Research Article Faults Detection in a Photovoltaic Generator by Using Matlab Simulink and the chipKIT Max32 Board Riadh Khenfer, 1,2 Mohamed Mostefai, 1 Seddik Benahdouga, 2 and Mounir Maddad 2 1 Ferhat Abbas University and Laboratory LAS of S´ etif 1, 19000 S´ etif, Algeria 2 Electromechanical Engineering Department, El Bachir El Ibrahimi University of BBA, 34000 Bordj Bou Arr´ eridj, Algeria Correspondence should be addressed to Riadh Khenfer; riadh kh05@yahoo.fr Received 25 January 2014; Revised 5 April 2014; Accepted 8 May 2014; Published 28 May 2014 Academic Editor: Mahmoud M. El-Nahass Copyright © 2014 Riadh Khenfer et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Tis paper presents a laboratory with equipment and an algorithm for teaching graduate students the monitoring and the diagnosis of PV arrays. Te contribution is the presentation of an algorithm to detect and localize the fault, in photovoltaic generator when a limited number of voltage sensors are used. An I-V curve tracer using a capacitive load is exploited to measure the I-V characteristics of PV arrays. Such measurement allows characterization of PV arrays on-site, under real operating conditions, and provides also information for the detection of potential array anomalies. Tis I-V curve tracer is based on a microcontroller board family called chipKIT Max32 which is a popular platform for physical computing. A user program can be developed visually on a PC side via the graphical user interface (GUI) in Matlab Simulink, where the chipKIT Max32 of Digilent which is a low-cost board is designed for use with the Arduinompid sofware. Te obtained results from the partial shade default showed the efectiveness of the proposed diagnosis method and the good functioning of this board with the Matlab/Simulink environment. 1. Introduction Te photovoltaic power generation has been widely spread in diferent applications, ranging from space systems to the residential and commercial installations in buildings, tele- communication stations, power plants, and industrial appli- cations [1]. During operation, a PV generator is subject to several defects. Te most commonly encountered mismatch in the PV generator is the partial shade. Tis defect greatly minimizes the output power and makes the control of the converters inefective, because the power delivered by the generator may have several maxima [2, 3]. Tis can happen, in particular, when the protective diodes (bypass diodes) of the PV cells are closed. Also, the operation of a PV generator in the presence of several defects and anomalies causes a decrease in the perfor- mance or total unavailability of the system. All these adverse consequences are obviously going to reduce productivity and therefore reduce the performance of the plant and increase the cost of maintenance to make the system operating in normal state. To minimize the unavailability period and maximize the performance and efciency of PV systems, the diagnosis and the monitoring of PV system operation are essential. I-V curve measurements provide direct performance characterization and verifcation as well as a diagnostic tool for periodic PV system performance assessments. Tracing I- V curve is the most informative measurement that can be performed on a PV module or array. An I-V curve tracer is the best way to gain an understanding of the change based on ambient conditions and array problems, since it provides a graphical representation of the array operating characteristics. Te most precise and inexpensive measuring method is represented in capacitor charging by the PV generator. Using the equivalent circuit of the PV generator with a capacitor as load and applying on it a transient analysis, we obtain the capacitor charging voltage and current as a function of time, as well as their diferentials, depending on short circuit current and capacitor size [4, 5]. In this work the developed tracer of the I-V characteristic based on the use of graphical user interface (GUI) by using Hindawi Publishing Corporation International Journal of Photoenergy Volume 2014, Article ID 350345, 9 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/350345