ST EVLSPIN32G4-ACT User manual

Introduction
The EVLSPIN32G4-ACT is a reference design for implementing next generation smart actuators, based on the STSPIN32G4, a
system-in-package integrating in a 9x9 mm VFQFPN package, a triple high-performance half-bridge gate driver with a rich set of
programmable features and a mixed signal STM32G431 microcontroller.
The board is designed to drive three-phase brushless motors up to 5 Arms output current and 48 V supply input delivering a total
power of 250W in a very compact form factor (62 mm x 50 mm). Monitoring is available for the power stage in case of
overheating, overvoltage, and overcurrent. The sensing of motor winding currents can be selected between three-shunt or
single-shunt topology. The board is ready for FOC and 6-step control algorithms and can run in sensor-less and sensor-based
mode using Hall sensors or quadrature encoder.
Thanks to a smooth interfacing with STWIN.box development kit and a complete software and firmware ecosystem, the motor
inverter is empowered by wired and wireless connectivity (RS485, UART, USB, CAN, and Bluetooth® Low Energy, Wi-Fi, NFC),
a plethora of inertial end environmental sensors (accelerometer, gyroscope, inclinometer, magnetometer, humidity, temperature,
pressure), and data storage onboard (microSD™ card) making EVLSPIN32G4-ACT a perfect suit for cutting edge motor control
solutions such as IoT, condition monitoring, and predictive maintenance.
Figure 1. EVLSPIN32G4-ACT
Getting started with the EVLSPIN32G4-ACT
UM3168
User manual
UM3168 - Rev 1 - September 2023
For further information contact your local STMicroelectronics sales office.
www.st.com

1 Safety and operating instructions
1.1 General terms
During assembly, testing, and operation, the evaluation board poses several inherent hazards, including bare
wires, moving or rotating parts and hot surfaces.
Danger: There is danger of serious personal injury or death due to electrical shock, property damage
and burn hazards if the kit or components are improperly used or installed incorrectly
The kit is not electrically isolated from the high-voltage supply DC input. The evaluation board is directly linked to
the mains voltage. No insulation is ensured between the accessible parts and the high voltage. All measuring
equipment must be isolated from the mains before powering the board. When using an oscilloscope with the
demo, it must be isolated from the DC line. This prevents the occurrence of shock when touching any single point
in the circuit but does not prevent shock when touching two or more points in the circuit. All operations involving
transportation, installation, use, and maintenance must be performed by skilled technical personnel able to
understand and implement national accident prevention regulations. For the purposes of these basic safety
instructions, “skilled technical personnel” are suitably qualified people who are familiar with the installation, use,
and maintenance of power electronic systems.
1.2 Intended use of evaluation board
The board is designed for evaluation purposes only and must not be used for electrical installations or machinery.
Technical data and information concerning the power supply conditions are detailed in the documentation and
should be strictly observed.
1.3 Installing the evaluation board
• The installation and cooling of the evaluation board must be in accordance with the specifications and
target application.
• The motor drive converters must be protected against excessive strain. Components should not be bent, or
isolating distances altered during transportation or handling.
• No contact must be made with other electronic components and contacts.
• The board contains electrostatically sensitive components that are prone to damage if used incorrectly. Do
not mechanically damage or destroy the electrical components (potential health risks).
1.4 Operating the evaluation board
To operate properly the board, follow these safety rules.
1. Work area safety:
– The work area must be clean and tidy.
– Do not work alone when boards are energized.
– Protect against inadvertent access to the area where the board is energized using suitable barriers
and signs.
– A system architecture that supplies power to the evaluation board must be equipped with additional
control and protective devices in accordance with the applicable safety requirements (that is,
compliance with technical equipment and accident prevention rules).
– Use a non-conductive and stable work surface.
– Use adequately insulated clamps and wires to attach measurement probes and instruments.
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Safety and operating instructions
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2. Electrical safety:
– Remove power supply from the board and electrical loads before performing any electrical
measurement.
