Paul and Sabrina's Cheap 3 Phase Inverter (AC Controller) with Field Oriented Control

[MPaulHolmes]

haha, right now I'm working on a flyback converter that has to be done in about 2 weeks, and I don't even know what one is. Well, I just read it on wikipedia.

[sawickm]

Originally Posted by MPaulHolmes

haha, right now I'm working on a flyback converter that has to be done in about 2 weeks.

Hey Paul,

Are you designing a discrete SMPS to power the ReVolt ACC gate drivers ???

-Mark

[MPaulHolmes]

I guess it could be for that. I hadn't thought about it before. It's actually for a company that I'm working for from home ($16/hr 2 hrs per day, but it's more like 5 hours per day. haha).

[HPEV]

Very Cool! You're in Seattle I see... Do you ever come to the Seattle Electric Vehicle Association meetings the second Tuesday of the Month behind Dick's Drive in in the U District?

[MPaulHolmes]

Holy mackerel, I love Dick's frenchfries and hamburgers. I used to go there while at the UW. I'm all the way down in olympia now though. Maybe we could make the drive sometime. 60 miles isn't that bad.

[HPEV]

Yeah, it sounds like you're working on really interesting stuff and you'd probably like the meetings and many of the people there.

There is another EAA chapter in Tacoma called TACEVA (Tacoma Electric Vehicle Association). They meet at Oscar's restaurant on the first wednesday of the Month. I sometimes go to it but it is not as big as SEVA.

[MPaulHolmes]

I just finished the gcode for drilling the base plate of the mosfet based 3 phase controller. Man, like 430 lines of code by hand! I need some of that software that generates gcode from drawings. I'm going to drill it today, and assemble the mosfet 3 phase controller maybe today or tomorrow.

[JRoque]

Hi Paul, I use this for gcode generation: VisualMill CAM software package - Computer Aided Manufacturing CAM software for mold, die and tooling, wood working, rapid-prototyping, general machining.. It can be expensive, however, so limited results, but easier than doing it by hand, can be had with this: ArtSoft USA - Home of Mach3 and LazyCam. I do control my CNC machine with Mach3 and it works well.

BTW, what CAD package/format do you use? What are the specs of your CNC machine? I might be able to help you next time by converting your CAD file to gcode. But of course, I would need to know things like if you cut below z=0 (and how deep), cut speed, tools, etc.

JR

[MPaulHolmes]

Hi JR! I use designSpark, and when I do the PCB layout, I just pick an origin, and then find the location of all the holes, and then write them down and convert it to gcode. The main problem is that I use the free version of Mach 3, which only allows 500 lines or something like that, so I break up the programs into small pieces. The program I made to etch the power board is 5 separate files of 200 or 300 lines each.

My CNC machine is just a home made conversion. Two direct drive 1200ounch*inch stepper motors for x and y, and a 600ounch*inch stepper motor for Z. The machine is a Harbor Freight geared head mill that has an x travel of around 12 inches or something, and a y travel of around 6.5", and z travel of maybe 6 inches. The x and y travel used to be a little larger, but my homemade adapter plates got in the way a little bit. I use the Gecko 300b or 600b or something like that for the driver. It's a single box that has 4 axes of control possible.

[pedjag]

Just finished reading the thread, and anxiously awaiting the next post...... expecting some sort of "its alive!!!!" wording..... hehe no pressure...

Thanks for all the work Paul!