Date: 24/06/2009

TI unveils new MCU based motor controller kit enabling PFC

Texas Instruments has made available a new low cost microcontroller based kit to design PFC featured motor controller system with sensorless field-oriented control of up to two motors. The microcontroller family named Piccolo used in this kit are cost optimized for low cost motor control applications such as pumps, HVAC, refrigerators and other appliances/white goods. The kit packs Piccolo controlCARD, Code Composer Studio IDE, software libraries and a hardware designer's package. The Motor Control and PFC Developer's Kit includes a single permanent magnet motor while the Dual Motor Control and PFC Developer's Kit includes two.

The other key features of this kit are,

Has 60MHz TMS320F28035 MCU with 128KB flash and control-oriented peripherals such as 12-bit, 16 channel on chip ADC and high resolution PWM outputs
Software is broken into incremental builds for easy, step by step learning and development of motor control plus PFC on Piccolo MCUs
Dual full bridge PWM motor drivers include programmable cycle-by-cycle current limit and two stage thermal protection capabilities
Isolated onboard USB JTAG emulation saving an external JTAG emulator
Document detailing field-oriented motor control theory and PFC principles, including instructions for executing both with one Piccolo MCU.


The Motor Control and PFC Developer's Kit (TMDS1MTRPFCKIT) is priced at $369 and the Dual Motor Control and PFC Developer's Kit (TMDS2MTRPFCKIT) is priced at $399. Both kits are now in stock and immediately available to order.