Week 1: May 8th-May 14th

Individual Log - Prem

The internal power supply of the generator featured Zener diode soldering locations so one rated for 15V was placed to attempt to limit the voltage close to the batteries maximum charge voltage of 14.9V. This proved ineffective because the diode was not precise enough, with the voltage reaching 15.6V under open circuit conditions.

Original plans were then reconsidered with the TL431 shunt regulator, and a board and initial power supply board was built which included basic current sensing and precision voltage regulation.

Because the generator and battery are always in parallel, power generation cannot be tracked via voltage, so this simple current sensor detects when the generator is actually producing power, which can be fed to the MCU to turn the system on and off. Better options such as the IA219 were researched to hopefully create more accurate and efficient detection.

Picture one and two express the generator when it is off and on respectively to display power generation status. Picture 3 expresses the voltage clamping feature of the regulator.