Low Cost Speed Controller for Small A C motors
K . A. Nigirn S. Ahmed-Zaid
University of Waterloo.
Waterloo. Canada
k ti ieim G w e . in+a t e rloo.ca
A bstrsct
The article introduces simple and low cost
PM’M speed controller for the fractional power AC
motors (less than 500 W). Variable speed settings
are normally required to match the load
requirement, reduce acoustical noise and energy
savings in blenders. air blower ...etc. In thc
proposed circuit: one transistor and a diode bridgc
are configured to vary the AC supply across the
molor. Switching the transistor ON and OFF at a
fast rate results in variable AC voltage. By using
the proposed circuit, the PWM modulated A C
supply has high frequency harmonic of which the
iirst harmonic is dependent on the operating
switching frequency. This in tum makes filterinr
the harmonics a simple task. Comparison hetween
the phase controls circuits normally adopted for
speed control with the proposed controller was
investigated using PSpice models.
I- Intrudurtion
AC single-phase motors are considered to be the
ideal drive for low torque applications in man!
household and industrial appliances rated loads
below 5 hp such as fanst mixers: blowers and
domestic water pumps. With the use of low cost
micro controllers and fast switching devices. the
single-phase drive is fairly cost competitive ioi
small domestic and industrial appliances. The
speed of many small AC motor can be achieved b!
changing the number of poles or the suppl!,
irequenc!,. However, applying variable voltage
across the motor reduces the staning current and
can he used for limited speed range control 111 and
123.
AC voltage control using electronic
devices allows either a pre-set or smooth speed
variation. To attain smooth speed control, either a
phase delay or integral cycle control are among the
simplest circuits. The control circuit is made of onr
bi-directional device such as the thyristor and triac.
The circuit proves its practicality for man?
applications but generally is avoided for speed
control of large motors. Several improved
modifications improve the phase delay and integral
cycle switching circuits are reponed in various
literature 131 141 [SI and 161 but all share the
common fact that the circuit can only vary thr
60
Boise State Universih
Boise. ID 83725: USA
saliiiiedzaid~boisestate.edti
voltage magnitude and produce low frequent!
harmonic that requires large filtering and have
limited speed range to avoid torque pulsation a1
low speed settings.
Pulse width modulated PWM switching
configurations are currently used to change the
applied voltage and its supply frequency to
maintain constant torque as the speed is varied 173
IS] and 191. More than one switching device i >
needed with carefully designed s\vitching logic to
ensure smooth control. The circuit cost can in
many cases outweigh the motor cost; therefore it is
only adopted for large motors that required
supplying variable and constant applied mechanical
torques.
The paper presents low cost simple I’WM
motor speed controller for AC motors below 500
Watts. In section. I1 of the paper presents how
varying the applied voltage controls the motor-
speed. Section 111 presents simulated comparativc
study on the application of the different electronic
AC-IO-AC voltage control methodologies. Section
I V introduced the proposed controller and finall)
section V verifies the proposed control topolog\
experimentally.
11- Speed Control of Small A C Motors
Increasing or decreasing the A C
magnitude using transformers or line inductive
reactors has been in the past a simple means to
achieve variable AC supply voltage control.
The motor speed will be influenced by the voltage
magnitude that affects the intersection point
between the developed and applied torque as seen
in Fig. 1 Using tapped line reactors (01
transformer) results in a pre-defined voltage values
that results in stepped operating point. Such
arrangements are well suited for many variable
loads that vary with speed in which the torque
requirement at low speed is low and increases as
the speed increase. The control is simple but could
be bulky and is considered energy inefficient.
Another technique that can be employed is to v a v
the supply frequent). However. this should be
a\ oided without simultaneously changing the
applied voltage to avoid magnetic circuit
saturation. Keeping v/f constant for the single-
0-7803-7863-6/03/$17.00 02003 IEEE
phase induction motors indicated that the produced Due to the waveform distortion at large
torque could equalize constant torque over limited dela! angles applications are ofien
speed range. rcstricted to industrial heating. lighting
The motor hereditar!, characteristics control and motor starting
prohihit the controller to deliver constant torque
below 50% of the nominal speed 173 as shown in
Fig. 2. The developed torque is reduced at lower
speed settings that require hoosting the voltage to
maintain constant load at low speed.

Boosting the voltage as the speed is

decreased while the frequency is maintained
constant results in better torque speed performance
as shown in Fig. 3. l'he drive in this case can
supply hoth constant and variable load torque.

