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Microchip Offers Motor Workshops
Targets engineers who want to move beyond stepper motor control
Charles J. Murray, Senior Technical Editor -- Design News, March 23, 2009
Engineers looking for solutions to their motor control dilemmas could get a boost from a series of workshops held by Microchip Technology Inc. over the next three months.
The motor control workshops, scheduled in locales around the U.S. and in Canada through mid-June, are aimed at helping engineers who have impending projects involving brushless DC motors or permanent magnet synchronous (PMS) motors.
"A lot of engineers have projects coming due and these days there's pressure on them to get things out faster," says Steve Marsh, strategic marketing manager for Microchip's High Performance Microcontroller Division. "The engineers who have less time and have a deadline approaching are probably the ones who will get the most out of this."
Brushless DC (BLDC) workshops will be held in Toronto, Boston, Cleveland, Baltimore, San Jose and Detroit. The workshops, aimed at sensorless BLDC control, feature the sensorless majority function algorithm, which digitally filters the back electromotive force generated by the non-commuted windings to calculate rotor position, eliminating the need for comparators and position sensors.
"Quite a few engineers have only dealt with stepper motors, where the control scheme can be much simpler," Marsh says. "We're seeing people who want to step into brushless DC motors or PMS motors."
Marsh says the benefits of the workshops could extend beyond near-term projects. "If you happen to know PMS motors, or field-oriented control, it might just make you more marketable, especially in this economic environment."
