Patent ID: 11888387
Assignee: SOLAREDGE TECHNOLOGIES LTD.
Field: Electrical machinery, apparatus, energy (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H  G  Y | IPC G  H

Claim 0:
1. A method comprising:
receiving power from a direct current (DC) power source at an input of a power converter;
controlling, with a controller comprising a digital pulse width modulator, the power converter by adjusting a duty cycle of the power converter using pulse width modulation, wherein the controlling includes:
operating the power converter at a low duty cycle to limit output voltage at an output of the power converter below a predetermined voltage in response to detecting an absence of a communication signal;
detecting, while limiting the output voltage, receipt of the communication signal;
responsive to detecting receipt of the communication signal, performing an iterative voltage control process including multiple iterations of:
operating the power converter to increase the output voltage by increasing the duty cycle of the power converter, and
detecting an amount of current being drawn, from the output of the power converter, by an inverter, wherein in one iteration of the voltage control process, the detected amount of current being drawn exceeds a preexisting level;

responsive to the increases of the output voltage and responsive to the controller detecting the amount of current being drawn by the inverter exceeds the preexisting level, the controller transitioning the power converter from the iterative voltage control process to maximum power point tracking; and
maintaining, by the controller and responsive to the transitioning, the output voltage to be below a maximum output voltage of the power converter while simultaneously maintaining about maximum power at the input of the power converter.