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Is there any position control example of BLDC on DRV8301-LS12-KIT?

Other Parts Discussed in Thread: MOTORWARE, CONTROLSUITE, DRV8301, TMS570LS1227

Hello,


I bought DRV8301-LS12-KIT and it works fine in closed-loop speed and torque control of BLDC motor, However, I would like to also test closed loop position control of BLDC motor using the same kit. Is there any example code or library for Hercules controller to test closed-loop position control a BLDC motor?

Thanks for your help in advance.

  • Hello:

    We have received your post and will check with the team if there is something available.

    Regards.
  • Hello,

    The DRV8301-LS12-KIT ships with a Teknic motor that incorporates a quadrature encoder. This is connected to an eQEP module (quadrature decoder) on the MCU. This encoder interface is used to identify the number of encoder ticks between the encoder index position and the motor's zero pole pair position. Once this offset is known, it is fairly straightforward to command the motor to any desired position.

    Unfortunately this is not implemented as a separate example that ships along with the other demo projects. You can actually modify the speed-control example to only move to a commanded position instead of continuing to spin at the target speed.

    Regards,
    Sunil
  • Hi Sunil,

    Thanks for your reply. Actually, I am new to use this kit and I am also bit confused between the control suit (www.ti.com/.../controlsuite;tisearch=Search-EN-Everything) and the instaspin BLDC example code for Hercules controller. I would like to know the clear comparison of control suit available for the Piccolo and Hercules controller. After going through the details on control suit, It looks to me that the control suit for Piccolo, Delfino and Concerto drivers can provide more control functions than Hercules control lib. Please correct me, if I am wrong. Therefore, I have been looking for an example code to speed up my development. I would really appreciate, if you could create a closed-loop position control example code for this kit and include it in your Hercules motor-ware update. May I know, from where I can download the latest moto-ware solution for Hercules controller? I found the motor ware software for Piccolo, Delfino on your website (www.ti.com/.../motorware;tisearch=Search-EN-Everything), but I could not find a link to Hercules motorware solution.

    Where can I find the datasheet of the Teknic motor that comes with the kit?

    Can I also use this controlCARD with Piccolo TMS320F28069MPZT on DRV8301-LS12-kit?

    Many thanks for your reply in advance.

    Regards,
  • You can download the Motorware example code projects for Hercules here: www.ti.com/.../drv8301-ls12-kit

    Scroll down to the "Software" section to find the link to the zipped file. A more recent version can be found on this wiki page: processors.wiki.ti.com/.../TMS570LS12x_CNCD

    This version has significant enhancements and speed improvements.
  • Hi,

    Thank you for your reply. I already have this version installed and all the examples code. However, I could not find any example code for closed loop position control loop. This version was last time updated in year 2012. If you compare this with the motorware software for piccolo then you will realize this version of motorware software for Hercules controller is pretty old. Please check this link www.ti.com/.../MotorWare;tisearch=Search-EN-Everything. Is Ti planning to release new software update for Hercules controllers? Moreover, I requested to know, Is there any control suit available for Hercules controller similar to the control suit for piccolo?

    Can I also use this controlCARD with Piccolo TMS320F28069MPZT on DRV8301-LS12-kit?

    Thanks for your answer in advance.

    Regards,
  • MotorWare for C2000 MCUs is distributed through ControlSuite. Any Hercules MotorWare updates will be released via the DRV8301-LS12-KIT page. I am not aware of the plans for updating the algorithms currently supported on Hercules MCUs. You can go to www.ti.com/instaspin for an overview of the different control algorithms and the corresponding TI MCUs that support these algorithms.

    You can use the F28069M control card with the DRV8301 EVM. See this page for more information: www.ti.com/.../drv8301-69m-kit
  • Thank you for your reply. Can Hercules team answer the question regarding new update of motorware software for Hercules controller? I found a instaspin BLDC lib file inside the Hercules motorware installed folder (see in figure below), but I could not find a document that can help me to use this library. Is there any document or guide?


    Regards,

  • You can find a document explaining this example project under the C:\ti\Hercules\MotorWare\v1.0.3.03\sw\solutions\instaspin_bldc\boards\drv8301kit_revD\hercules\tms570ls1227\projects\ccs5\project01\docs folder, assuming that you have installed MotorWare under the C:\ti directory.

    Regards,
    Sunil
  • Thank you for your reply. However, that document is not about the instaspin BLDC APIs description. In fact, It is more about the instaspin BLDC project. May I know, is Ti planning to make a new release of Hercules motorware? 

    Regards,

  • Hello,
    This is not planned in the near term.

    Regards,
  • Hi Sunil,


    Thanks for your reply. May I know, is anyone really using this kit in the industry? I asked this question because of the following reasons.

    1) Complete API documentation of instaspin BLDC lib for Hercules controller is not available.

    2) Ti Control suit is also not available for Hercules controller that offers FluxAngelSpeedTorque motor control module for BLDC motor.

    3) The motorware software/hardware of Hercules controller has not been update since 2012 and it will not be update in the near future as you mentioned.

    I really would like to explore more functionality of this kit and the controller, but I don't know, how should I proceed further without a useful documentation. Despite all this, Is there any possibility to get an example code of BLDC closed-loop position control for this kit? As you mentioned that it is really simple for Ti engineers.

    Regards,