Motor Control Starter Kit

NEC ELECTRONICS' Motor Control Starter kit; a comprehensive and easy to use starter kit designed to support NEC's exciting range of 8- and 32-bit motor control specific microcontrollers. Targeted specifically at motor control applications the MC-LVKIT is a complete evaluation kit which allows designers to demonstrate & evaluate the CPU and motor control functions of uPD78F0714 & V850ES/IK1 microcontrollers. Scalability guaranteed with the ability to add other microcontroller boards in the future including V850/KJ1+, V850E/IA4 & uPD78F0712.

The hardware platform consists of a 12V brushless DC motor; Low voltage inverter module, I/O board and a microcontroller board. The complete system can be connected to a PC via a serial interface or operated in stand alone mode. It is also capable of being connected to NEC's software development tools for evaluation & debugging purposes.

Low voltage inverter module

The low voltage inverter module can be used for low voltage motor applications that require drive capability for motors up to 24 Volts. It can be used for evaluating 3-phase asynchronous or synchronous motor control applications.

Input/Output board

The I/O board has on-board user interface hardware for operational control & signal conditioning between the MCU and the low voltage inverter module. With this modular approach, a user can easily evaluate NEC Electronics' 8- and 32-bit motor control MCUs. Other features of the I/O board include;

• Potentiometer (to control the speed of the motor),
• Pushbutton switches that can be reprogrammed by the user (Start/stop, mode, forward, reverse),
• Four-digit, seven-segment LED display (used to display motor speed in RPM & other status information),
• RS-232 transceiver & optional DB9 connector (connected to a UART of the selected CPU)
• User prototype area

Microcontroller board

The 8-bit micro-board is designed for demonstration as well as in-depth evaluation of the CPU and on-chip peripheral functions of NEC Electronics' µPD78F0714 microcontroller. This micro-board can be operated in stand-alone mode to evaluate the main features of the MCU or it can be connected through two 100-pin connectors to the I/O board to evaluate the MCU's dedicated 3-phase motor control peripherals. Likewise, the 32-bit micro-board can be used to manipulate the functions of NEC Electronics µPD70F3329 microcontroller.

The 8-bit micro-board benefits from a 20MHz main clock and MCU I/O port connector that provides all I/O pins of the µPD78F0714. The micro-boards debug features allow access to Flash programming & standard debug functionality such as code execution, software breakpoints and memory manipulation by connecting the micro-board to our low-cost MINICUBE emulator (sold separately). The 32-bit micro-board uses the IECUBE emulator for similar functions.

GUI Software

In addition to offering both in-depth evaluation and demonstration capabilities, the MC-LVKIT's impressive hardware is coupled with a specially featured software package (with sample code) allowing a user to run a low voltage motor and tuning the code by changing the controller parameters from the PC graphical user interface software. The kit can also benefit from running in standalone mode from the PC GUI software.

Applications

Targeted applications for the starter kit include development of many consumer appliances such as cordless power tools, electric toothbrushes, shavers, trimmers, fans and other low power motor control applications.

Flexibility

Since all parts of the starter kit can be used either individually or collectively, users benefit from this and have the option to purchase complete kits or separate hardware components. Secure your low voltage starter kit by contacting your local NEC motor control sales representative now!