EPOS, ESCON with Faulhaber / MICROMO BX4-Motor

Topic:

• How has a Faulhaber / MICROMO BX4 motor to be connected to a maxon ESCON or EPOS controller?
• What configuration is required to operate the MICROMO / Faulhaber BX4?
  
  

Solution:

Faulhaber / MICROMO's BX4 brushless DC motors have a different direction of rotation and inverse Hall polarity than maxon brushless DC motors. Therefore some special settings have to be done.

 Connections:

• You have to ensure that the wiring of the motor's winding phases, hall sensors signal lines, and hall sensor power is assigned like shown in the following table:
  
  

  Faulhaber / MICROMO BX4 assignment	maxon assignment
  Pin 1, Phase C	Motor winding 3
  Pin 2, Phase B	Motor winging 2
  Pin 3, Phase A	Motor winding 1
  Pin 4, GND	Ground
  Pin 5, Udd	Vcc Hall 5V (Supply output)
  Pin 6, *Hall C	Hall sensor 3
  Pin 7, *Hall B	Hall sensor 2
  Pin 8, *Hall A	Hall sensor 1

*Hall A,B,C:
Based on the different definition of the Hall sensor polarity of the Faulhaber BX4 motor the Hall sensor signals have to be inverted. This inverting can be easily configured by the "Startup Wizard" of EPOS Studio resp. ESCON Studio.

Important: Check pin assignment!
Please check the pin assignment and naming based on Faulhaber's / MICROMO's data sheet. maxon cannot take any warranty that the provided information above is still valid. The cable, pin assignment (and technical data as well) might be subject to change by the motor manufacturer! maxon does not take any liability in case of a damage due to a wrong wiring based on the table above.

Specific controller parameter settings:

      ESCON Studio's and EPOS Studio's "Startup Wizard":

• Motor data / "Pole pair number" = typ. 2
  Remark:
  The value of 2 is typically valid for Faulhaber / MICROMO's BX4 motors. Anyway please check the correct pole pair number for your concrete motor by its data sheet or contact Faulhaber if you are not sure about it.
  Number of poles <-> Pole Pair number?
  Please note that the pole pair number has to be configured. There might be the number of poles specified by the data sheet sometimes. The number of poles has to be divided by 2 to get the "Pole pair number" then.
  Hint:
  The "Pole pair number" can be evaluated by ESCON Studio's "Diagnostics" tool.
  
  
• Sensor / "Polarity of Hall sensors": Inverted
  The polarity of the hall sensors has to be configured as "Inverted" by the corresponding dialogue field of the Startup wizard.Digital hall sensor configuration:
  
  
• Please ensure that all other motor, encoder, and system parameters are configured properly based on the supplier's data sheets, system limits, and application requirements.
  
  

      Specific configuration by ESCON Studio's "Parameters" tool

• Motor data / "Motor polarity" be set to the value [1](!!!)
  Remarks:
  • The parameter "Motor data" can just be accessed in user level "Expert".
    (User Level configuration: see File / Options / Extended)
  • Right-click in the parameters after the value of [1] is set.
    Execute "Store Parameters" then.

    Specific configuration by EPOS Studio's "Object Dictionary" tool:

• EPOS2:
  • Change the axis polarity by setting bit 8 of object 0x2008/00:
    Bit 8 = 1 => xxxx xxx1 xxxx xxxx
    If none of the other bits are set by the object's existing configuration (i.e. object's content is currently), writing a value of 256 [dec.] resp. 0x0100 into object 0x2008/00 corresponds to setting bit 8.
  • Right click in the Object Dictionary afterwards.
    Select "Save all parameters" to save the configuration persistently.
    
    
• EPOS4:
  • Change the axis polarity by setting bit 0 of object 0x3000/04:
    Bit 0 = 1 => xxxx xxxx xxxx xxx1
    If none of the other bits are in use (= set) by the object's existing configuration (i.e. object's content is currently 0), writing a value of 1 [dec.] resp. 0x0001 into object 0x3000/04 corresponds to setting bit 0.
  • Right click in the Object Dictionary afterwards.
    Select "Save all parameters" to save the configuration persistently.
    
    

Final action after completed configuration

• Execute "Regulation Tuning"
  
  

Summary:

MICROMO's / Faulhaber's BX4 brushless DC motor can be controlled by maxon's EPOS or ESCON controllers. It is just required to ...

• ... connect the windings and hall sensors properly.
• ... configure the pole pair number (typ. = 2) correctly.
• ... configure an inverted "Hall sensor polarity".
• ... configure an inverted "Axis polarity".