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WSega.1
WSega.1
Associate II
October 6, 2021
Question

Can high gate drive current cause the STSPIN32G4 to fail?

  • October 6, 2021
  • 3 replies
  • 1099 views

I was using my EVSPIN32G4 eval board to spin my 2 pole pair BLDC 24V 2A motor in sensorless FOC mode. I created a motor profile with Motor Control Workbench 5.Y.1 which worked reliably with many motors. One motor (same kind) was mechanically jammed and not rotating. I repeatedly attempted to start the jammed motor. At some point the eval board would intermittently disconnect from Pilot 5.Y.1. Later, when trying to debug on the bench, I found it was not talking to the host at all, so I couldn't communicate with Pilot or with the IDE for re-programming. I put my finger on the STSPIN32G4 device and it was very hot. I measured Vcc (gate drive voltage) and it was 8V as opposed to the 12V where it usually is. The primary motor current path (FET Drain-Source, Sense Resistors) are in tact but the controller has failed. Could this be related to sourcing gate drive current? Is there a way to limit the amount of gate drive current without big series resistors?

This topic has been closed for replies.

3 replies

Laurent Ca...
Laurent Ca...
Senior III
October 20, 2021

Dear @WSega.1​ 

Welcome to the STM32 Community

Sorry for late answer.

Could you give more details to the STM32 Community about your setup -the material you use- ?

(HW and also SW: CPU(s), tools and versions, board(s), motor(s) and so on)

And more especially did you use STM32 MC tools (such as MC_suite, STM32 MC Motor Profile, STM32 MC SDK, STM32 MC Workbench, the used example, the origin of the base of your application source code, and so on)?

Best regards

WSega.1
WSega.1Author
Associate II
October 23, 2021

Absolutely. I used ST Motor Profiler 5.Y.1 to create the motor parameter XML. I selected the inverter "EVSPIN32G4" and the motor parameter XML when creating a new project in MCW 5.Y.1. I used the generated source and STMCubeIDE 1.5.1 to compile the binary and program the part. I'd then use Pilot 5.Y.1 to communicate with the programmed part.

The hardware was the EVSPIN32G4NH (no heatsink) connected to the 2 pole pair BLDC 24V 2A and a 2.5 24V DC power supply. The motors load (when not jammed) nominally draws 800mA.

Cristiana SCARAMEL
Cristiana SCARAMEL
Technical Moderator
November 8, 2021

Hello @WSega.1​ concerning the following point:

I measured Vcc (gate drive voltage) and it was 8V as opposed to the 12V where it usually is.

Vcc = 8 V (default value) suggests that a device reset happened.

I suggest to monitor the device power supplies (3V3, VCC and VM) to verify if there are not voltage drop causing the device reset.

Please share some oscilloscope waveforms with proper time scale.

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