MCSDK documentation and your feedback

[Zied b.]

Motor Control Wiki: 
STM32 Motor Control Knowledge Database - stm32mcu

MC Frequently asked questions (FAQ):

Frequently asked questions (FAQ) - stm32mcu

The documentation of the Board descriptions format is now available on the Motor Control Wiki:

Wiki Link

Documentation embedded in the MCSDK:
The MCSDK documentation ( MCP & ASPEP, Api..etc..) is provided in the package. The fastest way to find it is through the Motor Control Workbench:

- Open Motor Control Workbench
- Click top right on "About" button
- Click on "Documentations" -> "Documentation"
- Click on "User Manual"

As it is HTML documentation you can also enter this link in your browser: (replace _your_install_folder_):

file:///C:/_your_install_folder_/MC_SDK_x.y.z/Documentation/html/index.html

We wish to always improve our documentation, The best reviews and critics always come from the people that read it, so we would like to use this post to collect your thoughts and feedback.

Please share what you like, dislike, what you think is missing, etc ...

[shane mattner]

[EDIT: As I work through getting a working MCSDK system working I'll add/edit this response]

Hello,

Thanks for asking for feedback.  I'm trying to develop a new motor controller with STM32 chips (7+ years professional STM32 developer, first time making the motor controller from scratch),  and have a few pieces of feedback:

• Documentation is only available through MCSDK, which requires a Windows PC.  I had to physically copy the documentation to a thumb drive to transfer it to the main Linux laptop.  This feels outdated and documentation should be easily available
• Documentation varies on the version of MCSDK so it can be confusing when using the latest versions
• The process of starting a custom project was not clear.  I struggled through trying to profile the motor (buggy software, profiler not completing, etc) and get a dev kit (EVLSPIN32G4-ACT and B-G431B-ESC1) working but I finally got it to work.  However, then I struggled through another few days not realizing I needed to make a new project with the motor profile I just saved and to also turn off the Motor Profile selection in the MCWB tool.  Luckily an ST employee on the forums helped me enough that I realized my mistake
• Website/pdf Documentation is ok but I would love to have a YouTube series of an end-to-end example documenting a complete motor controller development:
  • Use a dev kit to profile a motor
  • Create a new project with that motor profile and demo the button spinning sensorless FOC
  • Demo sending commands over uart/can connection to do other things with dev kit
  • Add hall sensors or quadrature signals to the project and get the motor spinning again sensored
  • Demo current based torque control
  • Demo position based control (sensorless and sensored)
  • Create custom PCB with minimal motor controller based on the dev kit used
  • Bring up custom PCB using MCWB and demo speed, position, and torque control
• The ASPEP protocol is confusing.  There should be ST provided code for python and C that users can drop into projects.  Wasting weeks on figuring out the protocol to control the motor is very inefficient and frustrating.  I'm having to resort to a bit sniffer and random forum posts to try and piece together what the ST ASPEP is doing.