WiFi Data Acquisition System Applied to a Photovoltaic Powered Water Pumping Plant

The present paper describes how to design and assemble a low cost online monitoring and WiFi data acquisition system using free software applied to microgeneration based on renewable energy sources. The development of online monitoring systems for microgeneration plants based on renewable energy sources is becoming more important, considering that monitoring and data acquisition systems are applicable in stages of the microgeneration process. The monitoring and data acquisition WiFi system was developed using an embedded WiFi modem (Wifly) coupled to a microcontrolled board based on the free tool SanUSB. This monitoring system was applied to a photovoltaic (PV) water pumping plant without batteries, so as the control system and the wireless communication with the online server, which is also autonomous and powered by PV panel. The free software for online monitoring and WiFi data acquisition allows the analysis of stored data and charts through mobile devices as notebooks, tablets and smartphones.