Problems with renewable energy kit (can't even do getting started)

Hi,

I guess you are right. There are no clear ON/OFF markings on the board. However, the SW2 and SW3 do have 15V and 5V markings on them. These markings indicate the ON position for the corresponding switch. Sorry for the confusion.

I believe for the boot from SCI option you are confusing between SW1 and SW2 on the main board and those on the control card. The SW1 and SW2 switches for setting the boot options are found on the small daughter card (control card) that you must have received with the Renewable energy kit. (I am assuming you are using a F28035 based control card)

The correct power up sequence is: 9V at J1, panel power and AC power. This is described under the "Using the GUI" section of the GUI quick start guide and also under chapter 4 of "Renewable.pdf", the CCS project guide.

Switches should not be in the wrong positions because you don't want to connect the DC bus before the controller is powered up in such debug environments. The important thing at start-up is for SW2 (on the main board) to be in OFF position to avoid possible overloading at start-up.

The power cable at J7 provides mains voltage which the inverter ouput is synchronized to. Without this cable, there is no synchronizing line signal and the inverter will keep generating an AC signal at the set frequency (50/60Hz).

Without any load connected at the inverter output, the way the inverter algorithm is implemented, it might be very difficult to regulate the inverter output. Same is true for constant current charging for the battery.

I believe I have already answered your last question. The SW1 and SW2 switches are clearly marked with their positions on the control card. We could have a picture of these switches and also of the ones on the main board and include them in the user documents the next time we update them. Thanks for the feedback.

Let me know if you need more clarifications.

- Hrishi

Thnx for quick answer... I did start it up in the meantime...

Yeah, I did confuse the ControlCard switches with the board switches, but I figured it out after reading the instructions for a few times and after the GUI said that it can't make connection. This should be accentuated somehow in the manuals, I went three times through the text quickly and didn't see it. Anyway, the board started fine, but for some reason constant current charging part is not working. I did all of the steps and it worked fine, but when I switched from constant voltage to constant current charging (lamp as load), nothing happens, current stays very low, near zero...

Also, the GUI window refreshes very rarely or not at all (I'm using 64bit WinXP with SP2). Is this normal?

I tried doing the CCS tutorial  found in "Implementing a Digitally Controlled Renewable Energy...." pdf file, but I have a problem right at the begining, at the hardware setup. Tutorial says "connect emulator..." and I don't have anything to connect to JTAG connector and CCStudio gives errors at the startup. Does this mean that I can't program the card and use CCStudio ?!? I have to admit, I thought that the kit alone is enough for getting started.

So, where to get this "emulator"? What should I get? Also, when going from GUI tutorial to CCS tutorial, do I have to change the switch positions on the ControlCard? Should I disconnect the cable at the JP28 or can I leave it unplugged?

Sorry for all the questions, I thought that the board is a bit more user friendlier ant that I'll be typing MPPT algorithms in C in a minutes...

Oh, and I just forgot, can you confirm that my HW/SW combination (renewable energy development kit with F2803x ControlCard and the v3.3 CCStudio that came with the board )  is compatible with the Spectrum Digital XDS510 USB emulator?

Unfortunately this board doesn't come with on-board emulation. To be able to work with this board from the CCS debug environment you will need to buy an appropriate emulator. A list of possible emulators can be found at the C2000 tools page:

http://focus.ti.com/mcu/docs/mcuprodtoolsw.tsp?familyId=916&sectionId=95&tabId=2655&toolTypeId=1&DCMP=DSP_C2000&HQS=Other+OT+f28xkits

I believe XDS510 USB supports F2803x devices. You might want to check with spectrum digital directly to make sure you are buying the correct version of the emulator.

When going from GUI to the CCS project it is not necessary to change the controller card switches or to unplug the serial cable at JP28. However, you will need one of the JTAG emulators mentioned above.

For changing from constant voltage to constant current please follow the procedure listed in steps 38 and 39 under chapter 4 of the document Renewable.pdf. Please also read the text under step 44 that tells you about a source file for the CCS project that implements an example charging algorithm that automatically switches the control from constant current mode to constant voltage mode.

This is a low voltage low power board that was designed to demonstrate how a C2000 controller interfaces to and controls different power stages in such a renewable energy system. Some of the advanced algorithms were not part of the software implementation primarily because it's a generic kit and there are different possible implementations of such algorithms. Also, I believe there are number of such algorithms available and users are free to try out different algorithms on this kit.

I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any more questions/concerns. Thanks.

- Hrishi

Hi, Hrishi,

I have interesting to read the document Renewable.pdf. Where may get the document?

Keli

Hi Keli,

The Renewable.pdf document is a part of the software package for the "Renewable Energy Developer’s Kit". This software package can be downloaded for free from the C2000 tools page: http://ti.com/f28xkits. Just click on the link that says "Board Specific" under the Software column corresponding to this kit. Once downloaded this document will be found under: ..\TI_F28xxx_SysSW\Renewable\~Docs

- Hrishi

Dear Hrishi,

I have found the PDF file. Thanks very much.

Keli