AC Motor Control Solution

AC Motor Control Solution¹⁾

Control of diverse AC motors

The AC Motor Control Solution is based on the DS5202 FPGA Base Board or on the MicroAutoBox with the DS1514 FPGA Base Board. The interfaces are specially designed for fast current / voltage measurements, connecting diverse position encoders and controlling AC motors such as asynchronous motors (ASMs), brushless DC motors (BLDCs) and permanent magnet synchronous motors (PMSMs).

Fast current/voltage measurements
Control of AC motors, e.g., ASMs, BLDCs and PMSMs
Suitable PWM generation for electric drives
Connection of diverse position encoders
RTI Blockset for MATLAB^®/Simulink^®

Rapid control prototyping of AC motors requires fast I/O, which is fullfi lled by using an FPGA Base Board and the appropriate piggyback module, with the control algorithms running on the main processor. The interface between the user's control model and the AC Motor Control hardware is implemented by using the AC Motor Control Solution RTI Blockset.

Application Areas

Measurements (of phase currents and/or voltages, and DC link currents or voltages) and ADC starts can be synchronized to PWM signals.
Position and speed measurements using typical sensors such as Hall sensors or incremental encoders, resolvers, or typical single/multiturn encoders with serial interfaces (EnDat or SSI)
Generation of gate driver signals (center-aligned 3/6 PWMs for sinusoidal commutation or PWM signals for block commutation or advanced customer-specific PWM patterns)
Synchronization of ADC measurement with center-aligned PWM signals (regular sampling)
Model synchronization by interrupt generation at the center position of the PWM or at user-defined motor angles.
Trigger signal to external devices at the center position of the PWM.

Typical use cases for the AC Motor Control Solution are highly dynamic control systems for different types of AC motors.

Some scenarios:

Field-oriented control of PMSMs or ASMs
Control of BLDCs
Prototyping new methods for sensorless control
Using the RapidPro Power Unit with suitable modules or customer-specific power converters

To use the AC Motor Control Solution in a vehicle, you can install it in the dSPACE AutoBox or use the MicroAutoBox variant. For stationary use, it can be installed in an expansion box.

Technical Data (AC Motor Control Solution for Modular System)

Parameter	Specification
Digital input	8 channels, 0 ... 5 V, differential or single-ended. Default: 3 x single-ended for Hall sensor, 3 x differential for incremental encoder, 2 x single-ended for bit in, frequency and duty cycle measurement
Digital output	10 channels, 0 ... 5 V, single-ended; 6 gate driver signals, 4 generic digital outputs (e.g. PWM synchronization signals or bit out) Gate driver frequency 10 Hz ... 1 MHz 12 additional gate driver signals available by using the ACMC Extension Board
ADC	8 channels, software-configurable input voltage range (± 5 V, ± 15 V, ± 30 V), differential, 10 Msps, 14 bit
DAC	2 channels, -10 ... 10 V (single-ended) or -20 ... 20 V (differential, reference to GND), 12 bit
Resolver interface	Max. position resolution 16 bits (depending on motor velocity). Generation of excitation signal (3,7,10 Vrms); excitation frequency from 2 ... 20 kHz within 250 Hz steps (software-configurable)
RS422/RS485	SSI or EnDat for connection of single/multiturn encoder 4 RS485 transceivers for connecting 2 serial angle meters (EnDat or SSI interface)
Power supply for sensors	5 V and 12 V, 140 mA

Technical Data (AC Motor Control Solution for MicroAutoBox II)

Parameter	Specification
Digital input	8 channels, 0 ... 5 V, differential or single-ended, configurable by software Example: 3 x single-ended for Hall sensor, 3 x differential for incremental encoder, 2 x single-ended for bit in, frequency and duty cycle measurement
Digital output	16 channels, 0 ... 5 V, single-ended to generate gate driver signals, PWM synchronization signals, bit out 8 additional channels by modifying IP-module pins Gate driver frequency 10 Hz ... 1 MHz
ADC	8 channels, software-configurable input voltage range (±5 V, ±15 V, ±30 V), differential, 10 Msps, 14 bit
DAC	2 channels, -10 ... 10 V (single-ended) or -20 ... 20 V (differential, reference to GND), 12 bit
Resolver interface	Max. position resolution 16 bits (depending on motor velocity). Generation of excitation signal (3,7,10 Vrms; excitation frequency from 2 ... 20 kHz in 250 Hz steps (software-configurable)
RS422/RS485	SSI or EnDat for connection of single/multiturn encoder 4 RS485 transceivers for connection of 2 serial angle meters (EnDat or SSI interface)
Power supply for sensors	12 V: max. 50 mA 5 V: max. 50 mA (use the MicroAutoBox II VSENS-PIN for currents up to 250 mA)

FPGA-based control design for MicroAutoBox II, SCALEXIO, and PHS-based systems

FPGA library for high-speed electric drive
High-performance position sensor
Flexible PWM
Connection of diverse position encoders
Examples of controller models for various AC motors

The XSG AC Motor Control Library lets you program inside the FPGA. This mainly involves the high-performance processing of various position sensors and in conjunction with the included XSG Utils Library, the flexible generation of PWM patterns. You can use the RTI FPGA Programming Blockset to position and combine these components however required.

¹⁾The end of life of the dSPACE Solutions for PHS (peripheral high-speed) systems is planned for December 31, 2024. You can still buy the related products up to and including December 31, 2021. New Releases of dSPACE software will still support the dSPACE PHS hardware for modular systems until at least the end of 2023. After the end of life, no services of any kind will be available for these products. We advise against using the PHS hardware products in new projects. For new projects we recommend that you use SCALEXIO, the latest dSPACE technology for modular real-time systems.