STMicroelectronics has recently launched P-NUCLEO-IHM001 motor control starter kit with NUCLEO-F302R8 Cortex M4 MCU board, X-NUCLEO-IHM07M1 driver board for BLDC (Brushless DC) and PMSM (Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor) electric motors, as well as a Bull Running motor often used in RC helicopters and quadcopters.
Technical specifications of the three hardware “blocks” of the kit:
- X-NUCLEO-IHM07M1 driver board:
- Three-phase driver board for BLDC/PMSM motors based on L6230
- Nominal voltage range from 8 V to 48 V DC
- 2.8 A output peak current (1.4 A RMS)
- Non dissipative overcurrent detection and protection
- Compatible with ST 6-step or ST FOC control algorithm
- Support for sensorless and sensor mode
- Hall / encoder motor sensor connector and circuit
- Configurable jumpers for motor current sensing
- Potentiometer available for speed regulation
- ST morpho connectors (found in Nucleo boards)
- NUCLEO-F302R8 MCU board:
- STMicro STM32F302R8 Cortex-M4 @ up to 72 MHz with 64KB Flash memory and 16KB SRAM
- Expansion headers:
- Arduino UNO Rev. 3 headers
- ST morpho extension pin headers
- On-board ST-LINK/V2-1 debugger/programmer with SWD connector
- Two push buttons: USER and RESET
- BR2804-1700 kV three-phase motor:
- Nominal voltage 11.1 V DC (Battery up to 3S: 3 cells x 3.7 volts)
- Maximum DC current: 5 A
- 7 pole pairs
- Max speed: 19000 RPM
The Nucleo board is available compatible with mbed.
The kit is open source hardware with schematics, PCB layout, Gerber files, and BoM, documentation includes user’s manuals, specifications, and training materials. On the software side, the company provides the driver for L6230 three-phase motor driver, and STM32 PMSM FOC (Field-oriented control) Software Development Kit.
STMicro P-NUCLEO-IHM001 starter kit is available now for $35 + shipping from Arrow Electronics and Digikey. Full documentation, and purchase links can be found on the product page.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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Their updated DISCOVERY board based on the stm32l4 instead of stm32f4 looks interesting too, adds in 16M flash and an LCD display for a lower price.
What a cool motor board! I don’t know how it can do FOC with a single shunt, but apparently International-Rectifier does it as well (IRMCK099), so it must be possible!
However since the motor shown is a BLDC (as opposed to PMSM), I assume it would be driven via 6-step trapezoidal commutation instead of sinusoidal or FOC?
Also, The NUCLEO-F302R8 supports Mbed but is that used for this motor control application? I’d like to find an STM32 device (stm32f405?) that supports both Mbed and .net MicroFramework..
Ben, those RC flying motors, are advertized as BLDC on one hand, but on the other hand they do have a sinusoidal back EMF. So FOC seems to work. The demo app is supposed to support both. Mine started out as FOC, and as that’s what I’m after, so far I’ve left it that way.
This low current version is unusable for most applications. How to improve its current rating ?
Is there a demo board available for 5+ amps ?