Resolver-based motor control with TI’s C2000 Delfino MCUs

Solving a prevalent digital motor control design problem for customers, Texas Instruments (TI) has introduced their 32-bit C2000 Delfino microcontrollers as resolver-to-digital converter interfaces for motor control systems, lowering system cost while delivering more efficient motor control capabilities.

These high-performance, floating-point Delfino microcontrollers with an on-chip, high-precision analog-to-digital converter, along with an external low-cost signal conditioning circuit, provide motor control designers an alternative to more expensive and complex semiconductor solutions.

Both resolvers and encoders are used in typical precision servo motor control systems, such as industrial drives and automotive power steering and traction control. Resolvers and encoders provide shaft position feedback to the control unit, but resolvers are highly accurate and noise immune, proving more robust and rugged than encoders.  However, resolvers require a special precision resolver-to-digital converter to interface to a digital control system. These converters add complexity and cost to the motor control solution.  Delfino microcontrollers can duplicate this functionality (click here to see a whitepaper) of producing the excitation signal and sampling and processing the feedback to obtain the angular reading as part of the motor control algorithms executed by these devices without the need for a dedicated resolver-to-digital converter, allowing advanced torque, speed and position control to be achieved with even greater accuracy. In addition, optimized Delfino microcontroller resolver software to ease development is available for free from TI.

Features and benefits of Delfino microcontrollers:                                 

• Up to 300 MHz C28x core provides fast interrupt response, minimal latency, execution of complex control algorithms and real-time data analysis.
• 32-bit floating-point unit eases programming of magnitude calculations, eliminates scaling and saturation burden and improves performance of algorithms such as Park transforms and proportional integral derivatives (PID).
• Up to 516 KB of on-chip, single-cycle access RAM enables high-speed program execution and data access.
• Up to 65ps flexible, high-resolution pulse-width modulators (PWMs) allow for optimal precision.
• CAN, I2C, SPI and standard serial interface (SCI) peripherals enable easy connectivity for management of system communication.
• Internal 12-bit,  12.5 MSPS ADC and the option for an external ADC with the analog-to-digital converter (ADC) interface, giving developers flexibility to use the on-board ADC or  select from TI's broad portfolio of high-accuracy ADCs, such as the ADC161S626, ADS1205 and ADS1209.
• Code compatibility across the C2000 platform enables developers to easily scale product lines and reuse code in controllers ranging from 40 MHz Piccolo™ microcontrollers to 300 MHz Delfino microcontrollers.

Pricing and availability of Delfino MCUs, tools, and software
Delfino microcontrollers start at $8.95 USD in quantities of 1,000 units. Designers can get started developing on Delfino microcontrollers with a variety of software and tools.

Developers can obtain the free Delfino microcontroller software for the resolver applications by contacting the local TI sales representative.  C2000 controlSUITE™ and Code Composer Studio integrated development environment v. 5 are also free to ease development.

Customers can prototype and develop through a variety of tools, including the DIM100 F28335 controlCARD (TMDSCNCD28335) for $69, DIM100 C28243 controlCARD (TMDSCNCD28343) for $109 USD and DIM168 C28346 controlCARD TMDSCNCD28346-168 for $125. controlCARDs are modular daughtercards designed to plug in to TI’s portfolio of evaluation and application boards.

The DM100 F28335 Experimenter’s Kit (TMDSDOCK28335) is available for $99 USD.  The C2843 Experimenter’s Kit (TMDSDOCK28343) is available for $159 USD, and the C28346 Experimenter’s Kit (TMDSDOCK28346-168) is available for $189 USD.  A Peripheral Explorer Kit (TMDSPREX28335) is available for $179 USD.  TI also offers a variety of C2000 motor control kits compatible with Delfino microcontrollers.

Find out more about TI's C2000 solutions by visiting the following links:

• Delfino microcontrollers 
• C2000 tools page 
• controlSUITE software    
• TI estore   
• TI E2E support 

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