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

[pedjag]

Paul, any thought on protecting the open nature of your projects ( schematics, software etc...) by licensing under one of the GPL?
Seems to be the right time to do it....

[MPaulHolmes]

But then the Get Propulsion Laboratory will have full control! Well, let me look that up.

[pedjag]

Hehe, right....

[pedjag]

Actually stands for General Public License, there some interesting info at

The GNU General Public License v3.0 - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation (FSF)

Check it out.

[MPaulHolmes]

Man, does anyone want to condense that gnu thing down to 10 words or less? Holy cow. I "read" it, but I don't know what I read. haha.

OK! I've been debugging the software. Everything is all set up. The encoder is now working. At first the index pulse wasn't resetting the counter, but now it is working! ya! It was just one bit I forgot to set in initializing the Quadrature Encoder Interface module. The annoying thing is you need the rotor flux angle, which has nothing to do with the location of the index. So, now I need to run the motor with Id chasing throttle, and Iq chasing 0, until there's no movement with the motor. Then, I need to mark the angle that the motor post is at, and that's the official rotor flux angle for all eternity, well until I get a new motor or encoder! Then, you make Iq chase throttle, and Id chase 0, and the stupid thing should spin!

I also did some time tests. All in C, my field oriented control code takes 25uS, and I have 125uS available if I run the motor PWMs at 8kHz. Or, if I switch to 16kHz, I'll still have around 62.5uS, which is more than enough! HUrray! I don't have to learn PIC assembly at this time. hahaha

[MPaulHolmes]

More bugs found. It's almost ready. Oh man, I think to really test it, I just have to be willing to crank up the amps. Oh dear. I know the hardware overcurrent limiting is working, but still. If that dang controller blows up while testing, I'm going to be really really depressed. haha

[sawickm]

Originally Posted by MPaulHolmes

I just made the power board layout without a schematic. You are welcome to the files. I used DesignSpark

Hi Paul,

Happy new year !!!

If you want me to add that AC power PCB to the ReVolt wiki, just send the DesignSpark file to me.

Hope all is well in getting the system up and running.

-Mark

[sawickm]

Hey Paul,

Now that you are making progress in the development of the AC Controller, have you considered making kits for this project this year

-Mark

[MPaulHolmes]

Hi Mark! There will be a kit, it's just taking some time to get the software debugged. And I've got nothing done this week, since school just started and Sabrina has been sick. 3 doctor visits and night classes.

[pedjag]

Hi Paul, hope the family is back to top health.

Any progress/updates on the debug?