Application Note

Cordless Drill Motor Control with Battery Charging Using Z8 Encore! F0830 Reference Design

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Abstract
Currently, most hand-held electric drilling machines operating on batteries need a separate external battery charger to charge the batteries. This reference design describes the implementation of motor control for a 350W hand-held electric drilling machine along with Nickel Cadmium (NiCd) battery charging in a single unit. This design is based on Zilogs Z8 Encore! F0830 microcontroller, which primarily controls the speed of the motor, motor current monitoring, fault detection, and controlled dv/dt charging of NiCd battery. All functionalities of the design are implemented with minimum hardware. The on-chip peripherals of Z8 Encore! F0830 are used to drive the drill motor at LowMediumHigh speeds using the pulse width modulation (PWM). The battery voltage and the charger input voltage are monitored by an analog-to-digital converter (ADC), and the batteries are charged depending on the voltage read from the batteries and the charger. The light emitting diodes (LEDs) are provided to indicate the motor running, motor fault, low battery, and battery charging condition. Note: The source code (AN0255-SC01) associated with this reference design has been tested with ZDS II version 4.11.0.

Features
The key features of this reference design include: Motor control and battery charging in a single unit Smooth startup of motor, reducing the starting current of motor Three-step speed control of the motor using PWM Microcontroller based over current protection Monitoring of battery charger input voltage and battery voltage Controlled dv/dt charging of NiCd battery LED indication of motor running, overload, and fault condition LED indication of battery charging and low battery status Three-way switch for LowMediumHigh motor speed selection
Copyright 2010 by Zilog, Inc. All rights reserved. www.zilog.com

Cordless Drill Motor Control with Battery Charging Using Z8 Encore F0830 Reference Design

Two-way switch for Forward and Reverse operation of the motor

Discussion
The drill motors used in most of the cordless handheld electric drilling machines are controlled by an electronic circuit. This electronic circuit mainly comprises of a simple square wave generator to control the speed. Usually batteries used in these machines are charged using a separate charging unit. By designing a control circuit based on Z8 Encore! F0830 microcontroller, it is easy to accomplish motor control at different speeds and battery charging as a single unit. This is an added advantage because the battery used to drive the motor is charged in the drilling machine without a separate battery charger. The functions of the drilling machine like motoring, stop (break), and the steps of speed (High, Medium and Low) can be effectively controlled by changing the duty cycle of the PWM generated by the microcontroller. LEDs are provided for monitoring fault condition like overload, short circuit of motor, and the charging status of the battery. Motor control operation resumes after the overload and short circuit faults are rectified. The controller circuit based on the Z8 Encore! F0830 can also be used to charge Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH), NiCd, or Lithium ion batteries. The battery status such as low battery, charging, and charge completed are displayed using LEDs. This reference design is implemented with very minimum hardware changes to accommodate interfacing motors and batteries rated for different voltage and current ratings. This reference design can be easily ported to a Z8 Encore! F083A microcontroller with a 20-MHz internal precision oscillator (IPO) for better operation in terms of processor speed and ADC conversion. The required changes are modifying the setting of the clock source frequency that is defined as a macro in the header files and configuring the ADC Register used in the project.

Theory of Operation
The basic functions of the hand-held drill are classified as forward motoring, reverse motoring, speed control, and torque adjustment. Motors used in the cordless hand-held drives are available at different voltage ratings. The commonly used voltage ratings for the motor are 7.5 V, 12 V, 14.4 V, 18 V, 24 V, and 36 V DC. These motors have the maximum constant current rating and so can be operated at the maximum specified current rating, which in turn specifies torque. Motors used in this application are rated from 300 W to 500 W. Generally, the no load current consumption of a 1/4-inch drill is in the range of 2 A to 2.5 A, and the stall current of the motor is in the range of 80 A to 100 A. The speed of these drilling machines is adjustable from 150 rpm to 1200 rpm. Speed variation is necessary for different type of work from screw driving to drilling metal sheet. Rechargeable batteries are used to provide power to the drill motor. Most common rechargeable batteries are NiCd, NiMH, or Lithium ion. The design uses NiCd cells of 1.2 V each connected in series to form 14.4-V battery pack. NiCd battery can be charged by a constant current from an adapter plugged to the drive unit. The theory of charging the NiCd batteries is described in Appendix CBattery Technology on page 15. The charge termination to the battery is done by observing the zero or negative dv/dt on the battery terminals or by charging for a fixed time interval. In this design, the charge termination is done by zero/negative dv/dt or fixed interval timeout, whichever occurs first.

