Previous in Forum: Installation of VFD.   Next in Forum: Crimping Electrical Joints in Cooking Appliances
Close
Close
Close
5 comments
Rate Comments: Nested
Participant

Join Date: Oct 2014
Posts: 3

Looking for an MCU and 3 Phase Motor Driver Combo

10/29/2014 10:29 AM

Hi, I have a 3 phase 208volt 2.3amp induction motor and I need to build an mcu controller for it. I suspect my build will consist of an mcu card, a motor controller shield and a 208volt switching power supply. The mcu must have 3 pwm outputs and a way of making a zero crossing detector, and the motor driver will have some beefy igbt bridges on a heat sink. I can write code for the mcu and the easier the interface to my linux box the better.

I need to run the motor at a constant speed that is synced to the ac line voltage and be able to vary the phase angle. The motor spins a disk with 6 electrodes on it. I have a small strobe light that flashes at the zero crossing of the ac line. With my present rig I can look at the spinning disk and see the electrodes slowing moving clockwise and that's not good. I need to be able to freeze the apparent look of the electrodes and turn a dial that shifts them one way or the other.

It's for a tesla coil I'm building. If anyone knows of an mcu and motor driver combo in the $100 to $120 range then please let me know. Thanks in advance!

Register to Reply
Interested in this topic? By joining CR4 you can "subscribe" to
this discussion and receive notification when new comments are added.
Guru
United States - Member - New Member Engineering Fields - Power Engineering - New Member

Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: California, USA, where the Godless live next door to God.
Posts: 4665
Good Answers: 804
#1

Re: Looking for an MCU and 3 Phase Motor Driver Combo

10/29/2014 1:13 PM

You are describing something that already exists, called a Variable Frequency Drive (VFD). A 2.3 A 230V version (can accept up to 230V) will cost you somewhere in the $250 range for a good one, less if you don't need high performance.

__________________
** All I every really wanted to be, was... A LUMBERJACK!.**
Register to Reply
Participant

Join Date: Oct 2014
Posts: 3
#3
In reply to #1

Re: Looking for an MCU and 3 Phase Motor Driver Combo

10/29/2014 6:38 PM

I have a vfd. There's no way to phase lock it to the line frequency. I only need one speed and a variable phase delay. If I had a vfd that I could write my own software for I could solve this in a jiffy.

Register to Reply
Guru
United States - Member - New Member Engineering Fields - Power Engineering - New Member

Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: California, USA, where the Godless live next door to God.
Posts: 4665
Good Answers: 804
#4
In reply to #3

Re: Looking for an MCU and 3 Phase Motor Driver Combo

10/30/2014 10:56 AM

What do you mean by "phase lock it to the line frequency"? It you want the motor to run at just one speed, tell the VFD to run it at one speed, it should. If yours does not and it drifts, you have a cheap junk VFD. A good quailty "Vector Control" VFD should hold speed at .001% accuracy. Your line frequency from a utility is not even that accurate.

__________________
** All I every really wanted to be, was... A LUMBERJACK!.**
Register to Reply
Participant

Join Date: Oct 2014
Posts: 3
#5
In reply to #4

Re: Looking for an MCU and 3 Phase Motor Driver Combo

11/01/2014 10:29 AM

The line frequency from the utility is what I need to lock onto. My tesla coil has a rotating spark gap that must fire at the ac peaks. Any later and my hard to find neon sign transformers will die. It's called a Synchronous Rotating Spark Gap or SRSG. My local VFD suppliers say they have never seen a VFD with an input that allows syncing to an external frequency. So I have to build my own. I found a VFD evaluation kit at $700 but thats out of the question. I found a 3 phase driver board at $30 but I still need the 208v switching supply. I can't use a transformer supply because that would put the current draw of the entire machine over 15 amps and I want to stay under that so I can plug it in anywhere. You would think that out of all the thousands of microcontrollers out there someone would make an expansion card for driving these common motors.

Register to Reply
Guru

Join Date: Jul 2008
Posts: 1688
Good Answers: 145
#2

Re: Looking for an MCU and 3 Phase Motor Driver Combo

10/29/2014 2:16 PM

If you want to design your own hardware the Application Notes from the MicroChip corporation might be a good place to start your research. They are above average when it comes to providing resources to the home hacker. Digikey, Mouser and other sources have chips, eval kits, demo boards and other required parts.

__________________
Few things limit our potential as much as knowing answers and setting aside questions.
Register to Reply
Register to Reply 5 comments
Copy to Clipboard

Users who posted comments:

BruceFlorida (1); JRaef (2); twoten (2)

Previous in Forum: Installation of VFD.   Next in Forum: Crimping Electrical Joints in Cooking Appliances

Advertisement