high voltage (80v) brushless motor control(FOC)

[Dillon Stewart]

Posted on April 20, 2017 at 03:01

Hello,

What would be recommended to drive an 80V max brushless motor?

I noticed all the integrated motor controllers are all relatively low voltage (45v max).  I would like to use the Nucleo-144 F7 series for this project if I cannot use one of the awesome integrated motor control solution chips / dev boards.

Thanks in advance!

Dillon

#field-oriented-control #motor-control #stm32-pmsm-foc #brushless-motor #nucleo-f767zi #development-board #high-voltage

[AvaTar · Accepted solution]

Posted on April 20, 2017 at 10:06

I'm not an expert with motor control itself, to be fair.

But I suggest to broaden your view, and have a look at motor control evaluation kits of other suppliers.

Many of them provide schematics, so I'm pretty sure you will find some inspirations there.

I definitely know TI has some, but didn't check the others recently.

And with proper evaluation of the MCUs/variants they are easily interchangeable - with moderate SW porting effort.

BTW, in reference to relevant threads here and elsewhere, I would go for a solution with galvanic isolation between MCU and motor driver hardware...

[Dillon Stewart]

Posted on April 20, 2017 at 21:40

Great advice thanks! I'll keep checking around

[valentin]

Posted on April 21, 2017 at 06:32

Basically, the setup is the same, regardless of voltage.

All you need to make sure of is that your main switching elements (mosfets, igbts, etc) can block the minimum voltage required + a safety margin, especially for inductive loads (motors). That margin is usually at least 50% on top of the maximum expected voltage spike. So for 80V, I would get mosfets/igbts for 200V min (gut feeling). And then you'd also have to check the datasheet for safe operation area to make sure your switching speed, max current and max voltage are within limits.

Other than that, you'd only have to adapt your sense circuits to the higher voltage -> change res dividers, insulation, etc.

Not too much. Can be as easy as swapping some resistors and mosfets and adjusting your code.

[Max]

Posted on April 21, 2017 at 06:54

ST proposes a lot of solutions for motor control.

Have a look at this 

http://www.st.com/content/ccc/resource/sales_and_marketing/promotional_material/brochure/bf/aa/d0/60/38/83/43/74/Brochure_Motor_Control.pdf/files/Brochure_Motor_Control.pdf/jcr:content/translations/en.Brochure_Motor_Control.pdf

 you will probably find a device or a board that fit your needs...

[AvaTar]

Posted on April 21, 2017 at 08:04

Basically, the setup is the same, regardless of voltage.

All you need to make sure of is that your main switching elements (mosfets, igbts, etc) can block the minimum voltage required + a safety margin, especially for inductive loads (motors).

There exist many integrated motor driver chips that reduce the design and hardware efforts significantly - if the properties match your requirements (SN754410, L293, TI's DRVxxxx series, to name just a few).

These ICs have 'hard' voltage and power limits, and scaling up means a total redesign.

Many motor eval kits group a MCU with such a driver, and as such not quite 'portable'.

Designing your own H bridges requires a bit more background knowledge.

[Dillon Stewart]

Posted on April 21, 2017 at 20:40

Wow, you make it sound really easy! I hope I don't have too much trouble with this project