Monitoring of distributed power harvesting systems using DC power sources

A method, comprising:

• monitoring, by a monitoring module that includes a microcontroller, power generation of a first power source;
• when power generation of the first power source passes a threshold after having awaken from a sleep state as detected by the monitoring module, initializing a timer and collecting performance data of the first power source;
• monitoring an elapsed time period of the timer from initialization of the timer;
• generating a first random time increment to be applied for a transmission time period of the first power source;
• determining, by a first controller, the transmission time period of the first power source by adding the first random time increment to a periodic transmission time of the first power source;
• determining whether an elapsed time period of the timer has reached the transmission time period of the first power source;
• in response to determining that the elapsed time period has reached the transmission time period of the first power source, transmitting collected performance data of the first power source over a power line;
• generating a second random time increment to be applied for a transmission time period of a second power source connected to a same power line as the first power source;
• and
• determining, by a second controller, a transmission time period for transmitting performance data of the second power source over the power line by adding the second random time increment to a periodic transmission time of the second power source,
• wherein the first and second random time increments are different from each other to lessen a possibility of collisions in transmissions of performance data of the first power source and the second power source over the power line.

A system, comprising:

• a plurality of panel units connected to a communication line, wherein each panel unit comprises:
• a power source;
• a monitoring module configured to collect performance data of the power source;
• a transmitter configured to transmit the performance data over the communication line;
• and
• a controller configured to control the transmitter to transmit the performance data using the communication line;
• and
• a communication translator configured to receive the performance data from each of the plurality of panel units over the communication line, wherein the controller of each panel unit is configured to avoid transmission collisions with controllers of other panel units by applying different time increments to be added to transmission times for transmission of the performance data for each of the plurality of panel units over the communication line.