Solmetric PV ANALYZER PVA-1500 Series User Manual

Getting Started
1-3
Prediction of PV Performance ........................................................................................................................ 3-75
Translation of Measured Values to STC ......................................................................................................... 3-75
Measurement of I
sc
.......................................................................................................................................... 3-76
CALIBRATION VERIFICATION ............................................................................................................................... 3-76
PVA PC SOFTWARE UPDATES ............................................................................................................................. 3-77
PVA-1500 AND SOLSENSOR 300V2 FIRMWARE UPDATES .................................................................................. 3-77
4 MAKING MEASUREMENTS......................................................................................................................... 4-79
INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................................... 4-79
BEFORE YOU GO TO THE FIELD TO MAKE MEASUREMENTS ................................................................................... 4-79
Charge the equipment ..................................................................................................................................... 4-79
Check that you are using the latest PVA software .......................................................................................... 4-80
Create a Project in the PVA software. ............................................................................................................ 4-80
Make sure you have all your equipment ......................................................................................................... 4-80
Assure adequate irradiance for your measurements ........................................................................................ 4-80
MAKING MEASUREMENTS IN THE FIELD .............................................................................................................. 4-81
Measure the open circuit voltage Voc ............................................................................................................. 4-81
Place the I-V Unit near the PV circuits to be measured .................................................................................. 4-81
Connect the test leads to the PVA ................................................................................................................... 4-81
Launch the PVA software ............................................................................................................................... 4-81
Load your Project ............................................................................................................................................ 4-82
Mount SolSensor ............................................................................................................................................. 4-82
Attach SolSensor thermocouple ...................................................................................................................... 4-82
Turn on the I-V Measurement Unit, and connect wirelessly to your PC ........................................................ 4-82
Turn on SolSensor .......................................................................................................................................... 4-83
Prepare the PV source circuits for measurement ............................................................................................ 4-83
Are you measuring strings in parallel?............................................................................................................ 4-83
Are you measuring high-efficiency modules? ................................................................................................ 4-83
Connect the test leads to the PV equipment .................................................................................................... 4-84
Select the first PV circuit to be measured ....................................................................................................... 4-84
Make your first measurement ......................................................................................................................... 4-84
Select the next PV circuit and take another measurement .............................................................................. 4-86
View the consistency of your data before moving on ..................................................................................... 4-86
Alerts............................................................................................................................................................... 4-87
Data backup .................................................................................................................................................... 4-88
5 TROUBLESHOOTING PVA OPERATION ................................................................................................. 5-89
TROUBLESHOOTING USING STATUS MESSAGES ................................................................................................... 5-89
TROUBLESHOOTING BY SYMPTOM ....................................................................................................................... 5-93
"No I-V Measurement Unit" message ............................................................................................................. 5-93
SolSensor parameter values are not displayed ................................................................................................ 5-94
Communication to I-V Measurement Unit or SolSensor briefly drops out ..................................................... 5-94
It takes more time than usual to return and save a measurement .................................................................... 5-95
I-V curve does not reach down to the X-axis .................................................................................................. 5-95
I-V trace consists of straight line segments ..................................................................................................... 5-95
Trace is noisy .................................................................................................................................................. 5-95
I-V curve drops to zero current at one or more points .................................................................................... 5-95
Short circuit current is much higher, or lower, than predicted by the model .................................................. 5-96
Unstable voltage message ............................................................................................................................... 5-96

Solmetric PV ANALYZER PVA-1500 Series Specifications

General

Brand	Solmetric
Model	PV ANALYZER PVA-1500 Series
Category	Measuring Instruments
Language	English