Toshiba Electronics Europe has announced an evaluation kit for the development of embedded systems designed to control three-phase BLDC (brushless DC) motors. The BMSKTOPASM370 Field Oriented Motor Control Kit – which has been developed in conjunction with tool specialist Hitex - comprises an evaluation board an in-circuit emulator, an 18V three-phase BLDC motor, a 24V power supply and a package of software tools and documentation.

The kit’s evaluation board is built around the TMPM370FYFG 32-bit microcontroller, which is based on an ARM Cortex-M3 core running at 80MHz. This device combines Toshiba’s proprietary PMD3+ programmable motor driver technology, a vector engine (VE), 12-bit ADC functionality and a set of peripherals and interfaces. All of the circuitry and interfaces needed for low voltage motor control are incorporated into the evaluation board, along with safety control functions and a small LCD for stand-alone evaluation.

The software package supplied with the kit includes source code, a board support package (BSP) and a PC-based graphical interface. A Segger J-Link ARM Lite USB-driven JTAG emulator for Cortex-M3 cores further simplifies application development. Comprehensive documentation includes application notes, reference designs and bill of material information.