First let me start off by saying that this thread is not a place to post questions about the design or implimentation or to request help for your owndesign, request pictures or make feature requests and that if I feel the thread is becoming polluted with nonsense I will abandon the thread as quickly as I have started it.
When pictures are available they will be posted, if there are no pictures this is because there is nothing to take pictures of so it is best to follow the thread quietly, this development is being done for your benefit and it is well overdue.
The time you take away by asking questions will take away from time better spent working on the design itself.
During the development of this project I advise against sending PM's to those directly involved in the project development, if you have something of value to contribute or skilled in the field and wish to contribute time to the development you can make a short post here but stay on topic and do your best to not pollute this thread with long winded explanations of your qualifications.
This thread is provided for informational purposes so that you are aware that an effort is being made for something reasonably priced for the DIY'ers and hobbyists and that an available and reliable upgrade path to servo motors is trying to become a reality which the hobby community so desperately needs.
I have partnered with Iron-Man to design a DC Servo Motor Driver that is affordable and allows you to use just about any DC Servo Motor with encoder you can obtain.
The first phase of the project is to complete the design and testing of the DC Servo Motor Driver for Brushed DC Servo Motors at which time the schematic and board layout files along with any firmware/software will be made available for those who are able to roll their own PCB's.
The design will allow for a lot of part compensation so the driver can be built to suit your specific needs or based on parts you have on hand.
Shortly after the PHASE ONE completion, PCB's should be available in which you can assemble yourself and I believe populated boards will also be available for those who don't have the time to acquire all the components and assemble it or lack the skills to do it.
Yes we could roll everything into one project and complicate the hell out of it but it is our belief that simple is better and less confusion will be created if only the reliable aspect of the requirement is targeted, you are free to take the design and add all the fluff you want for your own needs but no support will be provided for your modified design.
Once the first phase has been completed the second phase will begin which is a second version of the DC Servo Driver for a 3-PH BLDC Servo Motor.
If during the course of our design work we find that making a reliable and inexpensive driver is not possible I will make a public post stating so and why we have tossed in the towel.
PHASE ONE / STAGE ONE
Taking from existing OpenSource dsPIC designs which utilize component that have strange power supply requirements, incomplete designs or are not cost effective and converting them to use affordable, easy to obtain discrete components is underway the task at hand is to make sure we can make the hardware function correctly.
Using my two phase PWM H-Bridge stage design that was modified by a MicroChip engineer to add support for enable we will be attempting to mate it with the dsPIC to run the motor, I am estimating this will take a short time to do (order and deliver parts, do the work) but can't give an exact date when this will be completed as these are done on personal time when time is available and this itme of the year has it's own set of time consuming interruptions.
PHASE ONE / STAGE TWO
Once we are able to make the general design work, time will be spent tweaking it for optiimal performance and working on a board layout will begin.
PHASE ONE / STAGE THREE
Building and documenting a production PCB version of the design so you can see it in action is a requirement demanded by most skeptic users so we will make an effort to alleviate any skepticism and post pictures/videos where applicable.
PHASE ONE / STAGE FOUR
Giving the product a stamp of approval and releasing the project to the public and at least making blank PCB's available.
Once PHASE ONE has been completed, moving to PHASE TWO and the BLDC driver should be easier as the ground work will have been completed and this ensures that a driver is available to meet up with everyones needs.
PHASE ONE - STAGE ONE HAS BEGUN!!!