User Manual

Table Of Contents
Brushless Motor Connections and Operation
96 Advanced Digital Motor Controller User Manual V2.0, July 8, 2019
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FIGURE 8-1. Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor construction
As the name implies, Brushless motors differ from traditional DC motors in that they do
not use brushes for commutating the electromagnets. Instead, it is up to the motor con-
troller to apply, in sequence, current to each of the 3 motor windings in order to cause the
rotor to spin. There are fundamentally two methods of generating the rotating magnetic
eld in the motor’s winding:
Trapezoidal Commutation
Sinusoidal Commutation
Within each commutation method is then a method for detecting the actual position of
the rotor in order to synchronize the generated rotating field. These are:
Hall sensors
Encoders (Absolute or relative)
Sensorless (Trapezoidal only)
All Roboteq brushless controllers support Trapezoidal with Hall sensor feedback. Sinusoidal
and alternative rotor detection techniques are available on selected models. Refer to the
controller’s datasheet to determine which modes are supported.
Number of Poles
One of the key characteristics of a brushless motor is the number of poles of permanent
magnets pairs it contains. A full 3-phase cycling of motor’s electromagnets will cause the
rotor to move to the next permanent magnet pole. A full 3-phase cycle is known as electri-
cal turn which will be different from the physical (mechanical) turn of the shaft if the motor
number of pole pairs is greater than one: increasing the number of pole pairs will cause
the motor to rotate more slowly for a given rate of change on the winding’s phases.
Roboteq controllers use the number of motor pole pairs to measure the number of turns
a motor has made as well as motor speed.
Determining the Number of Poles
The number of pole pairs on a particular motor is usually found in the motor’s specifica-
tion sheet. The number of pole pairs can also be measured by applying a low DC current
(around 1A) between any two of the three motor phase wires and then counting the
number of cogs you feel when rotating the motor by hand for a full turn. It can also be de-
termined by rotating the motor shaft by hand a full turn. Then take the number of counts
reported by the hall counter in the Roborun PC utility, and divide it by 6.
#Pole Pairs = Hall Counts per turn / 6