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Motors Brushed Universal Motors are commonly employed in the cordless electric hand-held drives. These motors can be operated using a DC power supply. Brushed DC motors are classified as permanent magnet and temporary magnet motors. Permanent magnet DC motors are employed where very low power/torque is needed (for example, toys, tape players, and instrument cooling fans). Similarly, the temporary magnet DC motors are further classified based on the type of magnetic field winding used for their construction. Temporary magnet DC motors are classified as the following: Shunt motor Shunt motors are employed where the constant speed is required. Series motor Series motors are employed where high torque is required, but series motors rotate at very high speed when they are not loaded. Compound motor Compound motors combine the features of series and shunt motors.

Hand-held drilling machines require a high torque to drill objects, and the maintenance of speed is not a criterion in drilling applications, so series motors are the most suitable for most of the drilling machines. Rechargeable Batteries Batteries are used to power cordless electric handheld drill motor. Drill motors consume high power during their operation. The no load current consumed by a 350 W motor can be in the range of 2 A to 2.5 A, and motor stall current can be in the range of 80 A to 100 A. The batteries required for this application should have a high charge density to meet the power requirements of the motor. Rechargeable NiCd or NiMH batteries have a moderate charge density, which can be considered suitable to the application. NiMH batteries exhibit higher power density compared to their NiCd counterparts. The voltage per cell of the NiCd battery type is 1.2 V. NiCd batteries are charged using the constant current charging method.

Hardware Architecture
Block Diagram
Figure 1 on page 4 displays the functional block diagram of the Z8 Encore! F0830 hand-held drill motor control.

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Figure 1. Block Diagram of Z8 Encore! F0830 Hand-Held Drill Motor Control The block diagram is divided into following functional blocks: Battery Charging Section (page 5) Controller Section (page 5) Power Electronic Drive (page 6)

All functional blocks are controlled by Z8 Encore! F0830 microcontroller operation using IPO at 5.5296 MHz. The Z8 Encore! F0830 20-pin microcontroller pins are used for the functions listed in Table 1. Table 1. Pin Function Descriptions
Pin No. 1 2 3 4 Pin Function PB1/ANA1 PB2/ANA2 PB3/CLKIN/ANA3 VDD PA0/T0IN/ T0OUT 5 /XIN Not Used Function Used ANA1 Input/Output/PWR Input Not Used Not Used PWR Function on Board Battery charger voltage sensing 3.3 V supply

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Pin No. 6 7 8, 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

Pin Function PA1/T0OUT/XOUT GND PA2, PA3 PA4 PA5 PA6/T1IN/ T1OUT PA7/T1OUT RESET /PD0 DBG PC0/ANA4/CINP/LED PC1/ANA5/CINN/LED PC2/ANA6/LED/VREF PC3/COUT/LED PB0/ANA0

Function Used PA2, PA3 PA4 PA5 T1OUT RESET DBG CINP PC2 ANA0

Input/Output/PWR Not Used PWR Input Input Output Not Used Output Input Input/Output Input Not Used Output Output Input

Function on Board GND Three-level speed setting Run/Break switch Charger ON/OFF control Output PWM to drive MOSFET connected to motor RESET DEBUG Current sense input for comparator LED LED Battery voltage sensing

The detailed descriptions below are reflected in the schematics in Appendix ASchematics on page 10.

