KEPCO BOP 1KW QUICK START GUIDE

QUICK START GUIDE

KEPCO An ISO 9001 Company.	BOP 1KW
	SOLAR DEVICE
SOLAR DEVICE TESTER	TESTER
USING BOP 1KW

I — INTRODUCTION

SCOPE OF MANUAL. This Quick Start Guide covers the description and operation of the Solar Device Tester demonstration application written in LabView.

DESCRIPTION. The Solar Device Tester demonstration application is a simple standalone application that uses the Kepco Solar Device Tester subvi to control the output of the BOP and to take the measurements needed to characterize a solar device. The subvi can be adapted to an overall Test application as needed.

The BOP 1KW is connected directly to the solar device and controlled by the computer. Because measurements are done by the BOP 1KW, external DVMs are not needed. The BOP 1KW changes the output and makes synchronized measurements, and goes on to the next point at a rate of up to 20mS per point. The Solar Device Tester demonstration application uses a LabView subvi to produce an I-V curve that characterizes the solar device (such as solar cells, solar panels, etc.) under test. For accurate voltage measurements remote sensing is recommended (as detailed in the BOP 1KW Operator manual, Section 2).

II — OPERATION

The user interface included with the Solar Device Tester demonstration application is illustrated in Figure 1. The bottom of Figure 1 shows a typical I-V curve taken by the subvi.

USING THE DEMONSTRATION APPLICATION.

The Version OK indicator (at the top of the panel shown in Figure 1) lights green to verify that the BOP firmware supports the demonstration application and the subvi, or red to indicate that the firmware does not support the demonstration application. An upgrade kit to allow older units to support the demonstration application may be purchased at www.kepcopower.com/bophibuy.htm#upgrade.

The BOP Parameters display allows the user to select voltage or current mode by clicking on the Mode switch. The switch is green for voltage and yellow for current.

The start and end points for the sequence of setpoints that will characterize the device are entered under Ramp Characteristics. The Start and End Point units are in Amperes for Current Mode and Volts for Voltage mode. The positive

Protection Limit ensures that the BOP output does not exceed the capacity of the solar device. The negative Protection Limit is normally set close to zero to prevent the solar device from overheating.

FIGURE 1. Demonstration Application Interface Showing

User Inputs and Rendered I-V Curve Output

Once the Start and End points are chosen, the user enters the Number of Points, Milliseconds to Wait and whether to swap the sign of the measurements. The number of points

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