Design, Measurements and Characterization of Smart Electronic Board for PV Streetlight based on LED and High Intensity Discharge Lamps

Design, Measurements and Characterization of Smart Electronic Board for PV Streetlight based on LED and High Intensity Discharge Lamps

Paolo Visconti, Daniele Romanello, Giovanni Zizzari, Vito Ventura, Giorgio Cavalera
Copyright: © 2013 |Pages: 13
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-4165-5.ch012
OnDemand:
(Individual Chapters)
Available
$37.50
Current Special Offers
No Current Special Offers
TOTAL SAVINGS: $37.50

Abstract

This work presents an electronic board for driving and control of High Intensity Discharge (HID) lamps and Light Emitting Diode (LED) lamps. The proposed electronic board is able to drive HID or LED lamps by means of a reconfigurable output. This feature allows using the ballast in lighting systems that currently use traditional discharge lamps, as well as keeping the same ballast when discharge lamps are replaced by LED modules in the near future, when LED street lighting systems will be more affordable. Additionally, since the lighting system is designed to be used in rural areas where there is no public electricity, each lighting point incorporates a system to convert solar energy into continuous voltage by means of photovoltaic panels. In this work, energy saving issues are taken into account.
Chapter Preview
Top

2. Electronic Board Block Diagram

The general architecture of an electronic ballast for high intensity discharge lamps (Rashid, 2007) is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1.

General HID block diagram

978-1-4666-4165-5.ch012.f01

An EMI filter connected to the power line is responsible for limiting electromagnetic interference. After the bridge rectifier that converts AC into DC voltage, a device called Power Factor Corrector (PFC) optimizes power consumption by the power line, avoiding unnecessary loss of power, and provides a high voltage (Vbus). The output stage, consisting of an H-bridge, is driven by two half-bridge drivers (or a full-bridge driver) and allows the lamp to be powered by an AC and low frequency (usually 200 Hz) signal. The drivers are driven by a control circuit, typically a microcontroller. It provides the PWM signals to the half-bridge drivers and avoids a short circuit situation, e.g., switching on both transistors of a branch of the H-bridge at the same time.

The HID lamp needs a high discharge voltage, provided by the so called “igniter”, in order to be started up. The igniter uses a high voltage transformer to generate the desired discharge voltage (STMicroelectronics, 2008).

For what concerns the reconfigurable output, the microcontroller drives the half-bridge driver through a programmable device (GAL). The GAL implements a logic circuit which has the aim of adjusting the current flowing in the HID/LED lamp, on the basis of signals provided by the microcontroller and the feedback from the powered lamp. The fact that this feedback does not pass through the microcontroller guarantees a certain robustness of the system.

Top

3. Electrical Circuits

The designed ballast consists of three PCB (Printed Circuit Board): the communication module, the control board and power board. This section describes the main resources that constitute the control board and the H-bridge driver circuit, installed on the power board (Figure 2), designed to power a 150W HID lamp.

Figure 2.

Electronic board block diagram

978-1-4666-4165-5.ch012.f02

Complete Chapter List

Search this Book:
Reset