This report is the result of a conducted Minor Field Study (MFS), to the greatestextent funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency(SIDA), in an attempt to design a system for evaluating smaller solar power systems indeveloping countries. The study was to the greater part conducted in Nairobi, Kenyain close collaboration with the University of Nairobi. The aim was to develop asystem that would use easily available components and keep the costs to a minimum,yet deliver adequate performance. The system would measure certain parameters of asolar power system and also relevant environmental data in order to evaluate theperformance of the system. Due to the specific competence of the collaboratinggroup at the University of Nairobi, a Kinetis Freescale K64-microcontroller with anARM-Cortex processor was selected as the core of the design. Components wereselected, schematics were drawn, a circuit board was designed and manufactured andsoftware was written. After 12 weeks a somewhat satisfying proof-of-concept wasreached at the end of the field study in Kenya. The project however proved howdifficult it is to go from first idea to a functional proof-of-concept during a limitedtimeframe, and also in an East-African country. The final proof-of-concept was testedat Mpala Research Centre in Kenya and despite containing some flaws proved that itwould indeed be possible to design a working system on the principles discussed inthis report. The system is open-source, so anyone may use and modify it.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-302815 |
| Date | January 2016 |
| Creators | Trella, Fredrik, Paakkonen, Nils |
| Publisher | Uppsala universitet, Fasta tillståndets elektronik, Uppsala universitet, Fasta tillståndets elektronik |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
| Relation | UPTEC F, 1401-5757 ; 16049 |
Page generated in 0.0029 seconds