Solar Stent Hardware Based on FET1052-C System on Module

The solar stent is used for tracking, it keeps the optical axis of the concentrator to keep parallel with solar.

1. FET1052-C System on Module Structure

  • The tracking unit consists of a sensor, azimuth tracking unit, and controller unit
  • The azimuth tracking unit consists of power, azimuth sensor, amplifier and actuator
  • The actuator consists of motor and wheel gear
  • High-angle tracking unit consists of angle sensor, amplifier and actuator.
  • The controller unit consists of amplifier, transistor and relay, connecting with light sensor, azimuth, high-angle sensor and motor.

2. FET1052-C System on Module Description

  1. UART: for sensors including tracking sensor and light sensor which are used for angle sensing of solar apparent  movement from east to west, and sensing of apparent hight and radiation of the sun. It can be mounted with LoRa for data collecting.
  2. IO: for motor control. when sunlight tilts, the sensor will output a signal which will be amplified and sent to the controller unit, and then the controller will process the signal to analysis and command the actuator to adjust the concentrator to point at the sun; It can also control the wiper to spray to clean the concentrator.
  3. RS485: communicate with the upper gateway, send status information and receive gateway command.
  4. GPS: enhance tracking accuracy.

3. Features

  1. No shadow shield from neighbor concentrator.
  2. Night returning
  3. Time and orientation controlling.
  4. Protection from wind and snow.
  5. Online monitoring
  6. Self-cleaning function

4. Make It Possible by RT1052

1. Basic computing capability for sensor signal processing and low-cost featuring.

FET1052-C system on module is based on i.MX RT1052 which is a Cortex-M7 featuring MCU from NXP, it integrates low-power, easy-going and high performance all-in-one. Frequency up to 528MHz and SRAM 512 KB(TCM), two options are available.

SDRAM 16MB,QSPI-Nor Flash 4MB

SDRAM 32MB,QSPI-Nor Flash 16MB

Compact size 31*43mm, designed with two 80-pin connectors with pitch of 0.8mm, it can support up to 124 GPIO, and has various peripheral interface such as UART, Ethernet, USB, CAN, PWM, ADC, LCD and CAMERA; supported with uCLinux system.

2. A solar stent generally works in outdoor and it may happen tough weather or environment, all components on this FET1052-C are industrial grade which can make it working well even in tough environment(-40℃~+85℃)