BL Motor Evaluation program

[GriffinRU]

Originally Posted by BrianG

I like this new version! The addition of having motor data in an external file is nice! Great job.

OK, now for a couple of suggestions.

In the attached pic, there are two circled areas, "Note 1" and "Note 2".

Note 1: It looks like there is a little alignment issue where the column name over-writes the other column. Not a big deal, just wanted to point it out.

Note 2: The units are not shown. Most people know that torque is in oz-in, power is in watts, etc - but it may not be obvious to some. Maybe put the unit in parenthesis, or at the end of the output field? The units are displayed on the columns, so maybe that's good enough and I'm just being too picky. :)

Is it possible to add a pointer so that if you click somewhere on the x axis, it will display the values for the curves at that point? For example: Let's say I want to see exactly what power, current, and speed there is over a certain efficiency range. I would click somewhere on the efficiency curve and then some type of informational box would appear showing the values of the corresponding curves at that point on the x axis. Again, not a big deal - it would be just another neat feature.

Thanks again for this tool! It is looking very nice!

Thank You,

Note 1: -Weird, I will check, my computer doesn't do that.
Note 2: - I will add, I was worry about screen size.

Pointers - I am working on that...next update will be with more bells and...

Artur

P.S. Looking for more ideas and suggestions

[pinolelst]

Originally Posted by BrianG

It loaded fine for me.

It looks like the new version uses an excel file to store motor data. Do you have Microsoft Excel installed?

No but I have open office installed.Maybe I have to make it the default ?? Dunno Imma gonna give his fix a try.
thanks

pinolelst

edit: That fixed it for me.thanks

[GriffinRU]

Originally Posted by BrianG

Note 1: It looks like there is a little alignment issue where the column name over-writes the other column.

In program folder find BL_EVAL.ini file and change EnableAutoScales=False to EnableAutoScales=True. That should do the trick for this version.

Artur

[BrianG]

That did the trick! After playing with it, I noticed it only happened when I changed to a motor where the top number in the power column reached four digits.

I also played around with some of the other features.

Exporting to an image is neat, except the bitmap is black and white.

Found another bug (sorry). If you right click the graph, select "visible items", then select "scale items", a box comes up. If you move the mouse over the box, an error appears:

Fatal Internal Error: "panelsup.cpp", line 134
LabVIEW version 7.1.1
You will lose any unsaved work. For assistance in resolving this problem, please relaunch LabVIEW, or contact National Instruments.

An interesting thing I've noted. Max motor efficiency for XL motors is generally accepted as being at around 35k rpm. But, If I increase the voltage higher and higher, the efficiency increases and for a much wider/flatter range. However, the rpm for this is about 140k rpm and the power is on the high side at over 800w. I assume these graphs assume "ideal" magnets and super bearings? :)

[GriffinRU]

Originally Posted by BrianG

That did the trick! After playing with it, I noticed it only happened when I changed to a motor where the top number in the power column reached four digits.

I also played around with some of the other features.

Exporting to an image is neat, except the bitmap is black and white.

Found another bug (sorry). If you right click the graph, select "visible items", then select "scale items", a box comes up. If you move the mouse over the box, an error appears:



An interesting thing I've noted. Max motor efficiency for XL motors is generally accepted as being at around 35k rpm. But, If I increase the voltage higher and higher, the efficiency increases and for a much wider/flatter range. However, the rpm for this is about 140k rpm and the power is on the high side at over 800w. I assume these graphs assume "ideal" magnets and super bearings? :)

I will try to fix that bug.

Do you want color printscreen feature, if yes then what area?

Brian, you need to be within the power envelope of the motor. With higher voltage you will get higher efficiency but you will also need to calculate losses on inertia, right now I am not taking this in calculation (there is a column in template for that for future) and that is why you can see high numbers. And yes this is close to ideal motor model.
Inside program limited to 150000 RPM as maximum, which is more then adequate for calculations, but in real world getting more then 50k is less practical.

Nominal Voltage for motor selected from database or calculated based on V = 35000/Kv plus rounding to high multiple of 1.2V.

Artur

[BrianG]

I'm not sure how important the bug is. I'm not even sure what that was, and it's not like it's a "needed" feature. :)

A color printscreen could be a neat feature. It would be a little easier than doing the Alt-PrtScr thing and then pasting it in some type of graphical editor. As to what area? I'm not sure - the whole window I guess? Whatever would make sense I suppose...

Yeah, I knew that I was going far outside the specs of a motor, I just thought it was interesting. Just playing around, ya know? :)

[GriffinRU]

Does anybody knows no load current for Novak motors?

And what is going on with SS5800 and SS4300 old and new generation, they have different kv numbers. NOVAK put motors spec on their web but forgot to put the most important parameters :)

NOVAK is weird with their specs, they do not make sense.

Very nice program. Thank you.

One issue I had running it. When I run it on a laptop with a 17 inch, 1920x1200 display with the font set to 120dpi the numbers on the right hand side are all too big for their boxes and get cropped off...can't see them. It probably works fine when using a Windows default 96dpi. You might want to increase the size of the boxes on the right so it works with higher dpis.

[GriffinRU]

Originally Posted by Disaster

Very nice program. Thank you.

One issue I had running it. When I run it on a laptop with a 17 inch, 1920x1200 display with the font set to 120dpi the numbers on the right hand side are all too big for their boxes and get cropped off...can't see them. It probably works fine when using a Windows default 96dpi. You might want to increase the size of the boxes on the right so it works with higher dpis.

Thank you for feedback, I will check this, and correct this behavior.

[BrianG]

So, when is the program going from Alpha to Beta? :)

[GriffinRU]

Originally Posted by BrianG

So, when is the program going from Alpha to Beta? :)

Once major bugs are gone :)

By the way how you would like to compare motors? Plot two motors against each other?

[BrianG]

That would be a VERY nice feature! I would keep the colors the same, but make motor #2 bold. Meaning; both efficiency curves would be black, but motor #1 would be a thin line and motor #2 would be noticeably thicker. Of course, you might want to remove the options to change the line style if you do this.

[GriffinRU]

Originally Posted by BrianG

That would be a VERY nice feature! I would keep the colors the same, but make motor #2 bold. Meaning; both efficiency curves would be black, but motor #1 would be a thin line and motor #2 would be noticeably thicker. Of course, you might want to remove the options to change the line style if you do this.

Ok, I will add another floating window where you can see comparison, while other one will be on background.

[GriffinRU]

Originally Posted by pinolelst

I just installed the updated version and get this error message,I deleted the previous versions folder prior to installing the new version if that helps.
thanks in advance
Steve

Finally nailed this one, it is related to MS Office version. I wrote program under office XP if you have MS Office earlier version then you will get this error. I am working on resolving this issue.

[GriffinRU]

Originally Posted by BrianG

Found another bug (sorry). If you right click the graph, select "visible items", then select "scale items", a box comes up. If you move the mouse over the box, an error appears:



:)

Found solution for this one as well. Updated version will be available next week.