browsing through many of the DC-optimizer raving articles, maxim seem to have invented the bee's knee with their cell-string optimizer/MPPT chip.
https://www.maximintegrated.com/en/products/industries/solar-energy.htmltook me a while to figure out that such a contraption would still live in the junction box, rather than being integrated into the PV panel itself, what the name is (somehow) suggesting.
so, what's the deal? anybody out there actually using it, or using PV modules that feature the maxim solution, or at least gave it a tear down for the heck of it? i wonder why panel makers actually would break out all of the cell strings rather than just the internal DC bus, as more
conections to the outside world could mean an impact on long-term reliability. and, besides of that, optimizers did exist before, using dead-cheap microcontrollers for PWM and MPPT, that could be used (i.e., cloned) for cell-string level optimization as well.
why is there such a hype around this particular part that seems to be non-existent, even on maxim's website?