TI intros low-cost Piccolo MCU motor control kits with PFC

BANGALORE, INDIA: Power factor correction (PFC) is becoming a key requirement for motor control applications, as regulation standards aimed to prevent spikes in the power grid are increasingly implemented.

Texas Instruments Inc. (TI) has announced two new Piccolo Motor Control Kits that enable PFC and sensorless field-oriented control of up to two motors with a single low-cost microcontroller (MCU).

Leveraging TI’s Piccolo MCUs and high-performance analog, the kits include everything needed to immediately begin development of cost-sensitive motor control applications such as pumps, HVAC, refrigerators and other appliances/white goods.

Allowing developers to efficiently meet their design needs, these controlCARD-based kits include a 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.

Key features of Piccolo MCU Motor Control and PFC Developer’s Kits
* Single 60MHz TMS320F28035 MCU features 128KB flash and control-oriented peripherals such as 12-bit, 16 channel on chip ADC and high resolution PWM outputs.
* Sensorless field-oriented software tuned for kits’ motors allows developers to easily begin design right out of the box.
* 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 saves on cost by eliminating the need for an external JTAG emulator.
* Detailed documentation of field-oriented motor control theory and PFC principles, including instructions for executing both with one Piccolo MCU.