Motor-control Future-Blox boards speed up proof-of-concept

Comprised of a controller board and two motor-drive boards, the PowerDrive platforms use the common Future-Blox format to offer a time-saving proof-ofconcept for drive systems. The IP for both platforms is freely available to all Future Board Club members.

Future-Blox share both a physical interconnect format and a common bus, and can therefore be stacked to form an integrated development platform. The available Future-Blox boards for motor control include a generic motor-control board, a Brushless DC (BLDC) motor-drive board and an AC Induction (ACI) motor-drive board.

The generic motor-control board uses Freescale's MCF56F8037 digital signal controller. Featuring a high-performance PWM, 12-bit ADCs and DACs and a wide range of of communications interfaces including I2C, SCI and QSPI and CAN, it is suitable for controlling all kinds of electric motors making it ideal for use in a universal motor-control solution.

PowerDrive 1 comprises the generic motorcontrol board and the BLDC motor-drive board which together are designed to enable evaluation of the MC56F8037 DSC from Freescale Semiconductor and the FSBS10CH60 Smart Power Module™ (SPM) from Fairchild Semiconductor for BLDC Motor Control applications. PowerDrive 1 also includes PC-based software for sensorless control of a BLDC motor. It is designed for highvoltage BLDC motors rated up to 1KW.

PowerDrive 2 comprises the same generic motor-control board coupled with the ACI motordrive board and enables evaluation of the MC56F8037 Digital Signal Controller together with International Rectifier's IRAMX16UP60 Integrated Power Module for AC Induction (ACI) motorcontrol applications. It also includes International Rectifier's IR1150 PFC IC and IR2177 phase current sensor IC. PC-based software is again included to facilitate ACI motor control using encoder speed sensing. This hardware is designed for ACI motors between 100W and 1kW operating either with sensors or sensorless.

Both the BLDC board and the ACI board can be easily plugged into the common Future-Blox format of the generic motor-control board. Pre-loaded Metrowerks™ Integrated Development Environment (IDE) operates across the entire platform, which provides design engineers with a powerful tool for developing, compiling and debugging software that controls BLDC or induction motors.

Both platforms are supported by FreeMASTER PC based software which allows the user to dynamically change the proportional and integral settings of the motor and to acquire, display and visualise the bus voltage, voltage output to motor and RPM.

Future-Blox platforms such as the motor-control development platform enable far more rapid prototyping than is possible when using discrete evaluation boards provided by component manufacturers and other distributors. Other Future-Blox can also be plugged into the motorcontrol platform, such as a Universal Power Supply (UPS) Future-Blox and a Generic Industrial Terminal platform, widening the scope of possible proof-of-concepts.

Future-Blox boards are available free to qualified customers. Design engineers can apply to receive a Future-Blox development platform by visiting: www.my-boardclub.com

 

 

 

Future-Blox PowerDrive boards are available to members of the Future Board Club. To apply for the development board, and membership of the Board Club, go to www.my-boardclub.com This offer is free and subject to qualification.

 

www.my-boardclub.com