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Commissioning a new drive and motor

The following is a basic list of tasks to get up and running with a drive and motor:

Install and wire the motor controller

  • Connect the motor phase windings to the drive.
  • Connect the motor encoder to the drive.
  • Connect the DC bus wiring to the drive and power supply.

Basic configuration

For a basic motor configuration set:

  • Motor pole pairs.
  • Initial guess of the current controller gains.
  • Some temperature limits.
  • Some current controller limits

First power on

  • Ensure the motor is fixed to to something so that it will not jump around if it spins.
  • Power up the system.
  • Launch your application to start dev_host.

Encoder test

Test the encoder is operating correctly:

  • Configure a basic JCS system.
  • Configure the motor controller and encoder for the expected operation.
  • Configure dev_HOST.yaml such that it does not start any motor controllers (e.g. remove/comment references to controller_start for the motor controllers).
  • Start the JCS system and examine the signal th_m.
  • Rotate the motor by hand. th_m should complete one cycle for one mechanical revolution.

Measure DQ phase resistance and inductance

Measure the DQ phase resistance and inductance:

  • Configure a basic JCS system.
  • Launch an application to issue the suite of test_ls and test_rs parameters.

Obtain current controller gains

From the DQ phase resistance and inductance and the desired controller bandwidth, compute controller Kp and Ki gains.

Spin test

Perform a quick spin check to ensure the motor is wired correctly:

  • Start the JCS system.
  • Apply a small Q axis current (eg 1%-10% of max current), just enough to spin the motor.

At first startup the motor may not spin correctly. You might see that the motor stalls, jitters and make noise and just pull current. Most likely, the phases are reversed or the encoder direction is incorrect. Adjust each of these and attempt to spin the motor again.

When correct, the motor should spin and accelerate freely under a Q axis current command

Optional: Linearise the encoder

Optional: Perform rotor cogging compensation

Configure higher level controllers

Proceed to configure your higher level controllers such as torque or speed, by implementing them as JCS processes.