Tuesday, February 5, 2013

What Is The Difference Between A Sensor Control And A Sensorless BLDC Controller


A sensorless BLDC controller is a very technical controller which uses Brushless Direct Current (BLDC) and an algorithm for filtering Back Electromotive Force, so what are the differences and which one is best? A BLDC motor can be used for industry and several consumer purposes because it is highly effective, compact, easy to control, and as a result it is now being applied to the automotive industry to aid the elimination of hydraulic systems and belts which will reduce fuel costs and add extra functions the vehicle. In recent years the cost of magnets and electronics have dropped significantly making the BLDC  motor more reasonably priced and being added to more items every day.

This motor is normally operated with one or more rotor positions however it is desirable that they are run without motion sensors as they are costly and easily breakable this is why the BLDC motor is a sensorless operation. A sensor less controller has to detect the rotors position the most popular method is drive two phases and then observe the generated voltage or the back EMF, this uses a more technical way to assess the position and speed however for machinery with propellers this does not have a problem with sensor less controllers.

In a sensor motor you have 3 sensors which are positioned at set degree angles and the positions depend on several details which are number of slots, winding configuration and the number of magnetic poles. The benefit of sensor commutation is that the sensor knows where the motor is all the time and because of this they often stall and work at low speed. Sensor failures can mean not being able to operate the motor at all and replacing this can be very difficult and sometimes impossible.

The only major difference between sensor and sensor less motors is the use of sensors, however controllers are a big trend in the technological world and people keep finding more items to use them on and more advancement to make them more effective and accurate. Controllers are used in hundreds of items that we use every day and we are more dependent than ever on using controllers as we do more things than ever mechanically rather than physical labor. Controllers have made factories, vehicles and many other things safer to use and have made our lives easier; however this sensor less BLDC controller is at present at the forefront of sensor less control technology and has proven itself as reliable and efficient. Even though it is a very technical piece due to prices of its components becoming cheaper, it makes this sensor less controller one of the best buys available in the market.  


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Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Repair And Exchange Of Servo Amplifier In Industrial Electronics


It is essential to include the exchange programs when deciding about the right company to select for repairing industrial electronics or servo motors. This is because these companies that is on the exchange program send a motor that works to help the customer to continue their normal life activities using this replacement till they repair the part. It is possible to continue working till the repaired unit is returned.

Factor in this consideration regarding the exchange program when you decide about the best service company for industrial repairs. You can continue to work without interruptions at the facility where you work as well as benefit with great savings. You will only be paying a fraction of the cost when you repair and use remanufactured parts instead of brand new motors.

It is not necessary to wait when the repairs are being carried out when one is using the exchange process. The remanufactured spare part is used to replace the malfunctioning part and help continue to run the facility smoothly. It is not necessary to maintain a huge inventory of various machine parts in case one of them does not function properly.

The advantage is that your facility continues to function with the backing of the industrial repair company. These types of servo motor exchange and repair companies enable people to avoid incurring huge costs for maintaining inventories by providing equipment from their inventory. They prefer to collaborate with companies that use the exchange facility for repair as well as delivery. Given below are some methods used by industrial repair companies in the exchange process

·         The website of the company can be visited and the exchange form filled
·         The full price for the remanufactured unit should be paid upfront
·         Downtime is eliminated as the item is quickly shipped
·         The malfunctioning motor is quickly returned to the repair company after boxing it up when the remanufactured item is received for efficient motion control
·         Once this item having malfunctions are received, the customer credit for the item is issued by the company

Make sure you collaborate with a company that offers and deals with equipment such as spindle, servo motor, servo amplifier, VFD drive, monitor, spindle amplifier, power supply and so on. This equipment should also work with electronic manufacturers such as Indramat, Allen Bradley, Yaskawa, Siemens, Fanuc and Xycom. These companies also serve as a one stop solution for every requirement and you can avoid running to different repair services every time you run into a problem.


What Is Motion Control?


Motion control is sub field of automation. This controls the position or the velocity of the machinery. To do this it uses device like a linear actuator, electric motor, hydraulic pump or generally a servo motor.  This is a very important part of robotics and CNC machine tools. This is a very complex system as the kinematics in these machines is usually very simple. Motion control is used greatly in packaging, textile, semi conductor, printing and assembly lines.

