Zeus (first revision)
Proof of concept
When we first started this project we had little knowledge of brushless DC motor design and control. After researching hardware implementations and control algorithms we designed our first revision crissioned Zeus (after the shocking results expected). Zeus was designed to have motor control circuitry, input protection, and all the required voltage regulation. The four banks of headers also allowed the Zeus to be sandwiched directly to the microcontrollers developer board.
Motor Control
The motor control circuitry involved individual half bridge gate drivers along with a hall effect and shunt current sensor for each half bridge. This was to evaluate the performance between the two different types of current sensors.
Voltage Regulation
As Zeus was designed to work with input voltages between 24 and 48 volts, the voltage regulation needed to create 12, 5, 3.3, and 1.2 volts.
Input Protection
Zeus employs a hot swap controller to limit the inrush current created by the large capacitance. The hot swap also acts as a resettable fuse providing protection from hardware and human caused shorts. The use of lab power supplies with their internal current limiters released some black smoke back to the aether as shown.