Electronics Weekly
“In this version 3.0 release, we have added a two-phase modulation scheme, which is ideal for applications that work in high temperature environments such as hot-water circulation pumps,” said company marketing manager Cristian Ionescu-Catrina. “Version 3.0 also features a five-fold improvement to our waveform visualisation tool and an enhanced zoom function.”
The two-phase scheme works by trading increased torque ripple for reduced inverter dissipation at high temperature.
MotorXpert is a PC-based design aid for single and three-phase sensorless motor drives. It is a companion to Power Integrations’ ‘BridgeSwitch’ range of 600V half-bridge level-shifter-power-transistor combination ICs that are aimed at motors from 30W to 750W.
For the suite to work, the ICs need to be connected to an Arm Cortex-M cored microcontroller, which is what the software helps to configure, and the designer needs a Windows 10 computer with Microsoft.NET Framework v.4.0.
The package “includes a porting guide to simplify deployment”, according to PI. “It is implemented in C language to MISRA standards.”
Also in there is a configuration and diagnostics tool, a code library for single-phase brushless dc motor fan, and a code library for three-phase field-orientated control of a motor using feedback from the current sensors built into some BridgeSwitch products. There is also a user guide.
MotorXpert v3.0 is available at no monetary cost – the package is requested by agreeing to conditions and providing user information.
