I missed the last status report, so this will just be a big one with everything, sorry Charles. In the past two weeks, we received and assembled the spookpower and spooktroller boards, and did basic testing of them. So far, they are without any problems. Once we exercised all of the basic peripherals, like the 3 phase pwm generation, adc triggering, and UART, I ported over the janktroller code. It didn’t work for a while because the faster control loop…
This week, we worked on further tuning the medium size of the two big motors with UPMC with FOC code, which took a lot of calibration and debugging. We were convinced that we needed a backup plan in case FOC does not work out, which is why we also started writing firmware for the far more simple six step zero crossing motor control algorithm as a backup. The dyno is assembled, after a whole lot more hours in the machine…
This week, I worked on finishing more machining for our dyno, which was able to spin another motor rather successfully with a chain and another sprocket. With a ACDC rectifier and some beefy fets, we were able to get some interesting result from the output of the generator motor. We have been doing some calculations on the efficiency and power results with an oscilloscope as well. Some prelim power output puts us at 700W without the motor losing control, so…
We got the boards and we flowed them this week! Most things seem to be alive, as we immediately tested our safety limiting operations such as overcurrent and overvoltage protection, both of which deemed safe and working. After some preliminary investigation with the old small motor with the UPMC, we have determined that sinusoidal FOC does not like to run on a motor that is not sinusoidal, which is our small motor. Therefore, we have moved onto PID and other…
This week I worked on the motor dyno setup. In addition to milling out the sprocket, the motor dyno plate, I also spent some time wiring up the fets with the ACDC converter we got this week. Ideally, all the mechanical work for the dyno should be done by this weekend, fingers crossed that techspark is not full of meches trying to finish their capstone on time. I also have scoped out a fuse for the battery pack, which I…
My work this week consisted of manufacturing and doing mechanical planning. I sourced some heatsink material to cut and mill in the machine shop in C level Techspark an it will be ready to cool be power board. I also ordered the throttle for the bike. In addition to machining more things for the dyno, I’m also waiting for all the parts to get in so we can flow the boards.
This week was focused on getting the new motor controller boards finalized and ordered. I put together the BOMs and Deepak sent in the order, and I exported the boards and uploaded them to PCBway. After that, I have been helping make sure that we have all the parts and procedures we’ll need to conduct our testing once the boards arrive.
This week we finished designing the power and logic boards for the UPMC. We performed a full review of the components, schematics, and board layout, then ordered both the PCBs and 2 BOMs for each one. The PCBs should get here sometime next week. We also got some more equipment for demo, including an electronic twist throttle for the bike, along with a chain and 2 sprockets to connect the motor for the tabletop dyno. This week we will work…
This week I was unable to do as much due to being out of town. I reviewed the schematics and layout for the SpookTroller (logic board) and SpookPower (power board), along with all the selected components. Afterwards, I ordered 2 BOMs for each PCB so that we have spare parts. I also researched and ordered sprockets, a chain, and associated tools so that we can connect 2 motors together for our tabletop dyno. I will begin working on receiving UART…
This week I finished checking the schematics and did some layout for the SpookPower and Spooklogic board. We went through and double checked all the math. I went through and found sprockets and chain for the big beefy motors we had, which Deepak later purchased. The sprocket will go on top of the motor mounting holes and the chain will be used for our tabletop dyno. I also found an ebike throttle that is rated for our operating voltage range….