Tesla motor controller

[rick-l]

Does any one have any links to papers or articles that describe the controller for the AC induction motor in the Tesla S? Or for that matter the Volt?

I am working on field oriented control for a Brush less DC motor along with induction motors and out of curiosity wanted to see what was involved with an induction motor for a car.

15 pages of a Google search gives you a lot of general stuff but nothing specific about the control schemes.

[Flieger]

I highly doubt that Tesla would make that available.

You just vary the frequency of the synthetic sine wave to control speed, and voltage for power, right?

[rick-l]

Pretty much it.

Know the rotor RPM and rotate the magnetic field around to get current to flow in the rotor and produce torque.

Now the details. How do they model the current in the rotor? What Pulse width modulation scheme for the 3-Phase? How do they vary slip at high speed?

[Flieger]

Originally Posted by rick-l

Pretty much it.

Know the rotor RPM and rotate the magnetic field around to get current to flow in the rotor and produce torque.

Now the details. How do they model the current in the rotor? What Pulse width modulation scheme for the 3-Phase? How do they vary slip at high speed?

That is going to be their proprietary information. They aren't going to share it unless you work for them.

[bell]

Take a look into some of the r/c brushless motor controllers......same thing only on a smaller scale......
Castle creations make some very powerful stuff.....

[rick-l]

Porsche, Ferrari, Tesla and I'm not sure about the Volt are all induction motors. The advantage, aside from being cheaper with no rare earth magnet is that you can control the magnetic field in the rotor by limiting the current (slip) and reduce losses when less than peak torque is needed.

[Flieger]

No back EMF, ability to shift peak power from stall to higher rpm by manipulating rotor resistance (or was it inductance?).