Controls System Set-up Guide

Basic Set-up

1. If setting up for the car, mount the motor according to Body’s instructions. If setting up for the test-rig, mount the motor on the test bench with the motor spatula. 

2. If using the display: Connect the display to UART3 (J5, labeled “minion” at bottom of board) using breakout cable (will also have a connection to the lighting board). 

 

Leaderboard Full Board - J5 Minion 

 

Leaderboard Zoomed In – J5 Minion 

 

3. If using the lighting board: Connect the lighting board to the leaderboard using the same cable and switches/lights 

 

(Note: lighting board may not look exactly like the image) 

GND 

5V 

Cruise Set SW 

Cruise EnableSW 

Reverse SW 

Forward SW 

Regen SW 

Brakelight 

Extra Conn 

Leaderboard Connector (J1 on the bottom of the Lighting Board, 1x9) Diagram: 
 

Minion Connector (J5 on Leaderboard, 2x5) Diagram: 

  • Connections (Leaderboard -> Lighting Board) using single wires 
    • Extra GPIO Connector (J24 on Leaderboard)
    • PB4->CRUZ_ST
    • PB5->BRAKELIGHT 
  • All other switches and lights necessary should be wired to their appropriate ports on the lighting board, as seen in the diagram above. 
  • Some internal lights are now deprecated as the display is used to indicate car state.

4. If using CarCAN, Connect Car CAN wires (on leaderboard)

  • J21 and J22 
  • From top to bottom, 1st pin is 5V, 2nd pin is GND, 3rd pin is CAN HIGH, 4th pin is CAN LOW 

 

  • CAN_IN will connect to BPS or Telemetry, same for CAN_OUT (exact order to be determined)

 5. Connect Motor CAN wires

  • Connector Type TE_4-2172079-2
  • Will connect to Tritium WaveSculptor Motor Controller using single wires (connector being made)
  • On the leaderboard, look at the back of the Motor CAN connector at the top of the board to match the pins to the KiCAD image 
  • Using single wires, connect the leaderboard to either CAN port on the motor controller using the below diagram (skipping the two shield pins) 

 

 

6. Connect the brake and pedal lines from the sim-board or pedals to the leaderboard. (J10 and J11, using the 3x2 molex connectors) 

 

 

  • Use 3x2 Molex connectors with only 3x1 wires connected (due to only using 1 of the 2 potentiometers for brake and accel)

7. Connect the ignition lines from the sim-board/ignition switch to the leaderboard using the 7x2 Molex connector.

8. Connect micro-USB port to laptop to view UART output (print statements, necessary for some automated tests) 

9. Connect debug wires (4) between Leaderboard and programmer 

  • We have an STM32 Nucleo board whose only purpose is to flash and debug code to the leaderboard. 
  • Note: Normally, the Nucleo's programmer is wired to the Nucleo board itself. Thus, it is necessary to remove the pair of jumpers on the Nucleo board programmer to use it for an external chip. Picture of the jumpers to remove are shown below. 

 

To connect the JTAG connections on the nucleo's programmer to the leaderboard, follow the pictures below. Starting from the top of the nucleo board, pin 1 is VCC, pin 2 SCK, pin 3 is GND, and pin 4 is SWO. 

  • Connect the Nucleo’s micro-USB port to laptop (debugger control)

10. If contactors are needed for the testbench, connect the array-bypass and motor-bypass contactors to the leaderboard using the contactors board. 

Contactor driver board 

  • On the contactors board: 
    • The array-bypass and motor-bypass contactors should have connectors that directly plug into each of the connections shown below: 
    •  
  • Use jumper wires to connect the contactor board to the leader board and to 12V/GND
    • Contactor board connections (refer to images below):
      • Motor P.B.C. EN/GND -> Motor P.B.C. EN/GND
      • Array P.B.C. EN/GND -> Array P.B.C. EN/GND
      • Contactor board 12V/GND -> Power supply 12V/GN 
      • Sidenote: The motor contactor connector we use for the motor precharge bypass contactor is actually M_CNCTR (U9) in the schematic, not M_PRCHG 
      • The array-bypass contactor is operated by pins 3 (+) and 4 (-) on J13
      • The motor-bypass contactor is operated by pins 1 (+) and 2 (-) on J12

11. The Controls Leader Board Power Connector (J9) needs to be connected to the BPS Power Connector (J7) in order to have supplemental power.  

12. Additionally, the Controls Leader Board Power Connector (J7) needs to be connected to the BPS Power Connector (J7) in order to allow the ignition switch to actually work. If BPS is being hooked up, this should go to BPS as this is essentially how BPS is powered (once the ignition switch is turned, 12V is let through to BPS). However, this step can be disregarded if not hooking up to BPS board.

  •  Both can be connected to 12V if testing without BPS.

