UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MARA

DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF DATA LOGGER WITH

MULTIPLE SD CARDS FOR PHOTOVOLTAIC SYSTEM

NAJWA NASUHA BINTIMAHZAN

Thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

Master of Science

Faculty of Electrical Engineering

August 2016

CONFIRMATION BY PANEL OF EXAMINERS

I certify that a Panel of Examiners has met on 14 June 2016 to conduct the final examination of Naj wa Nasuha Binti Mahzan on her Master of Science thesis entitled "Design and Development of Data Logger with Multiple SD Cards for Photovoltaic System" in accordance with Universiti Teknologi MARA Act 1976 (Akta 173). The panel of Examiners was as follows:

Norsuzila Ya'acob, PhD Associate Professor Faculty of Electrical Engineering Universiti Teknologi MARA (Chairperson)

Wahidah Mansor, PhD Associate Professor Faculty of Electrical Engineering Universiti Teknologi MARA (Internal Examiner)

Teddy Surya Gunawan, PhD Associate Professor Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering International Islamic University Malaysia (External Examiner)

DR MOHAMMAD NAWAWI DATO' HAJI SEROJI Associate Professor Dean Institute of Graduates Studies Universiti Teknologi MARA Date : 10th August, 2016

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AUTHOR'S DECLARATION

I declare that the work in this thesis was carried out in accordance with the regulations

of Universiti Teknologi MARA. It is original and is the result of my own work, unless

otherwise indicated or acknowledged as referenced work. This topic has not been

submitted to any other academic institution or non-academic institution for any other

degree or qualification.

I, hereby, acknowledge that I have been supplied with the Academic Rules and

Regulations for Post Graduate, Universiti Teknologi MARA, regulating the conduct of

my study and research.

Name of Student

Student I.D. No.

Program

Faculty

Thesis Title

Najwa Nasuha Binti Mahzan

2011141313

Master of Science (Electrical Engineering) - EE780

Electrical Engineering

Design and Development of Data Logger with

Multiple SD Cards for Photovoltaic System

Signature of Student

Date August 2016

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ABSTRACT

Monitoring system has been a crucial process in any system which relates to the observing and examining the system in detail. The needs of having the monitoring system are sometimes to improve the system itself, to observe the vital changes that will affect the system or anything related, and to look for the system's performances for future reference. Thus, it is essential to have a good data logger which able to capture plenty of data from many sensors where all the data will be stored in huge data storage by means of having a bigger size of memory storage without being supervised frequently. A proposed data logger which implied a microcontroller of ATmega 2560 is introduced where it equips with many channels for taking data from stacks of sensors and definitely is having a gigantic size of memory to store the received data; two SD cards with the size of 4GB each are used throughout the project. The proposed data logger can be used in any systems which are related to electrical as well as in meteorological system provided that the sensors have electrical output that can be read directly or through signal conditioning. Based on the result testing from the proposed data logger, it has shown the low sampling rate in logging process where it could contribute much in logging stage under users' preferences, the low swapping time between two SD cards as low as 1.40 ms when error occurred which can activate the second memory storage immediately without hassle, and lastly the workability of the data logger performances via its characteristics.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

CONFIRMATION BY PANEL OF EXAMINERS ii

AUTHOR'S DECLARATION iii

ABSTRACT iv

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT v

TABLE OF CONTENTS vi

LIST OF TABLES ix

LIST OF FIGURES x

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS xv

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Research B ackground 1

1.2 Problem Statement 5

1.3 Research Obj ectives 7

1.4 Scope of Research 7

1.5 Thesis Layout 8

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Introduction 10

2.2 Background of Data Logger 10

2.2.1 Definition of Data Logger 11

2.2.2 Characteristics of Data Logger 11

2.2.3 Basic Elements of Data Logging System 14

2.3 Data Logger in PV System 16

2.4 Data Logger for Other Than PV System Usage 28

2.5 Data Logger Using Arduino 3 9

2.6 Overall Review From Past Data Logger 47

2.7 Summary 51

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