MCF8316AEVM: Motor Never Spins

Jonathan Goldberg

Part Number: MCF8316AEVM
Other Parts Discussed in Thread: MCF8316A

Hello,

I'm having trouble getting a motor to spin using the MCF8316AEVM. D1 and D4 are both green, ALARM and FAULT LEDs are both off. I have SW1 in the RUN position, S2 in the ABC direction, and S3 in the ON position. I have 24V connected to VBAT. As I turn the potentiometer counter-clockwise, the motor never spins. Algorithm State as shown in the GUI is always MOTOR_IDLE. I'm sure I'm missing something simple.

Thanks for the help.

over 1 year ago

0 Vishnu Balaraj over 1 year ago

TI__Mastermind 24405 points

Hi Jonathan,

Thanks for posting your question in MD forum. Your hardware connections look good. Did you download the MCF8316A GUI and follow the instructions in the Guided tuning section? if not, please click the below link. This link will take you to the online MCF8316A GUI and will ask you to install TI cloud agent software.

https://dev.ti.com/gallery/view/BLDC/MCF8316A_GUI/ver/1.1.6/

After the GUI installation, open the GUI and click the "Start Guided tuning" and follow all the instructions in this tab. Please let me know if you have any issues.

Regards,

Vishnu

0 Jonathan Goldberg over 1 year ago in reply to Vishnu Balaraj

Prodigy 10 points

Hi Vishnu,

Thanks, following the "Guided tuning" did help. I was able to get the motor spinning after configuring the maximum speed.

However, the motor stops after some time with no faults active. The motor algorithm state is MOTOR_BRAKE_ON_START. Setting the potentiometer clockwise all the way does return the algorithm state back to MOTOR_IDLE; however, the algorithm state returns to MOTOR_BRAKE_ON_START after turning the potentiometer counter-clockwise. The EVM requires a power cycle to recover.

I couldn't find any information in the MCF8316A datasheet on this state. Do you have any recommendations on how to proceed? Also, is there a offline installer for the GUI?

Thanks again,

Jonathan

0 Andrew Liu over 1 year ago in reply to Jonathan Goldberg

TI__Mastermind 18916 points

Hi Jonathan,

Thanks for the update - our team will review this info further and see what other suggestions may be provided.

Best Regards,
Andrew

0 Vishnu Balaraj over 1 year ago in reply to Jonathan Goldberg

TI__Mastermind 24405 points

Jonathan,

Did you enable "Auto read" to auto read any register? If so, then please disable auto read and do not read any registers while the motor is spinning. Reading registers while the motor is spinning can cause the device to get stuck in unknown state.

We have an offline GUI installer. Go to https://dev.ti.com/gallery/view/BLDC/MCF8316A_GUI/ and click the down-arrow button as shown in the below screenshot to download the installer.

Regards,

Vishnu

0 Jonathan Goldberg over 1 year ago in reply to Vishnu Balaraj

Prodigy 10 points

Hi Vishnu,

I did have "Auto Read Fault Status" and "Auto Read Motor Status" enabled per the guided setup instructions. I did not have "Auto Read All Registers" enabled.

When I navigate to https://dev.ti.com/gallery/view/BLDC/MCF8316A_GUI/, it redirects to https://dev.ti.com/gallery/view/BLDC/MCF8316A_GUI/ver/1.1.6/, and I don't see a down arrow button as in the screenshot you sent.