V battery, we need to obtain a voltage of
~14.4V since it is understood that we need a potential higher than 12V to
successfully charge the battery. After adjusting the potentiometer R9 on the
charge controller, a 14.4V was obtained.
28
JMJ Marist BrothersCollege of Engineering and TechnologyNOTRE DAME OF MARBEL UNIVERSITY
City of Koronadal, South Cotabato
3. Testing of voltage Regulator
Usingthe IC LM2575HVT-5 chip produced a constant volateg of 5. 04V.
Figure 7.3 Output Voltage produced by the voltage Regulator
The voltage regulator is able to charge a LG Optimus mobile phone connected
to it as shown in Fig. 20.
Figure 7. 4 Voltage Regulator charging a mobile phone
Charging indication
29
JMJ Marist BrothersCollege of Engineering and TechnologyNOTRE DAME OF MARBEL UNIVERSITY
City of Koronadal, South Cotabato
The charging process drawn a constant current of 0.4A which is around is around
400mA
4. Testing of Battery Level Indicator
When the battery voltage is around 12.25V, 3 LEDs are lit up. When the battery is
at a voltage level greater than 12.25V all LEDs are turned on, and this indicates
the battery is at full charge.
Figure 7. 5 Testing of the battery indicator circuit
LOAD Pin (Inventer) Pout(Inverter)
Pin (Designed
Voltage
Regulator)
Pout
(Designed
Voltage
Regulator)
LG Optimus
Mobile Phone
Iin = 0.3A
@ V= 12.16V
P= 3.783 watts
Iout = 0.2A
@ V = 5.02V
P = 1 watt
Iin = 0.2A
@ V = 12.65V
P = 2.4 watts
Iout = 0.4A
@ V= 5V
P = 2watts
Table 4.1 Power Input-Output of a Conventional (with inverter) and the proposed (with
step-down DC/DC converter) solar energy system.
30
JMJ Marist BrothersCollege of Engineering and TechnologyNOTRE DAME OF MARBEL UNIVERSITY
City of Koronadal, South Cotabato
Table 4.1 shows the power delivered by the battery to the load and the power
received by the load from the battery. These are the energies supplied by the battery to
the load through two different mediums:
1. Inverter and plugged AC phone charger.
2. Designed Voltage Regulator (DC/DC step-down switching regulator).