Implementing Efficient Motor Control Using Texas Instruments MSPM0 Series Microcontrollers

In the rapidly developing field of electronic technology, motor control, as a key technology, plays a vital role in improving energy efficiency and optimizing system performance.

At the just-concluded 2024 Shanghai Munich Electronics Show, Johnson He, MSP HSM Application Manager at Texas Instruments, gave a wonderful speech entitled "Arm Cortex-M0+ MCU: Motor control solutions that precisely meet customer needs", and discussed in depth how to use Texas Instruments' MSPM0 series microcontrollers to achieve efficient and precise motor control.

The ubiquity of motor drive technology

The application of motor drive technology has penetrated into every aspect of our daily life, and its application scenarios are so wide that they almost touch every corner. From small and exquisite electric toothbrushes and beauty instruments to power tools, electric bicycles, electric vehicles, industrial robots and many other products, motor drive technology has become an indispensable core component of modern products with its high efficiency, flexibility and reliability. In the commercial and industrial fields, motor drive technology also plays a key role. For example, in elevator systems, it ensures the safety and efficiency of vertical transportation.

Why choose MSPM0 MCU for motor control?

The MSPM0 MCU is a low-cost, high-performance microcontroller tailored for motor control applications by Texas Instruments. It offers a variety of small package sizes to adapt to different system architectures, including motor power, control interface and analog feedback. The advantages of its optimized design are:

Scalable product range

Different CPU frequencies and packaging options are available.

High performance PWM

The three PWM channels support PWM frequencies up to 200kHz, meeting the stringent requirements of various motor controls.

Hardware dead-band control

The stability and safety of motor control are enhanced through configurable rise and fall delay times, which generate adjustable dead bands.

Fast response to hardware failures

The fault response time of less than 100ns ensures the fast reliability of the system.

Adaptive Fault Output Control

Flexible configuration of PWM states according to fault events or debugging conditions improves the adaptability and flexibility of the system.

Hall sensor input mode

Allows the speed to be calculated in hardware using the XOR signal to reduce software overhead for sensor decoding.

Using the Event System for Accurate ADC Capture

The timer is the publisher of the event channel. When LOAD, ZERO or CCx occurs, it will "publish" the event. The ADC is the subscriber of the event channel. It will "listen" to the timer time in the hardware to trigger the set information collection action.

Bidirectional current sensing

In conjunction with the voltage bias provided by DAC8 and DAC12, the internal OPA is used directly to achieve real-time measurement of positive and negative currents during motor operation.

Application strategies of MSPM0 MCU in diverse motor control fields

By integrating advanced control algorithms and hardware accelerators, the MSPM0 MCU demonstrates effective control of diverse motors such as brushed DC motors, stepper motors, brushless DC motors (BLDC), etc. Using small, simplified MSPM0 firmware examples with popular motor driver solutions and topologies, motor rotation can be achieved in 10 minutes or less.

Brushed DC Motor Control: Spin a BDC motor using a variety of control schemes, interfaces, and current sensing (or limiting) topologies using discrete or driver solutions.

Stepper Motor Control: Control stepper motors using current-controlled stepper drivers with PWM or control interface and microstepping for high-precision, low-noise applications.

BLDC Sensored Trapezoidal Motor Control: Use three-phase motor drivers for high torque, fast, or simple motor control applications to quickly spin BLDC motors with Hall sensored trapezoidal control.

MSP Motor Control SDK provides rich development resources

The resources provided by MSPM0-SDK further enhance the application capabilities of MSPM0 MCU in the field of motor control.

Supported hardware designs: Using the MSP control board (LaunchPad) and the motor driver evaluation module (EVM).

Mature and stable software: Adopts hardware abstraction layer (HAL) to provide scalable MSP and driver support.

Graphical User Interface (GUI) for easy evaluation: motor rotation within 10 minutes.

User guides and support documentation in TI Resource Explorer.

With the above resources, developers can quickly develop and deploy motor control solutions. The MSPM0 motor control ecosystem provides a comprehensive and easy-to-use development platform for different types of motor control through seamless integration with tools such as MSPM0 DriverLib and SysConfig.