Battery Charging Section

The output of a 110/230 V AC to 20 V DC, 1-A power adapter is connected to the input of the battery charger section. The battery charging section comprises the charging current limiting resistor, transistor to turn on/off the charging current, trickle charging resistor, and 14.4-V NiCd battery pack. The resistor across the transistor provides trickle charging current of C/40 to the battery, where C is the rated battery capacity in Ampere Hours (AH). The transistor switching is controlled by the Z8 Encore! F0830 microcontroller. The charging input voltage and the battery terminal voltage are attenuated to a voltage level acceptable by the ADC peripheral within the Z8 Encore! F0830 microcontroller. The attenuated voltage is connected to the respective pins of the microcontroller. The microcontroller monitors the attenuated charging voltage and battery voltage for charging the battery. The microcontroller measures the voltage slope of the battery every 32 s. When the batteries show a negative voltage slope (-dv/dt), the microcontroller turns off the charging transistor by making the GPIO pin low. This design accomplishes either battery charging or the drill motor control function at a time. It is not possible to run the motor when the batteries are charged and vice versa.

Controller Section
The controller section comprises of Z8 Encore! F0830 microcontroller operating at 5.5296 MHz using IPO. The power supply for the controller is derived from the battery or the charger input voltage. Battery voltage of 14.4 V and charger input voltage of 20 V are logically ORed using the diode and stepped down to 3.3 V. The

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stepped down voltage is achieved using a transistor and zener diode combination. The microcontroller is connected to a three-position switch for speed control of the DC motor. Based on the switch position, the PWM duty cycle is varied to achieve LowMediumHigh speed operation of the motor. A trigger switch (ON/OFF) to turn on/turn off the drill motor is connected to PA4. The LEDs to indicate battery and motor status are connected to PC2 and PC3 pins of the microcontroller respectively. The voltage developed across the current sensing resistor, when the current flows through it, is fed to the positive input of the on-chip comparator. When the voltage on the positive input of the comparator exceeds the on-chip reference voltage connected to the non-inverting input of the comparator, PWM stops. Every 10 ms, the PWM is initialized to check fault. If PWM is not started the motor status LED blinks to indicate motor fault/overload.

Power Electronic Drive

The power electronic drive unit consists of transistors to drive an IXYS highly efficient Trench Gate metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET), with ultralow Rds, connected to the low side of the supply voltage. The transistor drive stage forms a voltage level converter stage to drive the gate of the MOSFET with appropriate voltage. A switching frequency of 100 Hz gives a smooth variation of the motor speed. The MOSFET is switched at a frequency of 100 Hz. The source pin of the MOSFET is connected to the ground through a current sense resistor. The voltage drop across the current sense resistor is the input to the CINP pin of the microcontroller. The CINP pin is the input connected to the positive input of the comparator within the Z8 Encore! F0830 microcontroller. The negative input of the comparator is connected to the programmable internal reference voltage generated within Z8 Encore! F0830 microcontroller. The user interface consists of switch inputs for forwarding, stopping or breaking, and reversing the motor, setting the speed of the motor to LowMediumHigh. Two LEDs are provided for status indication of motor and battery.

Software Implementation
The motor control and battery charging software implementation procedures include the following sequences of events: 1. Initialize the comparator, timer 0, timer 1 PWM, ADC, WDT, and GPIO upon power up or external pin reset. 2. Read battery voltage and update the status flags reflecting the battery condition. 3. If the battery voltage is above or below the threshold limit, turn on the battery damage Flag and charge the battery for 60 seconds. 4. If the trigger switch is not pressed, continue to step 8. 5. If the trigger switch is pressed and the battery has sufficient charge, set the speed of the motor to the value set by the settings switch. 6. Continuously monitor for changes in the speed setting switch and trigger the switch release. 7. If the trigger switch is released or the battery is completely discharged, turn off the PWM. 8. If the battery is not completely charged and the charger voltage is present, turn on the charger. 9. Continuously monitor the battery status and trigger the switch press. 10. If the trigger switch is pressed, repeat step 5 through step 7. 11. If the charger voltage is not present or the battery is completely charged, turn OFF charger and enter the stop mode. 12. The stop mode is recovered when the WDT times out or the trigger switch is pressed.

