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STM32F4DISCOVERY and STM32 PMSM FOC SDK

alessandro239955_stm1
Associate III
Posted on September 23, 2015 at 06:51

Hi everyone.

I am developing a robotic application and I need some advice.

I need to drive two BLDC motors (these drive the wheels of the robot) and also to interface with a parallel camera.

I understand that with STM32F407VGT6 I am able to drive individually two BLDC motors (using the STM32 PMSM FOC SDK) and also interface with the camera. For this reason I plan to buy the STM32F4DISCOVERY board. 

Do you know some limitation or problem that I could have with STM32F4DISCOVERY and STM32 PMSM FOC SDK?

Thank you and I am sorry in the case I put my message in the wrong place.

#stm3240g-eval
19 REPLIES 19
Gigi
ST Employee
Posted on September 23, 2015 at 09:23

Ciao

If it is possible I suggest to use the STM324xG-EVAL that is supported ''out-of-the-box'' from the WB with dedicated configuration and example.

Anyhow you can try with the STM32F4DISCOVERY and manually configure the WB project for that board.

You ave to create an interface by wire with the standard power boards because the DISCOVERY doesn't have the MC connector 32-pins and you have to verify that the microcontroller that is mounted on the DISCOVERY have the required pins for the drive that you need (Dual drive and so on). To verify that the pin required is present you can use the WB as configurator, create a generic project with STM32F4 and verify in the Control Stage-> Digital outputs and Analog input if any alowed pins is present.

Ah... you have also to double check the CPU frequency and the external oscillator because only the configuration of the STM32xG-EVAL is supported by the WB+FW.

Ciao

Gigi

alessandro239955_stm1
Associate III
Posted on September 23, 2015 at 20:43

All the power board that I saw into the catalog work at a voltage higher than 6V... So they are not good for my application.... And for what I understand an Eval without a St power board has the same capability of a Discovery.

Gigi
ST Employee
Posted on September 24, 2015 at 18:28

Ciao Alex

1) The MP works with STM324xG-EVAL and on any board that is based on STM32F3 or STM32F4. But the MP can be enabled in the WB only if you select a supported power board. This because the MP procedure requires a sort of calibration fator that take in consideration some parasitic effects in order to achive a good estimation of motor parameters. The only work around if you use you custom power board is to start with a supported power board and modify the parameters according of your board (anyhow you should have some error in the motor parameter, mainly Rs and Ls, and this error is significant if the Rs is below 1 Ohm and Ls is below 1mH)

2) The MP is able to set any parameters of Drive Mng -> Speed/Position fb mng

3) I don't catch the point. Some of the control board have the STLink embedded, other do not have it and you need an external one. Power board do not require STLink.

 

4) Yes you are right. Indeed the dual drive board with STM32F4 is the STEVAL-IHM039. If you want to consider the STM32F3 the STM32303E-EVAL is ready for dual drive.

Ciao

Gigi

alessandro239955_stm1
Associate III
Posted on September 24, 2015 at 20:15

Thank you Gigi.

Actually I would like to interface also with one or more digital camera, it seems that the  

STM32F303VE doesn't support it, and I wouldn't use a multi MCU configuration.

The BLDC motor that I am going to drive is a Maxon 423511 

Nominal Voltage 6

Therminal Resistance phase to phase 16.7 Ohm (seems ok)

Therminal Inductance phase to phase 0.0668 mH (NOT ok)

Do you have any power board to suggest for this motor in order to setup all the parameters of the controller (speed/torque) with WB?

My Idea is that I will use the STM324xG-EVAL plus ST power board(if there is some compliant with my motor) to setup only one motor (since the two motor are equals), after that I will use the Discovery board to drive both the motors (I can't use MEMS but who cares!) and at the end I will design my custom PCB.

Is it possible to speak directly with you?

This is my email: Alessandro.Buscicchio@jpl.nasa.gov

Please send me an email there

Thank you very much for your support!!!
alessandro239955_stm1
Associate III
Posted on November 06, 2015 at 02:58

Hi again.

I have bought a StmF4Discovery board and designed my custom power board.

I'm stuck at this point. I am not able to flash the discovery board with the firmware through Keil. I think I don't configure correctly the programmer. I chose ST-LINK/V2 as Debug Adapter but while flashing I receive this error Flash Download failed ''Cortex-M4''.

What am I doing wrong? 

Gigi
ST Employee
Posted on November 06, 2015 at 08:49

Ciao Alessandro

This isn't a question strictly related to motor controlfirmware or software.

I suggest to try here below

STM32

https://my.st.com/public/STe2ecommunities/mcu/Lists/cortex_mx_stm32

STM32 Evaluation Tools

https://my.st.com/public/STe2ecommunities/mcu/Lists/STM32Discovery

Ciao

Gigi

alessandro239955_stm1
Associate III
Posted on November 09, 2015 at 19:15

Hi Gigi.

Thank you for your answer. I'm able to program correctly the board and now I need some advice in order to set up correctly the Motor Control Workbench.

My motor has the following parameters:

Sensored (Hall sensors) EC motor Intern PMSM:

Nominal Voltage 6V

Pole Pairs 1

Max. appl. speed 100000

Nom Current 0.51A

Rs 3.49 Ohm

Ld 0.03 mH

B-Emf Constant 0.1 V/Krpm

I'm using a custom power board that allows the system to use either single or three shunt resistances for current sensing. I'd like to run the motor in both sensored and sensorless configuration separately. Could you suggest me some starting parameters that I can use in order to get the motor run correctly? I don't need to achieve best performance/robustness at this point. I only need to be able to run the motor at a fixed speed around 15000 rpm.

Thank you,

Alex

Gigi
ST Employee
Posted on November 10, 2015 at 11:07

Ciao Alex

The task is quite hard due to low inductance and higher speed.

Les's say that I suggest to work with PWM freq greater than 30kHz and rep rate 1

Current bandwidth 6000 rad/s

Minimum speed to validate the BEMF of 10.000 rpm

Acceleration with full current 0.51 and ramp according to the load. start with 1kRP per second and then if it follow reduce the time.

I have no other particular suggestion.

Ciao

Gigi

alessandro239955_stm1
Associate III
Posted on November 10, 2015 at 21:40

Ciao Gigi.

Actually I'm having a problem, I receive this error ''Maximum resulting modulation index clamped to minimum allowed (81%)''. I receive this error when I set a PWM higher than 20kHz.

Any suggestions?