16th International Power Electronics and Motion Control Conference and Exposition Antalya, Turkey 21-24 Sept 2014

Microcontroller Based PMDC Motor Control

for Driving 0.5KW Scooter
Mohamed Y. Tarnini
Department of Electrical Engineering
Beirut Arab University
Al-Debieh – Lebanon
m.tarnini@bau.edu.lb

Abstract— In the recent years, the use of clean energy to reduce the various combinations of shunt, series, and separately
pollution and hence to save the environment is an urgent need to excited field windings they can be designed to display a wide
keep the communities against the dangers that began to show variety of the volt-ampere or speed-torque characteristics for
with huge negative consequences. This paper illustrates with full both dynamic and steady state operation systems. DC motors
details how to built DC scooter which can be used with solar cells have been frequently used in applications requiring a wide
to charge the DC batteries used to drive the scooter safely, range of motor speeds or precise control of motor output .In
economically and with negligible environmental effects. The old recent years, solid state driving technology has developed
variable speed drives, had various limitations, such as poor
efficiencies, larger space, lower speeds, etc., however, the
sufficiently and used to replace the old control systems of new
development of power electronic devices such as power DC motor control applications.
MOSFETs, IGBTs beside Micro-Controllers, overturned the
scene completely, today we can built a variable speed drive
systems with better comparable characteristics such as smaller in II. PMDC MOTOR CONTROL
size, higher efficiency, more reliable and meeting all demands
requirements for modern control applications. The aim of this
A PMDC motor is similar to an ordinary D.C. shunt
paper is to drive a scooter, by using a Permanent Magnet DC
Motor (PMDC), by using PIC16F877 microcontroller to produce motor except that its field is provided by permanent magnets
variable duty cycle pulse width modulation PWM through up instead of salient-pole wound-field structure. Fig.1 shows the
and down button to increase or decrease the speed with less- equivalent circuit of PMDC motor.
losses and with very low price. Also we intend to control the
mechanical speed, starting, braking, and 4-Quadrant directions
of the used PMDC motor safely and economically to increase the
half life of the battery used and to increase the working time
compared by other type of traditional controlled scooters. Also
we explain the starting of the scooter with and without starting
resistors to decrease the losses more and more.

Keywords—PMDC motor; electric drives; PWM

Fig. 1 Permanent magnet DC motor circuit diagram

I. INTRODUCTION PMDC motor has some advantages over other types of dc

Today’s industries are increasingly demanding of DC
and AC motor drives in all sectors. Modern drives results into
better quality, increased production and reduced costs [1]. The
variable speed drives, which can control the speed of AC and
DC motors, are indispensable controlling elements in
automation systems. Depending on the applications, some of
them are fixed speed and some of the variable speed drives,
Direct currents DC motors have been used in variable speed
drives for a long time. The versatile characteristics of DC
motors can provide high starting torques which is required for
traction drives such as in scooter application. Control over a
wide speed range, both below and above the rated speed can
be easily achieved. The methods of speed control are simpler
and less expensive than those of AC motors [2]. By means of
motors, such as this motor does not have field winding. So
there is no need for excitation current. Since field excitation
current is not required, the efficiency of these motors is
generally higher than that of the wound-field motors. Also, the
absence of field winding leads to space saving so PMDC
motor is smaller in size compared by other types of DC
motors. The Low-voltage PMDC motors produce less air noise
compared by other types of DC motors [3].
The disadvantage points can be summarized by the limitation
of flux density produced in the air gap and by the
demagnetizing effect produced by the armature reaction MMF
causing the motor to become inoperative. Demagnetization
can result from improper design, excessive armature current

‹,(((

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16th International Power Electronics and Motion Control Conference and Exposition Antalya, Turkey 21-24 Sept 2014

caused by a fault or transient or improper connection in the Ȧ (r/s)