– Proceed with the arrangement of measurement set-up, wiring, or configuration paying attention to high
voltage sections.
– Once the set-up is complete, energize the board.
Danger: Do not touch the evaluation board when it is energized or immediately after it has been
disconnected from the voltage supply as several parts and power terminals containing
potentially energized capacitors need time to discharge. Do not touch the board after
disconnection from the voltage supply as several parts like heatsinks and transformers
may still be very hot. The kit is not electrically isolated from the DC input. The USB
interface of the board does not insulate host computer from high voltage. When the
board is supplied at a voltage outside the ELV range, a proper insulation method such
as a USB isolator must be used to operate the board.
3. Personal safety:
– Always wear suitable personal protective equipment such as insulated gloves and safety glasses.
– Take adequate precautions and install the board in such a way to prevent accidental touch. Use
protective shields such as an insulating box with interlocks if necessary.
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Operating the evaluation board
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2 Acronyms and definitions
The list of acronyms and definitions used in this document is seen in Table 1.
Table 1. List of acronyms and definitions
Description
ADC Analog-to-digital Converter
CAN Controller area network. It is a robust communication standard used for data transmission among electronic
control units connected in a local network.
FOC Field Oriented Control. It is a driving algorithm for three-phase motors that allows to control the position of the
rotor magnetic field with respect to the stator magnetic field.
Half-bridge Structure composed by one high-side and one low-side MOSFET connected (refer to Figure 6). Each phase of
a three-phase motor is usually driven by a half-bridge structure.
MCU Microcontroller Unit
op amp Operational Amplifier
PGA Programmable Gain Amplifier
PWM Pulse Width Modulation
Shunt resistor The shunt resistor is placed on the source of the low-side MOSFET, to measure the current flowing in the load.
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Acronyms and definitions
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3 Hardware and software requirements
The use of the EVLSPIN32G4-ACT board requires the following software and hardware:
• A Windows® PC (Windows 10) to install the software package.
• One STLINK-V3SET debugger/programmer or equivalent.
• One three-phase brushless DC motor with compatible voltage and current ratings.
• An external DC power supply with cables.
• STWIN.box, STEVAL-STWINBX1, to implement a fully connected smart actuator (optional).
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Hardware and software requirements
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4 Getting started
To use the board:
1. Connect the three motor terminals to the connectors CON3, CON4, and CON5 taking care of windings
sequence.
2. Connect the programmer and debugger to the board using connector CON11.
3. Develop your application or use the MCSDK 6.2 or greater to easily generate a 6-step or FOC firmware that
is ready to use.
4. Supply the board via CON1 and CON2 connectors taking care of polarity; the red LED3 turns on to indicate
presence of supply voltage.
5. Upload the firmware on the STSPIN32G4 microcontroller with a dedicated tool such as
STM32CubeProgrammer and run the motor.
Ratings of the board are listed in the following Table 2.
Table 2. EVLSPIN32G4-ACT specifications
Parameter Value
Input voltage Nominal From 10 V to 48 V
Output current
Peak 7 A
Continuous(1) 5 Arms
Output power Continuous(1) 250 W
1. With ambient temperature of 25 °C.
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Getting started
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5 Hardware description and configuration
An overview of the board with placement of main components is available in Figure 2.
Figure 2. Position of: connectors, LEDs, switches, and test points
CON10
Hall/Encoder connector
CON9
+
-
5V supply output
CON1
Supply input
CON2
Supply ground
LED3
Supply on
CON3
Motor phase U
CON4
Motor phase V
CON5
Motor phase W
CON11
STDC14 programming
connector
CON6
Slave STWIN connector
CON7 (bottom)
Master STWIN connector
CON8
CAN bus connector (NM)
LED1
User led
LED2
User led
SW1
User switch
SW2
Reset switch
Test points
5.1 Connectors and test points
Table 3 provides the description of the connectors available on the board while test points are presented in the
following Table 4.
