Control brushless DC motors in demanding automotive applications with TB9083FTG and PIC18F85K22
Automotive GATE-driver for brushless (BLDC) motor control
Published Sep 05, 2024
Click board™
Brushless 30 Click
Dev. board
UNI Clicker
Compiler
NECTO Studio
MCU
PIC18F85K22
Take control of your BLDC motors with precision and reliability, ensuring safe performance in even the toughest automotive environments
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Hardware Overview
How does it work?
Brushless 30 Click is based on the TB9083FTG, a gate-driver IC from Toshiba Semiconductor, specifically made for automotive environments and qualified under AEC-Q100 and AEC-Q006 standards. This Click board™ leverages the TB9083FTG's capabilities, featuring a three-phase BLDC pre-driver that controls brushless motors through six onboard external MOSFETs (TPH1R104PB). Additionally, it integrates a safety relay pre-driver, ensuring an added layer of protection. The TB9083FTG also incorporates a built-in charge pump, adjustable current sense amplifiers for each motor phase oscillator circuits, and an SPI communication interface, enabling easy configuration and communication with the host MCU. To ensure reliable performance, the TB9083FTG also offers multiple error detection features, including undervoltage, overvoltage, overtemperature, and external MOSFET protection, making Brushless 30 Click a reliable choice for demanding automotive motor control applications such as electric power steering (EPS), powered brakes, and pumps. This Click board™ is designed to support a wide range of external power supplies, accepting input voltages from 4.5V to 28V through
terminals on the board's front side. It can deliver a peak output current of up to 10A, providing robust power for driving BLDC motors connected to the terminals on the bottom side. The board includes dedicated pins via the unpopulated J1 connector for the connection of the 6 PWM signals, provided by the driving device, required to drive the BLDC motor connected to the terminals of the Brushless 30 Click board™. As previously mentioned, Brushless 30 Click communicates with the host MCU through a 4-wire SPI interface, supporting a maximum clock frequency of 2MHz, ensuring fast and reliable data transfer. The SPI interface allows for the modification of settings, such as trigger thresholds and response actions. In addition to the interface pins, the board also uses two other pins on the mikroBUS™ socket. The ALR pin is used to turn ON or OFF the motor drive and the safety pre-driver circuit. i.e. in case an abnormality situation is detected. This pin is connected to a red ALR LED indicator that provides visual alerts for such conditions. Similarly, the DAG pin functions as a diagnostic output of the TB9083FTG, offering information on whether the an error condition has been detected.. This pin is linked to an orange DAG
LED indicator, which visually signals the diagnostic status. Besides the J1 header, this board includes several other unpopulated headers offering additional functionality. The AxO (J3) header is connected to the current detector circuit, which features three motor current detector amplifiers. These outputs can amplify the differential voltage caused by the current passing through the shunt resistor connected to the motor drive, providing precise current measurements. The SRxO (J4) header is linked to the safety relay pre driver, which controls the power or motor relay connected to this unpopulated header. The safety relay pre-driver circuit is managed through the CP_RLY_CTRL SPI register and includes a built-in 500Ω resistor and a backflow prevention diode to protect against reverse connections. This Click board™ can operate with either 3.3V or 5V logic voltage levels selected via the VCC SEL jumper. This way, both 3.3V and 5V capable MCUs can use the communication lines properly. Also, this Click board™ comes equipped with a library containing easy-to-use functions and an example code that can be used as a reference for further development.
Features overview
Development board
UNI Clicker is a compact development board designed as a complete solution that brings the flexibility of add-on Click boards™ to your favorite microcontroller, making it a perfect starter kit for implementing your ideas. It supports a wide range of microcontrollers, such as different ARM, PIC32, dsPIC, PIC, and AVR from various vendors like Microchip, ST, NXP, and TI (regardless of their number of pins), four mikroBUS™ sockets for Click board™ connectivity, a USB connector, LED indicators, buttons, a debugger/programmer connector, and two 26-pin headers for interfacing with external electronics. Thanks to innovative manufacturing technology, it allows you to build
gadgets with unique functionalities and features quickly. Each part of the UNI Clicker development kit contains the components necessary for the most efficient operation of the same board. In addition to the possibility of choosing the UNI Clicker programming method, using a third-party programmer or CODEGRIP/mikroProg connected to onboard JTAG/SWD header, the UNI Clicker board also includes a clean and regulated power supply module for the development kit. It provides two ways of board-powering; through the USB Type-C (USB-C) connector, where onboard voltage regulators provide the appropriate voltage levels to each component on the board, or using a Li-Po/Li
Ion battery via an onboard battery connector. All communication methods that mikroBUS™ itself supports are on this board (plus USB HOST/DEVICE), including the well-established mikroBUS™ socket, a standardized socket for the MCU card (SiBRAIN standard), and several user-configurable buttons and LED indicators. UNI Clicker is an integral part of the Mikroe ecosystem, allowing you to create a new application in minutes. Natively supported by Mikroe software tools, it covers many aspects of prototyping thanks to a considerable number of different Click boards™ (over a thousand boards), the number of which is growing every day.
Microcontroller Overview
MCU Card / MCU
Type
8th Generation
Architecture
PIC
MCU Memory (KB)
32
Silicon Vendor
Microchip
Pin count
80
RAM (Bytes)
2048
You complete me!
