TI's New Evaluation Platform Drives 3-Phase Brushless Motors with Faster Rotation

An excellent motor control solution that reduces development time for brushless DC and permanent magnet synchronous motors

TI Korea (CEO Jaejin Kim, www.ti.com/ww/kr ) April 21, 2011 – TI has released a complete motor control evaluation kit for driving Brushless DC (BLDC) and Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor (PMSM). The DRV8312-C2-KIT is a trapezoidal commutation platform that is a high-performance, power-efficient, and cost-effective sensorless field-oriented control (FOC). Its superior motor driving capabilities enable rapid development of industrial and consumer robotics and automation applications, as well as brushless motors under 50V and 6.5A that drive medical pumps, gates, lifts, and small pumps. (For more information on ordering and the product, please refer to www.ti.com/drv8312-c2-kit-prkr )

Key Features and Advantages
• The exceptional motor control and driver solution includes the DRV8312 motor driver, 32-bit C2000™ Piccolo™ microcontroller (MCU) controlCARD module, QuickStart GUI, complete development source code, Code Composer Studio™ (CCStudio) integrated development environment (IDE), and a 3-phase BLDC motor.
• The flexible control platform supports sensorless FOC and sensorless/sensor trapezoidal communication control for the rapid evaluation and development of 3-phase motors. By adding a separate shaft encoder, the DRV8312-C2-KIT can also support sensor FOC.
• The DRV8312 3-phase, fractional horsepower motor driver delivers best-in-class current output of up to 6.5A, eliminating the need for expensive external heatsinks. The DRV8312 motor driver is robust and reliable, fully protected by cycle-based overcurrent, overtemperature, cross-conduction, and undervoltage protection, ensuring reduced design complexity, board space, and high system reliability.
• The C2000 Piccolo MCU performs control, communication, and debugging functions. As the industry-leading 32-bit C2000 MCU in the embedded device MCU family starting at under $2, it features state-of-the-art analog feedback, digital control peripherals, and built-in CPU functions. Includes the most complete motor control software module, real-time debugging, and an open-tooled reference design via the free controlSUITE™ software.

Supply timing and price
The DRV8312-C2-KIT is currently available for $299, and this price includes the CCStudio IDE with no compiler or memory limits. All materials, software sources, and hardware development packages (including BOM, schematics, and Gerber) are available for free through controlSUITE.

A complete evaluation kit based on the DRV8412 motor driver can also be used for brushed DC and stepper motor drives, and the price of the DRV8412-C2-KIT is $299.

More detailed information on TI's motor control solutions
• DRV8312-C2-KIT