User`s guide

1 - Introduction and project outline

The complexity of the power grid increases with its continuous expansion and the addition of

software controlled applications. These applications can be found in both loads and generators

– as well as surveillance units. In most cases strict demands regarding performance and speed

has to be fulfilled by the control scripts of these software applications. To develop the control

scripts, a user-friendly platform uniting a graphical user interface (GUI), host-target

communication and C-debugging, with the performance demands, is of great interest. The

prospect of the development platform being able to communicate with well-established

software tools such as Simulink and MATLAB is even better.

A lot of solutions are available that facilitate the road from idea to working application, and

some of them will be covered to some extent in this report – especially the eZdsp F2812 from

Spectrum Digital.

The Spectrum Digital eZdsp F2812 is well suited for power electronic applications – and

motor control in particular with its ADC-input and PWM-output.

1.1 - Outline of the report

First of all a quick comparison is made between some of the most common DSP (Digital

Signal Processor) alternatives that are on the market today. Factors such as cost and how easy

it is for the user to go from scratch to complete application are taken into account.

The hardware of the eZdsp F2812 is then reviewed in detail as well as some of its main

functions and features.

This is followed by a discussion regarding the software tools and their benefits, especially the

use of Simulink versus traditional programming – which has been the main focus of this

report. The main part of the software evaluation can be found in the appendix.

To evaluate the suitability of the board a simple algorithm is implemented. The model used

can be viewed as a relay with twin phasors, and calculates both amplitude as well as phase

angle of two external signals.

In order to get a view of the systems performance, a benchmark model is implemented and

measured upon.