A power board to the STM32 NUCLEO-64 401RE board to control two 3-phase BLDC motors?

[Boris_L]

Hello. Could someone please recommend a good power board that can power and control two gimbal 3-phase BLDC 12V motors with encoders AS5048A https://www.sparkfun.com/gimbal-motor-with-encoder-12v-587rpm.html ? I use the STM32 NUCLEO-64 F401RE microcontroller board. Thank you.

[Peter BENSCH]

You won’t find an off‑the‑shelf ST power board specifically tailored to those gimbal motors + AS5048A, but there are a few options:

• for 3‑phase BLDC power stages compatible with NUCLEO‑F401RE, check the X-NUCLEO motor driver expansion boards (e.g. for low‑voltage BLDC). They provide the 3‑phase bridge and current sensing; you still need external 12 V supply dimensioned for your motor current

• the AS5048A encoders are SPI; you can connect them directly to the NUCLEO SPI pins (shared or separate chip‑selects) and run field‑oriented control (FOC) or simple commutation in firmware

A possible candidate could be the X-NUCLEO-IHM16M1 able to drive one BLDC motor with up to 1.5Arms, but as far as I can see, two of them cannot be operated simultaneously on one NUCLEO board.

What would be your continuous / peak current per motor?

Regards
/Peter

 

[Boris_L]

Hello Peter. I was recently told that STM32 NUCLEO-64 F401RE microcontroller board cannot control the two Sparkfun 3-Phase BLDC motors with the encoders. The peak current per motor cannot be more than 1.2 Ams.

I was told that the STM32G474E-EVAL1 microcontroller board can control the two 3-Phase BLDC gimbal motors. However, it is unclear what power boards and expension boards to use in this case? I was told that STmicroelectronics does not have a power board that can power two motors. Therefore, I need two power boards for two 3-Phase BLDC gimbal motors. Another question emerges here. How to connect two extension boards to the STM32G474E-EVAL1 board? Thank you. 

[Peter BENSCH]

Well, the STM32G474E-EVAL1 is already a good starting point. Some X-NUCLEO boards can be stacked on top of each other, so that you can potentially control several identical ones from a single NUCLEO. Unfortunately, this is not possible with all X-NUCLEO boards, including the X-NUCLEO-IHM16M1.

However, with the STM32G474E-EVAL1, you should be able to get it running if you handle the wiring to the 3-phase PWMs yourself, which is admittedly a bit more complex than just plugging it in. Notes on how you need to connect this can be found in the data sheet and the manuals of the STSPIN830 and the schematics of the STM32G474E-EVAL1.

Good luck!

Regards
/Peter

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