A Two Legs Darlington Based Circuit for on Site Tracing of Solar Panels I-V Curve

The I-V curve of solar panel, embedded in series connected strings is traced with high accuracy by means of a two legs, Darlington based, portable circuit. The circuit is able to disconnect the solar panel from the string before starting the measurement; a bypass path for the string current prevents interruption of the power production. The period of disconnection and measurement can be set to cover periodic measurement over a whole day. On demand measurements are also available thanks to Bluetooth communication. Measurements performed with a homemade prototype show the reliability of the proposed solution.