Development is still going on and this is my next evolution step.

SHADOW MANAGEMENT

 

 

INTRO :

Why do we need a shadow management ???

If there is a shadow from example of a tree on 2 of 10 Solar modules all modules will just deliver so much current as the 2 without the direkt sun,
this will result in a massive loss of power .

How do we solve this ?

Fall the tree or try this firmware solution.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

What problem is solved with this Version ?

The 90V problem is solved (changes from tweaked firmware from my mppt improvement thread are into it ,nothing new )

LED BAR IS DISABLED NOW IN FIRMWARE.( no more noise,mine does something like fast switching electronics )

NEW is Shadow Management (if you had no shadows on your PV modules there is no improvement)

 

 

This is how it works:

Every solar panel has bypass diodes into it, often more than one.
This firmware version can "activate" them so that the current is not limited by the shaded PV modules
and the moduls with sun can bring full power.

The new logic in the firmware checks if the pv input current is lower than 1,5A ,
when this condition holds on for 10 Minutes ,
The voltage is reduced to 125V to activate the bypass diodes,
then the mppt algorithm searches the new mppt point without the "deactivatet" pv moduls.

 

 

 

 

Because of the firmware doesnt know if it is sunny or cloudy there will be a minimal loss of pv power in following conditions:

Cloudy, foggy, rainy, weak sun (just every situation with a current below the 1,5A)

The reduction of power is just for a few seconds of every 10 minutes when the voltage is lower than the real mppt point.

 

 

The new working conditions:

90v Fix applied
MPPT range from 115V to 450V
shade management regulates every 10 minutes if the current is below 1,5A
No more signals to led bar are send

named this version to 90.21

Tested and runs on Axpert 8KW & EASUN (must be compatible with 90.06)

THIS IS STILL FIRST BETA RELEASE

 

Reflash-8kw-shade_managment-9021.rar

Made a video to show how it works.

The multimeter shows pv input Voltage which comes from a 350v supply but i connect a 40w 230v halogen lamp in series to it.

(This is nearly the same situation if there is a shadow on the pv moduls from the electric view)

Display on axpert shows input Watt.

 

The video shows the sequence of regulation.

 

 

 

Edit: 

The video is made with solar plug pulled off from the help supply

This is how the regulation looks on the axpert max display when no better mppt point could be found

 

 

 

Hi Georg,

I install this FW two weeks ago (previously I was use your beta FW with MPPT patch to 175V).

This FW function quite good in cloudy weather and in sunny with shadow from tree on one string (afternoon) is power better then previous FW.

Bye Petr

On 2022/12/18 at 8:07 PM, Georg594 said:

 

Development is still going on and this is my next evolution step.

SHADOW MANAGEMENT

 

 

INTRO :

Why do we need a shadow management ???

If there is a shadow from example of a tree on 2 of 10 Solar modules all modules will just deliver so much current as the 2 without the direkt sun,
this will result in a massive loss of power .

How do we solve this ?

Fall the tree or try this firmware solution.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

What problem is solved with this Version ?

The 90V problem is solved (changes from tweaked firmware from my mppt improvement thread are into it ,nothing new )

LED BAR IS DISABLED NOW IN FIRMWARE.( no more noise,mine does something like fast switching electronics )

NEW is Shadow Management (if you had no shadows on your PV modules there is no improvement)

 

 

This is how it works:

Every solar panel has bypass diodes into it, often more than one.
This firmware version can "activate" them so that the current is not limited by the shaded PV modules
and the moduls with sun can bring full power.

The new logic in the firmware checks if the pv input current is lower than 1,5A ,
when this condition holds on for 10 Minutes ,
The voltage is reduced to 125V to activate the bypass diodes,
then the mppt algorithm searches the new mppt point without the "deactivatet" pv moduls.

 

 

 

 

Because of the firmware doesnt know if it is sunny or cloudy there will be a minimal loss of pv power in following conditions:

Cloudy, foggy, rainy, weak sun (just every situation with a current below the 1,5A)

The reduction of power is just for a few seconds of every 10 minutes when the voltage is lower than the real mppt point.

