Simplifying motor control design for the masses: TI now offers InstaSPIN™-FOC sensorless motor control technology for low-cost motor applications

08/28/2013

Highly efficient, three-phase motor control expertise, once only obtainable to a niche market of motor designers, is now available to a wider audience of developers. Texas Instruments (TI) (NASDAQ: TXN) brings its revolutionary InstaSPIN-FOC™ (field-oriented-control) sensorless motor control technology to its most affordable, real-time-control C2000™ Piccolo™ F2802x microcontrollers (MCUs) series, offering a smaller package size and much lower cost. Engineers can use TI InstaSPIN-FOC technology, embedded in the read-only-memory (ROM) on the C2000 Piccolo F2802x MCU to accelerate motor control development while improving efficiency for cost-sensitive BLDC (brushless DC), PMSM (permanent magnet), and AC Induction motor based applications.

With the ability to identify, tune and control any type of three-phase, synchronous or asynchronous motor in just minutes, TI's low-cost Piccolo F2802x MCUs with InstaSPIN-FOC are ideal for a variety of applications, such as washing machines, compressors, pumps, fans, electric bicycles, tools, treadmills, compact drives, sewing and textile machines, lifts and hobby motors. Prior to the initial Feb. 2013 launch of TI's InstaSPIN-FOC technology, sensorless field-oriented-control was out of reach for most developers because existing sensorless algorithms were not robust enough over real application conditions and were challenging to implement into a complex control system, adding months of development time. InstaSPIN-FOC technology addresses those concerns by reducing system complexity for designers of all levels while improving motor efficiency, reliability and performance at an affordable price point – which just got even lower.

Features and benefits of Piccolo F2802x MCUs with InstaSPIN-FOC™ technology:

• Available to a broad range of motor designers with the 48-pin package, 32 or 64 KB of Flash and around $2 USD for high volume applications.
• Save months of design time with nearly fully automated motor parameter identification, software observer tuning, and torque control tuning.
• Evaluate before you buy with the free, interactive InstaSPIN-FOC online simulation tool. Designers can assess TI InstaSPIN-FOC capability by customizing speed and load profiles on a variety of motors and obtain simulation results within minutes.
• Near encoder performance with embedded on-chip FAST™ observer algorithm, which through only analysis of currents and voltages, calculates a reliable and robust estimation of rotor flux, angle, speed and torque across use conditions. Accurate, sensorless estimator performance eliminates the need for a physical sensor in nearly all torque and velocity applications.
• Accommodate all three-phase motors, synchronous (BLDC, SPM and IPM) and asynchronous (ACI) with the same solution.
• Identify and tune with off-line motor commissioning that identifies the required parameters of the motor, tunes the FAST algorithm, and initializes the current controllers for stable operation. An optional online resistance re-estimation mode tracks changes for robust observer performance under the most demanding low speed loads.
• Eliminate start-up challenges of other sensorless techniques with built-in start-up modes and observer angle lock in less than one electrical cycle.
• Slow speed performance with angle integrity preserved at steady state below 1 Hz (typical) with full torque, zero speed stability, reversals through zero speed and smooth stall recovery.
• Gain system architecture flexibility with the ability to implement a single function call FOC torque controller or a completely custom control system with FAST as the software motor sensor.
• Allow most efficient motor sizing with built-in field control for field-weakening (higher speeds) or field-boosting (higher torque) applications.
• Gain massive energy savings for induction motors using the PowerWarp™ mode to adaptively minimize the magnetizing current to only produce the torque required, eliminating energy waste during lower load operation.
• Develop easily and evaluate quickly using the new motor control library (modules, drivers, system examples, documentation) through MotorWare™, which offers latest in C object-oriented and API-based coding techniques and over a dozen lab based projects that let you explore the features of InstaSPIN-FOC, including; Motor ID, saving motor parameters, torque control, tuning speed controller, run-time resistance monitoring, field weakening, modulation techniques, and PowerWarp.

Find more on Texas Instruments Incorporated, www.ti.com