Board Manager custom board: pin selection

[DMeie.2]

We're implementing our own inverter board based on a G431 controller.

 

I'm currently going through all the required parts and I'm wondering how I am supposed to know the pins I can use for certain features.

Example: motorDrives, feature: CurrentSensing type ThreeShunt_AmplifiedCurrents requires the signals CURRENT_AMPL_U, CURRENT_AMPL_V and CURRENT_AMPL_W.
How do I know which pins of the MCU I can use for that? As these signals require the ADC periphery. Will the Board Manager check if I'm specifying valid pins?

 

What about Alternate Function routing for design flexibility?

What is the general approach for setting up a custom board in this regard?

 

[cedric H]

Hello @DMeie.2,

The first advice I can give you is to start from one of our board and understand how the features are rendered by the MC Workbench. Understanding ST boards is the best way to understand how we translated the schematic into the board description. 

The description of the ThreeShunt_AmplifiedCurrents is fully documented here:

STM32MotorControl:Motor Control Boards Description - stm32mcu

As stated in the doc, yes, you need to connect these pins to an ADC. Currently the board manger does not check that the pins are valid. A connection algorithm creates all the possible options for all the features that will be proposed by the workbench. In case of pin incompatibility between IPs and signals requirement, the connection algorithm will not be able to find the expected solution. The best advice I can give you is to use the same hardware IPs as the one we used.

> What about Alternate Function routing for design flexibility?

Look at how we addressed this point in our boards, or read our documentation ;)

What is the general approach for setting up a custom board in this regard?

Well, I think now you got the point. the best approach is to validate that the MCSDK can fulfill your needs with our development boards, (from hardware and algorithm point of view), and once validated describe your board targeting the same hardware IPs. Once your json is ready, import it in the WB, and check that you can select all your features, and generate the code. Once the project is ready, the last step is to compile it. All these tasks can be done (and should be done) before starting your board development.

But let me ask you one question: How do you develop your schematic of your custom inverter board ? Do you use ST schematic as a reference?

Regards

Cedric

 

 

[DMeie.2]

Thanks for the reply!

 

Yes, I know about the documentation for the specific functions.

We're using a B-G431B-ESC1 board as reference. That is also the board I have based my custom board configuration off of.

As for the pin alternate function routing, I cannot seem to find any good example in the Wiki about that.