Evaluation Platform Speeds Development of Three-phase Brushless Motors

Texas Instruments Inc. (TI) has introduced a complete motor control evaluation kit for spinning brushless DC (BLDC) and permanent magnet synchronous motors (PMSM). The DRV8312-C2-KIT is a high-performance, power-efficient and cost-effective sensorless field-oriented control (FOC) and trapezoidal commutation platform. It spins motors out of the box, speeding development of sub-50V and 6.5A brushless motors for driving medical pumps, gates, lifts and small pumps, as well as industrial and consumer robotics and automation.

The out-of-the-box motor control and driver solution includes the DRV8312 motor driver, a 32-bit C2000 Piccolo microcontroller (MCU) controlCARD module, a quick-start graphical user interface, full development source code, Code Composer Studio (CCStudio) integrated development environment (IDE) and a three-phase BLDC motor. It supports sensorless FOC, and sensorless and sensored trapezoidal commutation control for rapid evaluation and development of three-phase motors. By adding a separate shaft encoder, the DRV8312-C2-KIT can also support sensored FOC.

The DRV8312 three-phase, fractional-horsepower motor driver provides the highest current output in its class, delivering up to 6.5A, without the need for a costly external heat sink. The DRV8312 motor driver is robust, reliable and fully protected with cycle-by-cycle over-current, over-temperature, cross-conduction and under-voltage protection, reducing design complexity and board space, and ensuring higher system reliability.

Texas Instruments