Commissioning a Motor for

use with EPC motor drives that

operate using ST Motor Control
Workbench® Development Suite
and EPC9147C – Rev.2.2
Revision 1.0
 Commissioning a Motor for use with EPC motor drives operating ST Motor Control

OVERVIEW OF THE PROCESS

• Background
• Equipment needed
• Measuring the motor parameters
• Inputting the motor parameters into ST Motor
Control Development Suite
• Generating the control firmware:
– Compiling
– Build
– Flash
• Operating the motor drive system

CONTROLLER BOARD BACKGROUND

• Process is for EPC9147C Only (A), equipped with ST Nucleo
G431RB (B) (that uses STM32G431RB (C)) A
• ST Motor Control Workbench®
• EPC9147C (Provided with motor drive KIT’s)
– Pre-programmed with a sensor-less motor control B
algorithm for a specific motor (Teknic_M-3411P-LN-08D)
Note: When unboxing, it works only with the Teknic motor
(D)
C

MOTOR CONTROL BACKGROUND

• For sensor-less motor control algorithms: D
– Only the three motor terminals connect to the inverter board
– Depends on specific motor parameters (a model of the motor
is used for control)
• New motor parameters must be programmed before operating
a different motor

• Resistance
• Inductance
• Pole pairs
• Back EMF

EPC – POWER CONVERSION TECHNOLOGY LEADER | EPC-CO.COM | ©2022 | | 2

 Commissioning a Motor for use with EPC motor drives operating ST Motor Control

EQUIPMENT NEEDS, MOTOR ACCESS

Motor Access
• Direct access to the motor terminals
– Motor terminal must be disconnected from inverter board
• Direct access to the motor shaft
– Need to turn it by hand
Equipment
• LCR meter
– To measure line-to-line resistance and inductance
• Oscilloscope
– To measure line-to-line Back EMF (BEMF)

MEASURING THE MOTOR PARAMETERS

Motor Parameters Needed A
• Terminal resistance (A)
– Line-to-line B
• Terminal inductance (B)
• – Line-to-line C
• Pole pairs (C)
• Back EMF constant (D) V
D

Identification of Motor Terminals

Example for Teknic Model M-3411P-LN-08D

Earth/Chassis Connection
(1x Green or Clear)

Motor Connections
(3x thick wires)

Shaft Encoder Connections

(multiple thin wires)
Not used for sensor-less control

EPC – POWER CONVERSION TECHNOLOGY LEADER | EPC-CO.COM | ©2022 | | 3

 Commissioning a Motor for use with EPC motor drives operating ST Motor Control

Line-to-Line Resistance Measurement

1. Disconnect all three motor terminals from inverter
2. Connect only two motor terminals to an ohm-meter, third
terminal is left floating
3. Measure the line-to-line resistance
4. 4-wire resistance measurement is more accurate (if available
5. Use line resistance by dividing by two (R = 400 mΩ) in
ST software

This motor has RL-L = 800 mΩ line to line resistance

(100 mΩ due to LCR meter leads)

Line-to-Line Inductance Measurement

1. Disconnect all three motor terminals from inverter
2. Connect only two motor terminals to the LCR-meter, third
terminal is left floating
3. Measure the line-to-line inductance
4. Note – long leads will add inductance. Twisting the leads will
help reduce inductance. More important for low inductance
motors.
5. For motors with varying inductance with shaft angle, find
the minimum and the maximum inductance values, by
measuring at different angles.
6. Determine the average inductance:
Lmin + Lmax
Lavg =
2 This motor has LL-L = 932 μH line to line inductance
7. For the example: Rounded 932/2 μH = 466 μH. (LCR meter leads may also have inductance, use autozero function if available)
8. Use the same value for Ld and Lq

EPC – POWER CONVERSION TECHNOLOGY LEADER | EPC-CO.COM | ©2022 | | 4

 Commissioning a Motor for use with EPC motor drives operating ST Motor Control

Determination of the Pole Pairs Number A

1. Disconnect all three motor terminals from inverter
2. Short any two (A) motor terminals, third terminal is left
floating (B)
3. Gently and slowly hand spin the motor shaft (C) and
make one mechanical turn only B
– Count the notches/steps/jumps that you feel with as C
the motor axle is rotated = motor poles number
4. Divide the motor poles number
by 2 = Pole Pairs number (pp)