Table 3. Connectors
Name Pin Label Description
CON1 - VM DC input supply voltage
CON2 - GND Ground
CON3 - U Output for motor winding 1
CON4 - V Output for motor winding 2
CON5 - W Output for motor winding 3
CON6 - SLV Flex cable connector, slave side for mating to STWIN.box
CON7 - MST Flex cable connector, master side for mating to sensor board
CON8
1 CANH CAN bus signal high
2 CANL CAN bus signal low
3 - CAN bus ground
4 - CAN bus cable shielding
CON9
1 + 5V supply output at 1A maximum
2 - Ground
CON10
1 H1 Hall-effect sensor 1 / encoder out A+
2 H2 Hall-effect sensor 2 / encoder out B+
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Hardware description and configuration
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Name Pin Label Description
CON10
3 H3 Hall-effect sensor 3 / encoder zero feedback
4 VHALL Sensors supply voltage
5 GND Sensors ground
CON11 - - STDC14 connector for programming and debugging STSPIN32G4
Table 4. Test points
Label Description
GND Ground
DAC1 DAC output 1
DAC2 DAC output 2
AGND Analog ground
OPO1 Output of operational amplifier 1
OPO2 Output of operational amplifier 2
OPO3 Output of operational amplifier 3
5.2 User interface
The board provides the following components to interface with the user:
• Switch SW1: user switch 1.
• Switch SW2: to reset STSPIN32G4.
• LED1: user green LED.
• LED2: user yellow LED, turned on when the user switch 1 is pressed too.
• LED3: system red LED, turned on when supply voltage is present.
5.3 Programming and debugging
The EVLSPIN32G4-ACT board provides a CON11 connector to program firmware on the STSPIN32G4. CON11
provides an STDC14 pinout featuring both SWD and UART interfaces that simplify communication with the PC
through the virtual COM port. One STLINK-V3SET debugger/programmer can be mated to CON11 using its flat
cable. The mating of this flat cable with CON11 must be with the plastic notch toward the upper side.
5.4 Hall sensors and encoders
The EVLSPIN32G4-ACT board supports two types of sensors for position feedback of the motor:
1. Digital Hall sensors.
2. Quadrature encoder.
Inputs for digital Hall sensors or quadrature encoders are available on CON10 connector (Table 3).
For sensors requiring an external pull-up, three 10 kΩ resistors are already mounted on the output lines and
connected to the 3.3 V voltage. Each line is filtered by an RC low-pass filter and footprints for pull-down resistors
are also available.
Solder jumpers allow to select the sensors supply voltage (only one solder jumper must be mounted):
• SB3 closed for 5 V supply (default configuration).
• SB4 closed for VCC (8 V to 15 V) supply.
• SB5 closed for 3.3 V supply.
Sensor outputs are connected to PB6, PB7, and PB8 pins of the microcontroller and can be routed to channels
TIM_CH1, TIM_CH2, and TIM_CH3 of timer TIM4 respectively.
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User interface
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5.5 Connection with STWIN.box and sensor board
The board features two board-to-FPC/board-to-board (0.4 mm pitch) 34-pin connectors, CON6 and CON7,
allowing to easily expand system functionality. These connectors include communication interfaces I²C, SPI, and
UART, as well as digital IOs, analog line and power supplies as detailed in Table 5.
