Synchronous / asynchronous operation
The actual MPPT converter has changed only little. I’ve changed the mosfet driver to a MIC4605. Unlike the IR2104 used last time, this model has adaptive dead-time (as opposed to the longish 540ns fixed) and separate inputs for each mosfet. This will allow us to either operate in synchronous (using both mosfets) or asynchronous (only using the upper fet and relying on the diode) mode. Asynchronous operation has a certain efficiency advantage at low power levels so this might come in handy.
The MIC4605 consumes quite little quiescent current for a mosfet driver, only 100uA typical. But that’s still too much for our purpose. So the PIC can power the whole thing off via a NPN transistor and a p-channel mosfet. That BUCK_ON signal also serves as the supply voltage for the INA213 current sensors already used in the last version. So the entire converter can be powered off and should consume precisely zero current when not in use.
What about the voltage divider necessary to measure the battery voltage? That’s been taken care of, too. That divider is interrupted by a (low threshold voltage) n-channel mosfet unless a signal from the PIC turns on the mosfet and closes the circuit.
Port expansion
I soon ran out of GPIO pins with that PIC so I had to add an I2C port expander (MCP23008) to gain another 8 I/O pins. I’ve also added a PCA9546 I2C switch in order to translate between different voltage levels.
It’s probably not the most elegant solution and a future version might trade these 3 chips for a higher pin-count PIC. But I had all components here already so that’s what I’ll use for now.
Precise measurements
In order to precisely measure input and output voltages and currents there is now a MCP3424 4-channel 18-bit ADC. To be sure, we don’t need 18 bits of precision here but we’ll trade some of that precision for speed and work with 14 or 16 bits.
The ADC has its on-board voltage reference and PGA with gains up to 8. Since it only consumes a maximum of 1uA in standby mode it is always powered on.
There are also a total of 3 LMT86 temperature sensors, one on the board and 2 external ones. The external ones are intended to measure the temperature of the panel and battery, respectively. The maximum voltage for a battery is quite dependent on temperature so that’s a useful information to have. The inputs from the temperature sensors are measured directly by the PIC. For that purpose there’s also a ADR361 2.5V voltage reference.
Measuring temperatures requires the board voltage to be high, 3.3 volts nominally. So both the voltage reference and the temperature sensors are only powered on when then VCC_HIGH signal is set.