This motor has pp= 4 pole pairs

Line-to-line BEMF constant Measurement

1. Disconnect all three motor terminals from inverter
2. Connect one of the motor terminals to an oscilloscope
probe ground lead and the other motor terminal to the
tip. The third motor terminal is left floating
3. Hand spin the motor shaft (A) and record the voltage
signal on the oscilloscope.
4. (B) Measure the peak-to-peak voltage of one-half
sinusoid (details on next slide) A
5. (C) Measure the time period between the same two
peaks (details next slide)

B C

EPC – POWER CONVERSION TECHNOLOGY LEADER | EPC-CO.COM | ©2022 | | 5

 Commissioning a Motor for use with EPC motor drives operating ST Motor Control

Line-to-line BEMF Constant Calculation

• App = Half-sinusoid peak-to-peak voltage amplitude
(App = 15.836 Vpp)
• Thalf = Half sinusoid peak-to-peak period
(Thalf = 13.92 ms)
• pp = Pole Pairs (pp = 4) App
• Calculate BEMF (for 1 krpm):
– Units: App [V], Thalf [s]
App
Thalf
1000 · pp
– Ke = · · (2 · Thalf )
2 ·√ 2 60
– Ke = 11.785 pp · App · Thalf Use this
– Ke = 10.096 Vrms/krpm for example motor (will use
10.2 in motorBench)

INSTALLING ST MOTOR CONTROL DEVELOPMENT SUITE AND INPUTTING THE MOTOR DRIVE AND MOTOR
PARAMETERS INTO A PROJECT

Install STM32 Motor Control Software Development

Kit (MCSDK)®
Refer to ST website to install following software, follow
exactly the steps indicated in ST website A
1. Register/Login at the st.com website (A).
2. Download the X-Cube-MCSDK (B)
Note: ST Motor Profiler does NOT work with EPC power
boards. If you try, you may damage the EPC power
board.
3. Install the X-Cube-MCSDK downloaded executable file,
following the default installation settings.
Note: This guide is showing the process with the MCSDK
kit. In principle same steps apply also for the MCSDK- Y
kit. The only difference is that the .stmcx file needs to be
created for MCSDK-Y kit. The .stmcx file for MCSDK-Y kit
can be created using same parameters as they are shown
in this guide.
It may be necessary to disable Antivirus and firewall
B
programs during installation

EPC – POWER CONVERSION TECHNOLOGY LEADER | EPC-CO.COM | ©2022 | | 6

 Commissioning a Motor for use with EPC motor drives operating ST Motor Control

Install STM32CubeMX A
Refer to ST website to install following software, follow
exactly the steps indicated in ST website
1. Register/Login at the st.com website (A)
2. Download the STM32CubeMX-Win (B)
Note: ST Motor Profiler does NOT work with EPC power
boards. If you try, you may damage the EPC power
board.
3. Install the STM32CubeMX-Win downloaded executable
file, following the default installation settings.
Note: This procedure has been tested with version 6.2.0
and version 6.3.0
It may be better to disable Antivirus and firewall
programs during installation

Install STM32Cube-IDE
A
Refer to ST website to install following software, follow
exactly the steps indicated in ST website
1. Register/Login at the st.com website (A)
2. Download the STM32CubeIDE-Win (B)
3. Install the STM32CubeMX-Win downloaded executable
file, following the default installation settings.
Note: This procedure has been tested with version 1.6.0
and version 1.7.0
It may be better to disable Antivirus and firewall
programs during installation

EPC – POWER CONVERSION TECHNOLOGY LEADER | EPC-CO.COM | ©2022 | | 7

 Commissioning a Motor for use with EPC motor drives operating ST Motor Control

Install STM32CubeProg A
Refer to ST website to install following software, follow
exactly the steps indicated in ST website
1. Register/Login at the st.com website (A)
2. Download the STM32CubeProg (B)
3. Install the STM32CubeProg downloaded executable file,
following the default installation settings.
Note: The STM32CubeProg can be used to flash the
device with a .elf file, if the .elf file is already available.
The steps are explained in ECP9147C quick start guide.
The aim of this guide is to show the process to generate
the .elf file
It may be better to disable Antivirus and firewall
programs during installation

Download the specific .stmcx file for the EPC power

board
Refer to EPC website to download the proper ST Motor
Control Workbench .stmcx definition file.
As an example, EPC9145’s product page, the file link can be
found at :
https://epc-co.com/epc/Products/DemoBoards/EPC9145.
aspx
The filename is:
G431-EPC9145-DummyNema34_50k_100n.stmcx
and needs to be loaded in ST Motor Control Workbench
program.
Note: This file was made for MCSDK Kit 5.4.x and it will
not be loaded by the MCSDK-Y kit software.

