2019 8th International Conference on Modern Power Systems (MPS)

A Solution for Studying the D.C. Motor Control

Using NI myRIO-1900
Gabriela Rata, Ciprian Bejenar, Mihai Rata
Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
University "Ștefan cel Mare" of Suceava
Suceava, Romania
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract—Today, in industry, electrical motor is a very the speed control of the motor [6,7]. The speed of the DC
important element for mobile robots and autonomous systems. motor can be controlled by the using Pulse-Width Modulation
The virtual instrumentation and embedded myRIO devices are (PWM) technique. In our application, NI MyRIO 1900 was
very useful tools for didactic purpose and understanding the used for DC motor speed controlling and monitoring. This
working principles of the electrical motors control. In this paper,
the authors propose a solution for DC motor speed controlling
platform has PWM outputs, which are programmed using
and monitoring. For this, an application was created in the LabVIEW.
LabVIEW programming graphical environment which is
running on NI myRIO-1900 configurable equipment. This
application highlights that the embedded device can be easily
integrated into a teaching lab.

Keywords—virtual instrumentation; wireless communication;

incremental numerical transducer; electric machines and
drives; education in electrical engineering.

I. INTRODUCTION
For over 40 years software and hardware have been
developed in order create virtual instruments for
measurements, analyzing and solving of different kind of
problems in industry [1]. The LabVIEW software is a graphical
programming environment to develop complex measurement,
test, and control systems using intuitive graphical icons and Fig. 1. NI MyRIO 1900 [4]
wires that resemble a flowchart [2].
The control of the opening and closing of the field
Using devices such as CompactRIO, CompactDAQ, and transistor and the load current can be ensured by sending
myRIO together with LabVIEW FPGA and LabVIEW Real- commands from these NI MyRIO 1900 pins by changing the
Time software, we have the possibility to design, program, test, pulse relative duration [8].
and customize of these devices [3].
II. PROPOSED SOLUTION
In the last few years, the myRIO was very used in
universities for the student projects. It is a portable In this paper, the authors propose a solution for controlling
reconfigurable Input/output (RIO) device which finds its and monitoring a DC motor. For this, they created an
applications in design control, robotics and mechatronics application in LabVIEW graphical programming environment,
systems. NI MyRIO includes analog inputs, analog outputs, which is running on a NI myRIO-1900 configurable
digital I/O lines, LEDs, a push button, an onboard equipment.
accelerometer, a Xilinx FPGA, and a dual‐core ARM Cortex‐ The circuit diagram for solution proposed is presented in
A9 processor. Some models also include WiFi support as you Fig.2 and the experimental arrangement of laboratory
can see in Fig.1 [1]. prototype is illustrated in Fig.3. The experimental assembly
Even if the advent of power electronics has made allows a software application to:
replacement of DC motors with AC motors possible, in a lot • control the motor shaft speed;
applications, the DC motors are still used in application with • change the rotation direction of the motor shaft;
mobile robots and autonomous systems [5]. Typically, the • monitor the angular position and the speed of the motor
speed control of DC brushed motors was made through of a shaft by means of an incremental numerical transducer.
thyristor-controlled rectifier. Since, this rectifier generates One of the reason for which we choose the NI myRIO-
harmonics in the network, a less polluting solution for the 1900 is because the digital outputs can be configured as PWM
power supply network is the using of a DC-DC converter for outputs at different switching frequency and at selected duty

