Control brushless DC motors in demanding automotive applications with TB9083FTG and PIC18F57Q43
Automotive GATE-driver for brushless (BLDC) motor control
Published Sep 05, 2024
Click board™
Brushless 30 Click
Dev. board
Curiosity Nano with PIC18F57Q43
Compiler
NECTO Studio
MCU
PIC18F57Q43
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
PIC18F57Q43 Curiosity Nano evaluation kit is a cutting-edge hardware platform designed to evaluate microcontrollers within the PIC18-Q43 family. Central to its design is the inclusion of the powerful PIC18F57Q43 microcontroller (MCU), offering advanced functionalities and robust performance. Key features of this evaluation kit include a yellow user LED and a responsive
mechanical user switch, providing seamless interaction and testing. The provision for a 32.768kHz crystal footprint ensures precision timing capabilities. With an onboard debugger boasting a green power and status LED, programming and debugging become intuitive and efficient. Further enhancing its utility is the Virtual serial port (CDC) and a debug GPIO channel (DGI
GPIO), offering extensive connectivity options. Powered via USB, this kit boasts an adjustable target voltage feature facilitated by the MIC5353 LDO regulator, ensuring stable operation with an output voltage ranging from 1.8V to 5.1V, with a maximum output current of 500mA, subject to ambient temperature and voltage constraints.
Microcontroller Overview
MCU Card / MCU
Architecture
PIC
MCU Memory (KB)
128
Silicon Vendor
Microchip
Pin count
48
RAM (Bytes)
8196
You complete me!
Accessories
Curiosity Nano Base for Click boards is a versatile hardware extension platform created to streamline the integration between Curiosity Nano kits and extension boards, tailored explicitly for the mikroBUS™-standardized Click boards and Xplained Pro extension boards. This innovative base board (shield) offers seamless connectivity and expansion possibilities, simplifying experimentation and development. Key features include USB power compatibility from the Curiosity Nano kit, alongside an alternative external power input option for enhanced flexibility. The onboard Li-Ion/LiPo charger and management circuit ensure smooth operation for battery-powered applications, simplifying usage and management. Moreover, the base incorporates a fixed 3.3V PSU dedicated to target and mikroBUS™ power rails, alongside a fixed 5.0V boost converter catering to 5V power rails of mikroBUS™ sockets, providing stable power delivery for various connected devices.
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 Curiosity Nano with PIC18F57Q43 as your development board.
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
Additional Support
Resources
Category:Brushless