armature circuit, improper brush shift and temperature effect. Ȧ 01

Ȧ 02
III. PMDC SPEED CONTROL THEORY
Ȧ 03
Since PMDC motor is similar to an ordinary D.C. shunt
motor except that its field is provided by permanent magnets T (N.m)
instead of salient-pole wound-field structure. Then the only
speed control method that can be used is armature voltage
Fig. 3 Torque speed at different voltage.
control method either by using variable resistor at its armature
or using power electronic devices for developing variable
A. Starting of PMDC Motor
voltage across its armature. The two basic equations that are
common between all types of dc motor are [4]:
In practice, a starting resistor is made up of a series of
ࡱ ൌ ࡷ ‫࣓ כ ࣐ כ‬ሺ૚ሻ resistors that can be successively removed from the circuit as
ࢀ ൌ ࡷ ‫࡭ࡵ כ ࣐ כ‬ሺ૛ሻ the motor speeds up. As the motor speeds up, an internal back
emf Ea is generated. When the current falls to the rated value,
IA = armature current (amps) a section of the starting resistor is going out by means of
ĭ = field flux per pole (Weber) timers and relays to increase the value of the starting current.
E = developed back E.M.F voltage (volts) This process is repeated until the entire starting resistors are
Ȧ =angular speed of dc motor (rad/sec) removed. At this point, the only motor’s armature resistance
K = constant that relates to construction of dc motor will limit the current safely. Fig. 4 shows a cycle which
T = induced torque (N.m) repeats itself until motor can withstand the flow current by
Ra =armature resistance (Ÿ) itself. Also it shows a cycle corresponds to change in value of
From (1) and (2) we can deduce a relation between speed and E - I as function of time each time resistor exist from the bank
torque of the DC motor as in the following equation 3: of resistors. Fig. 5 shows circuit diagram where banks of
resistors in series with armature resistance are used and each
ࡱ ࢂିࡵࢇ‫ࢇࡾכ‬ ࢂ ࢀ‫ࢇࡾכ‬ time one of them is eliminated by means of relays.
࣓ൌ ൌ ቀ ቁ ൌ െ ሺࡷ‫࣐כ‬ሻ૛ ൌ ࣓૙ െ ο࣓ሺ૜ሻ
ࡷ‫࣐כ‬ ࡷ‫࣐כ‬ ࡷ‫࣐כ‬

Ȧo = the no load angular speed

¨Ȧ = the variation of angular speed
We conclude that the no-load speed depend on V and ij But
overall speed depends on V and Ra. From equation (3) we will
describe the methods of speed control of shunt dc motor or
PMDC motor. Ra and If are kept constant and the armature
terminal voltage is varied to change the motor speed. From Fig.4 Variation of armature current with time
equation (3) we get:

࣓ ൌ ࡷ૚ ‫ࡷ ࢂ כ‬૛ ‫ࢀ כ‬

Ȧ (r/s)

Fig. 5 Starting resistors and relays circuit

B. Electric Regenerative Braking

V (volt)
Fig. 2 Speed Voltage characteristics
Fig. 2 shows the speed- voltage characteristics of the PMDC
motor at different torque values. Fig. 3 shows the speed-
Torque characteristics of PMDC motor at different armature
voltages in steady state case.
A motor and its load may be brought to rest quickly by using
either, friction braking or electric braking like rheostatic
braking, plugging torque braking or regenerative braking and
in this case the braking energy transformed to the battery
performing a charging process during the interval time of
braking. In this case Regenerative braking takes place when
the generated energy is supplied to the source and E > V then
Ia <0 which means that the motor acts as generator. As the

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16th International Power Electronics and Motion Control Conference and Exposition Antalya, Turkey 21-24 Sept 2014

field flux cannot be increased beyond a rated value, so maximum speed. For the ratio of 1:3, the average output
regenerative braking is possible only when the speed of motor voltage of this signal is just 3v, so the motor runs at 1/4 of its
is higher than the rated value. The speed torque characteristic maximum speed.
is shown in Fig. 3. When regenerative braking occurs, the
terminal voltage rises and as a result the source is relieved
from supplying this amount of power. This is the reason why
loads are connected across the circuit. So, it is clear that
regenerative braking should be used only when there are
enough loads to absorb the regenerative power. Fig. 6 shows
regenerative braking circuit using PWM technique to drive the
MOSFET element

Fig.6 Regenerative braking circuit Fig. 8 Different duty cycle input

C. Principle of Simple Speed Control Theory of PMDC

Motor Using PWM technique
IV. MOTOR DRIVE USING PIC-
MICROCONTROLLER 16F877A
The average voltage received by the motor of Fig. 7
during any duty cycle D is Vav = D.Vcc where Vcc is the supply
Fig. 9 shows forward driving of DC Motor using power
voltage from the given battery applied across the motor
MOSFET which is derived from PIC16F877A-
armature. First, we can write an assembly program to generate
Microcontroller [5] through Opto-coupler.
PWM with a frequency of 1 kHz or any other greater values
with a duty cycle of 50% then we connect this signal to the
motor driver.
The major reason for using PWM is to avoid the excessive
heat dissipation in linear power amplifiers. The heat
dissipation problem often results in large heat sinks and
sometimes forced cooling part. PWM amplifiers greatly
reduce this problem because of their much higher power
conversion efficiency. Moreover the input signal to PWM
driver may be directly derived from any digital system without
the need of any digital to analog D/A converters. We can vary
the voltage across the motor by varying the duty D of the
given PWM.