978-1-7281-0750-9/19/$31.00 ©2019 IEEE

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cycle. Another reason is because the myRIO-1900 can be III. SOFTWARE APPLICATION
programed with LabVIEW. The LabVIEW has some Virtual instrumentation has been widely adopted in test
advantages comparing with other programming languages like and measurement areas. Virtual instruments (VIs) represent a
graphical user interface, drag-and-drop built in functions, fundamental shift from traditional hardware-centered
multiple high level development tools. instrumentation systems to software-centered systems.
In proposed solution is used one digital output to control LabVIEW is an integral part of virtual instrumentation.
the Q1 transistor (illustrated in Fig. 2) through which the
electric motor is powered. The DC motor speed control can be
achieved by changing the duty cycle of the supplied PWM
signal. By changing its switching frequency, a change of the
motor shaft torque is achieved. During operation, the diode D1
and capacitor C1 has a role in protecting the Q1 transistor and
the K1 and K2 relays contacts against over-voltages and over-
currents appearing at the motor terminals, often, when the Q1
transistor is turned OFF or when reverse the direction of
rotation of the shaft is commanded. The rotation direction of
the motor shaft is reversed by changing the polarity of the
supplied voltage on its terminals by means of the K1 and K2
relays contacts. Reversing the rotation direction of the shaft Fig. 4. The graphical interface of the software application, captured while
could also be achieved by modifying the duty cycle of the running (LabVIEW).
PWM signals, if the motor would have been powered through a
full-bridge DC-DC converter. LabVIEW with graphical programming ideas, data flow
execution way, and other features, is preferred more and more
The motor speed and shaft position are measured using an by engineers and scientists. In LabVIEW, you build a user
incremental transducer. The signals provided by the non- interface with controls and indicators. This is front panel.
inverted channels A, B and Z from the T1 incremental After that, you add code using VIs and structures to control the
numerical transducer are acquired through the dedicated DIO4 front panel objects. The block diagram contains this code.
/ ENC1.A and DIO6 / ENC1.B of the NI myRIO-1900 device.
In this case the signals from encoder are automatically counted On the proposed software application, there are several
in acordance with the sense of the shaft rotation. zones of interest that can be delimited in the graphical
interface (fig. 4):
1) Zone 1: This area is designed for the manual control of
the DC motor and the following settings can be modified:
• The power to the motor, by a manual ON/OFF switch;
• The value of duty cycle of PWM signal. Any value
between 0 to 100% can be inserted, depending on the desired
motor supply voltage and speed;
• The PWM signal switching frequency. Can be chosen
any value between 40 and 40 000 Hz to be inserted. It is
possible to study the influence of the switching frequency on
the current ripple through the motor;
• The rotation direction of the motor shaft by controlling
the K1 and K2 relays contacts.
2) Zone 2: This area is designed for monitoring the motor
Fig. 2. The circuit diagram for solution proposed.
speed and the shaft angular position. There are two categories
of information displayed, (a) and (b), obtained by processing
data from an encoder (incremental numerical transducer),
model - Kübler 05.2400.1122.1024:
a) Position information:
• the number of pulses counted from transducer;
• the number of complete rotations of the shaft;
• the angular position of the shaft.
All displayed values are relative to the initial reference
point of the motor shaft. This is given by the position of the
shaft at the time of the initial run of the application.
Fig. 3. Experimental arrangement.

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Fig. 5. The block diagram of the graphical interface

The reset button will set the counter of the pulses to zero, loop position control of the motor. In both examples the motor
and so, another initial reference point can be defined, can make a specified number of rotations (50 rotations in
depending on the shaft position at the reset time. DEMO1 and ¼ rotation in DEMO2) with different switching
frequency and different speed. All of these parameters can be
b) Speed information: modified as desired. By using of these two switches, we can
• the variation of number of pulses counted over a very easy change the motor work regime and we can observe
specified time; what differences occur in the operation of the electric motor.
• the actual shaft speed;
• the frequency of the signals from channels A and B For calculate the shaft angular position in degree is used
of the incremental transducer; the equation (1), and equation (2) is used for the shaft speed
calculation.
• a graph with the variation of the speed over time.
3) Zone 3, where are placed two switches for choose one Counter value
Angle [°] = ∙ 360 (1)
of the two examples (DEMO_1, DEMO_2) that realize closed-

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 dp_dt brushed motor is powered from a DC-DC converter that can
Speed [RPM] = ∙ ∙ 60 (2)
dt [ms] adjust the output voltage by changing the duty cycle.
where, dp_dt reprezent number of pulses counted from The use of LabVIEW programming language is
encoder in unit of time (dt), the myRIO counts 4096 pulses at recommended for students in electrical engineering because
one completed rotation of the motor shaft. they do not have advanced programming skills to achieve a
program for the processor.
Using the proposed solution, the students can study the
motor speed control in closed loop, by changing the duty cycle
of the supplied PWM signal. Also, they can observe how the
motor current ripple changes, depending by converter
switching frequency.
In engineering, all laboratories need to be practical, in
order to provide for students the experience closer with real-
world applications. For this reason, the students can learn how
to use acquisition boards with LabView software in industry
for signal acquisition and for process control. In addition, they
a) can acquire skills in controlling electric motors and power
electronics that are very important for students in the field of
electrical engineering.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was supported by a grant of the Romanian
Ministry of Research and Innovation, CCCDI - UEFISCDI,
project number PN-III-P1-1.2-PCCDI-2017-0776 / No. 36
PCCDI / 15.03.2018, within PNCDI III.
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