P13271: AMSAT

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Project Summary	Project Information
Project Readiness Package Overview AMSAT Fox-2 Maximum Power Point Tracker PCB developed during MSDI and MSDII The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT) has been working to produce a new family of satellites to expand upon more than 40 years of flight heritage. The Fox family of satellites will be based on the CubeSat standard providing AMSAT with its next generation of spacecraft. The Fox-1 satellite is a small 1U CubeSat to be launched in 2013,the Fox-2 satellite will be a larger 3U payload that will require upgraded power production capabilities. Fox-2 will use seven SpectroLab UTJ 28.3% efficient solar cells to produce power while in a 600 to 800 km orbit around Earth. P13271,the team working on this project, has been tasked with providing AMSAT with an engineering prototype of a 7 Watt Maximum Power Point Tracker (MPPT). This project will be further developed into a flight ready design to be launched into orbit around 2015. The scope of this project includes providing a NASA derated and radiation tolerant engineering prototype MPPT. Two MPPT circuits were implemented with a temperature based constant voltage algorithm to prove size constraints and power sharing capabilities. The results of this project have produced a working analog MPPT and microprocessor firmware able to provide telemetry data to the Fox-2 Internal Housekeeping Unit (IHU) based on the Fox-1 standards. Results MPPT output power versus solar panel temperature accuracy The MPPT circuit developed for AMSAT successfully tracks the maximum power point based on temperature of the solar panels. The analog MPPT algorithm implemented suggests an improved robustness over microcontroller-based MPPT algorithms investigated. The power handling capability of the MPPT can easily be increased by sourcing higher power components, providing AMSAT with a very useful and scalable design. A great deal of effort was put into making the PCB easy to use and accessible for testing with numerous test points. The delivered hardware has been accompanied by a large amount of analysis and documentation compiled by the P13271 team members. Final Test Results (PDF) Videos Time-lapse PCB Bring-Up MPPT Operation Walk-Through MPPT Operation Super-Capacitors P13271 AMSAT MPPT MSDII Final Presentation	Project Name AMSAT-MPPT Project Number P13271 Project Family Vehicle Systems and Technologies Start Term 2012-2 End Term 2012-3 Faculty Guide Leo Farnand, Vince Burolla Primary Customer Tony Monteiro Sponsor (financial support) AMSAT

Team Members

AMSAT MPPT P13271 Team. Left to Right: Ian MacKenzie, Brent Salmi, Bryce Salmi, Dan Corriero

AMSAT MPPT P13271 Team. Left to Right: Ian MacKenzie, Brent Salmi, Bryce Salmi, Dan Corriero

Member	Role	Contact
Bryce Salmi	Project Manager	bts2637@rit.edu
Brent Salmi	Chief Engineer	bjs4703@rit.edu
Dan Corriero	Team Facilitator	dpc3240@rit.edu
Ian MacKenzie	Documentation Manager	icm4882@rit.edu

Table of Contents

MSD I	MSD II	Select Images
Photo Gallery Planning & Execution Systems Design System Design Review Detailed Design Project Review	Photo Gallery Planning & Execution Build, Test, Document Project Review Final Presentation (PDF) Technical Paper (PDF) Poster Print Quality (PDF) Poster High Quality (PNG)	Imagine RIT 2013 MPPT Testing Final MPPT PCB (S/N:1) (S/N:1 Dayton Hamvention 2013) MPPT Shipped

Acknowledgements