Solar Power World

Talking to Texas Instruments at SPI

While at Solar Power International in Dallas last week I had the opportunity to stop by Texas Instruments and discuss some of their offerings for solar.  Some of their products include: · SolarMagic Arc Detection –  1” x 2” reference design featuring what they say is the industry’s first PV Arc detection solution, which is comprised of analog front end ICs and multi-band dynamic filtering firmware that reduces system cost and simplifies design for PV safety applications. ·... Read More

It’s solar harvest season

A high-efficiency, ultra-low power step-down converter is available for energy harvesting and low-power applications.  According to its manufacturer, Texas Instruments Incorporated, the TPS62120 achieves 96% efficiency, and can generate a 75-mA output current from an input voltage of 2 to 15 V.  The device supports energy harvesting and battery-powered applications, as well as 9-V and 12-V line-powered systems. The converter features a power-save mode to add efficiency to the... Read More

Solar Energy Harvesting Development Tool

The eZ430-RF2500-SEH from Texas Instruments is a complete Solar Energy Harvesting development kit to help create a perpetually powered wireless sensor network based on the ultra-low-power MSP430 microcontroller. Texas Instruments MSP 430 Solar Harvesting Tool can be used with Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7 The Solar Energy Harvester module includes a high-efficiency solar (2.25×2.25”) panel optimized for operating indoors under low-intensity fluorescent lights, which... Read More