I.67

-
L
4 1.33

- @ 1 00%V& f -
c
Speed PU
-C

t
-
I -. @75%V&S
- @,50%V& 1
- @,25%V& f
L
-
? 0.67
L

Fig. ( 2 j Speed control by keeping v/l constant ( u n -

0.33 boosted mode)

0 0 17 0.33 05 067 083 I 111- VOLTAGE CONTROL USING PHASE

Speed - PI '
- @1OO%V&1
--- @75XV& 1 OO%i
@50./v& loo%!
- @25%V& 1001
Fig. (1) Speed control by reducing the suppl!
voltage magnitude
A second simple control
technique is known as the integral cycle switching
and is \videl\; used in temperature control systems.
The generated harmonics cover a wide frequent!.
spectrum and contain low-order harnionics and
sub-harmonics thus. adding to the size and
complesity of the required filter. The control is
inconvenient for lighting or motor control due to
the discontinuity of the supply as the voltage is
largely delayed. However, it could be used for
starting of motors. l'he control when combined
with phase delay as reported in 131 resulted in fin?
control of the speed. Both technique are capable of
changing the applied voliage periodically and
symmetrically but cannot be used to change the
frequency. The technique is quite adequate i f
The applied load varied with the speed.
The required voltage variation is limited to
30% of the supply voltagc
D E L A Y A N D INTEGRAL CYCLE CIRCUII
Phase delaying elements such as thyristoi
and triacs are naturally commutated electronic
switching devices, are used to delay the
instantaneous voltage applied across the motor, and
allo\v current to follow only when the switch is
turned on. The current will seize naturally as the
voltage reverse polarity. The delay causes IOU
power factor as the current is continuously delayed
to vary the voltage. The delay action results in
injection to the supply low harmonic current
components in particular at firing angle delay of'
90" and more.
)-or many household and
industrial variable speed motor applications. the
applied torque is of cubic law nature in which the
load is small at low speed and increase as the speed
increase. The A C motor can meet the demand
under voltage control by employing phase delay 01
integral control. as the PWM configuration is rather
costly. IHo~vever:by considering the advantage 01-
PWM switching to regulate the AC supply and
shifting the harmonic to a clear distance from the
fundamental will achieve the required objectives of
speed control at minimum harmonic injection.

61
]High lrequenc!, harmonic either will not hc
effective in reducing the developed torque.
increases the windings temperature and can he
easily eliminated by simple passive filterinp
elements. Therefore. P W M control technique is
adopted for controlling the voltage across the
motor.
I .., .
<.I:.
The advantage of using the proposed
1’WM circuit shown in Fig. 4 is the capabilip of
varying the A C supply voltage and hcnce the speed
while shifting the first harmonics far away from thc
fundamental. In this way. it is possible to use
simple capacitive filter across the niotor to filter the
undesired high lrequency harmonics. while the
switch is protected by a snubber circuit and
free\vheeling diodc.
,.:,;,:

PWM controlling pulsc

-- L
L

.- ...... ..... __ ........ __ ......... ~

i ; , 1,”N
2Oms 30ms JOms 50ms 60ms 70mz
“0 017 033 0‘ 061 083 1
Load current
Speed. PI
- @loo%V&l
- - @85%V&75%1
- @70%V&50%1
- @52%V&25%1
Fig. (3) Speed control by keeping v/f constant
(boosted mode)
0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.U 6.(1
Current I~amionicspectrum

I\’- VOLTAGE /SPEED CONIHOL USING Fig. (4) PSpice simulation for PWM control at 50%
PULSE W I D I H RIODULATIOI\’ modulation

The implementation of sinusoidal PWM V- AC-1‘0-AC I’WM VOLTAGE CONIROL

controllers requires fully controlled transistorized
bridge and is economically feasible only to motors
above Ihp ratings [ 8 ] [ 9 and
] [ I O ] . However. there
are many techniques to reduce the harmonic
content of the output voltage of a I’WM converter
as applied to AC-to-AC voltage conversion
topologies. For example. the adjustment of the
number of pulses per half cycle i s possible with
micro-processor-controlled I-’WM signal source
[ 1 1 J 1121 and 1131. PWM pulses can be of equal
duration (duty cycle 50%) in which the largest
amplitude (fundamental component) is at the
supply frequency while the next is at the switching
frequenc!.
For the proposed circuit, the output
voltage and current are essentially sinusoidal
waveforms alternating at the supply frequenc! .
l-lowever. the current is interrupted within each half
cycle by the switch at a rate given by the switchinp
pulses. The resulting high frequency component:
are concentrated at ( k k A). The dominant
Irequency components are at cI;,+fs): (2fsw+fs) and
+
(3jsU A). Thus using a filter with a cut-off
frequency at GU 5 A) will reduce the generated
high frequency components to an acceptable level.

