I’m sure many of you are familiar with the LaunchPad/BoosterPack Ecosystem developed at Texas Instruments. Well, we in the Motor Drive business decided to make our own contribution in the form of the BOOSTXL-DRV8301! It is common practice to pair many of our motor drivers with an MCU and the LaunchPad/BoosterPack combo provides a unique way to highlight this.
The BOOSTXL-DRV8301 is a 10 A, 3-phase brushless DC drive stage based on the DRV8301 pre-driver and CSD18533Q5A NexFET™ Power MOSFETs. The module has 3x low side current sense amps (2 internal to DRV8301, 1 external). The module also has a 1.5 A step down buck converter, is fully protected with short circuit, thermal, and shoot-through protection, and it’s easily configured via a SPI interface. This BoosterPack is ideal for those wishing to learn about sensorless brushless control techniques and drive stage design. This kit was designed to work with any LaunchPad XL, with primary software support through the InstaSPIN™-FOC enabled C2000™ Piccolo LaunchPad using MotorWare to support the InstaSPIN™-FOC sensorless control solution.
The BOOSTXL-DRV8301 brings out a mixture of power, control, and feedback signals to the LaunchPad XL headers allowing you to implement your own sensorless control scheme. It provides control of the 3-phase drive stage through the PWMX_H and PWMX_L signals and can be configured for 3 or 6 PWM input control. Voltage and current feedback for the motor phases comes through the FB pins. Also, an SPI interface is implemented for device configurations and diagnostics.
Although the BOOSTXL-DRV8301 is a compact design, it can still deliver significant power to your 3-phase motor. Shown below is a thermal capture of the steady state temperature of the BoosterPack operating at 24V/10A RMS per phase with InstaSPINTM-FOC along with the current through phase C.
As you can see, the BOOSTXL-DRV8301 truly brings 3-phase motor development into the palm of your hand. You can see a BOOSTXL-DRV8301 video below to learn more about the hardware features or search for solutions, get help, share knowledge and solve problems with fellow engineers and TI experts on the Motor Drivers forum.
