STMicroelectronics has unveiled new resources to simplify design and speed up development of energy-saving intelligent motor drives for applications such as white goods, air conditioners, industrial automation, power tools and fitness equipment.
Electric motors operated by traditional on/off drives consume as much as 50% of the world’s electricity. Intelligent drives enable improved energy ratings, but present complex design challenges and historically have required expensive processors such as digital signal controllers. ST’s 32-bit STM32 microcontroller family and ready-to-use firmware building blocks for intelligent drives help designers overcome these challenges.
The STM32 FOC PMSM SDK v3.0 motor-control firmware library release adds support for the low-cost STM32 Value Line series (STM32F100x), enabling designers to realise intelligent drives at lower price points for highly cost-sensitive applications. It also targets the STM32 Performance Line High-Density series (STM32F103xx), exploiting the large program Flash memory combined with the advanced peripheral offering, to implement a dual-motor drive in a single controller. This is the first ST library to support dual motor controls and will benefit designers of equipment such as air conditioning units, industrial automation and robotics systems.
A further innovation offered as part of ST’s motor-drive solution is the MC Workbench v1.0.2, which is a graphical PC tool for the configuration of the firmware library. This simplifies the task of assembling the blocks and customising the drive to perform as required.
By using the STM32 firmware library, designers can quickly configure controllers for three-phase permanent magnet synchronous motors (PMSM) using field oriented control (FOC), a key algorithm for an efficient, silent and responsive motor drive. The library provides a comprehensive set of functionalities, including both torque control and speed control with on-the-fly switching capability, and advanced features such as ST’s patented algorithm for single-shunt resistor-based current reading, MTPA for IPMSM, flux weakening, feed forward and brake strategy. The C-code provided conforms to MISRA-C 2004 rules and ISO/ANSI standards.
The library contains IP blocks supporting speed and position detection using sensors such as Hall-effect or encoder devices, or sensorless algorithms. By supporting several configurations, the library gives designers flexibility to choose the approach that best suits their application. This latest version of the software library also provides designers with extra control to customise aspects such as, for instance, microcontroller pin assignments and an application example based on the FreeRTOS operating system.
A starter kit is also available, providing designers with a head start when developing motor control applications. The STM3210B-MCKIT is ready to run, containing a motor control board, processor board and three-phase brushless motor, as well as software libraries and development/debugging tools.
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