Solar Micro-inverter solution

Hello Anand,

You will have to visit the Alternative Energy page and select the Solar section. http://www.ti.com/lsds/ti/apps/alternative_energy/solar/overview.page

There you will find all the information you will need to properly research, design and develop your system.  You are choosing the do-it-yourself method, so you can't really expect someone to do all the hard work for you, especially when there are so many resources available on the TI site as well as on the Internet.

The Solar section not only has the technical documents, but there are schematics and sample designs inside the documents.  Your other alternative is to visit one of the HomeBrew Solar websites where you can find more information on developing your system.

Good luck,

Greenja,

I appreciate your input, however my question is not for others to do hard work for me, but to lend their support and expertise. I should be offended at that implication.

I've already ordered some of the parts and will be experimenting, but there are no grounds for telling me not to request advice. I wouldn't be asking if I had been able to find what I was looking for in the first place, so please don't tell me to simply "go and look again".
This is a professional engineers' forum, is it not? Surely someone around here has some kind of guidance to offer on the topic apart from telling me to look again where I've looked before. I've already listed parts that I think will work together, and simply asked if there were better suggestions.

In addition, the page is labeled "Solar Micro-Inverter Solutions", implying that a complete solution could be provided by the company for a given application, without having to be developed by cherry-picking products from a bunch of lists and hoping for the best. Yes, I should gain experience by deciding for myself, but why waste money on what may end up to be a less-than-optimal component or configuration when someone with experience can advise me better?

Thank you,
Anand Lobo

P.S. Please don't reply if you intend to tell me to 'go do more research' or anything of the sort. I am currently doing so anyway, and I would prefer to hear from someone who can actually help resolve my question.

Hello Anand,

Please don't take offense to my recommendations.  I'm just the guy who is telling what you already figured out, but don't want to hear.  That being most of the community would have to do exactly what I mentioned you should do in order to come up with recommendations to give to you.  That is why you have not seen any replies.

I and many of the other community members can only point you to the resources that are available.  The design aspect is completely up to you.  There are plenty of textbooks, tutorials and engineers you can hire to sit down with you and go through a design to meet your requirements.

I have looked through the resources and here are plenty of workable solutions available.  As you have already figured out, the design stage isn't easy and I'm not going to suggest otherwise. 

Get down to work and start designing! Read, read and read some more, the pieces will soon start to fit together.  You will no longer see a list of part numbers, but a set of tools that will help you bring your product to market.

Good Luck,

Greenja,

I am aware of what people would need to do to give me recommendations on my own project, but what about those who have already used particular parts in related (or even unrelated) projects and have a ready answer that I can use as a reference? That is what I am asking for.

What would I gain or lose using the AMC1200 over the AMC1204?
Are there any unusual difficulties to contend with when using the SM72442?
Is the TPS54260 less efficient than the TPS55010?
Does the SM72295 play well with the ISO7242C?

And other things along those lines. This is hardly asking people to do research for me; if one doesn't already know the answer, then they don't need to reply. Better yet, TI themselves, having thoroughly tested all of these devices, can answer easily - I've seen plenty of employee responses to questions like these on other sections of the forum.

Unfortunately, I don't have the talent that you do for reading the Micro-inverter solutions page, because all I can see are recommended parts numbers rather than workable solutions. Yes, I am trawling through datasheets to find the ideal components that would fit the bill, but I'd have to do that anyway whether I was buying from TI or not. The implication of a "solutions" page is being able to more easily narrow down one's component choices by inputting problem constraints, rather than having to search through the datasheet of every single part listed.

Furthermore, what options are available for the DC-DC boost, DC-AC inverter and AC filter stages? The graphic doesn't list any recommended parts for those, which are probably the most significant parts of the whole inverter. I don't know how to design one of them from scratch, that's for sure.

Thank you,
Anand Lobo