https://wii5.sh3d.com.au/tags/power/ Recent content in Power on WII5 — Waves In Ice Buoys Hugo en https://wii5.sh3d.com.au/features/sensors/mppt/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://wii5.sh3d.com.au/features/sensors/mppt/ <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/glightbox@3.3.0/dist/css/glightbox.min.css"> <script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/glightbox@3.3.0/dist/js/glightbox.min.js"></script> <div class="gallery-grid"> <a href="https://wii5.sh3d.com.au/features/sensors/mppt/mppt_hu_e6ccf494f9a2c107.jpg" class="glightbox gallery-item" data-gallery="gallery-0"> <img src="https://wii5.sh3d.com.au/features/sensors/mppt/mppt_hu_a10c01efd5e8bd5a.jpg" alt="mppt.jpg" loading="lazy" width="300" height="300"> </a> </div> <script> (function() { var lightbox = GLightbox({ selector: '.glightbox[data-gallery="gallery-0"]', touchNavigation: true, loop: true, preload: true }); })(); </script> <p>MPPT (maximum power point tracking) charge controller for the solar input that keeps the battery pack alive between sunny windows.</p> <h2 id="why-we-designed-our-own">Why we designed our own<a class="td-heading-self-link" href="#why-we-designed-our-own" aria-label="Heading self-link"></a></h2> <p>At the small battery sizes used in solar WII buoys, <strong>no off-the-shelf MPPT existed</strong> that was a good fit — commercial MPPT controllers were designed back then for vehicle, off-grid, or marine packs at least an order of magnitude larger than what a buoy carries. The available options were either too lossy at low currents, drew too much quiescent power, or had input/output ranges that didn&rsquo;t match a small solar panel + lithium-pack combination.</p>