Hey guys,
just hooked up with this interesting forum hoping to get an answer for this question I have faced today:
i work in white goods industry. we are looking to dump our universal motors and go for BLDC motors. the problem is some of our products use a control board for driving universal motors but we can not change their software or hardware. so I wanted to know if there is any interface board that we can add to such products that would just get outputs from our current boards and create correct outputs for a BLDC motor?

 

You have to indicate the existing type of control method in order to recommend a suitable BLDC drive with a compatible control method.
What is the reason for switching?
Max.

 

Google it: >>>>> bldc motor control made easy

 

You have to indicate the existing type of control method in order to recommend a suitable BLDC drive with a compatible control method.
What is the reason for switching?
Max.

Thanks for your interest in the question. I'm not an electrical engineer but as much as I understand, our common boards (washing machine boards) control the rpm of universal motors with variable AC. that's right, no?
the reason for switching is the high noise of universal motors especially in high spin wash programs and well, the hype for brushless motors!

 

To design an interface requires that you specify the full set of output signals/voltages to, and any feedback signals from, your present motor, and likewise the input and feedback requirements of the particular BLDC motor you intend to use.
While I'm sure the guys here would enjoy the challenge of coming up with a suitable interface, I'm rather surprised that your organisation would entrust a bunch of unknowns on a web-site with designing something which could have financial and liability consequences for the organisation .

 

Thanks for your interest in the question. I'm not an electrical engineer but as much as I understand, our common boards (washing machine boards) control the rpm of universal motors with variable AC. that's right, no?
the reason for switching is the high noise of universal motors especially in high spin wash programs and well, the hype for brushless motors!

I thought Universal motors went out long ago for W.M.'s!
The ones in current use are the Fischer-Paykel type, and these ARE super quiet. Also direct drive, no belts or G.B.
http://www.directdrivemotors.com/
I know of no one that has developed a third party board to drive these 3phase brush-less motors yet.
There is also the ECM motor as used in current HVAC systems that uses a similar principle, neither use physical sensor commutation..
Max.

 

To design an interface requires that you specify the full set of output signals/voltages to, and any feedback signals from, your present motor, and likewise the input and feedback requirements of the particular BLDC motor you intend to use.
While I'm sure the guys here would enjoy the challenge of coming up with a suitable interface, I'm rather surprised that your organisation would entrust a bunch of unknowns on a web-site with designing something which could have financial and liability consequences for the organisation .

Nope. we are not going to just entrust a website for our system design. what I am trying to do is to get an insight on what we will need.

 

I thought Universal motors went out long ago for W.M.'s!
The ones in current use are the Fischer-Paykel type, and these ARE super quiet. Also direct drive, no belts or G.B.
http://www.directdrivemotors.com/
I know of no one that has developed a third party board to drive these 3phase brush-less motors yet.
There is also the ECM motor as used in current HVAC systems that uses a similar principle, neither use physical sensor commutation..
Max.

I know a lot of manufacturers who still use universal motors in their washing machines. although some of them do use BLDC or direct drive in high end products...

 

The interface board is likely going to be quite complex and consequently expensive to design, prototype and debug. I suspect the cost of your existing control board plus the interface board will be greater than the cost of simply using a control board intended for BLDC motors. But if you still want to proceed, give us the specifications mentioned in post #5. The more detail you can provide the better.

 

An simpler alternative might be to make your own Universal controller, some years ago Motorola brought out the TDA1085 for this purpose which I think is still available in some areas.
Another method could be based on the Fairchild AN-3008 app note.
Max.