 

 

The new working conditions:

90v Fix applied
MPPT range from 115V to 450V
shade management regulates every 10 minutes if the current is below 1,5A
No more signals to led bar are send

named this version to 90.21

Tested and runs on Axpert 8KW & EASUN (must be compatible with 90.06)

THIS IS STILL FIRST BETA RELEASE

 

Reflash-8kw-shade_managment-9021.rar 1.15 MB · 4 downloads

Hi Georg any chance of patching those fixes on 55.06? 

I would love testing this since I have lot of shadow sometimes but I need Coulomb to patch again 92.06 (or 172.62 but I didn't test it so i don't know if It's better for me) version for 28066 DSP with those tweaks if he can.

Edited January 15, 20232 yr by sharkut

Same for me. 
I have one „old“ EASUN SMW 8KW and use the shadow management firmware.

Just bought a second „new“ EASUN SMW with the new chip. It would be great to get and test the shadow management firmware on this inverter too!

@Georg594, I've been looking to implement your shade management patch into firmware 72.62 for '28066 processors. In the process, I believe I've discovered a bug with the MPPT2 part of the firmware. When the current is under 1.5A for 10 minutes, no exceptions, and the reference voltage is set to 125.0 V, the code flows into NOPs, then clears the counter again (harmless), but then flows into code that could overwrite the reference again.

It seems to me that at 0x3E2BB0, the first NOP should be replaced with a branch to 0x3E2BC3, i.e. a 6F13 instruction. Please confirm that this is the intention, and that the mentioned change will implement this intention correctly.

Edit: Shade management patch users: Can you confirm or deny that MPPT2 is behaving differently to MPPT1 in some conditions?

Edit 2: It seems to me that if I'm right, the effect of the bug would be that for MPPT2 only, when the shading problem is detected, instead of going all the way down to 125 V to activate the diodes, it only goes down a fixed 20 V. In some circumstances, that might actually be a bigger drop, but I would think that each panel would be about 40 V worth in the shade, so you'd only get very roughly half the benefit on MPPT2 that you would get on MPPT1. Maybe that's enough in practice, but I have doubts.

Edited February 8, 20232 yr by Coulomb

Hi coulomb, thanks for your work! 
Yesterday was a sunny day in Germany. I attached my logs from my „old“ SMW using Georg594 shadow managing firmware. 
My MPPT1 consist of 7x410W with direction SW, my MPPT2 consist of 6x300W with direction S. 
 

Pictures from MPPT2

Hi Coulomb,

now i view graphs from this morning and both MPPTs function the same and both MPPTs go with voltage to 120V when current is under 1,5A every cca. 10 minutes.

4 hours ago, PetrDubi said:

both MPPTs function the same and both MPPTs go with voltage to 120V...

Ok, thanks. I've decided to more or less replicate the MPPT1 code in both, it works out easier that way.

This is patched firmware version 272.62, based on factory firmware version 72.62 for the Axpert Max 1 8kW with '28066 processor. That's the model with the removable display, not the round colour display (Max II).

Georg's shadow management patches were implemented in patched firmware version 90.21, based on factory firmware version 90.06.

So I've more or less diffed those two firmwares and applied the result to 72.62. The premature float bug is fixed as usual for my patches.

The main firmware will show as U1 72 62 on the display (same as factory), but it should display as 272.62 on monitoring software, or in the response to the QVFW command.

Do not use this firmware with any other model, or with the '2809 DSP processor. As usual, Voltronic manufactured Axpert Max 1 8kW is branded with many different names.

See the first post in this thread for details on what Georg's patches do. Use this patched firmware only on machines that currently have firmware versions of the form x72.yy (x can be blank/missing), 92.04, patched firmware versions 92.05 or 92.06, or 91.04. There may be other firmwares that are compatible, if you know that you are running the '28066 processor (see chipset chatter for details).

Firmware update instructions for the Axpert Max.

This was a technically difficult patch, since the latest available 72.62 firmware uses optimisation, so the patch didn't fit without putting part of it into a pair of separate subroutines. Use at your own risk.

 

Edit: PLEASE NOTE! I screwed up and somehow ended up with the original and patched file names swapped. I've fixed this now, but if you downloaded this patch and were disappointed with the results, please just use the file named as original. Use monitoring software to confirm that you really do have the patched firmware installed. My apologies for this stuff-up!

