Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani

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Lab Manual: Fundamentals of

Mechatronic Actuators
Using the Quanser Mechatronic Actuators Board for NI ELVIS III

Section 2: Brushless DC Motors

2.1 Theory and Background

Brushless DC Motor Operation

A brushless DC motor generates torque by housing a permanent magnet in the rotor

and commutating several electromagnets in the stator. There is no need for brushes to
pass an electrical current to the rotor, thus the name brushless DC motor. The design of
a brushless DC motor is more complicated than that of a brushed motor, as additional
sensors are needed to detect the angular position of the armature and more complex
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circuitry and feedback control is necessary to ensure proper commutation of the

electromagnetic fields in the stator. This often results in a higher initial cost than a
comparable brushed DC motor. Even so, the lack of brushes inherently leads to a
longer life span and little or no maintainable costs since the mechanical elements are
not in direct contact and are therefore less likely to wear over time.

Typically, rotary encoders, back EMF measurements, or Hall effect sensors are used to
determine the angular position of the rotor. With this information, a motor controller
generates AC signals that individually drive the electromagnets in the stator. This
makes brushless DC motors more efficient than brushed DC motors since the applied
voltage is pulsed as opposed to direct. Alternating current in this context does not imply
a sinusoidal waveform but rather bi-directional current that can follow an arbitrary
waveform. The brushless DC motor on the Mechatronic Actuators application board has
built in Hall effect sensors, which are transducers that vary their output voltage in
response to a magnetic field. These kind of sensors are most frequently used for
proximity switching and current sensing, as well as position and speed control of
brushless DC motors.

In a typical configuration, there are three Hall effect sensors separated by 120° placed
around the stator that can detect the position of the armature, similar to Figure 2-1.
There are a total of six possible combinations of active/inactive Hall effect sensor states
before the sensing pattern is repeated. This implies that a 2-pole rotor completes a full
revolution for one pattern cycle, whereas only half or a quarter of a rotation are
completed for a 4-pole and 8-pole rotor, respectively. Note that the other two theoretical
combinations of sensors (all high or all low) can never be reached and represent a
faulty state. To achieve maximum torque, the angle between the magnetic field of the
stator and the rotor should be ±90° depending on the desired directionality.

Figure 2-1: Hall effect sensor states

The winding configuration in the stator is either a Delta or Wye configuration, as shown
in Figure 2-2. A Delta configuration connects the windings in a triangular shape, where

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two windings are connected to a common node at all times as in Figure 2-2a. This
configuration provides low torque at low speeds, but also allows for a higher top speed.
Conversely, the Wye configuration in Figure 2-2b provides a high torque at low speeds
and a lower top speed.

(a) (b)

Figure 2-2: Delta and Wye configuration

Figure 2-3: Brushless DC motor phase diagram

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The brushless DC motor on the Quanser Mechatronic Actuators Board has stator coils
wired in a Wye configuration. To control the brushless DC motor, one can use the
phase/Hall effect sensor diagram in Figure 2-3. As illustrated in the Figure, the Hall
effect sensor states are overlaid with the phase directions of the motor. To use this
diagram, find the Hall effect sensor state which corresponds to the current state of the
motor. For a clockwise rotation, locate the phase vector that is 90° clockwise from that
state position to find the active phase and directionality of current. Take, for example,
the sensor state at the very bottom of Figure 2-3 in which only H1 is active. Rotating 90°
clockwise yields the coil state on the left side of the diagram, A-, Boff, C+. This indicates
that the B branch of the Wye configuration is inactive and the current flows from C to A,
which corresponds to state 3 in Figure 2-4.

Figure 2-4: Six-step commutation

The desired states can be achieved using three half H-bridges similar to Figure 2-4

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Figure 2-5: Three half H-bridges required to drive the brushless DC motor

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2.2 Implement

1. Open the project Ex2-BrushlessDCMotor.lvproj,

1.1 Restart ELVIS by following the below procedure:
Right click on ELVIS III (172.22.11.2)

1.2 Under ELVIS III > Labs, open Brushless DC Motor.vi.

1.3 Open IP-Camera Viewer application and see the equipment view (click start
button and search for IP-Camera viewer application)
2. Run the VI.
3. Increase the commanded PWM duty cycle and ensure that the motor rotates as
expected.
4. Starting with the commanded duty cycle of 0%, gradually increase the applied
voltage until the motor begins to rotate. Record the minimum duty cycle required
to move the motor.
5. Once the motor is spinning, reduce the duty cycle until the motor stops moving.
Record the duty cycle at which the motor stops.
6. Starting at a duty cycle of 0%, increase the duty cycle in 2% increments until you
reach 20% duty cycle, then increase in 10% increments to 100%. Record the
resulting motor speed at each duty cycle setting.
7. Stop the VI after creating answers for the below questions.
8. Close LabVIEW project file, close IP-Camera Viewer Application and close RDP.

2.3 Analyze

2-1 What duty cycle was required in Step 4 to start the motor moving?

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2-2 Why do you think the motor does not start rotating immediately as soon as a small
duty cycle is applied?

2-3 At what duty cycle did the motor stop in Step 5?

2-4 Is the duty at which the motor stops consistent with that found in step 4 where the
motor starts moving? Why might this be the case?

2-5 Plot the speed of the motor relative to the applied duty cycle.

2-6 Ideally, the motor speed would vary linearly between a speed of 0 at 0% duty cycle
and a speed of ΩMax at 100% duty cycle. What would the constant for this motor be if
this were the case? Overlay this linear relation on your speed plot and comment on how
well the motor matches this ideal behavior.

2-7 How would you modify the applied duty cycle to make the motor behave more
linearly?
2-8 Record your values from Table 2-1. Did the motor behave as expected?

2-9 How would you modify these values to cause the motor to spin in the opposite
direction?

NOTE
(just for reference only, these the steps are NOT to be performed, this was
already performed at the back end)
 Using Figures 2-3 and 2-4 appropriate control sequence was determined and
tabulated as below by rotating the motor clockwise. For each hall sensor reading,
record which of the motor phases should be High, Low, and Off (neutral).
Table 2-1: Brushless DC motor control sequence
Sensor A B C

001 Neutral High Low

101 Low High Neutral
100 Low Neutral High
110 Neutral Low High
010 High Low Neutral
011 High Neutral Low

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 Open the block diagram and open the subVI Brushless DC IO.vi by double
clicking on the subVI block.
 Open the block diagram for the subVI and find the case structure labelled Coil
Activation Logic. Each state in this case structure relates to a possible hall-
effect sensor output.
 For each of the sensor states in Table 2-1, copy the coil activation values from
the table to the appropriate case in the case structure. The output values for
the phase states are H (High), L (Low), and Z (Neutral). Note: you can ignore
the default case since that is an error state where all three coils should be
neutral.
Don’t perform the steps in the notes, it was already performed at back end.

Stop the VI after creating answers for the below questions.

Close LabVIEW project file, close IP-Camera Viewer Application and close RDP