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Testing
Test Setup
See the schematics in Appendix ASchematics on page 10 and the Test Procedure to connect the test circuit.

Equipment Used
The equipments used for testing consist of the following: 14.4 V DC operated Cordless hand-held drill/screwdriver 20 V, 1 A DC power supply Digital multi-meter Oscilloscope Serial/USB Smart Cable ZDS II installed PC with a USB/serial port to compile code and download the code to the target

Test Procedure
Follow these steps to test the Z8 Encore! F0830 microcontroller-based design: 1. Connect the circuit as displayed in the schematics in Appendix ASchematics on page 10. 2. Connect the 14.4-V battery to the circuit. 3. Connect a Serial/USB Smart Cable to the debug connector in the circuit and to the PC. 4. Open the Project file Motor_Control.zdsproj in the source folder of this application installation using the ZDS II Compiler, build the project, and download the code to the target device. 5. Disconnect the Smart Cable from the target device and recycle the power to the application. 6. Connect a multi-meter in series with the battery and the circuit to measure the motor current/battery charging current. 7. Connect an oscilloscope across the terminals of the motor. 8. Press and hold the RUN/STOP switch. 9. Observe the motor speed as it gradually increases up to the maximum speed set by the speed position switch. 10. Observe the waveforms on the oscilloscope. 11. Change the speed settings of the motor by changing the position of the speed setting slide switch. 12. Measure the speed and observe the waveforms for all of the speed settings.

Test Results
The results in the following table are obtained for various speed settings of the motor. Trigger Switch Position
Released Pressed Pressed Pressed

Speed Switch Position

Low Medium High

No Load Speed (RPM)

0 400 800 1150

Current (A)
0 2.00 2.90 3.20

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Cordless Drill Motor Control with Battery Charging Using Z8 Encore F0830 Reference Design

Figure 2. Starting and Operating Current of Motor with Speed Set to Minimum A load current of 5.6 A is utilized when drilling an aluminum sheet of 5-mm thickness. LED D6 lights up to indicate low battery when the battery voltage is at 13.8 V or lower. The system shuts down when the battery voltage reaches 12 V. Battery Charging Test Results The test results for battery charging are listed in Table 2. Table 2. Battery Charging Test Results Parameters
Battery type Battery voltage Ampere Hour rating

Value
Nickel Cadmium 14.4 V 1500 mAH

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Parameters
Charging type Charging current Charging time Charge termination Maximum battery voltage when charging completely discharged battery Trickle charging current Voltage of the battery when completely discharged using motor load

Value
Constant voltage 800 mA (initial, decreases with charging time) 2 hours (approximately for completely discharged battery pack) Negative voltage on battery terminals/constant time interval 18.2 V 40 mA 12 V

Summary
This reference design describes smooth speed control of a battery-operated drilling machine motor along with an in-built battery charger using low-cost Z8 Encore! F0830/F083A. This design has two LEDs that indicate various conditions like motor operation, motor overcurrent, battery charging, and low battery. This design also includes features like motor protection for overcurrent and short circuit, controlled NiCd battery charging. The advantages of this design over the existing cordless hand-held drives are that there is no need to plug the battery pack into a separate charger unit, and the smooth startup of the motor reduces high starting current of the motor.

References
The following documents associated with Z8 Encore! F0830 MCU or battery charger are available on www.zilog.com: Z8 Encore! F0830 Series Product Specification (PS0251) Z8 Encore! Based AA Type NiMH and NiCd Battery Charger Reference Design (AN0229) Z8 Encore! XP Based NiCd Battery Charger Application Note (AN0221)

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Appendix ASchematics
Figure 3 displays the implementation of the cordless drill motor control with battery charging using the Z8 Encore! F0830 Series MCU.

Figure 3. Cordless Drill Motor Control with Battery Charging Schematics

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Cordless Drill Motor Control with Battery Charging Using Z8 Encore F0830 Reference Design

Appendix BFlowcharts
This appendix contains the flowcharts of the main function and interrupts in the application of cordless drill motor control with battery charging using Z8 Encore! F0830. See Figure 4 through Figure 8 (page 14) for details.

