Rotate a brushless AC motor in less than one minute

Using the RX111 inverter kit, an engineer can rotate a permanent magnet AC motor (also called brushless AC motors) in less than one minute and accelerate their time-to-market. Designed for equipment requiring medium and high dynamics and a low BOM, the kits are based on Renesas’ 32-bit RX family of MCUs which operate from 3V and deliver 50DMIPS at 32MHz. Tested with more than 30 different motors, the inverter kits simplify the integration of 3-phase motors in equipment and provide up to 7A (maximum) at 24VDC.

The design tools were developed to respond to the challenge of tuning the embedded software to the application requirements, particularly for sensorless field oriented control algorithms. The kits provide: auto-tuning of the current proportional-integral coefficients (Kp & Ki); identification of intrinsic motor parameters (Rs, Ls & Lm); real-time visualisation of the motor phase, current and step response; and dynamic modification of the PWM frequency and control loop.

An intuitive PC GUI is included, enabling engineers to drive their own motors in a few clicks with a ready to use inverter reference prototype. A sensorless vector control algorithm is also included to accurately control the speed and torque, using flux weakening to achieve rotation speeds higher than the nominal speed of the motor. Two flux estimator blocks ensure high flexibility in terms of motor types and application requirements.

Available now, the YROTATE-IT-RX111 kit contains the YROTATE-IT inverter board, a 24VDC permanent magnet AC motor, a CD-ROM including the embedded software source code, the PC GUI, the board schematics, the BOM, user manual, quick start guide and the power stage schematics/Gerber files.