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MCT8316A: How to buy MCT8316AT (hardware config variant)?

Part Number: MCT8316A
Other Parts Discussed in Thread: MCF8316A,

Hello,

I've been using an MCF8316A for control of a custom BLDC motor. I have been encountering lots of frustrating problems using the GUI where the part will stop communicating its algorithm state and not respond to input, sometimes continuing to spin the motor or burn current without spinning. Apparently the only way to fix these states is to cycle power to the part (why isn't there a reset pin!?). 

I'm potentially interested in the hardware configurable MCT8316AT as a fallback option that will hopefully "just work" once I set the resistors. On looking at the product page for the part or the dev kit, it's not obvious how to order the "-T" variant for hardware config vs the "-V" variant for I2C. They appear to be lumped together into just an MCT8316A page with no selection of which variant. How can I buy a dev kit and some samples of MCT8316AT?

Thanks,

Mitcham

  • Hi Mitcham, 

    Let me follow up with the team on this and try to get you a response by early next week 

    Best Regards, 
    Andrew 

  • Mitcham,

    We understand the frustration. This is a new product and we have been working hard to provide the best user experience. If you are using MCF8316A EVM, I would recommend you to not "Auto read" registers while the motor is spinning. Auto reading registers consumes more bandwidth and loses I2C communication. This is a known errata and we will be fixing this problem in our next revision.  

    Unfortunately, we haven't released PMCT8316A1T to the market yet. Let me check with our marketing team and get back to you.

    Regards,

    Vishnu

  • Vishnu,

    From my testing it looks like the GUI completely gives up after a single I2C NAK, which is a pretty questionable software design. The deeper concern to me is whether the bad I2C read and other confusing behaviors come from the GUI side or the chip side. Failures on the chip side are worrying since I'm evaluating this part for a very high reliability medical application.

    We have also now seen two seemingly random failures of PMCF8316A parts where they will be working fine, then one day just don't start up. No motor drive, no I2C comms. I don't have any explanation for this related to my carrier board, leaving me to think the part is randomly failing or maybe the overcurrent protections are failing and allowing the part to overheat.

    Please let me know when the MCT8316AT will be available.

  • Mitcham,

    Does the GUI lose I2C communication even after reading single register while the motor is spinning? We have seen this issue show up when we auto-read registers but I do agree that this issue can show up even after reducing the frequency of I2C reads but the probability of occurrence is much lower. We will have the I2C NACK issue fixed in the Rev B version of this device. 

    Regards,

    Vishnu

  • Hi Mitcham,

    Do you need assistance on this still? If not, please mark as "Resolved".

    Thanks,
    Aaron