Folder naming directions: The working directory should

have short path and should not contain spaces or symbols.
Example:
C:\motor_software (acceptable: no spaces and no
special characters - Note: an underscore symbol (“_”) is
not considered a special character)
C:\motor & software (unacceptable: uses spaces and a
special character)

EPC – POWER CONVERSION TECHNOLOGY LEADER | EPC-CO.COM | ©2022 | | 8

 Commissioning a Motor for use with EPC motor drives operating ST Motor Control

Launch Motor Control Workbench®

1. Start Motor Control Workbench 5.4.x (A)
(A)
2. Load specific sample project (B)
or click on Recent Project’s filename to open it (C)
3. Once the project is loaded, it is already set with proper parameters for
specific power board and for specific motor (Teknic_M-3411P-LN-08D)

B C

D
Note:
1. If you downloaded the project for the
specific power board, it is already set
properly to work for the
Teknic_M-3411P-LN-08D motor.
2. To adapt to a new motor you have to
change only the motor parameters by
clicking on the motor icon circled in
red (D)

EPC – POWER CONVERSION TECHNOLOGY LEADER | EPC-CO.COM | ©2022 | | 9

 Commissioning a Motor for use with EPC motor drives operating ST Motor Control

Motor parameters dialog box

• Click on motor icon (A) to visualize the motor parameters
• Parameters shown here (B) are for the
Teknic_M-3411P-LN-08D motor.
• To adapt to a new motor, change only the motor
parameters.
• Note: the Rs and Ls parameters (C) are referred to phase A
to neutral point (i.e. the resistance and the inductance
measured phase to phase must be divided by 2).

EPC – POWER CONVERSION TECHNOLOGY LEADER | EPC-CO.COM | ©2022 | | 10

 Commissioning a Motor for use with EPC motor drives operating ST Motor Control

Motor Control Workbench parameters

As an example, all parameters related to the EPC9145 are shown in the next
figures.
For other EPC power boards, download the corresponding .stmcx file from EPC
website.
Warning: ST Motor Profiler does NOT work with EPC power boards. If you try,
you may damage the EPC power board.
The next figures can be also used to modify an existing project originally made for
the ST MCSDK-Y kit.
Note: This guide is based on ST MCSDK kit only.
The following figures are optional and are not needed if only motor parameters EPC9145 board
need to be changed. In that case you can skip and proceed to the Code
Generation steps.
Refer to ST Motor Control Workbench Guide for further information.

Example MCSDK project for EPC9145

Overview
Red circled boxes/areas below indicate which categories have their parameters set in the following example project.
Note: Make sure that all parameters set match exactly as shown.

3
2
1

5
6 4

11
13 10
7
12 8

14 15
9

Legend:
1. AC Input info 9. Drive Management - Speed Position Feedback Management
2. Power Stage - Rated Bus Voltage Info 10. User Interface
3. Power Stage - Bus Voltage Sensing 11. Drive Management
4. Motor Parameters 12. MCU and Clock Frequency Selection
5. Power Stage - Power Switches 13. Control Stage - Digital I/O
6. Power Stage - Driving Signals Polarity - U Driver 14. Control Stage - DAC Functionality
7. Power Stage - Current Sensing 15. Control Stage - Analog Input and Protection
8. Power Stage - Overcurrent Protection

EPC – POWER CONVERSION TECHNOLOGY LEADER | EPC-CO.COM | ©2022 | | 11

 Commissioning a Motor for use with EPC motor drives operating ST Motor Control

Specific settings for Example MCSDK project for EPC9145

3
2
1

1 3

EPC – POWER CONVERSION TECHNOLOGY LEADER | EPC-CO.COM | ©2022 | | 12

 Commissioning a Motor for use with EPC motor drives operating ST Motor Control

Specific settings for Example MCSDK project for EPC9145 (continued)

5
6 4a, 4b

4a 5

4b

EPC – POWER CONVERSION TECHNOLOGY LEADER | EPC-CO.COM | ©2022 | | 13

 Commissioning a Motor for use with EPC motor drives operating ST Motor Control

Specific settings for Example MCSDK project for EPC9145 (continued)

7
8

9a, 9b

7 9a

8
9b

EPC – POWER CONVERSION TECHNOLOGY LEADER | EPC-CO.COM | ©2022 | | 14

 Commissioning a Motor for use with EPC motor drives operating ST Motor Control

Specific settings for Example MCSDK project for EPC9145 (continued)

