Hi
I am exploring a low power drive system at 24V. Its a thread winder that need some torque from low rpm but most importantly is very quiet. System peak power 100W, usually 15-50W continuos load. I have tested a number of different simplefoc / makerbase boards I could source from various places. I have tried a couple different types of encoders, and a few different motors. (In the gimbal and hobby drone motor realm)
Lately I have been using a 5010 360kv motor as it gives plenty of torque, but iut seems it is a bad match for the low power foc boards. Meant for too much current and has low phase resistance. Very easy to trip the driver into brown out and reset.
The journey has spanned a year and been a mess testing various hardware to achieve only partial success. I am now exploring motor alternatives with hall sensors to see if there are more suitable motors.
The board I am most recently testing is the makerbase esp32 foc v1.0. I need some extra digital pins for a small oled and some switches as well as an analog pin for a 10k pot. Even if this board is meant for two motors there are just barely not enough free pins to not need expansion boards.
Ive been looking high and low for months to find low cost foc capable drive boards that can be programmed with some free pins for various functions. Is there something obvious out there that I have missed or is it just very hard to find these types of low power boards?
Which microprocessor that is being used doesnt matter at this stage. I am just looking for parts that are capable and reliable enough to hand over to another person for unbiased product testing.
I understand the final destination in a journey like this is a purpose made efficient custom board, but that scares me as I have bad experiences with custom pcbs and involving a motor driver makes it way outside of my pcb creation knowledge.
If you know of a good path to go with these challenges in mind please drop a comment.
All the best
Hank