NEC Electronics Europe introduces new Low Voltage Starter Kit for Motor Control

DUESSELDORF (Germany), — 07 Aug 2006
NEC Electronics Europe has announced the release of its new starter kit for low voltage motor control applications (MC-LVKIT), a comprehensive and easy to use starter kit designed to support NEC Electronics’ range of 8- and 32-bit motor control specific microcontrollers. Targeted specifically at motor control applications, the MC-LVKIT is a complete evaluation kit which allows designers to demonstrate and evaluate the CPU and motor control functions of 78K0 (µPD78F0714) and V850ES/IK1 (µPD70F3329) microcontrollers. Scalability is guaranteed with the ability to add other microcontroller boards in the future including V850/KJ1+, V850E/IA4 and 78K0 Inverter control.

The hardware platform consists of a 12V brushless DC motor, low voltage inverter module, I/O board, and a microcontroller board. The complete system can be connected to a PC via a serial interface or operated in stand alone mode. It is also capable of being connected to NEC Electronics’ software development tools for evaluation and debugging purposes. The low voltage inverter module can be used for low voltage motor applications that require drive capability for motors up to 24 volts. It can be used for evaluating 3-phase asynchronous or synchronous motor control applications.

The I/O board has on-board user interface hardware for operational control and signal conditioning between the MCU and the low voltage inverter module. With this modular approach, a user can easily evaluate NEC Electronics’ 8- and 32-bit motor control MCUs. Other features of the I/O board include:

• Potentiometer (to control the speed of the motor)

• Pushbutton switches that can be reprogrammed by the user (Start/stop, mode, forward, reverse)

• Four-digit, seven-segment LED display (used to display motor speed in RPM and other status information)

• RS-232 transceiver and optional DB9 connector (connected to a UART of the selected CPU)

• User prototype area

The 8-bit micro-board is designed for demonstration as well as in-depth evaluation of the CPU and on-chip peripheral functions of NEC Electronics’ 78K0 (µPD78F0714) microcontroller. This micro-board can be operated in stand-alone mode to evaluate the main features of the MCU or it can be connected through two 100-pin connectors to the I/O board to evaluate the MCU’s dedicated 3-phase motor control peripherals. Likewise, the 32-bit micro-board can be used to manipulate the functions of NEC Electronics V850ES/IK1 (µPD70F3329) microcontroller.

The 8-bit micro-board benefits from a 20MHz main clock and MCU I/O port connector that provides all I/O pins of the 78K0 microcontroller. The micro-boards debug features allow access to Flash programming and standard debug functionality such as code execution, software breakpoints and memory manipulation by connecting the micro-board to our low-cost MINICUBE emulator which is sold separately. The 32-bit micro-board uses the IECUBE emulator for similar functions.

In addition to offering both in-depth evaluation and demonstration capabilities, the MC-LVKIT’s impressive hardware is coupled with a specially featured software package (with sample code) allowing a user to run a low voltage motor and tuning the code by changing the controller parameters from the PC graphical user interface software. The kit can also benefit from running in standalone mode from the PC GUI software.

Targeted applications for the starter kit include development of many consumer appliances such as cordless power tools, electric toothbrushes, shavers, trimmers, fans and other low power motor control applications.

Since all parts of the starter kit can be used either individually or collectively, users benefit from this and have the option to purchase complete kits or separate hardware components. The Low Voltage starter kit from NEC Electronics (MC-LVKIT) is available to purchase at a most competitive price of €399. The full kit includes all of the above mentioned boards (Low voltage inverter board, 8- or 32-bit CPU board, I/O board, 12 VBLDC motor and GUI software). Individual boards can be ordered separately. These tools will be available from NEC Electronics. For further information and documentation visit www.eu.necel.com/mc_starter_kit

About NEC Electronics (Europe) GmbH

NEC Electronics (Europe) GmbH, headquartered in Duesseldorf, Germany, is a leading developer and supplier of semiconductor products in Europe. Committed to meeting customers' cost, performance and time-to-market requirements, the company offers solutions ranging from standard products to system-on-a-chip (SoC) solutions, as well as customized products for next-generation designs. Our customers also benefit from state-of-the-art manufacturing from the global production network of our parent company, NEC Electronics Corporation. Additionally, NEC Electronics (Europe) GmbH is the exclusive European sales and marketing channel of LCD modules from NEC LCD Technologies Ltd.. For more information visit http://www.eu.necel.com

About Sunrise

Sunrise Electronics is the only dedicated franchised distributor in the UK electronics market and provides a high level of technical design support to customers for the whole range of NEC semiconductor products including microprocessors, microcontrollers and ASICs as well as memory and colour LCD panels. The field sales team is technically qualified to ensure total support from design concept through to purchasing.

Sunrise is a direct ship distributor. The majority of shipments are delivered directly to customers from NEC’s own ISO9000 warehouse. This ensures reduced handling, correct packaging; especially for fine pitch surface mount devices requiring vacuum sealing, factory fresh product and timely deliveries.