Table 5. Pinout of 34 pin connectors
Pin CON6 function STSPIN32G4 pin CON7 function
1 Ground - Ground
2 Ground - Ground
3 - - -
4 - REGIN 5V supply
5 Bypass only - Bypass only
6 - REG3V3 3.3V supply
7 Bypass only - Bypass only
8 I²C interface SDA signal PB9 I²C interface SDA signal
9 UART interface Rx signal PA10 / PA9 UART interface Tx signal
10
11 INT_EX digital signal PC15 INT_EX digital signal
11 UART interface Tx signal PA9 / PA10 UART interface Rx signal
12 GPIO1_EX digital signal PC0 GPIO1_EX digital signal
13 Bypass only - Bypass only
14 ADC_EX analog signal PC1 ADC_EX analog signal
15 - - -
16 PWM_EX digital signal PB10 PWM_EX digital signal
17 GPIO3_EX digital signal PC2 GPIO3_EX digital signal
18 GPIO2_EX digital signal PC3 GPIO2_EX digital signal
19 SPI interface CS signal PD2 SPI interface CS signal
20 - - -
21 SPI interface MOSI signal PB5 SPI interface MOSI signal
22 Bypass only - Bypass only
23 SPI interface MISO signal PB4 SPI interface MISO signal
24 Bypass only - Bypass only
25 SPI interface SCLK signal PB3 SPI interface SCLK signal
26 Bypass only - Bypass only
27 I²C interface SCL signal PA15 I²C interface SCL signal
28 Bypass only - Bypass only
29 - REG3V3 3.3V supply
30 Bypass only - Bypass only
31 - REGIN 5V supply
32 - - -
33 Ground - Ground
34 Ground - Ground
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Connection with STWIN.box and sensor board
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The connector CON6 that is positioned on the top layer of the board allows for mating with the STWIN.box board
through the flexible cable FLX1 provided in the kit.
The connector CON7 that is positioned below CON6 on the bottom layer of the board, allows for mating with an
external sensor board like the STEVAL-C34AT01 through the flex cable provided within the sensor board kit
(STEVAL-C34KAT1).
Refer to Figure 3 for proper mating of EVLSPIN32G4-ACT with STWIN.box and sensor board.
Figure 3. Mating of EVLSPIN32G4-ACT with STWIN.box and STEVAL-C34AT01
Warning: The flex cable and its 34-pin connectors as well as the complementary connectors on the
boards could be easily damaged in case of improper mating. Care must be paid when
connecting and disconnecting the flex cable or during handling of the assembly. The safest
way to disconnect the cable is by pulling it next to the connectors using tweezers.
Three connection schemes are possible:
1. Master mode: The EVLSPIN32G4-ACT is connected only to the sensor board through CON7. The
EVLSPIN32G4-ACT supplies the sensor board and communicates with it as a master.
2. Slave mode: The EVLSPIN32G4-ACT is connected only to the STWIN.box through CON6. Each board has
independent supply and EVLSPIN32G4-ACT communicates with STWIN.box as a slave.
3. Pass-through mode: The EVLSPIN32G4-ACT is connected to STWIN.box and sensor board respectively
through CON6 and CON7. The EVLSPIN32G4-ACT supplies the sensor board and the STWIN.box can
communicate as master with both the slaves EVLSPIN32G4-ACT and sensor board.
When using slave mode or pass-through mode it is possible to supply the STWIN.box through the 5 V voltage
regulator of EVLSPIN32G4-ACT. In this case, use the wire jumper CN6 provided in the kit to connect CON9 of
EVLSPIN32G4-ACT to the screw connector CON2 of STWIN.box. To facilitate the wiring, this screw connector is
positioned close to the corresponding connector of EVLSPIN32G4-ACT when using the four board spacers (SP1,
SP2, SP3, and SP4) provided in the kit as shown in Figure 3. The PCB of EVLSPIN32G4-ACT has one hole close
to CON9 allowing to use a screwdriver after staking up the boards.
Protection series resistors (from R35 to R48) are provided on all signal lines connecting the STSPIN32G4. These
resistors protect in case of conflicting levels between master and slave sides limiting the current flowing through
device pins. This could occur in case of wrong mating orientation for the 34-pin connectors or in case of wrong
device configuration, for example, one end of the line is pulled low by STWIN.box microcontroller, and the other
end is simultaneously pulled high by STSPIN32G4.
5.6 Overcurrent protection
The EVLSPIN32G4-ACT board implements double protection of the power stage from overcurrent condition
thanks to:
1. Drain-source voltage monitoring of each power MOSFET.
2. Comparators sensing the shunt current.
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Overcurrent protection
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