 

Leaderboard Full Board – J7 BPS Power Connector 

13. Set the ignition switch position to “Off” (position 6)

  • (Note: the ignition switch will appear to be in the same place as the labels, slightly above the via to which it is connected) 

 14. Connect the forward gear pin to 5V so that the motor will be in forward gear. This is done to move from the Neutral Normal Drive to the Forward Normal Drive. (Refer to state machine for more information regarding the state of drive when initially turned on). 

  • PA5, which is CLK pin on SPI (Right above minions pins) 
  • DO NOT connect this to 5V on PSU 24 pin connector 5V!
    • Get the 5V from the same 5V for the display. This can be done by using the breadboard. 

 15. If you're using a power supply (PSU for computers), you can find the 24 pin connector on the PSU and use the +12V and GND from there to power the leader board. This would be pin 11 (+12V) and pin 24 (GND). We would also need to pull PS-ON to GND for the power supply to turn on. We can short pin 3 (GND) and pin 16 (PS-ON) to do this. See pictures below 

  • Connect power to Leaderboard, contactors board, and lighting board.
  • Leaderboard power connector (J18)

 

16. Turn on power to the board.  

Motor Testbench Basic Configuration Instructions 

  1. Hook up high voltage: motor connectors A, B, and C should be connected to the corresponding A, B, and C connectors of the motor controller. Make sure the connectors audibly click and are held securely. 
  2. Set up the high voltage power supply: the lab bench power supplies at Pickle can supply over 100V at 1A, which is enough for spinning the motor with no load. Set the supply to 12V and then turn it off. Connect DC- to ground. Leave the power supply off for now! 
  3. Hook up the interface board to the motor controller using the 7x2 Molex connector (this should include three pairs of wires for the hall effect sensors, two grounds, 5V, 12V, differential RX pair, and two wires for shielding).
  4. Hook up the interface board to the motor using the 3x2 Molex connector attached to the motor (this should be the three pairs of wires for the hall effect sensors). Note: the 1x2 molex is for a temperature sensor that will be included in the future
  5. If not already done during the first section, hook up CAN connector to motor controller. This will either come from the leaderboard or from a CAN bridge connected to a laptop.
  6. 12V power is supplied to the motor controller via the CAN bus. After reverifying connections, turn it on and watch for the green LED from within the motor controller frame. 

Motor Testbench – Profinity Configuration (if controlling the motor using a laptop)


 

  1. Plug the CAN bridge to a laptop and check that the Profinity software recognizes the motor controller. If this is the first time hooking up to the laptop, add the CAN adapters and motor controller to the profile.
  2. Turn the high-voltage power supply on (it should start around 15-20V). Check the main bus voltage reading on the Profinity dashboard and ensure that it’s roughly consistent with the power supply readout. (Insert picture here) 
  3. Slowly increase the input voltage, watching the readout to make sure it tracks. Stop at nominal voltage, around 96V. (Insert picture here)
  4. Right-click on “WaveSculptor22” under Profile, and select “Setup and Configuration”
  5. Ensure that there are no errors (check for the green square at the bottom and that there are no orange or square rectangles anywhere)
  6. Set the motor velocity (middle slider) to an unattainable value (1600 RPM is enough but setting it to the max value is fine too). This ensures that the motor controller will always attempt to use the full available current to drive the motor, and no regen braking can take place.
  7. Slowly increase the current setpoint. An audible hum will be heard, but the motor won’t start spinning until 30-40%. You may increase this value up to 100%.
  8. Avoid exceeding about 15 m/s, as the rig holding the motor may begin to shake
  9. To slow down the motor, decrease the current setpoint. Do not modify the motor velocity slider while the current setpoint is nonzero!
  10. To stop the motor, set the current setpoint to zero. Only after this is done, set the motor velocity to zero. Let the motor spin freely until it stops due to friction 

 Motor Controller Testbench – Leaderboard Configuration (if running the motor using the leaderboard) 

  1. Set up the Leaderboard: hook up the motor CAN connector (type TE_4-2172079-2 connector at the top of the board) to the motor controller, hook up the CAN terminator (3x2 Molex connector with resistor soldered in), and hook up the main power connector to 12V. These are the only strictly necessary connections, specific tests might require more 
  2. Turn the 12V power supply on (both the motor controller and Leaderboard should be on) 
  3. Turn the high-voltage power supply on (it should start around 15-20V) 
  4. Slowly increase the input voltage. Stop at nominal voltage, around 96V. (Insert picture here) 
  5. Tests running on the testbench need to ensure that no regen braking will take place. This is usually done by hardcoding the velocity sent to the motor as some unattainable value (say 20,000 RPM) 
  6. If anything seems off, turning off the 12V power supply to the motor controller will immediately cut off power to the motor