Luminary Micro's Jaguar Motor Controller Characterization

[Joe Hershberger]

Luminary Micro recently ran some tests on the new motor controllers that will be in the kit for 2009. I believe you'll be amazed. I certainly was.

Those of you who are trying to run control loops, these things are coming to the rescue even in 2009. Come 2010, when we can talk to these bad boys over CAN and close control loops on board the controller itself, it'll be a whole new ball game! I can't wait!

-Joe

[Kevin Horn]

Joe,
!!! That is fantastic!!! Thank you.
Kevin 2557 SOTABOTS mentor

[Don Rotolo]

Holy cow, I can't believe I haven't seen this before. What a huge difference in linearity for the CIM drive!

[jross]

Here's some visual evidence for how good the Jaguar is at low speed. Low speed control with Jaguar Speed Controllers

[marccenter]

I remember reading on Chief Delphi in the past that the Victor's had some kind of calibration procedure associated with their use. Were you aware/did you use any specific calibration procedure for the Victors? Do you think this calibration procedure could have given different/better results?

[jross]

The victor calibration lets you change the timing, but not the electrical characteristics. The Jaguars have a similar calibration.

[jross]

One of the things beta tested for 2011 is a voltage control mode for the jaguar that compensates for fluctuations in the battery voltage. If you command 9 volts, the Jaguar will output 9 volts whether the battery is 12.5 volts or 10 volts. CAN is required for this control mode.

Using the new voltage mode, we were able to control a globe motor down to around .5v. At that point, you could see the speed of the motor change based on areas of wear in the globe motor gearbox.

With the tan jaguar, the minimum speed we could get was approximately .15 RPM. With a black jaguar, the minimum speed we could get was 1.25 RPM. Previously, with PWM control, we could get a tan jaguar to only around 3 RPM. As a comparison , the minimum we previously got with a Victor was 25 RPM.

Not sure if the voltage control mode or the extra resolution of the CAN helped, but it made for a nice improvement.

[Joe Hershberger]

With the tan jaguar, the minimum speed we could get was approximately .15 RPM. With a black jaguar, the minimum speed we could get was 1.25 RPM. Previously, with PWM control, we could get a tan jaguar to only around 3 RPM. As a comparison , the minimum we previously got with a Victor was 25 RPM.

Not sure if the voltage control mode or the extra resolution of the CAN helped, but it made for a nice improvement.

Can you compare PWM vs. CAN in % Vbus vs. CAN in Voltage (Compensated) mode for each Jaguar and Black Jaguar?