Fig. 10 Driving circuit using PIC 16F877A

The full load current in the forward driving of the given DC

motor is 18A and the full voltage is 36v for this reason we
select IRFP140 N-CHANNEL power MOSFET.
In our prototype there are three switches connected to port D
(D0, D1, and D2) of PIC16F877A.When switch is open the
port maintains logic high (5V) else the port maintains logic
low (0V). When any switch is depressed then:
Fig. 7 Motor speed control using PWM technique - Switch at port D0 responsible for increasing speed of
PMDC Motor
For example: in Fig. 8 the signal has a mark space ratio of - Switch at port D1 responsible for decreasing speed of
1:1.with the signal at 12v for 50% of the time, the average PMDC Motor
voltage is 6v, so the motor runs at half its maximum speed. - Switch at port D2 responsible for regenerative
And in the signal of mark space ratio of 3:1.which means that braking of PMDC Motor
the output is at 12v for 75% of the time. This clearly gives an
average output voltage of 9v, so the motor runs at 3/ 4 of its

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16th International Power Electronics and Motion Control Conference and Exposition Antalya, Turkey 21-24 Sept 2014

A. Functioning of control and the whole block diagram And if the speed is at rated speed, Green LED is turned ON

2) Starting circuit

Based on our motor the rated current Irated =18A and

Fig. 11 Total block diagram
starting current =5Irated after calculation done by using [6] we
found that we should insert two power resistors, R1= 0.5Ÿ and
R2 = 0.25Ÿ. At duty= 135, the PIC will send a signal to short
the first resistor R1, at duty= 214 the second resistor will be
short circuited. Fig. 13 shows how the starting circuit works.
The MOSFETs which are circled by dashed circles have the
role of selection. When the upper MOSFET is ON then both
resistors and motor are active. If the upper MOSFET is off and
the middle one is ON, then R1 and motor are active. If only the
lower MOSFET is ON then both resistors are short circuited
and the motor is active. PIC will perform table (1) according
to the selected duty.

The overall block diagram of Fig. 11 describes the full control Table (1) the logical ordering of PIC for starting circuit and forward driving of
dc motor
and power circuit of the proposed system. It consists of three
Duty Upper Middle Lower Active
main parts MOSFET MOSFET MOSFET
1) Speed Control
2) Starting circuit 0 1 0 0 R1,R2,Motor
3) Regenerative Braking
135 0 1 0 R2,Motor
The armature current is given by
ࢂିࡱ 214 0 0 1 Motor
ࡵࢇ ൌ  ࡾࢇ     
Since the armature resistance is very small and at starting E is
0, then the current is approximately 5 times the rated current.
To limit the high current we can increase the voltage step by
step using variable supply. Or another technique is by
inserting starting resistors. In this way we are controlling the
speed of the motor too.

1) Speed control

In order to control the speed of the motor we should

control the voltage applied on it. From equation (1) when the
applied voltage V increases, E will increase too, and hence Ȧ
also increases. In the proposed system we vary the voltage D
applied on the motor by PWM technique. We can control the
width of the PWM by using programmed PIC16f877A, as
shown in figure 10. The PWM is generated at pin17. “Up”
button is used to increase the PWM and “Down” button is
used to decrease the PWM. The speed is proportion to duty D.
If the speed is greater than 0, Red LED is turned ON. If the
speed is greater than the half of rated speed, Yellow LED is 
turned ON. Fig. 13 Starting circuit of dc motor using 2 bank of starting resistors

Fig. 12 LED responds to PIC
3) Regenerative braking
The purpose of the regenerative braking is to return the
kinetic energy on the motor into the DC source [7] (Batteries
must be rechargeable) when the brake button is pressed to stop
the motor a MOSFET and a diode will be introduced to restrict
the battery from sending energy, in the following way: the
MOSFET is initially ON. When the brake button is pressed the
MOSFET will turn OFF. Then the battery won’t send any
energy to the motor because of the diode. Another MOSFET is