The amplitude of p(.,,,.)is u n i h when the pulse is 7; = iAT = i I j s , !

on. and 0 when the pulse is off. The expressions
for the time center and width of each pulse are M’, = 111, (sin(wJ) + 1)

62
Wherej.", and w,, are the switching frequency and Irequenc! needs to be high enough so that thc
power frequency respectively and m, i s the snubber does not degrade the open switch
amplitude modulation index. resistance. A simple capacitive filter of 0.1 PI-.
At this point. the Fourier transform of v(I) is taken 400V was connected across the regulator outlet
to reveal the spectrum 1 V(to)/. teiininals. An R C snubber circuit made of 250
ohm. 0.047 pF shunted the rectifier A C input
allowing to the switching transients to be diverted.
and the motor runs smoothly from standstill to the
I=-
7;-.!,,
maximum speed setting.
? '

The motor speed was ad.justed to run at

50% speed setiing with shaft loaded by fan blades.
Fig. (6) and Fig. 7 shows the voltage without and
with filtering and snubber elements connected
respectivel>. The high voltage and curreni
transients (spikes) are generated across thc
windings resulting in harmonic components at near
the switching frequency that could be as high as
Where rn, is the frequency modulation index
o,,/o,. Equation ( 2 ) is not easily interpreted as the 20kHz.
specific values of frequency modulation and
amplitude modulation indices give varying results.
Ref. [ 141 gives tabular values of Il,'(w)l fbr selected
values of m', and mf For practical purposes. I'WM
voltage \vavefor.ms of a desired type can be studied
using PSpice and the spectrum found from post-
processing.

The main point i s that the fundamental

component is controlled at low loss with frequency
impact relegated to the vicinity of w,, and highei.
Thus. the power electronic switching produces
harmonics that can be i s easily filtered conditional
to high enough switching irequenc).
Fig. (5) Single switch PWM phase controlled A C
V I - EXPERIRIER'IAL RESULTS to A C convener

Small size A C motors have large inductive

load nature. This could results in inducing high
current transient switching under I'WM control.
The voltage impulses, if no filtering or 600
freewheeling current paths are provided: will
overheat and stress the windings insulation.
Likely, at high frequency switching: relativel:,
simple capacitive filtering in parallel with the load
is particularly effective in this case; thus small -6nii
capacitance is nonetheless effeclive. The capacitor
size is readily determined using the switchinp Time
frequency and required impedance level of the
capacitor, //w,C. In this case. the impedance o f t h e
Fig. (6) Motor PWM voltage without filter at 50%
capacitor at the switching frequency should be modulation with fSu= 1 KH7
lower than the load impedance. A second issue is
the provision for a path for freewheeling curreni
when the MOSFE'F transistor switch is OFF. Thit.
is easily accomplished connecting voltage snubber
R C elements across the switching elements and the
ac terminals of the rectifier bridge as shown in Fig.
5. The size of the snubber component must
accommodate the energy in the voliage impulse5
produced by the switching action, and the
impedance of this snubber at the switchinp

6?

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Fig. (7) Motor I'WM voltage With 2uF passive filter
at 50% modulation with fsu = I KH7
Several key points could be mentioned:
The load voltage was maintained for 50% to 100%
of the input supply voltage with p o d sinusoidal
wave as seen in Figure (7). The unwanted
harmonic across the motor were rippling at high
frequency and produced minimal current distortion.
v 11. CON c LU s IO Ivs
The ob.jective of this work was to investigate.
illustrate, and build inexpensively a I'WM AC/AC
motor controller. The basic theoretical and
operational principles of PWM were presented.
The motor controller specification is in the 750 U'
class intended for residential applications. ' The
regulator employs a simple one-transistor chopper
as the control element. The main advantages are
low cost, simple design. small filter elements and
most importantly. the output current and voltage is
sinusoidal. Experimental work was done using a
500 W class device. The experimental work good
speed regulation at 10% and 75% up to 100% of
the input voltage. Further experimentation is
required to design the optimum filter and proper
freewheeling of the transient energy generated due
to the instant switching and interruptions of load
current. The results of the prqiect appear extremely
advantageous in comparison With the phase control
AC/AC circuits that been developed since earl!
seventies and dominate the market at a cost of high
harmonic impact on the load and power source.
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