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 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….
This week, we got motor rotor estimator to actually commutate the motor. We are using a flux linkage observer to estimate rotor position, which involves measuring the ratio of magnetic flux applied to each of the three phases of the motor. We then apply a Clarke transform to translate into a 2-axis reference frame such that we can use the angle between the two to get the rotor electric angle. We also spent a while tuning the values of the…
This week, I worked on the battery management board schematics by reviewing the ASIC and picking out some components to regulate a 48v 15-cell series 18650 lithium ion battery pack that we are planning on using to power the UPMC. In addition to being able to sense the temperature, voltage, and current from every one of the cells, this board also needs to communicate with the Logic Board of the Electric Boogaloo. This means I have to look into connecting…
This week we took another major step in firmware bringup via the janktroller. One of the hardest challenges of this project is to get rotor estimation using only the current and voltage feedback from the motor, which involves using ADCs to sample values. After we found our firmware bug, we started debugging the ADC values we were seeing using Rotate, the GUI that Bolaji made last week and continued firmware debugging. We have also started to work on integrating our…
This week I worked on the demo aspect of the project. In addition to researching further into the motor and tabletop dyno, I started some initial drawings in CAD for our motor mount and output shafts. We’re going to make some parts out of aluminum to firmly hold the motor assembly in place as we start testing it with higher power. I also found a bike to purchase from Facebook for $40 that we are going to investigate and see…