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16th International Power Electronics and Motion Control Conference and Exposition
inserted to connect the motor second terminal to the ground
when the brake button is pressed MOSFET Q8 is initially
inactive and when the regenerative circuit is activated via the
brake button, it turns ON. Then MOSFET Q8 is in opposite
operation with MOSFET Q7. Therefore Q7 will get its Gate
input from the PIC, and Q8 will get its Gate signal also from
the same pin via “NOT” gate as shown in Fig. 14

Fig. 14 Regenerative braking of PMDC motor with not gate
However the motor will never generate any power into the
battery unless the back emf E of the motor is bigger than the
average voltage applied on the motor terminals V [8]. In order
to reduce the average voltage of the motor we use boost
chopper circuit to have an average voltage equal to the battery
voltage multiplied by a factor (1-k) where k is the duty of the
second PWM. When the brake button is pressed D6, the LED
connected in series with Q8 the MOSFET which is playing the
role of chopper, will turn ON indicating the existence of
PWM2.
Also in the case of braking, the LED D5 will glow slightly
indicates that the motor will act as generator until it stops.
Actually we will only use the variable voltage technique to
control the speed and limit the starting current, hence we will
not use any additional resistors to decrease any additional
losses then we can also eliminate the Opto-couplers and
MOSFETs which were used as selectors for the resistors. In
this practical circuit we use three dc batteries each of 12 Volts
and 9AH. The batteries are connected in series to power a
36Volts PMDC Motor. Under the above situation and
calculation and in horizontal plane movements a scooter with
total mass of 30 kg and with 70kg driver it move around 90km
when the 3x12v battery are fully charged.
V. CONCLUSION
This paper illustrates with full details how to built a
control circuit and power circuit, for DC scooter purpose, by
using 36v DC voltage source across 0.5KW PMDC motor
with starting, braking and all directional motions to have the
ability to drive the scooter in a desired and safe manner. Fig.
15 shows the components and the connections of the power
circuit with the control circuit to drive the scooter. Control
circuit extracts PWM from PIC16F877A microcontroller
which is used to control the states of MOSFETS to drive the
PMDC motor that acts as a prime mover for the scooter.
PEMC 2014
Antalya, Turkey 21-24 Sept 2014
Whenever PWM is given on the gate's of MOSFET that acts
as the driver of PMDC motor, this motor will takes the
average power from the battery and drive the scooter in the
forward direction by using buck circuit converter. Some of
this power can be resupplied to the battery whenever needed
just by making a brake and the reminder work can be
continued by boost converter. So, the development of
semiconductor’s facilitating the field of control by using
devices of smaller sizes, cheaper with higher efficiency. In fig.
15 we can feed the 6v and the 36v from a photovoltaic cell
connected to the outer case of the scooter to make self
charging for the DC batteries instead of using external charger
or beside external charges feed from the main electric AC
source [9]. Experimentally the proposed full control scooter
serves around 90km when the three 12v batteries are fully
charged.
Fig. 15 Full controlled and power circuit of PMDC motor - scooter
VI. REFERNCES
[1] Mohamed El-Sharkawi “Fundamentals of Electric Drives”1st edition,
2000 Nelson Engineering ISBN 13: 9780534952228
[2] Anant Kumar, Sitanshu Mishra “Speed Control of DC motor using
IGBT”, National Institute of Technology Rourkela 2007
[3] Gieras, Jacek F. and Wing, Mitchell. “Permanent magnet motor
technology: design and applications” 2nd edition. Marcel Dekker, Inc.
2002.
[4] Mohamed El-Sharkawi “Fundamentals of Electric Drives”1st edition,
2000 Nelson Engineering ISBN 13: 9780534952228
[5] By Dr. Steve C. Hsiung “The Use of PIC Microcontrollers in Multiple
DC Motors Control Applications” Journal of Industrial Technology
Volume 23, Number 3 July 2007
[6] Stephen, Chapman “Electric Machinery Fndamintals” 4th Edition
MAGRAW-HILL 2007
[7] Su, G J., McKeever J.W. Samons K.S., “Design of a PM Brushless
Motor Drive for Hybrid Electrical Vehicle Application.”
http://www.ornl.gov/~webworks/cpr/pres/10792. pdf, viewed: 15th
August 2008
[8] Daniel Hart “power electronics” international edition 2011
Masahiro Hanazawa and Takashi Ohira, “Power Transfer for a Running
Automobile” IEEE MTT-S International Microwave workshop series on
Innovative wireless transmission IMWS-IWPT2011, pp.77-80, Kyoto, May
2011
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