The plug-in, called motorBench Development Suite, is a Graphical User Interface based tool with automatic tuning of feedback control gains and offline accurate measurement of critical motor parameters such as resistance, inductances and the back Electromagnetic Force (EMF) constant.
The plug-in collects all the information relevant to the motor-control system and auto-tunes the control algorithm gains. The software then uses this information to generate MPLAB X IDE project code ready to run on Microchip’s dsPIC33EP family of digital signal controllers. The generated code can then be reviewed and edited as needed and Flashed as motor-control firmware.
motorBench automates the time-consuming and complicated process of tuning the control loops for speed and torque to ensure that permanent magnet synchronous motors spin reliably. This is said to allow users to focus on other parts of firmware development and speed their time-to-market.
The motorBench development suite is currently available using the company’s dsPICDEM MCLV-2 development board with a dsPIC33EP256MC506 external op amp motor control plug-in-module and a 24V three-phase brushless DC motor with encoder.
