Team Solar CDR Solar Energy Predictor Capstone Spring 2009 Daniel Seltzer Jim Love Rob Chadil Eric Dickey

Brief Overview A portable device used to accurately estimate the amount of solar energy that can be harvested at an arbitrary location. The device should take into account solar panel tilt, elevation, and geographic location. System output will show the power a solar panel could theoretically harvest over the course of a year at the chosen location.

System Organization Sensor Module Micro- controller GPS Compass Tilt Sensor Camera (IP) Camera (IP) Circular Fisheye Lens Battery Power System SD Card Character Display Number Pad Single Board Computer Pic Buff (SRAM) Data Capture Device Software Modules Windows Laptop Sun Tracks Algorithm Image Processing – Sky/Obstruction Alg. Final Power Calculation Camera Orientation Compensation User Interface FPGA Graphic LCD

Windows Application

Status of UI Design All Algorithms for the analysis have been written in MatLab, C# or C. User Interface Layout is complete User Interface Button Calls are working or in pseudo code Data Structures are Coded Completed: Saving projects Work to be Done:

Data Management Site 1Panel 1 Image 1 (metadata, images) Image 2 (metadata, images) Panel 2 Image 1 (metadata, images)

Choosing An Image File

Import Import Jpeg image Extract Meta Data Process Perform Sky Detection Calculate True North form Magnetic North Selecting an Image File

Select Image Details

Image Details

Running Analysis

Setup Calculate Sun Position Translate to Image Location Process Detect if obstructed with image Add energy to calculation Add data to graph Running Analysis For the date range: Output: Total Energy over Range and Graph

Single Board Computer S’2009Team Solar

S’2009Team Solar Status of SBC Design Camera communication and video capture through RTSP Mjpeg video to jpeg frame conversion Logging functions finished and working Completed: Modify jpeg metadata Communicate with sensor module Write to SDCard Purchase SBC Work to be Done:

S’2009Team Solar Single Board Computer Main task is to serve as a client to IP cameras RTSP video feed. openRTSP is used to capture a one second mjpeg movie segment. A single frame is then pulled out of the video. This frame is packaged and then written to an SDCard for transfer.

SBC software Camera diagnostics functions Camera communication functions Camera/Lens configuration information ACTI.h Jpeg and mjpeg manipulation function Checks that all movies and images are well formed Extracts frames from video, and inserts metadata into images Image.h An extensive set of logging functions is used to aid in debugging the SBC Logs.h S’2009Team Solar

Windows SBC Communication SBC packages image, sensor data, and camera configuration into an Exif format image. This format it widely used by digital cameras to include metadata into jpeg images. Windows can then deal with camera image like any other jpeg, and metadata is readable by any Exif data reader. S’2009Team Solar

Exif 2.2 Tags for lens, GPS data, other location info, date of photo, and camera configuration are predefined in Exif standard. This makes our images metadata readable by a wide range of image manipulation programs. S’2009Team Solar JPEG Image Format Start of Image{ JPEG header; Start of Frame{ APP1{ Exif Data goes here; } APP2{ And here as well; } Start of Scan{ Image Data; }

SBC Sensor Module Communication S’2009Team Solar Sensor Module RS232 serial is used between SBC and sensor module Both BD9 and ribbon cable connectors on Sensor module allow for easy debug, as well as clean connection with SBC

S’2009Team Solar SBC Sensor Module Communication 1 Daemon on SBC waits for incoming data from Sensor Module. 2 Sensor module passes SBC sensor data and a file name 3 After receiving this, SBC captures picture, and stores it under given filename 4 SBC sends thumbnail of captured picture back to Sensor module for display on graphic LCD

Sensor Module S’2009Team Solar

Status of Senor Module Schematic Full sensor module schematic complete Awaiting final design of graphic LCD implementation PCB Layout PCB layout is underway but not yet complete Need to add graphic LCD components to design Expect to be complete by weeks end Firmware Low level firmware for ARM7 is complete Need to write code for interfacing with GPS Receiver and Compass Module

