Jumpstart development for renewable energy apps with TI’s C2000 MCU solar kits

BANGALORE, INDIA: Texas Instruments Inc. (TI) announced two new solar kits based on its C2000 32-bit Piccolo and Concerto microcontrollers (MCUs). These new solar kits bring advanced peripherals, application-targeted development hardware, schematics, comprehensive software libraries of algorithms and an industry-leading development environment to the renewable energy market, allowing designers to easily create solar inverter designs while evaluating various solar algorithms and topologies.

C2000 high-voltage Solar Developer’s Kit features and benefits:
• The C2000 Solar Developer’s Kit is TI’s first complete, high-voltage, string-ready, isolated MCU-controlled solar solution to help power designers create high-voltage solar applications.
• Comprised of two separate development boards, the Solar Developer’s Kit provides a dual-controller design allowing developers to work with high-voltage power stages and inter-processor communications systems.
• The primary board features a 300VDC compatible input stage supporting up to 500W with an interleaved boost stage for maximum power point tracking (MPPT) and a resonant LLC stage for isolation, with both stages controlled by a single Piccolo MCU. The secondary board features a full bridge DC/AC inverter supporting 120/220VAC output with grid-matching, and can be controlled by a Concerto or Piccolo MCU, offering both control and connectivity in one processor.

C2000 low-voltage Solar Explorer Kit features and benefits:
• Supporting both Piccolo and Concerto C2000 MCUs, the Solar Explorer Kit provides a complete, non-isolated design and features multiple power stages controlled with a single low-cost digital controller – all perfect for designing solar and renewable energy applications.
• The Solar Explorer Kit includes multiple DC/DC conversions, as well as a DC/AC stage that supports 12VDC/100W input stage for a safe, low-cost architecture that can be used in desktop or low-voltage bench top experimentation lab situations for learning digitally controlled power stages or use in non-grid-tied applications. These stages are all controlled by a single Piccolo MCU.
• Featuring a single-switch DC/DC boost for MPPT, DC/DC SEPIC for battery charging and a full bridge DC/AC inverter capable of driving 24VAC, the Solar Explorer Kit enables flexibility for low-voltage solar designs. Also included on this kit is a secondary processor controlling a solar panel emulator circuit, featuring a photo-diode for light sensing.
• Providing optional support for the C2000 Concerto MCU adds connectivity functions to the digital controller through an included Ethernet-connected graphical user interface (GUI).