Motor Inverter Generator Project update/recap

I have been working hard on getting the inverter back running again and to find the right changes to to tweak the software to allow the motor to work smoothly. There are still some issues to deal with but for now I am a happy camper. I did find out that the encoder is working just fine on both outputs and its outputting a clean Square Wave. The motor is smooth and quiet and should do just fine. Some more voltage and amperage and connect to a Diesel Engine and try to do some charging outputs into a small pack. Start small and go big. Im happy that I have gotten this far.

So lets see, I screwed up my inverter by connecting it to the power backwards. Fried a few caps and fried an Olimex board. I was not having any luck getting back together but I finally did. Got the new caps soldered in and tested it all. Got the inverter to work and set some parameter and the motor jumped off the table. Got that done but changed the parameters to default and forgot what I did to make it jump. Its now strapped down just in case. You know, it would have made a good video seeing that jump off the table. Oh well. Mucked up another Olimex board. During all this I built another main processor board and purchased a couple Olimex boards. Oops, the boards don't have software. Oh man, now I have to learn how to do that. More hair loss. Its bad enough I don't have much more to begin with. So with the help of Johannes Huebner I was able to get this done. One programmer and using two OS systems to get it done and it works. It took a bit to get the parameters right but the motor spun up slow and clunky. Could not get it to go fast and without the clunk. But it was a noise issue with the encoder. To the point where it could have been just a bad encoder. Nope, it was me. I had the motor and inverter driven off the same battery pack. Lots of noise. I pulled out my Vicor Megapac desktop power pack. I have the inverter powered from a 12v module plugged into the Megapac. Works great except the cooling fan noise. But it keeps things alive. So with that I now get a clean square wave output and can be seen on the O-Scope. I did have to figure out how to connect up the scope as it too is a new thing for me. But I see the benefit in having one. It helped to see the problem and with the change in how I powered the inverter it showed a change so the inverter could operate properly. I do still have a long encoder cable. It will be cleaned up later but for now on the bench it will be just fine. So now I am at a point where I need to get the motor connected to my Diesel Engine for a load test. I'll use the motor to drive the diesel engine then use the engine to drive the motor.


So here is my latest video.

A good clean square wave Encoder Output.