Switched-Reluctance Motor

Circuitsoft · 2012-12-14 13:54

Much of the Gold Standard discussion has gone in the direction of Application Notes rather than peripherals. I wonder if it would be sensible for Parallax to find an up-and-coming technology that the prop can drive well.

In that vein, I would like to see a series of Application Notes on various motor drivers culminating in a Switched Reluctance driver. SR motors are difficult because they lack permanent magnets and need more precise switching, but that seems to be something the prop excels at, and is a direction many electric car drivetrain systems are looking due to Neodymium being mostly found in, and locked-up by, China.

Personally, I have no-to-little use for an SR controller, but I think it would be very attractive for industrial designers looking for an mcu.

jmg · 2012-12-14 22:27

The Prop 2 has better timers, and faster clocks and task slicing, so I would imagine it would be very good for smart(er) motor drivers.

Meanwhile, companies like TI also have fine-grained PWM control in parts like these :

Device Series 	CPU Speed 	Memory 	         Features 	                 Starting Price (1ku)
Piccolo F2806x 	90 MHz 	       128kB to 256kB 	Floating-point, VCU*,CLA*,DMA 	  $4.95
Piccolo F2805x 	60 MHz 	       64kB to 128kB 	Fixed-point, CLA, PGAs, WinComp   $3.25
Piccolo F2803x 	60 MHz 	       64kB to 128 kB 	Fixed-point, CLA* 	          $2.79
Piccolo F2802x 	40-60 MHz      16kB to 64 kB 	Fixed-point 	                  $1.85 

and some include these
12-bit ADC, up to 4.6 MSPS
150-ps high-resolution ePWM

Circuitsoft · 2012-12-16 08:33

Yes, but given that you can do 160MHz-granularity PWM with the Prop 1, I suspect it's plenty powerful for most/all motor controller applications. While I'm planning to build a motor controller with it, I really don't feel I have the know-how to create an industrial-level application note.

TI isn't the only motor-controller vendor. I know SiLabs does a lot of that as well, and there's certainly space for other silicon makers.

Motor Controllers were always an application that seemed a perfect fit for the Prop's capabilities, so I'm surprised to not see more.

Yes, Prop II will do it better, but Prop I should still be sufficient for some pretty impressive designs.

Switched-Reluctance Motor

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