Cincoze DA-1000 Enables Power Monitoring and Optimization of Solar Photovoltaic Systems

In the face of global warming, regulatory bodies of various countries are imposing stringent environmental protection regulations to encourage power generation enterprises to shift to eco-friendly and cleaner energy resources. As a result, solar power has become a viable alternative to fossil fuels, providing an efficient and renewable energy source.

Solar photovoltaic systems are surging worldwide and are playing a key role in the transformation of energy. However, most photovoltaic power stations are unmanned, geographically scattered in suburbs, large power plants, or industrial buildings, so to sustain the industry’s continuous growth, photovoltaic systems need to be automated.

Our European customer, specializing in integrating hardware and software for building automation and renewable energy systems, chose the DA-1000 as a gateway controller to monitor the operations equipment and devices. They required a reliable computer system to play a mission-critical control role in their solar power utility applications.

 
Customer's Requirements

Compact Form Factor
The control computer is installed in the space-limited distribution cabinet. With cost and space efficiency concerns, compact size and small form factor are the preferred options.

Rich I/O and LAN Connectivity
The computer is an integrated device for monitoring production and optimizing the energy generation of photovoltaic systems. It allows the interfacing of inverters, string control, power meters, connect sensors, and other types of devices. It needs to support data acquisition via RS232/RS485, Gigabit Ethernet, and KNX communication protocol. The computer plays the role of an industrial IoT gateway to execute data logging and control of current, inverter data, weather information, and other parameters. Transmitting the collected data to the central management control room achieves an intelligent real-time monitoring system.

Environmental Endurance
Solar photovoltaic stations are demanding environments requiring computer system operation under a wide range of operating temperatures. Additionally, the computer needs to be built corrosion-resistant and without moving parts.
 
Why Cincoze?

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Ultra-Compact
Cincoze DA-1000 is the ideal gateway control system for data control and monitoring in such applications due to its compact size at only 150 x 105 x 52.3 mm. It can easily fit in small spaces like a control cabinet in the field, and it supports diverse mounting options, including VESA, DIN-rail, and side or wall mounting.

Industrial Connectivity and Expandability
This IoT gateway supports rich features, including 2x RS-232/422/485 COM ports, 2x GbE LAN, 1x USB 3.2, 3x USB 2.0, 1x SIM socket, 2x full-size Mini-PCIe slots for additional storage and expansive wireless connectivity options. Additionally, with Cincoze’s proprietary CMI modules, the DA-1000 can be extended with other I/Os, including COM, DIO, DisplayPort, DVI, VGA, HDMI, and LPT/PS2.

Ruggedness
DA-1000 offers a fanless, rugged design and uses industrial-grade components. It has an Intel® Atom™ E3826, E3845 or Celeron® J1900 processor and supports a wide input voltage range of 9–48V DC. Since photovoltaic power stations are often located outdoors, the DA-1000 supports an extended operating temperature range of -25 to 70°C to ensure reliable operation in harsh weather conditions. The reliable DA-1000 embedded computer is a perfect solution for industrial IoT applications such as factory automation, smart energy utility applications, and other challenging operations in harsh environmental conditions.

Cincoze also offers the DA-1100, boasting a more powerful Intel® Pentium® or Celeron® processor and the same core features as the DA-1000. It supports a wide operating temperature of -40 to 70°C, bringing reliable computing performance in extreme conditions.

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