3 ms·

Show HN: Brushless Motor Simulator

73 points by ranabasheer 5y ago

ranabasheer 5y ago
I am an instructor at UCI and I made this simulator to help students understand the electrical and mechanical forces involved in a brushless motor. The current version shows the voltage drive signals, current, back EMF and so on to help observe these signals when a motor is driven. In addition, I also added the option to select different poles and slots of a BLDC motor. Any feedback to help me improve or fix an errors is greatly appreciated.
- grammarprofess 5y ago
  Hi this is super cool thanks a lot! More and more people are trying to understand the workings of their electric scooter, bike or car. This is really awesome. In regards to making the page better, it doesn't work well on mobile it's hard to use. And there's a lot of graphics, I also don't like the volume knobs... A slider might be more efficient
  - ranabasheer 5y ago
    Thank you for the feedback. I went with the knob for my affinity for everything analog. I can make it look like a retro slider. I agree with you on making it mobile-friendly.
    - somethingsome 5y ago
      It works perfectly well on mobile for me ;)
ranabasheer 5y ago
This is an explainer video I made for the simulator https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbEl0k5A0s4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbEl0k5A0s4
MarkSweep 5y ago
An article I found quite helpful for understanding different types of motor commutation was this one from Copley: https://www.maccon.de/fileadmin/redaktion/downloads/Produkte/Antriebselektronik/Copley_drives/Field-Oriented-Control.pdf https://www.maccon.de/fileadmin/redaktion/downloads/Produkte... I wish I had a more official link. Anyways the key idea is normally when controlling a motor you are having to regulate the different poles if the motor oscillating up and down as the more spins. Controlling ossification like that is hard. By using the Clarke transform you can transform the frame of reference into the torque vector of the motor. You want this to be a constant value as the motor is spinning, which is much easier to control.
- ranabasheer 5y ago
  You can try that out in the simulator under the sinusoidal commutation. By adjusting the drive voltage, you can bring the direct current of commutation as low as possible while keeping the quadrature current and hence the torque constant. You may also play with locking the commutation frequency and drive voltage to understand how constant V/F controls work.
dandelany 5y ago
I don't care what anyone says, I love the skeuomorphic look - knobs, buttons, toggles, even the subtle CRT glow on the scopes. Not everything needs to be clean & minimalist. Great work :)
- ranabasheer 5y ago
  Thank you for the feedback. I am big fan of analog meters. I still have an old cathode ray oscilloscope with 20MHz bandwidth
Toutouxc 5y ago
Beautiful. Maybe it's me but the 3N2P motor is really difficult to start. What I find unfortunate is that when you change the frequency the commutation seems to reset/jump to the next cycle, which usually makes the motor jerk and stop. Is that a real property you're trying to model, or just a programming shortcut?
- ranabasheer 5y ago
  3N2P motor is not a popular configuration for the same reason as you are experiencing with starting. It is harder to sustain continuous rotation. I included that in the simulator to help bring focus to that. The sudden jerk in the motor when adjusting the frequency is what you will experience with real motors too if the frequency is adjusted without taking care of the current commutation phase of the motor.

73 points by ranabasheer 5y ago

I am an instructor at UCI and I made this simulator to help students understand the electrical and mechanical forces involved in a brushless motor. The current version shows the voltage drive signals, current, back EMF and so on to help observe these signals when a motor is driven. In addition, I also added the option to select different poles and slots of a BLDC motor. Any feedback to help me improve or fix an errors is greatly appreciated.

grammarprofess 5y ago
Hi this is super cool thanks a lot! More and more people are trying to understand the workings of their electric scooter, bike or car. This is really awesome. In regards to making the page better, it doesn't work well on mobile it's hard to use. And there's a lot of graphics, I also don't like the volume knobs... A slider might be more efficient
- ranabasheer 5y ago
  Thank you for the feedback. I went with the knob for my affinity for everything analog. I can make it look like a retro slider. I agree with you on making it mobile-friendly.
  - somethingsome 5y ago
    It works perfectly well on mobile for me ;)

ranabasheer 5y ago

This is an explainer video I made for the simulator https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbEl0k5A0s4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbEl0k5A0s4

MarkSweep 5y ago

An article I found quite helpful for understanding different types of motor commutation was this one from Copley: https://www.maccon.de/fileadmin/redaktion/downloads/Produkte/Antriebselektronik/Copley_drives/Field-Oriented-Control.pdf https://www.maccon.de/fileadmin/redaktion/downloads/Produkte... I wish I had a more official link. Anyways the key idea is normally when controlling a motor you are having to regulate the different poles if the motor oscillating up and down as the more spins. Controlling ossification like that is hard. By using the Clarke transform you can transform the frame of reference into the torque vector of the motor. You want this to be a constant value as the motor is spinning, which is much easier to control.

ranabasheer 5y ago
You can try that out in the simulator under the sinusoidal commutation. By adjusting the drive voltage, you can bring the direct current of commutation as low as possible while keeping the quadrature current and hence the torque constant. You may also play with locking the commutation frequency and drive voltage to understand how constant V/F controls work.

dandelany 5y ago

I don't care what anyone says, I love the skeuomorphic look - knobs, buttons, toggles, even the subtle CRT glow on the scopes. Not everything needs to be clean & minimalist. Great work :)

ranabasheer 5y ago
Thank you for the feedback. I am big fan of analog meters. I still have an old cathode ray oscilloscope with 20MHz bandwidth

Toutouxc 5y ago

Beautiful. Maybe it's me but the 3N2P motor is really difficult to start. What I find unfortunate is that when you change the frequency the commutation seems to reset/jump to the next cycle, which usually makes the motor jerk and stop. Is that a real property you're trying to model, or just a programming shortcut?

ranabasheer 5y ago
3N2P motor is not a popular configuration for the same reason as you are experiencing with starting. It is harder to sustain continuous rotation. I included that in the simulator to help bring focus to that. The sudden jerk in the motor when adjusting the frequency is what you will experience with real motors too if the frequency is adjusted without taking care of the current commutation phase of the motor.