kaipyroami 1 Posted August 7, 2012 Share Posted August 7, 2012 I am interested in making a BLDC BoosterPack for a wide variety of motor applications. Perhaps with modifiable interchangeable power fets for different applications. Anyone else interested in this too? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
int0x2e 0 Posted August 7, 2012 Share Posted August 7, 2012 I've been thinking about making an ESC board for quadcopters based on the C2000 launchpad (on its way :-) ). I believe the Piccolo's high-resolution PWM outputs would make it an excellent candidate for controlling 4 hobby-BLDC motors. Most Hobby-BLDCs are sensorless, so one must use the inactive windings to sense the phase, but I believe it should be fairly easy to make a board that can handle both situations with little or no physical modification. Cheers, Itamar Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TI_Trey 38 Posted August 7, 2012 Share Posted August 7, 2012 I believe there may be a TI BoosterPack in the works that does exactly what ya'll are suggesting. I think they are using something like the DRV8312. Also, we already have software that can do BLDC control very well msptest6 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
kaipyroami 1 Posted August 7, 2012 Author Share Posted August 7, 2012 perfect! I am interested in having sensor support simply for high torque start up situations (RC cars, tracked vehicles etc.) But my intentions are for both sensored and sensorless applications. I think this would be a VERY good thing if TI came out with a BoosterPack so I don't have to do it on my own... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TI_Trey 38 Posted August 7, 2012 Share Posted August 7, 2012 Its in the works, I would expect something during 3rd or 4th quarter this year. kaipyroami and ecu-1 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TomKraut 17 Posted August 8, 2012 Share Posted August 8, 2012 DRV8312 sounds great. Q3/Q4 not so much... But if you want to make a multi-purpose board with different kinds of FETs, DRV8312 sounds not so great either... As for BLDC control software, I can say that the motor control library is excellent. The examples, however, should only be used as just that: a way to learn the basics, then implement your own application. Cheers TomKraut Quote Link to post Share on other sites
kaipyroami 1 Posted August 8, 2012 Author Share Posted August 8, 2012 my plan was to use proper gate drivers and then have a way to use a variety of fets from there. I will have to look into this more to fully understand what I am doing. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
NickO1426471349 0 Posted August 12, 2012 Share Posted August 12, 2012 The one currently in progress at TI is based upon the DRV8301/2 and will utilize Texas Instrument's NexFETs. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
grim 0 Posted August 12, 2012 Share Posted August 12, 2012 The one currently in progress at TI is based upon the DRV8301/2 and will utilize Texas Instrument's NexFETs. Awesome! news. Thanks for keeping us in the loop. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
NickO1426471349 0 Posted August 12, 2012 Share Posted August 12, 2012 Yes, I haven't registered as a TI employee on here yet but saw the post and thought I would chip in. If anyone has any suggestions/features they would like to see, feel free to chime in and I can pass the ideas along. Nick kaipyroami 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ecu-1 0 Posted August 12, 2012 Share Posted August 12, 2012 The one currently in progress at TI is based upon the DRV8301/2 and will utilize Texas Instrument's NexFETs. That's nice to hear. Any idea whether there will be one or two drives per boosterpack. That would help alot of robot projects spring up. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TomKraut 17 Posted August 13, 2012 Share Posted August 13, 2012 I don't think you could cram more than one driver + fets on a BoosterPack. I have a board next to me that is approximately the size of a BoosterPack and there is no way to fit another driver + fets on it, because they don't allow parts directly under them on the bottom side. Besides, cooling them would be a nightmare! @Nick: You don't know by any chance if there is an update for the DRV8301/2 datasheet planned? The current one is a year old and missing A LOT of information which is available through threads on e2e... Cheers TomKraut msptest6 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TI Motor: Chris Clearman 0 Posted August 13, 2012 Share Posted August 13, 2012 This is a single inverter (DRV8302 + NEXFETs) for the BoosterPack. 24V 10A. We have a different development board with two inverters (single controlCARD inferface), each 24V 10A that is also in progress. This one will also include an optional dyno bench, using one of the inverters as the dyno and the other under test/control. TI_Trey, msptest6, grim and 1 other 4 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
NickO1426471349 0 Posted August 13, 2012 Share Posted August 13, 2012 Chris said it, one driver per board. Simply not the room for two while maintaining the BoosterPack theme. Also as Tom said, thermal dissipation would be difficult. @Tom Don't know anything myself but I'll ask around. I have found the best reference for hardware designs to actually be the DRV830X EVM in control suite under development kits. msptest6 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TomKraut 17 Posted August 14, 2012 Share Posted August 14, 2012 That's true, if you are building hardware with TI components, the EVMs are always your best bet. However, sometimes you need more information because of the simple fact that you are not just copying an EVM but also building your own custom hardware. A specific example would be the formulas necessary to find the values for the external components for the buck converter integrated into the DRV830x. They are not in the datasheet! You have to search e2e to find out that it's practically a TPS54160 and than have to use that datasheet as a reference. It's unlikely that we would benefit from a new datasheet for our current project, because we have just meddled through and so far everything seems just fine. But the particular datasheet for the DRV830x is just not up to the standard I expect from a TI product. And if you are releasing a BoosterPack with it, that might become a problem... Cheers TomKraut Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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