Getting started with the AEK-MCU-C4MINI1 MCU and motor control evaluation
board based on the Chorus SPC58EC80E5 automotive microcontroller
Introduction
Several key trends are promoting a change in the way vehicles are designed and built. The number of electronic control units
(ECUs) in a vehicle is growing, creating complexity in the wiring needed for power and data distribution. At the same time,
electrical power requirements are evolving to enable greater electrification, towards hybrid and full battery electric vehicles.
The automotive sector natural evolution is represented by new domain and zone architectures. The first one, based on domain
controllers, is related to coordination and consolidation of functional domains, such as body domain, powertrain domain, and
ADAS domain, while the second one, based on zone controllers, aims at reducing the complexity of the wiring harness and
thereby vehicle weight and cost.
Zone controllers are hubs for power distribution and data connection requirements for sensors, peripherals, and actuators,
within a physical section of the vehicle. A mix of both architectural approaches is also envisaged.
Our new
AEK-MCU-C4MINI1
domain/zone controller. It can also be used as an automotive gateway and general purpose automotive MCU board.
Indeed, our board provides more than a standard MCU board features. Leveraging on a user-friendly interface, it allows ECU
fast prototyping with basic motor control drives included.
The
AEK-MCU-C4MINI1
is designed to address Automotive and Transportation applications as well as other applications
requiring automotive safety and security levels. A cryptography MCU core, employed as hardware secure module (HSM), is
paired with dual 180 MHz general-purpose 32-bit cores, all hosted by the on board SPC58EC80E5 MCU, featuring a total of 4
MB of flash memory.
The board layout has been conceived to speed up the user development offering an easy prototyping evaluation tool.
Despite several connection possibilities due to the MCU numerous peripherals, the user-friendly interface facilitates the
interconnection of pre-configured and pin pre-mapped peripherals.
The general-purpose and serial connectors have been standardized and grouped by peripheral function types.
The MCU peripherals are extended with the VNH7040AY embedded H-bridge motor driver for DC motor control, featuring
advanced diagnostic features (short-to-ground, short-to-battery, and open load conditions). The board has a dedicated supply
capacity for an external 5 V or 3.3 V load with maximum current capability of 2.75 A.
The
AEK-MCU-C4MINI1
allows plugging an
purposes, such as monitoring the motor current, printing serial data, or for hardware debugging, without the need of connecting
any PC terminal console. For this LCD board, two connectors are provided on the board, one on the top and one on the bottom.
The two connectors shall not be connected and used at the same time.
The top connection facilitates the debugging phase (for example, when testing signal connections and data exchange), while
the bottom one reduces the total occupied space by the two boards, making it the preferred choice for deployment purposes.
The MCU ADC reference voltage is provided by a stable linear voltage regulator (LDO) embedded in the L5963 IC.
The board hosts an OpenOCD debugger/programmer, several MCU peripheral connectors as well as various general-purpose
buttons and LEDs.
For system reset during the development phase, a reset button was added to the board layout. In addition, a reverse battery
protection circuit has been integrated for higher safety.
Warning:
The
AEK-MCU-C4MINI1
laboratory use only.
UM3350 - Rev 1 - June 2024
For further information contact your local STMicroelectronics sales office.
MCU and DC motor control evaluation board fits well in this framework, as it can be exploited as a
AEK-LCD-DT028V1
evaluation board has not to be used in a vehicle as it is designed for R&D
touch display board for multiple application and debug
UM3350
User manual
www.st.com
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