Accessories
Brushless DC (BLDC) Motor with a Hall sensor represents a high-performance motor from the 42BLF motor series. This motor, wired in a star configuration, boasts a Hall Effect angle of 120°, ensuring precise and reliable performance. With a compact motor length of 47mm and a lightweight design tipping the scales at just 0.29kg, this BLDC motor is engineered to meet your needs. Operating flawlessly at a voltage rating of 24VDC and a speed range of 4000 ± 10% RPM, this motor offers consistent and dependable power. It excels in a normal operational temperature range from -20 to +50°C, maintaining efficiency with a rated current of 1.9A. Also, this product seamlessly integrates with all Brushless Click boards™ and those that require BLDC motors with Hall sensors.
Used MCU Pins
mikroBUS™ mapper
Take a closer look
Click board™ Schematic
Step by step
Project assembly
Start by selecting your development board and Click board™. Begin with the UNI Clicker as your development board.
Track your results in real time
Application Output
1. Application Output - In Debug mode, the 'Application Output' window enables real-time data monitoring, offering direct insight into execution results. Ensure proper data display by configuring the environment correctly using the provided tutorial.
2. UART Terminal - Use the UART Terminal to monitor data transmission via a USB to UART converter, allowing direct communication between the Click board™ and your development system. Configure the baud rate and other serial settings according to your project's requirements to ensure proper functionality. For step-by-step setup instructions, refer to the provided tutorial.
3. Plot Output - The Plot feature offers a powerful way to visualize real-time sensor data, enabling trend analysis, debugging, and comparison of multiple data points. To set it up correctly, follow the provided tutorial, which includes a step-by-step example of using the Plot feature to display Click board™ readings. To use the Plot feature in your code, use the function: plot(*insert_graph_name*, variable_name);. This is a general format, and it is up to the user to replace 'insert_graph_name' with the actual graph name and 'variable_name' with the parameter to be displayed.
Software Support
Library Description
This library contains API for Brushless 30 Click driver.
Key functions:
brushless30_write_reg- This function writes a data word to the selected register by using SPI serial interface.brushless30_read_reg- This function reads a data word from the selected register by using SPI serial interface.brushless30_get_diag_pin- This function returns the DIAG pin logic state.
Open Source
Code example
The complete application code and a ready-to-use project are available through the NECTO Studio Package Manager for direct installation in the NECTO Studio. The application code can also be found on the MIKROE GitHub account.
/*!
* @file main.c
* @brief Brushless 30 Click example
*
* # Description
* This example configures the Brushless 30 click board and makes it ready for
* the motor control over 6 PWM input signals.
*
* The demo application is composed of two sections :
*
* ## Application Init
* Initializes the driver and performs the click default configuration.
*
* ## Application Task
* Monitors the DIAG pin state, displays the STAT1 and STAT2 registers on the USB UART,
* and clears the set flags.
*
* @author Stefan Filipovic
*
*/
#include "board.h"
#include "log.h"
#include "brushless30.h"
static brushless30_t brushless30;
static log_t logger;
void application_init ( void )
{
log_cfg_t log_cfg; /**< Logger config object. */
brushless30_cfg_t brushless30_cfg; /**< Click config object. */
/**
* Logger initialization.
* Default baud rate: 115200
* Default log level: LOG_LEVEL_DEBUG
* @note If USB_UART_RX and USB_UART_TX
* are defined as HAL_PIN_NC, you will
* need to define them manually for log to work.
* See @b LOG_MAP_USB_UART macro definition for detailed explanation.
*/
LOG_MAP_USB_UART( log_cfg );
log_init( &logger, &log_cfg );
log_info( &logger, " Application Init " );
// Click initialization.
brushless30_cfg_setup( &brushless30_cfg );
BRUSHLESS30_MAP_MIKROBUS( brushless30_cfg, MIKROBUS_1 );
if ( SPI_MASTER_ERROR == brushless30_init( &brushless30, &brushless30_cfg ) )
{
log_error( &logger, " Communication init." );
for ( ; ; );
}
if ( BRUSHLESS30_ERROR == brushless30_default_cfg ( &brushless30 ) )
{
log_error( &logger, " Default configuration." );
for ( ; ; );
}
log_printf( &logger, " Click is configured successfully.\r\n" );
log_printf( &logger, " Apply a 6 PWM signals to UVW H/L pins to drive the motor.\r\n" );
log_info( &logger, " Application Task " );
}
void application_task ( void )
{
uint16_t status = 0;
if ( !brushless30_get_diag_pin ( &brushless30 ) )
{
if ( BRUSHLESS30_OK == brushless30_read_reg ( &brushless30, BRUSHLESS30_REG_STAT1, &status ) )
{
if ( status )
{
log_printf( &logger, " STAT1: 0x%.4X\r\n", status );
if ( BRUSHLESS30_OK == brushless30_write_reg ( &brushless30, BRUSHLESS30_REG_STAT1, status ) )
{
log_printf( &logger, " STAT1: cleared\r\n" );
}
}
}
if ( BRUSHLESS30_OK == brushless30_read_reg ( &brushless30, BRUSHLESS30_REG_STAT2, &status ) )
{
if ( status )
{
log_printf( &logger, " STAT2: 0x%.4X\r\n", status );
if ( BRUSHLESS30_OK == brushless30_write_reg ( &brushless30, BRUSHLESS30_REG_STAT2, status ) )
{
log_printf( &logger, " STAT2: cleared\r\n" );
}
}
}
Delay_ms ( 1000 );
}
}
int main ( void )
{
/* Do not remove this line or clock might not be set correctly. */
#ifdef PREINIT_SUPPORTED
preinit();
#endif
application_init( );
for ( ; ; )
{
application_task( );
}
return 0;
}
// ------------------------------------------------------------------------ END
