Flygio

What do you use for measuring sensor board deviation? I purchased a skyrc motor analyser just to discover that it has a 4% accuracy... It's pointless to look for matching sensor when you have that type of error... Means you could have +/-2° shift at 50°... My sensor board could be 50-50-50 and reading 48-50-52 ...
Is there a more effective way for measuring sensors?

eazy70

iTrader: (5)

There is the motolyser, but I found looking for a very good sensor board a waste of time. To many variables that throw off the readings.

howardcano

iTrader: (37)

I've owned both of these devices. The more expensive one seems more repeatable, but it has absolutely no specifications I can find for accuracy in either the manual or on the web site.

Airwave

iTrader: (1)

Are you aware that the precision range of the sensor itself is way worse than that?

Flygio

Really? The sensor itself or the electronic reading it?

tbrymer

iTrader: (10)

I have a skyrc motor analyzer and it is completely repeatable. However, not sure what the accuracy is.

Airwave

iTrader: (1)

Pretty sure that the hall sensor cannot locate the position within a 15° range at least...

howardcano

iTrader: (37)

Why? Do you mean accuracy of the sensor in locating the field, or deviation of the field position in relation to the mechanical angle of the rotor?

two shoes

iTrader: (21)

Sensors have about a 1% accuracy so for 360* would be 3.6* or +/- 1.8*ish...

Good article here: Hall Effect

If you look at the sensor on the board and can read the numbers, you can look up the datasheet online (Mouser, DigiKey...) DATASHEET

It appears circuit design, magnetic thresholds and distance all play a part.

gigaplex

iTrader: (2)

You're misunderstanding what the accuracy in the data sheets refers to. Hall sensors measure a voltage induced by a magnetic field. Their accuracy rating refers to the magnitude of that induced voltage. That's quite different to the accuracy of timing measurements in a dynamic environment.

two shoes

iTrader: (21)

Please enlighten me as to the accuracy and how to determine it (real question, not being snarky). The RVDTs and LVDTs I deal with on a daily basis have an accuracy of 0.2% repeatable. These range from 90* rotational to 4"-40" straight line for position, not a very "dynamic" environment.

My basic understanding is that these are used as switches, once a voltage threshold has been crossed, it switches state, indicating pole swap. The timing is determined by how far ahead or behind each phase fires in relationship to where the sensor picks up the position of the pole... Where/how is accuracy lost or gained? Can you saturate the sensor at a high enough speed?

gigaplex

iTrader: (2)

Well to take the data sheet you linked to, it has two different options for sample rate. The fastest is 20Hz. When measuring RPMs in the 20k range (a little over 300Hz), you're not going to get any remotely useful data to determine the position of the rotor.

To get a precision of 1% positional accuracy, then you need to sample at a frequency at least 100 times higher than the highest RPM the motor will reach. This also ignores any effects of latency of sampling, or other sources of inaccuracy.

Jorge T

iTrader: (14)

Sensor selection for brushless motors

two shoes

iTrader: (21)

Anyone have a PN for one used in an RC motor? I do not have a PN visible on the sensor boards I have laying around.

Nerobro

iTrader: (2)

Yey, data sheets, boo for misunderstanding how they relate to this application.

Though I"m not sitting here and doing a long read of that data sheet, that particular hall sensor is "somewhat atypical" of what you'll find in a r/c car. That one has some logic built in to it, so it's outputs are in the "hz" range, when we really need tens of khz.

That hall effect sensor would not be useful in a r/c car motor.

Also, it's important, that you're relating degrees of rotor position to the parts per whatever accuracy of that sensor, and those two things do not relate like that. The sensor is measuring the magnetic field. That field is exponential in shape, and also "mostly in weird angles" when it emerges from the rotor. There may be some very, very, small degree of angle that the hall sensor goes from "no" to "yes" depending on the shape of the magnetic field.

This is a much more likely candidate: http://toshiba.semicon-storage.com/i...dName=TCS40DLR

it's rated at 25hz, but it's also dumb so doesn't have any internal logic to mess us up.

While we're at this, we should talk about how hall effect sensors work. What they do is they setup a stream of electrons. The magnetic field pushes that stream around. They switch "on" when that stream is pushed into a bucket somewhere else on the die. Depending on where this bucket is, or buckets are, you can setup a hall sensor to trigger on north, south, or both poles!

Pretty close, usefully close unless you're designing an ESC. They measure the strength of a magnetic field by how much they divert a stream of electrons. The design of the "catch" on the die can make the resultant output very nearly digital, or a nice smooth sine.

Well, they more indicate where the pole is in relation to the stator. More than "indicate pole swap". Timing is how far ahead, or behind, the rotor that the stator switches states. That's right.

Hall sensors are crazy repeatable. Now how they're being listened to...well that's more something we should talk to ROAR about. Speaking of which:

well crap, that PDF isn't coming up easily.

Another way to determine it... is searching digikey, and looking for analog output. All the sot23 pieces with analog out, are $0.60+ each. These things are not likely giving analog voltage out.

So the sensor harness just provides "checking" of where the stator is. (that's why the motors can start from a standstill, or low rpms when back EMF isn't doing the job for them.)

The honeywell PDF also indicates that the hall sensors are being used as switches, as opposed to absolute rotor indication.

Back to the original question, how can accuracy be collected from this "on/off" data. Well.. you just look for the rising, or falling edge of the signal. Between the exponential nature of the switch, and the magnetic field, I'd be surprised if there was more than a few tenths of a degree variance in trigger position. I think the effects of reflow and surface tension on the final position of the switch would be of greater importance.

Also... now I'm wondering if sensored ESCs turn blind after a certian RPM< and just depend on back EMF. Some of my ESCs will drive both sensored and sensorless. ROAR allows both. So... I wonder.