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Welcome to this tutorial about the 8960.
This video will introduce you to a specific function called Solar Panel Emulator.
Make sure that your 8960-20 is equipped with the option 8968-60 which gives access to this function through LVDAC-EMS.
To access this function, proceed by selecting Power Supply mode on the front panel of the 8960
then connect the 8960 to your computer using a USB Cable and then start LVDAC-EMS.
Once it is fully opened, click on this icon to open
the four quadrant dynamometer/ Power supply windows and select Solar Panel Emulator in the function selection list.
Now, let's take a look at the settings of this function:
Solar Irradiance Control: This setting allows you to decide what you will use to control the solar irradiance level.
Only the slider is available at this time.
Solar Irradiance: Sets the solar irradiance on the solar panel.
This setting is ranged from 0 to 1000.
Number of Photovoltaic modules in series: Sets the number of PV modules you want to have connected in series.
Number of Photovoltaic modules in parallel: Sets the number of PV modules that you want to have connected in parallel.
Thermistor Type: Choose your Thermistor type in function of what you want to protect.
Type 1 is for NiMH batteries and type 2 is for the Lab-Volt motor.
Status: Indicates if the function is started or not.
Here are the meters showing the parameters of the power supply in real time, the single refresh
and automatic refresh button, the slider and finally the Start/stop button to control the function.
You can also find here a graph explaining the function.
This function was designed to faithfully reproduce the behavior of a real solar panel.
Using the power output on the front panel of the 8960,
this function is perfect to teach students the complete process of energy generation from a solar source.
Since it is important to test various solar panel configurations,
the number of serie and parallel solar panels linked together can be changed here allowing a great variety of experiments.
Be aware that the powers supply of the 8960 really emulates the photovoltaic cells of a small solar panel and thus,
will have all the characteristics of a solar panel as represented by the graph here
which is different from a standard DC voltage source.
That's it for the solar panel emulator.