Based on the current design, the power generation system may not generate enough power for the batteries to charge if one or more faces of the satellite is generating much less power than the other faces during either nadir, sun-pointing or detumbling mode. This is due to the total wattage being stepped down from the load sharing process (which we need due to different amount of solar panels per supply).
This is because of the Load Sharing component we are using. If the component receives differing levels of current (ex. 100mA, 130mA, 60mA), it will ask all the sources for 60mA of current. Thus we are wasting a lot of power.
We have to find a way to reduce this power loss.
The current design:
Some solution ideas:
From previously done research, we know we need to load share to add voltages in parallel (even if they are the “same” voltage). The current IC does this by averaging the total currents - which is not good when one of our supplies are shaded! Let’s look for an IC that is designed for uneven power supplies and see if that would work instead!
To be honest, after MPPT we can prolly just add the voltages in parallel and like use diodes to prevent back flow, since we cant load share and OR-ing defeats the whole point of having 3 supplies.