The basic design of the motion control is as follows. The control is set to generate set points for the desired outcome and to close positions or velocity (the feedback loop). The signal is then changed into an electrical current by a drive or an amplifier. This is then delivered to the actuator. (An actuator is for motion output and can be a hydraulic pump, electric motor or a linear actuator.)  Some newer models are more accurate because they can close the position internally. 

Feedback sensors such as Hall Effect devices or optical encoders are used to close the position of the actuator bring it back to the motion control. The mechanical components then change the motion into a required movement. This can include shifting, belts, ball screw, gears, and linkages linear or rotational bearings. When co-ordinated motion is required the interface between the motion controllers are critical. They have to provide tight synchronisation.

There are some common control features and these include position control (this is often based on the velocity profiles for example S-curve or triangular profile.), velocity, electronic gearing (also known as cam profiling) this is where the master axis and the position of the slave axis are mathematically linked. For example, when two rotating drums turn at a set ratio to one another, there is also electronic camming and this is where the slave axis abides by a profile that is the job of the master as this does not need to be salted but it has to be animated. There is also pressure and force control.

Motion controllers are used in an array of different industries to help produce and make most of the things we use every day. They help do the jobs that are hard labour for humans and assist in increasing productivity.  There are several companies that globally sell these controls. They develop, manufacture and market servo drives and systems. Their products are predominantly brushless controls; however they do provide drives for alternate motor types. They also provide standard products and can customize to suit your needs.




Monday, August 20, 2012

How does Windmills Work?


Everyone has seen all the moves towards clean energy in the past few years. Things like solar and wind energy have become the new standard for clean energy as they don’t seem to have the bi-product problems of things such as electricity. While electric engines burn more cleanly than your standard combustion engine runs off gasoline or petrol they still require an input system that is typically one built out of a dirty fuel such as coal. Windmills can produce and store more energy than solar cells and tend to be more efficient overall.

When you see windmills towering over the town below, it is easy to wonder how they know which way to face in order to catch the wind properly. One of the key components in the built in pitch control system. This uses hydraulics in order to adjust the way the blades face and even change the position of the head. This allows the windmill to turn more rapidly creating more stored energy as it travels down the base of the system.

The center of the windmill is wired to capture all the energy created by the spinning top. It then travels down the wires to the base of the windmill where a battery sits to capture the energy. Other wires go to the general power source. This means you can both draw power immediately and store it for future use. This gives you more freedom with this version of clean energy. While you can store solar power it does not have the same conversion rate and you lose much of the energy in the storage process.

As for the direction of the windmills, that is up to the person who sets up the farm. Some windmills can use the pitch control system to move the entire direction of the head, while other windmills are stationary. The stationary ones can still move the blades to better catch the wind but the windmill itself always faces the exact same direction. For those close to the water, this is often a great choice as the wind tends to only come from one way.


Helping Increase Safety with Computerized Motors


Car manufacturers and assembly lines have long relied on servo motors in order to increase productivity and consistency on the line. Now, these same AC servo motors are helping to increase safety levels both for the employees of the plants and for those who are driving the vehicles. Technicians have realized the increased parameter options allows for more control over the finished product. This means less variation so that the pieces fit together in a way making them more stable than ever before and increasing the overall safety of the vehicle.

The AC servo motors that control the line help prevent overheating. This type of condition can cause fires, meltdowns and other dangerous situations for those who are monitoring the line. By using a mechanism that makes adjustments immediately, like a servo, the problem never has a chance to develop. It takes much less time to make a correction from the beginning than undoing a problem scenario has blown out of control. Think of it along the lines of laying a drop cloth down when you are painting or trying to clean up the paint off the ground after you are done. One is a simple clean up job and the other is a protracted process.

