3-phase motor controller on Arduino board.

According to (my memory of) "who killed the electric car" the GM EV-1 was powered by a three-phase wave generator that was then pushed through a massive three-channel amp.

It would be nice to one day convert the Merc to battery power, probably around the time the engine blows and battery prices come down.

So I thought I would start by doing a 3-phase controller on an Arduino board. I can't see why it would not work. I'll start small with a test-bench before shelling out on any serious hardware.

/*

3-phase controller.

This circuit fades 6 LED's in sequence,
in a 3-phase diamond wave - a sine wave
is a little difficult to accomplish in
the digital domain. But a few capacitors
will probably smooth things out.

I think it will still make a decent motor
controller though. Just need to build
some seriously high power amps now.

Each LED is wired thus:
pin out
LED
resistor
ground

- lay out your green LED's along the top
and the red ones along the bottom.
channels:
top row: 3, 5, 6
botom: 9, 10, 11

*/

// set the start positions of the various waves
int blueup = 255;
int bluedown = 0;
int blackup = 0;
int blackdown = 85;
int redup = 0;
int reddown = 85;

/*
Set the directions of travel
You can change these values to 1 if
you want a smoother wave - but you will
also need to change them lower down,
otherwise you will break the program.

x's are for the upper half of the wave,
y's are for the lower half of the wave
*/
int x1 = 5;
int x2 = 0;
int x3 = 0;
int y1 = 0;
int y2 =-5;
int y3 = 5;


//set the LED's to the various PWM channels
int ledPin3 = 3; // LED connected to digital pin 3
int ledPin5 = 5; // ...etc
int ledPin6 = 6;
int ledPin9 = 9;
int ledPin10 = 10;
int ledPin11 = 11;

void setup()
{
// Serial.begin(9600);
}



void loop()
{
/*
These lines are for if you want to monitor
the output on the various values, check that
your waves are runnning the right way and to
the correct values
*/

// Serial.print("blueup, ");
// Serial.println(blueup);
// Serial.print("bluedown, ");
// Serial.println(bluedown);
// Serial.print(",x1, ");
// Serial.print(x1);
// Serial.print(",y1, ");
// Serial.print(y1);

// Serial.print("blackup, ");
// Serial.println(blackup);
// Serial.print("blackdown, ");
// Serial.println(blackdown);
// Serial.print(",x2, ");
// Serial.print(x2);
// Serial.print(",y2, ");
// Serial.print(y2);


// Serial.print("redup, ");
// Serial.println(redup);
// Serial.print("reddown, ");
// Serial.println(reddown);
// Serial.println("");
// Serial.print(",x3, ");
// Serial.print(x3);
// Serial.print(",y3, ");
// Serial.print(y3);

/*
assign the various integers (above)
to the various pins.
*/
analogWrite(ledPin3, blueup);
analogWrite(ledPin9, bluedown);
analogWrite(ledPin5, blackup);
analogWrite(ledPin10, blackdown);
analogWrite(ledPin6, redup);
analogWrite(ledPin11, reddown);

/*
this section checks whether you have
reached the top or bottom of this half
of the phase. If you have, it then
causes the other half of the phase to
ramp up
*/

if ((blueup == 255) & (x1 == 5)) { x1 = -5; }

if ((blueup == 0) & (x1 == -5)) { x1 = 0; y1 = +5; } if ((blackup == 255) & (x2 == 5)) { x2 = -5; }

if ((blackup == 0) & (x2 == -5)) { x2 = 0; y2 = + 5; } if ((redup == 255) & (x3 == 5)) { x3 = -5; }

if ((redup == 0) & (x3 == -5)) { x3 = 0; y3 = +5; } if ((bluedown == 255) & (y1 == 5)) { y1 = -5; }

if ((bluedown == 0) & (y1 == -5)) { y1 = 0; x1 = 5; } if ((blackdown == 255) & (y2 == 5)) { y2 = -5; }

if ((blackdown == 0) & (y2 == -5)) { y2 = 0; x2 = 5; } if ((reddown == 255) & (y3 == 5)) { y3 = -5; }

if ((reddown == 0) & (y3 == -5)) { y3 = 0; x3 = 5; }

/*
This section is where the waves are powered up or down.
If you add a positive value to a number, it increments.
But if you add a negative number it /de/crements.

In this way, the pos/neg flipping above makes the waves
travel in the right direction when we do the addition
down here.
*/
blueup = blueup + x1;
blackup = blackup + x2;
redup = redup + x3;

bluedown = bluedown + y1;
blackdown = blackdown + y2;
reddown = reddown + y3;

/*
This delay is only here so that you can see your waves
flowing across the board. It runs /way/ faster without
the delay instruction.

Later iterations will have a variable resistor controlling
the speed.
*/
delay (40);

}

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• arduino
• 3-phase
• motor controller

[ashtontechhelp]

Last time I checked this out, you need to have a totally separate circuit running at much higher voltages, then have photoresistors to drive the transistors on /that/ circuit - you tape the diodes from this circuit to the photoresitors on the other circuit, then wrap the whole lot in tubing and tape to make it light tight.

ashtontechhelp.

[horrorskop]

nice :)

[fredlllll]

how can i use this with transistors? i want to drive my hdd 3 phase motor, but i dont know how to do that with the transistors, last time i shortened some of them so... yeah help please? :D

[MrNeoFromMatrix]

thanks fpr the code !

[haunted2097]

Thanx for sharing! I'm thinking of building a three phase myself. How will you amplify the signal from the controler to the voltage needed for the coils?