 

Main DSP 272.62 8kW C28066 - Patched; filenames corrected.zip

Edited March 8, 20232 yr by Coulomb
Corrected the uploaded zip file as noted.

Upgrade done. Thanks a lot again Coulomb. Going to show result tomorrow with Sun and shade

Edit : infortunately weather was cloudy, so it's difficult to compare. I need more time

Edited February 10, 20232 yr by sharkut

In my opinion It's a very little less efficient at the start and end of day, get a little stuck at 115v with same current. It's not as smooth than 92.06 with forced 200v.

No enough Sun to Shade test today.

Edited February 10, 20232 yr by sharkut

I was wrong, it's better with 272.62

 

With 92.06 with more of 2 panels masked on 6, the current collapse

 

with 272.62 it's different

 

 

It's difficult to take exact same sun condition but I think it's representative of the improvements

 

Thanks a lot againt Coulomb for the time spent

Edited February 21, 20232 yr by sharkut

Hi, 

I flashed patched version 272.62 yesterday.

But when looking on the U1 on screen, as well as in watchpower I see only 72.66.

Is that normal?

Sorry I mean I see 72.62 of course, not 72.66. But it should be 272.62 on watchpower, right?

1 hour ago, sudo-st said:

But it should be 272.62 on Watchpower, right?

Absolutely! This is your assurance that I didn't stuff up. And indeed, I did stuff up, I'm so sorry!

I've edited the original post with the download. Either download it again, or to save time, reflash with the file that claims to be the original. I'm so sorry to have wasted your time!

I forgot to check the download count before I replaced the bad file; anyone else who was disappointed with the shading performance, please try again with the real patched firmware.

Oh that explains of course why I always got the wrong version displayed, but don't worry. 😄

I flashed now the right one and get also the right 272.62 Version displayed.
So lets see how this firmware works. 😀

Thanks for your effort and your fast support!!

Lol same with me so my graph is only result of my shingled Solar panels 😱

3 flash in 3 days : my wife is going to kill me 😉

Hello All,

I am a newbie to MPPT algoritms so I have a question (go figure... 😀)

I saw from the video(s) on this thread that the "resync" time with the new max power point, when light conditions change, is taking no more than 10-20 seconds...

So, for simplicity sake, why wait for a certain minimum current or wait for a certain amount of time and not do a "forced mpp resync" once every say, 10 minutes?

This means a maximum of 12 minutes lost during a 12 hours solar time.

Am I talking nonsense?

Thank you and be gentle with me... I am learning.

On 2023/11/17 at 6:51 AM, alex_pescaru said:

So, for simplicity sake, why wait for a certain minimum current or wait for a certain amount of time and not do a "forced mpp resync" once every say, 10 minutes?

Lighting conditions, especially where shading is concerned, can significantly change hundreds of times per day, so re-syncing every 10 minutes could lose a lot of available PV power.

I did try a small set of patched firmwares for a while that started again every 2 minutes or so, but still did the tracking once per second. This was an attempt to get it out of the "stuck at 90 V" condition, but it was abandoned in favour of Georg's original series of patches. I hope I got that right; the shading patches are rather different to the "stuck at" patches, and I may be confusing the two.

 

I am trying to understand things and therefore let's summarize some data. The following information were taken from the corresponding threads.

 

Both "stuck at 90V" and "shadow management" mods are implemented in the same function, right?

"Stuck at 90" mod

From what I see, the main modification was to reduce the current limit (0.5A -> 0.05A) in order to not drop the MPPT voltage.

And if the MPPT voltage was dropped, this was made slowly, with a constant value, up until a lower limit (different users choices) was reached.

"Shadow management" mod

The current limit was increased (0.5A -> 1.5A), somehow negating the "stuck at 90" mod above.

The MPPT voltage is dropped all at once now, to a certain value, "restarting" the MPPT, if the current is below the limit for more than 10 minutes.

 

Am I missing something?

Can, therefore, consider that the "Shadow management" mod is superseding the "stuck at 90" mod, somehow also doing its job, but from a different angle?

So, after a lot of experiences, you reached the conclusion that the best way to do it, for best results and for avoiding getting stuck,  is to "restart" the MPPT, from a fixed value, if the current is below a certain value, for more than certain time, right?

Edited November 19, 20231 yr by alex_pescaru