10

10a 10b

EPC – POWER CONVERSION TECHNOLOGY LEADER | EPC-CO.COM | ©2022 | | 15

 Commissioning a Motor for use with EPC motor drives operating ST Motor Control

Specific settings for Example MCSDK project for EPC9145 (continued)

11a-d

11a 11b

11d

11c

EPC – POWER CONVERSION TECHNOLOGY LEADER | EPC-CO.COM | ©2022 | | 16

 Commissioning a Motor for use with EPC motor drives operating ST Motor Control

Specific settings for Example MCSDK project for EPC9145 (continued)

11e-g

11e 11f 11g

EPC – POWER CONVERSION TECHNOLOGY LEADER | EPC-CO.COM | ©2022 | | 17

 Commissioning a Motor for use with EPC motor drives operating ST Motor Control

Specific settings for Example MCSDK project for EPC9145 (continued)

13
12

14

12
14

13

EPC – POWER CONVERSION TECHNOLOGY LEADER | EPC-CO.COM | ©2022 | | 18

 Commissioning a Motor for use with EPC motor drives operating ST Motor Control

Specific settings for Example MCSDK project for EPC9145 (continued)

15a-d

15a 15b

15c

15d

EPC – POWER CONVERSION TECHNOLOGY LEADER | EPC-CO.COM | ©2022 | | 19

 Commissioning a Motor for use with EPC motor drives operating ST Motor Control

LAUNCH THE CODE GENERATOR

Click on the Code Generator button. This will invoke the STM32CubeMX program.
Note: depending on the installation, you may have different versions.

STM32CUBEMX – AUTOMATIC CODE GENERATION

1. Select the Recommended firmware version (A)
2. Select HAL drive type (B)
Note: At the first-time use, the firmware
will not be available, it will be downloaded
automatically. Confirm that you want
to continue the download (C). This may
generate Windows firewall messages. It
may also be necessary to disable anti-virus
software.
3. Press Generate Button (D) A
• The first time it may happen that an
error message is generated because the
firmware is not yet installed completely.
In this case, close the window and restart B
D
the process.
• At the end of code generation, you should
not get any error message, if it happens,
repeat the process. If it continues, contact
a ST local FAE.
4. At the end of the code generation, open the
folder containing the code and close the
STM32CubeMX window.
C

EPC – POWER CONVERSION TECHNOLOGY LEADER | EPC-CO.COM | ©2022 | | 20

 Commissioning a Motor for use with EPC motor drives operating ST Motor Control

STM32CUBEIDE – IMPORT THE PROJECT

1. Open the STM32CubeIDE program from Windows Start Menu
2. Accept the proposed location for the Workspace and select the File menu
3. Under File menu choose Open Projects from File System (A)
4. Click on Directory (B)
5. Navigate to the generated code directory
6. Choose the STM32CubeIDE sub-directory (C) within the generated code directory (note: this directory was generated by STM32CubeMX program)
7. Press Select Folder (D)
8. Press Finish button on the Import Project window
Note: the project must be imported only for the first time. All subsequent code re-generations on the same project will not require to import the folder again.
Note: it is better to have separate projects for different motors

A B

EPC – POWER CONVERSION TECHNOLOGY LEADER | EPC-CO.COM | ©2022 | | 21

 Commissioning a Motor for use with EPC motor drives operating ST Motor Control

STM32CUBEIDE - BUILD THE CODE

Note: When you open STM32CubeIDE the first time you may land into the info window. In that case close the info window.
If Project Explorer window is not visible, go to the menu Window>>Show View>>Project Explorer
1. Select the project (A) on STM32CubeIDE program. In case of many projects, right click the one you want to select and set it as main project.
2. Press the Hammer icon (B), it will launch the compiler and the builder.
At the end of the build process, you must get a clean compile message in the CDT Build Console (C)
Note: if you get any compile error, re-start the entire project from the ST Motor Control Workbench program.
Note: if you still get errors, contact a ST local FAE

EPC – POWER CONVERSION TECHNOLOGY LEADER | EPC-CO.COM | ©2022 | | 22

 Commissioning a Motor for use with EPC motor drives operating ST Motor Control

STM32CUBEIDE - FLASH AND DEBUG

Select the project (A) on STM32CubeIDE program. In case of many projects, right click the one you want to select and set it as main project.
Connect the Nucleo board with an USB micro cable to an USB port on the PC. Note: debugger is onboard of the ST Nucleo board.
1. Press the Bug icon (B), it will launch first the flash downloader process and then the debugger.
2. The first time you will get two dialog windows as the one shown here, press OK (C) and then Switch (D)
When the download to the Flash is finished, and the controller is in Halt mode (for debug), close STM32CubeIDE and detach the controller from
USB port.

