[doorknob]

I'm not sure whether it is better to post this question here or in the General Electronics forum, but I'll give it a try here for now.

I'm trying to locate a suitable textbook or other source of design principles for servo drive electronics. The field is so large that it's hard to get my arms around it and know where to start, and so I hope that someone might be able to direct me to one or two sources that are considered the 'bibles' of servo drive design, or that start with a gentle introduction and dive in to the deep end from there.

I have a non-CNC application for which it is possible that a circuit based on servo drive electronics principles could be the answer. I am not an EE, but I do have some background in electronics and some math, so I'm not afraid to get my hands dirty.

I could be wrong in my assumptions about the suitability of servo drive principles to addressing my needs. For my application I'm hoping that servo drive reference circuits exist that are capable of driving very low impedance loads (for example, milliohms or tens of milliohms) at low audio frequency rates, perhaps as low as a few Hz up to a few hundred Hz. While I have not yet done detailed calculations, my guess is that power requirements are not very large, perhaps less than 200 watts may be sufficient with an output voltage range of perhaps up to a volt or so (I may need lots of amps, though).

Am I in the ballpark or way off base here? I'm not at all certain that the characteristics that I listed above are even typical of servo drive circuits. I'm hoping that I can find a solution that uses one or more semiconductor devices directly driving the load (perhaps through a big DC blocking capacitor), but if it is necessary to use an output transformer to drive such low impedances I suppose that I could accommodate that as well.

I am going to start my own literature search, including technical reports, device datasheets, journals and trade magazines, patent filings, and various electronics texts that have been gathering dust in my personal library, but maybe I can get some pointers here that may help guide my search.

[Al_The_Man]

As far as design principles, the Semi manuf such as Internation Rectifier. Freescale (Motorola), Allegro, T.I. etc have very informed app. notes and design parameters.
Another is Microchip Semi have DC brushed, DCBL, and AC drive designs. They also have servo motor design boards with functioning PicMicro already for design adaptation.
Al.

[doorknob]

Thanks, Al...

I didn't even think of looking at Microchip for motor control app notes, so I'll have to take a look at what they have on the subject.

[mike_Kilroy]

actually what u have described (minus the output cap) is right up a good servo drives alley.

If i were u i would jot down concisely ur top 5-10 parameters (u have 3 or 4 already hidden in ur text here) including how many of these u might buy, how much it can cost, and email that to folks who sell servo drives to see who might respond positively. I know if u emailed me that list I could suggest a std product that out of the box would do at least the things u said so far....

[Iron-Man]

I'm not sure whether it is better to post this question here or in the General Electronics forum, but I'll give it a try here for now.

I'm trying to locate a suitable textbook or other source of design principles for servo drive electronics. The field is so large that it's hard to get my arms around it and know where to start, and so I hope that someone might be able to direct me to one or two sources that are considered the 'bibles' of servo drive design, or that start with a gentle introduction and dive in to the deep end from there.

I have a non-CNC application for which it is possible that a circuit based on servo drive electronics principles could be the answer. I am not an EE, but I do have some background in electronics and some math, so I'm not afraid to get my hands dirty.

I could be wrong in my assumptions about the suitability of servo drive principles to addressing my needs. For my application I'm hoping that servo drive reference circuits exist that are capable of driving very low impedance loads (for example, milliohms or tens of milliohms) at low audio frequency rates, perhaps as low as a few Hz up to a few hundred Hz. While I have not yet done detailed calculations, my guess is that power requirements are not very large, perhaps less than 200 watts may be sufficient with an output voltage range of perhaps up to a volt or so (I may need lots of amps, though).

Am I in the ballpark or way off base here? I'm not at all certain that the characteristics that I listed above are even typical of servo drive circuits. I'm hoping that I can find a solution that uses one or more semiconductor devices directly driving the load (perhaps through a big DC blocking capacitor), but if it is necessary to use an output transformer to drive such low impedances I suppose that I could accommodate that as well.

I am going to start my own literature search, including technical reports, device datasheets, journals and trade magazines, patent filings, and various electronics texts that have been gathering dust in my personal library, but maybe I can get some pointers here that may help guide my search.

Check out this site: dspic - servo
Be sure to watch video. Also see MAX-MODs work.

DIY Parallel Port Breakout Board

Microchip: http://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/e...tes/00532c.pdf
http://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/e...tes/00696a.pdf

See some of my work: http://www.cnczone.com/forums/bencht...d_candy-4.html

Hope this helps,

Iron-Man

[doorknob]

mike_Kilroy, thanks - I've sent you a direct message.


Iron-Man, thanks also - lots of interesting links including the dsPic and the OPA549 and more.