Sensor Package ARM7 packages data and sends it to SBC RS-232 GPS Receiver Microcontroller 32 Bit ARM7 50 MHz Microcontroller 32 Bit ARM7 50 MHz Compass Module User Interface LCD Screen Keypad ARM7 offloads image to SRAM 32 Bit Parallel I2CI2C UART 8 bit GPIO Image from FPGA GPS Receiver Acquires position fix and outputs message to microcontroller Provides a time stamp for the image Data used to predict sun’s position GPS Receiver Acquires position fix and outputs message to microcontroller Provides a time stamp for the image Data used to predict sun’s position Compass Module Honeywell HMC6343 single chip package Outputs heading message to predict orientation of sun relative to solar panel Tilt compensation to allow device to be oriented at relatively any angle Has integrated 3-axis accelerometer to provide pitch and roll orientation Sensitive to the presence of magnetic materials Must avoid using iron or steel components in design Compass Module Honeywell HMC6343 single chip package Outputs heading message to predict orientation of sun relative to solar panel Tilt compensation to allow device to be oriented at relatively any angle Has integrated 3-axis accelerometer to provide pitch and roll orientation Sensitive to the presence of magnetic materials Must avoid using iron or steel components in design Microcontroller NXP (Phillips) LPC2292 series 32 bit ARM7 core 50 MHz CPU frequency 24 bit address space + 32 data bit external memory interface Microcontroller NXP (Phillips) LPC2292 series 32 bit ARM7 core 50 MHz CPU frequency 24 bit address space + 32 data bit external memory interface User Interface 800x480 pixel graphic LCD Header for serial character LCD, as a fall back plan 16 button keypad for user input User Interface 800x480 pixel graphic LCD Header for serial character LCD, as a fall back plan 16 button keypad for user input

GPS Receiver Transmit Data Output UART0 Receive Data Input UART0

Compass Module Serial Clock Serial Data Pull Up Resistor (10k Ω)

Power Supply and Voltage Regulators +1.8V and +3.3V voltage regulators +5-9V DC barrel plug

Keypad 8-bit GPIO 4-bit OR gate to create interrupt

Data Bus Address Bus SPI Interrupt Bus Control GPIO Serial I/O Control Data Address Bus Control Buffer Cyclone II FPGA Cyclone II FPGA I/O Microcontroller Signals 800 x 480 Color LCD SRAM (512k x 16) x 2 Parallel I/O Structure

Bus Timing: ARM7 --> SRAM Valid Address Change Valid Data CPU Clock Chip Select Output Enable Write Enable Address Bus Data Bus High Z Buffer State

Clock HSync Data Bus Data Enable μC Bus Bus Timing: LCD Horizontal Valid Data (line) High Z Active 800 Clock Cycles 216 Clock Cycles 40 Clock Cycles

HSync Vsync Data Bus Data Enable Bus Timing: LCD Vertical Valid Data (area)

Image Capture Components IP Camera$ Fisheye Lens $ Single Board Computer $ Sensor Module Components PCB (4 layer)$75.00 Microcontroller/FPGA $40.00 Memory IC's$50.00 Misc. Components $50.00 Compass$ GPS Receiver $0.00 Graphic LCD$0.00 Keypad $ % Margin of Error $ Available Funds ($800.00) Budget Deficiency $ Project Budget

CDR 2/24 Sensor Module PCB Rev 1. Schematic and Layout Ordered Linux Functional on SBC. Image Capture/Processing on Debian Machine functional. Algorithms completed in MATLAB Milestone 1 3/17 Sensor Module powered and with component interface code written Image capture from single board computer Basic user interface on windows computer, algorithms converted to C# Milestone 2 4/14 Sensor module software complete Sensor module fully integrated with single board computer User interface completed Expo 4/30 Full system test completed Project Schedule

Concerns Lack of experience in designing PCB and making sure all components are placed, soldered properly. Assuring that we meet design requirements, and that components are accurate enough to make good solar predictions. Making sure that all the components can communicate with each other, the microprocessor, and most importantly package that data and send it to the SBC. Sensor Module Long development time due to all the small details that plague user interfaces Windows UI Getting openRTSP to compile on ARM9 SBC Single Board Computer

Questions? S’2009Team Solar