Attain accurate and real-time absolute angular positioning with MA302 and PIC18F47Q10

Angle 5 Click is based on the MA302, a 12-bit digital contactless angle sensor with ABZ and UVW incremental outputs from Monolithic Power Systems. This Click board™ can detect the absolute rotor position of a Brushless motor in real-time, even without a target magnet, by measuring the fringe field of the rotor. The sensor must be positioned at the correct place (in this case, below the rotor) to get the maximum value of the rotor magnetic field without being disturbed by other fields. The rotor magnetic field is then measured, and an adequate position was determined from that information. It uses the SPI serial interface for digital angle readout and configuration alongside a programmable magnetic field strength detection function for diagnostic checks. The magnetic field is detected with integrated Hall devices located in the center of the package. The angle is measured using the Spinaxis™ method, based on phase detection,

and generates a sinusoidal signal with a phase that represents the angle of the magnetic field. The angle is then obtained by a time-to-digital converter, which measures the time between the zero-crossing of the sinusoidal signal and the edge of a constant waveform. The time-to-digital represents an output from the front end to the digital conditioning block. This output delivers a digital number proportional to the angle of the magnetic field at the rate of 1MHz in a straightforward and open-loop manner. The Angle 5 Click communicates with MCU using the standard SPI serial interface for angle reading and register programming, which supports SPI Mode 0 and 3 and operates at clock rates up to 25 MHz. It also has the magnetic flags used for indication when the magnetic field at the sensor position is out of range, defined by the lower and upper magnetic field thresholds, routed on the PWM and INT pin of the mikroBUS™ socket labeled as MGH

and MGL. This Click board™ possesses an incremental encoder and block commutation function that uses three output pins each: ABZ and UVW. The ABZ output emulates a 10-bit incremental encoder (such as an optical encoder) providing logic pulses in quadrature, while the UVW output emulates the three Hall switches usually used for the block commutation of a three-phase electric motor. The ABZ and UVW pins of the MA302 are routed on two standard 2.54 mm (0.1 inches) pitch 1x3 header mounted on the Angle 5 Click so an external application can easily access it. This Click board™ can be operated only with a 3.3V logic voltage level. The board must perform appropriate logic voltage level conversion before using MCUs with different logic levels. Also, it comes equipped with a library containing functions and an example code that can be used as a reference for further development.

Curiosity HPC, standing for Curiosity High Pin Count (HPC) development board, supports 28- and 40-pin 8-bit PIC MCUs specially designed by Microchip for the needs of rapid development of embedded applications. This board has two unique PDIP sockets, surrounded by dual-row expansion headers, allowing connectivity to all pins on the populated PIC MCUs. It also contains a powerful onboard PICkit™ (PKOB), eliminating the need for an external programming/debugging tool, two mikroBUS™ sockets for Click board™ connectivity, a USB connector, a set of indicator LEDs, push button switches and a variable potentiometer. All

these features allow you to combine the strength of Microchip and Mikroe and create custom electronic solutions more efficiently than ever. Each part of the Curiosity HPC development board contains the components necessary for the most efficient operation of the same board. An integrated onboard PICkit™ (PKOB) allows low-voltage programming and in-circuit debugging for all supported devices. When used with the MPLAB® X Integrated Development Environment (IDE, version 3.0 or higher) or MPLAB® Xpress IDE, in-circuit debugging allows users to run, modify, and troubleshoot their custom software and hardware

quickly without the need for additional debugging tools. Besides, it includes a clean and regulated power supply block for the development board via the USB Micro-B connector, alongside all communication methods that mikroBUS™ itself supports. Curiosity HPC development board allows you to create a new application in just a few steps. Natively supported by Microchip software tools, it covers many aspects of prototyping thanks to many number of different Click boards™ (over a thousand boards), the number of which is growing daily.