Figure 4. Flowchart of Main Function

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Figure 5. Motor Control Algorithm

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Figure 6. Battery Charging Algorithm

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Figure 7. Comparators Interrupt

Figure 8. Timer0 Interrupt

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Appendix CBattery Technology

The four popular battery types (NiCd, NiMH, SLA, and Li-Ion) displays different charging and discharging characteristics. The battery life and performance mainly depends upon the battery charging mechanism. Therefore, batteries must be charged in a proper mechanism. Charging must be terminated when the battery is completely charged as overcharging of the battery invariably results in poor performance and can also damage the battery. Different batteries require different charge termination techniques as they behave differently when approaching the full charge state. While charging, batteries exhibit marked rise in voltage above the rated battery voltage. The NiCd and NiMH rechargeable battery types used in this reference design are briefly discussed below. Nickel Cadmium (NiCd) NiCd batteries are used in portable consumer equipments. The single-cell voltage for NiCd batteries is 1.2 V. These batteries are charged using the constant current charging method. While charging, as the voltage crosses the full charge point, the voltage gradually drops. This voltage drop is approximately 15 mV per cell in the battery. This voltage drop is recognized as full charge condition resulting in the termination of the charge. This termination mechanism is known as -dv/dt termination. The battery voltage rises to 1.65 V per cell during charging. The main disadvantage of the NiCd battery is that it must be discharged periodically to protect the performance. This phenomenon is known as memory effect. Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) NiMH batteries exhibit high power density compared to the NiCd batteries. The per cell voltage of the NiMH battery type is 1.2 V which is similar to NiCd batteries. NiMH batteries are charged with constant current charging method. While charging, the voltage drop is not as low compared to NiCd batteries.

Therefore, -dv/dt charge termination is not recommended. Instead of the drop in cell voltage, the battery tends to stabilize after a small drop. This flat region is the indication for full battery charging. This termination mechanism is known as zero dv/dt termination. NiMH batteries do not suffer with memory effect as compared to NiCd batteries. As a result, they replace NiCd batteries in devices such as cell phones. The increase in price is justified by the reduction in weight and absence of memory effect.

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Warning:

DO NOT USE IN LIFE SUPPORT

LIFE SUPPORT POLICY ZILOG'S PRODUCTS ARE NOT AUTHORIZED FOR USE AS CRITICAL COMPONENTS IN LIFE SUPPORT DEVICES OR SYSTEMS WITHOUT THE EXPRESS PRIOR WRITTEN APPROVAL OF THE PRESIDENT AND GENERAL COUNSEL OF ZILOG CORPORATION. As used herein Life support devices or systems are devices which (a) are intended for surgical implant into the body, or (b) support or sustain life and whose failure to perform when properly used in accordance with instructions for use provided in the labeling can be reasonably expected to result in a significant injury to the user. A critical component is any component in a life support device or system whose failure to perform can be reasonably expected to cause the failure of the life support device or system or to affect its safety or effectiveness.

Document Disclaimer 2010 by Zilog, Inc. All rights reserved. Information in this publication concerning the devices, applications, or technology described is intended to suggest possible uses and may be superseded. ZILOG, INC. DOES NOT ASSUME LIABILITY FOR OR PROVIDE A REPRESENTATION OF ACCURACY OF THE INFORMATION, DEVICES, OR TECHNOLOGY DESCRIBED IN THIS DOCUMENT. ZILOG ALSO DOES NOT ASSUME LIABILITY FOR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY INFRINGEMENT RELATED IN ANY MANNER TO USE OF INFORMATION, DEVICES, OR TECHNOLOGY DESCRIBED HEREIN OR OTHERWISE. The information contained within this document has been verified according to the general principles of electrical and mechanical engineering. Z8, Z8 Encore!, and Z8 Encore! XP are registered trademarks of Zilog, Inc. All other product or service names are the property of their respective owners.

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