What is the best way to control two DC motors with the TMS320C6713 DSK?

I am working on a project for school using the TMS320C6713 DSK. We need
to control two DC motors and both motors need to go forward, stop, or
reverse. We plan to use a pair of H-bridges so this will require four
DC signals from the DSK. Our team has gone through the tech refs and
talked to TAs and our professor, but we are still not sure how to get
these DC control signals from the DSK. Two solutions we have thought of
are as follows:

1) Perhaps we could tap into the 4 LEDs and use them as the base for a
MOSFET.
2) Maybe we could run wires from the slots for peripheral devices.

Maybe I'm wrong but these solutions seem like rigs to me and I would be
really surprised if there isn't a better way to get some DC signals,
like maybe a peripheral card that plugs into the DSK or maybe even a
feature of the DSK itself that I am overlooking.

Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time.

Damon Bohls Start a New Thread

Damon-

> I am working on a project for school using the TMS320C6713 DSK. We need
> to control two DC motors and both motors need to go forward, stop, or
> reverse. We plan to use a pair of H-bridges so this will require four
> DC signals from the DSK. Our team has gone through the tech refs and
> talked to TAs and our professor, but we are still not sure how to get
> these DC control signals from the DSK. Two solutions we have thought of
> are as follows:
>
> 1) Perhaps we could tap into the 4 LEDs and use them as the base for a
> MOSFET.
> 2) Maybe we could run wires from the slots for peripheral devices.
>
> Maybe I'm wrong but these solutions seem like rigs to me and I would be
> really surprised if there isn't a better way to get some DC signals,
> like maybe a peripheral card that plugs into the DSK or maybe even a
> feature of the DSK itself that I am overlooking.
>
> Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time.

Suggest to look for GPIO signals on the daughtercard (expansion) connections. The McBSP signals can also be defined
as GPIO (see C6000 series McBSP reference guide).

This is not a "rig" by any stretch. Using the expansion headers is acceptable and expected -- just because you're not
plugging a slick off-the-shelf daughtercard on there doesn't mean that conceptually you're not doing the same thing.
To make it look better, get some mating connectors from Samsung and either use a piece of small proto board and/or
some ribbon cable.

Jacking the LEDs is not a good idea as you may need those to show DSP code state/status. They can be very useful
during debug.

Also, suggest to be careful of GPIO signal level. The header signals are buffered and should have decent drive, maybe
8 to 12 mA, at 3.3V. You could probably drive 5V inputs, but under no circumstances should you do that the opposite
way and drive the DSP signals with 5V.

-Jeff Start a New Thread

Damon,

I'm have not used the 6713, so I do not know all of its' details.

However, every TI device that I have worked with has GPIO.
(thats' discrete I/O)

Initialize 4 bits for output operation and for discrete I/O (rather than for
device I/O)
then set the bits to zero or one(5 volts) as needed for your project.

R. Williams

---------- Original Message -----------
From: "damon_bohls"
To: c...
Sent: Sat, 07 Apr 2007 18:20:15 -0000
Subject: [c6x] What is the best way to control two DC motors with the
TMS320C6713 DSK?

> I am working on a project for school using the TMS320C6713 DSK. We
> need to control two DC motors and both motors need to go forward,
> stop, or reverse. We plan to use a pair of H-bridges so this will
> require four DC signals from the DSK. Our team has gone through the
> tech refs and talked to TAs and our professor, but we are still not
> sure how to get these DC control signals from the DSK. Two solutions
> we have thought of are as follows:
>
> 1) Perhaps we could tap into the 4 LEDs and use them as the base for
> a MOSFET. 2) Maybe we could run wires from the slots for peripheral devices.
>
> Maybe I'm wrong but these solutions seem like rigs to me and I would
> be really surprised if there isn't a better way to get some DC
> signals, like maybe a peripheral card that plugs into the DSK or
> maybe even a feature of the DSK itself that I am overlooking.
>
> Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time.
>
> Damon Bohls
------- End of Original Message ------- Start a New Thread