Arduino "Maximum Power point tracker" (MPPT) Problem

Question

I need an IV curve for a solar panel. As far I know, solar-panel and Diode IV curve pretty much the same. Here, I am using diodes(6A10-1) as a solar-panel. Where each Diode voltage drops 0.6volt. I provide 4.8v across the diodes from a power supply and limited the current at 1amp of the power supply for acting like a solar panel. The number of diodes is 8 for a 4.8V drop. A 1-ohm resistor for measuring the current. I am using Arduino to measure the value of current and voltage by varies the MOSFET(IRF540) gate voltage. A low pass filter is connected between D2 and Mosfet Gate. A0 for measuring the solar voltage and Current, Id=A0-A1. But Arduino gives incorrect values of A1 and current, Id, and sometimes negative values with respect to a multimeter.

[

const int V1 = A0;
const int V2 = A1;
float SolarVolt = 0.0;
float V1_VOLT = 0.0;
float V2_VOLT = 0.0;
float Id  = 0.0;
int V1_value = 0;
int V2_value = 0;
double gateVoltage=150; //For Gate volt
double mstep=5.1;
int GatePin=2;

void setup() {
  pinMode(GatePin,OUTPUT);
  Serial.begin(9600);
  pinMode(V1,INPUT);
  pinMode(V2,INPUT);
}

void loop() {
  analogWrite(GatePin,gateVoltage);
  gateVoltage=gateVoltage+mstep;
  Serial.print("GateVolt = ");
  Serial.print(gateVoltage);
  Serial.print("    ");
  if (gateVoltage <= 0) {
    mstep = 1;
  } else if (gateVoltage>=255){
    gateVoltage = 255;
    mstep = -1;
    delay(50);
  }

  V1_value = analogRead(V1);
  V1_VOLT = (V1_value * 5.0) / 1024.0;

  Serial.print("V1_VOLT= ");
  Serial.print(V1_VOLT);
  Serial.print("    ");

  V2_value = analogRead(V2); // for Id1
  V2_VOLT= (V2_value * 5.0) / 1024.0;

  Serial.print("V2_VOLT= ");
  Serial.print(V2_VOLT);
  Serial.print("    ");

  Id=V1_VOLT-V2_VOLT;

  Serial.print("ID= ");
  Serial.print(Id);
  Serial.println();

  delay(1000);
}

Answer 1

Your current signal will also show PWM, so you will need to filter that before measuring. It would be much simpler if you could rearrange your circuit to put the sense resistor on the ground side of the MOSFET, since then you can use a simple RC filter and a single A0 measurement. Also, you wouldn't have to worry about the no-load voltage from the solar panel (when the MOSFET is off) going above the 5V limit of the A0 pin.