Build a diy brushless motor controller in a day (ish)

21/03/13

Build a DIY brushless motor controller in a day (ish) - the spingarage blog

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the spingarage blog
The voice of spingarage LLC, or Andrew Angellotti. Whichever has the controlling interest of Andrew's brain at the moment. About Tags Search

Build a DIY brushless motor controller in a day (ish)

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(This is part one. Part two is here) (Also make sure to check out the updated, ridiculously simple commutation scheme, in the form of an infographic, here) Hey folks, this post is about my approach to building a pretty basic dual brushless motor controller. I'm going to focus on the power section in this post, and as soon as I have time I'll discuss the code/FroBoard side of things in another post. I got started on the power section last night after a copious amount of coffee, and wrapped it up this morning- it's a pretty simple build if you're used to building stuff on perf board. I firmly believe that the best way to learn how something works is to build it yourself- that's how I learned about electric cars, and brushless motor control is no exception. So if you want to learn how brushless motor controllers work, build one! A controller this size is a great place to start if you're just getting involved in brushless motor control- I would definitely recommend starting out with something like this if you plan on building a car-sized controller. In fact, my first brushless controller was essentially half of this controller. It's good up to around 24 volts and 1 or 2 amps per motor, but with proper heatsinking it could probably take a bit more current. This post is written with the electronics hobbyist/motor enthusiast in mind. It's also turned out to be a bit longer than expected; ah well. I'll try harder next time! Most of this won't make any sense if you don't have a rough understanding of what brushless motors are and how they work- if you're in that group, no worries. There are lots of great sites out