What Would You Do with the K4 Drive System Development Kit?

Question

Ever so often I get a chance to offer to the element14 community a real jewel of a development kit. I think the K4 Drive System Development Kit by ebm-papst is one of those kinds of kits. Let me tell you a few things about it.

Let me start with a picture:

Here's what's in the kit:

• K4 Switch Box

• ECI-63.40 or VDC-3-49.15 Motor (-002 and -003 kit versions only)

• RS485 adapter

• RS485 adapter driver download CD

• USB-A to USB-B cable

• RS485 connection wires

What can you do with it:

In a nutshell, BLDC motor drive development. You get a motor with gearbox and a switchbox for some serious exploration of this drive system kit.!

Here's a few facts about the K4 Switch box:

The motor supply terminals are the power input to the motor and the DC to DC converter in the box that generates

24V logic power for the motor’s electronics. Red is positive, black is negative (ground).

• The motor and logic fuses protect the motor from an over current in the event too much power is drawn.

• The motor connector port provides the electrical contact between the Switch Box outputs and the motor inputs.

• The RS485 terminals are the inputs for communication between the motor and a computer via the USB to RS485

adapter included in the kit.

• The readout terminals are meant to allow for monitoring different voltages and provide feedback from the motor.

• The input switches control the digital 24V signals to the motor, which enable and control motor operation. The

switches have 3 positions: Up is toggle-on, middle is off, down is momentary-on.

• The 0-10V analog dial controls the analog voltage signal generated by the Switch Box and read by the motor. This

is usually used as a speed control signal.

What would you build with it:

On the serious side, any kind of high performance, position, torque or motor drive application. But, this is element14, let's get creative! Take a look at this cute video and see what one clever engineer did to automate the pouring of his cup of tea. Of course, he used the K4 Drive System Development Kit

Are you interesting in obtaining this kit?

Reply to this discussion and tell me what you would do with it

P.S. here's the user manual to read and review.

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Are you interesting in obtaining this kit? Reply to this discussion and tell me what you would do with it P.S. here's the user manual to read and review.

rscasny · Answer

Hi All, Thanks for all the great ideas. What's the status of this activity? Well, I wrote the account manager and told her I would like to get some kits for this activity. She is now talking with the sponsor, ebm-papst. They are deciding on how many kits to provide and all the other details. I'll call her again early next week, so I can give you an up to date status. Randall --element14 team

rsc · Answer

We have a 20 year old mechanism for pulling an object through a fluid for turbulence measurements.

The current solution controls motor speed with a manual adjustment that is difficult to control to any precision.

I would replace the current motor and controller with the contents of the kit and attempt to use LabView to automatically control the motor as it takes data.

Here's a pic of the current motor/drive.

michaelkellett · Answer

Are you sure you get a gearbox, the two types of motor listed as parts of the kit (I assume you get one or the other) don't include a gearbox.

From the picture the motor is:ECI-63.40 which comes in 24 or 48 volt versions:

It's a nominal 250W output power motor requiring a power supply capable of 24V, continuous current 12.3A, pk current 36.9A.

It's nice in that the controller is built in.

I mention these things because I don't think that most of the comments above quite get what they will be wrestling with !

If you could persuade Papst to throw in a gearbox it might be quite nice for rsc project -

(I'm not sure that the motor has enough torque to do his job without a gearbox.)

MK

michaelkellett · Answer

If it's the 24V motor a couple of 12V lead acid batteries (sealed from the Grandson) might do. The power's about right. MK

rscasny · Answer

I thought it came with the gearbox, which surprised me. But let me check again with the sponsor. Thanks for pointing it. It merits checking.

What Would You Do with the K4 Drive System Development Kit?

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