B
A

EPC – POWER CONVERSION TECHNOLOGY LEADER | EPC-CO.COM | ©2022 | | 23

 Commissioning a Motor for use with EPC motor drives operating ST Motor Control

OPERATING THE MOTOR DRIVE SYSTEM DISCONNECTED FROM PC

1. Connect the EPC9147C to a compatible inverter board; e.g. EPC9145
2. Connect the motor to the inverter board. Follow QSG instructions.
3. With power OFF, connect the power supply to the inverter board. Make sure the jumpers are set as in the picture.
4. Set the power supply to the correct operating voltage for the inverter board. Make sure the current limit setting is sufficient to operate the motor
drive system. For EPC9145 Vsup = 48 V and Ilim ≥ 2.5 A
5. Power on
6. Press the black button (A) on Nucleo board
7. Press the blue button (B) on Nucleo board to start and stop the motor

A B

EPC – POWER CONVERSION TECHNOLOGY LEADER | EPC-CO.COM | ©2022 | | 24

 Commissioning a Motor for use with EPC motor drives operating ST Motor Control

OPERATING THE MOTOR DRIVE SYSTEM CONNECTED TO THE PC AND USING ST MOTOR
CONTROL WORKBENCH MONITOR OPTION
Launch the Monitor
When the ST Nucleo board is properly programmed and connected via the EPC9147C to the proper power board, it is also possible to use the ST
Motor Control Workbench GUI to change the speed and the direction of the motor.
Open the ST Motor Control Workbench and load the proper .stmcx file that is relevant to the project
you are working at (e.g. G431-EPC9145-DummyNema34_50k_100n.stmcx).
Note: Depending on the installation, you may have different versions.

Monitor
1. Click on the Open Monitor Button (A).
2. Connect the USB cable to the PC and power up the 48 V to the power board. Click on the Connect button (B).
3. Wait for the successful connection message (C).

EPC – POWER CONVERSION TECHNOLOGY LEADER | EPC-CO.COM | ©2022 | | 25

 Commissioning a Motor for use with EPC motor drives operating ST Motor Control

Press Fault Ack button (A) if any fault was detected. Then press Start Motor button (B). Motor should spin. It is now possible to move the graphic
potentiometer on the GUI to change the speed of the motor and to change the motor direction. Refer to ST user guide manual for more details on
how to work with the ST Motor Control Workbench for further customization.
Refer to ST Motor Control Workbench Guide for further information
Note: ST Motor Profiler does NOT work with EPC power boards. If you try, you may damage the EPC power board.

EPC – POWER CONVERSION TECHNOLOGY LEADER | EPC-CO.COM | ©2022 | | 26

 For More Information:
Please contact [email protected]
or your local sales representative

Visit our website:

www.epc-co.com

Sign-up to receive
EPC updates at
bit.ly/EPCupdates
or text “EPC” to 22828

EPC Products are distributed through Digi-Key.

www.digikey.com

Demonstration Board Notification

The EPC9147A board is intended for product evaluation purposes only. It is not intended for commercial use nor is it FCC approved for resale. Replace components on
the Evaluation Board only with those parts shown on the parts list (or Bill of Materials) in the Quick Start Guide. Contact an authorized EPC representative with any questions. This board is
intended to be used by certified professionals, in a lab environment, following proper safety procedures. Use at your own risk.
As an evaluation tool, this board is not designed for compliance with the European Union directive on electromagnetic compatibility or any other such directives or regulations. As board
builds are at times subject to product availability, it is possible that boards may contain components or assembly materials that are not RoHS compliant. Efficient Power Conversion Corpora-
tion (EPC) makes no guarantee that the purchased board is 100% RoHS compliant.
The Evaluation board (or kit) is for demonstration purposes only and neither the Board nor this Quick Start Guide constitute a sales contract or create any kind of warranty, whether express
or implied, as to the applications or products involved.
Disclaimer: EPC reserves the right at any time, without notice, to make changes to any products described herein to improve reliability, function, or design. EPC does not assume any liability
arising out of the application or use of any product or circuit described herein; neither does it convey any license under its patent rights, or other intellectual property whatsoever, nor the
rights of others.