A simple DC to AC Inverter

This article is coming soon, I just have to improve my design a little which requires more time and money. Anyway my motivation for writing: It is so wonderfully easy to go from Ac to DC. You just use a half or full bridge rectifier (to be fair there's a lot more engineering involved, but in theory once you know it, it's simple). However, going from DC to AC is another story. This article aims will show how I built a simple inverter for educational purposes using a MCU, 4 mosfets, and SPWM signal (see cover photo). My reason for doing so is to learn more about EE in general, but moreover as a first project to fully learn about motor drivers. Let me explain, modern motor drivers on electric vehicals are typically brushless "DC" motors since they offer the optimal torque-effciency compared to other options like brushed DC. Let's disect what excatly a brushless "Dc" motor is. It's typically, a 3-phase DC-AC inverter with the electric motor's stator configured as a Y and natural magnets on the top. So, AC motor not DC, but we call it brushless DC. Anyway, the swithcing device on these motor drivers is typically mosfets in an H-configuration though more advanced applications now use IGBT and zero loss switching alogrithms. That's not a beginner friendly engineering project, so I'm going to stick with a simple H-bridge DC to AC inveter (which has plenty of engineering challenges on it's own, but will eventually switch to expirements with 3-phase AC (safely)). My end goal is not build a solid state 3 phase inverter but to better understand burshless/3 phase motor systems, so i can utilize the skill to design electronics for EVs such as drones and eskates. Anyway, coming soon because Digikey orders add up quick for something I could get for 20$ on marketplace.

About a year ago, I bought this Amazon mill for about 200$ CAD on Kijiji. I had absolutly no idea if it worked, furthermore, the electronics were in pieces so a bit of a gamble for sure. In this post I will explain how I got it in working condition and tell you if this type of used equipment (Amazon/Chinese mill, 3D printers , etc) is worth buying.

In this post we'll dive deep into the mechanics of rotary encoders and potentiometers and provide some simple code.

While both devices are essential for measuring rotational movement, they have distinct ways of operating. Rotary encoders generate digital signals, capturing both the degree of rotation and its direction – perfect for projects where precision is key. Potentiometers act as variable resistors, offering an analog output that's invaluable for it's simplicity.

🌐 My Experiments with CustomGPTs

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