This is the high-side driver circuit for the MOSFET in the charge controller. It provides the interface necessary to drive the MOSFET gate from the PIC mocrocontroller’s PWM output. Inspiration for this circuit came from this site.
The NPN transistor (2N3904) is driven directly from the PICs PWM output pin. Current limiting is provided by the [...]
Wanted to see how much power I could get from my 20 watt solar panel. 20 watts would be about right, I thought.
On a bright sunny day in early July at around noon, I set up the monocrystalline panel with a couple of DVMs, one measuring voltage, the other current. I chose a 21 watt [...]