For the output of the product, because a servo motor can monitor things so closely there are fewer problems with the end product. When bolts and pieces do not meet up exactly, vibrations and other processes can cause things to wiggle loose. This factor often results in tires falling off, seat belts failing, pieces of the engine getting knocked out or other disastrous scenarios. By ensuring everything is exactly uniform, there is less chance of this type of problem. Basically it was the next logical step in the development of motorized vehicle development and the assembly line. The companies had maxed out what could be done with just humans and found a way to utilize the computerized systems in order to increase safety and productivity at the same time. Helping to make life safer is a great side benefit of computerized advances.






Thursday, August 9, 2012

How BLDC Motors Work

Before using BLDC motors, understand its mechanism.

You will be able to find BLDC motors or brushless DC motors in industrial equipment, appliances and medical instruments as they provide various advantages as compared to others like it.

However, before usingthese motors particularly for blade pitch control, you must first have a complete understanding of its mechanism which consequently results to a fast review of the construction of a DC motor.

A BLDC motor is particular type of servo motors which basically relies on wire coils on rotors and frames of rigid motors which on the other hand places permanent magnets all over the rotor.

Electric current passing through the windings make some magnetic field which either repels it from the magnet or attracts a winding to the magnet. Brushes placed on stators and contacts placed on rotors choose various windings as power while the rotors turn.

In BLDC motors, the coils make up the motors’ outsides and the rotors provide permanent magnets. Once again, the repulsions and attractions of the coils and the permanent magnets make the rotors spin. However, in BLDC motors, commutations do no occur on spinning shafts.

Even though these motors are more expensive than other brush-DC motors, they provide benefits. Their exterior coils dissipate heat better than those on rotors. BLDC motors do not have commutators or brushes to tire out or need maintenance regularly, thus they can function unattended for a very long period of time. Lastly, these motors don’t produce electromagnetic interference or EMI from machine-driven commutators.

Rather than utilizing mechanical commutators, servo motors like BLDC use automated commutation in switching the coils to on or to off. This kind of commutation is classified into two – the sensorless or the sensor-based.

The sensor-based motors, Hall-effect sensors are placed inside the coils of the motor to sense the position of the permanent magnets of the rotors. Microcontrollers or MCU read the states of the sensors and utilize a particular algorithm to know which of the coils to power as well as when.

On the other hand, sensorless motors require MCUs to measure the back electromotive force orr EMF produced across coils by spinning rotors’ magnets. The back EMF or BEMF defines the magnets’ positions.

However, the sensorless method is faced with a challenge because controller as well should power coils consequently to make the motors turn. Thus, how can one separate pulse-width signals of modulation which drive coils BEMF signals?

The answer is quite simple. Program MCUs to filter high-frequency PWM signals out as well as measure BEMF near the time when PWM signals pass through zero Voltage. The BEMF depends on various factors like coil resistance, number of coil windings, rotor magnets strengths and many others.


Thursday, July 26, 2012

Taking a Closer Look at One of the Most Sought After Pitch Control Solutions

A servo driver serves as an effective moderator as it accepts command signals originating from control systems amplifies these signals and consequently transmits the current to motors in order to produce a kind of motion which is proportional to the received command signals.

Usually, the desired velocities are represented by these command signals. However, they as well represent the anticipated torque or position. With assistance from velocity sensors, servo motors report the actual velocities to their corresponding servo driver. The driver then changes the frequencies of the voltage to correct errors in the velocities.

Pitch control solutions are basically categorized into two important types of issues. The first type takes care of command tracking. It monitors whether commands are actually followed by motions. Generally, command in rotational wave controls are position, velocity, acceleration and torque. In the event of liner motion, a force, rather than torque, is applied.

The specific component of pitch control drive which handles it directly is usually identified as a “feed-forward” control. It aids in the determination of internal commands in order for the user’s motion commands to be performed in the absence of errors.

The second component addresses all of the system’s rejection traits of disturbance. Disturbances may range from erroneous motor parameter estimations employed in the feed-forward controls to torque troubles in the shafts of motors. These issues are resolved by utilizing the widely-known Proportional Integral and Derivative Position Loop or PID and the Proportional Integral and Velocity Position Loop or PIV.

Servo controls are designed efficiently to resolve all issues that machines may encounter and prevent chances of such mishaps effectively.

Learn more about wind turbine pitch control http://www.servotronix.com/clean-tech.html