WO2013005472A1

WO2013005472A1 - Motor drive device, and fan control device and heat pump device utilizing same

Info

Publication number: WO2013005472A1
Application number: PCT/JP2012/061600
Authority: WO
Inventors: 俊彰佐藤
Original assignee: ダイキン工業株式会社
Priority date: 2011-07-01
Filing date: 2012-05-02
Publication date: 2013-01-10
Also published as: JP5539928B2; JP2013017289A

Abstract

Provided is a motor drive device that is capable of activating a motor without causing such an abnormality as the application of an overvoltage or an overcurrent to an inverter when reactivating the motor from a state in which the motor is still rotating after deactivation due to inertia. When stopping a fan motor (51) that drives an indoor fan (15), a microcomputer (30) of the motor drive device (20) stops an inverter (25) after having the number of revolutions of the fan motor (51) reduced to a predetermined number of revolutions. The fan motor (51) is a brushless DC motor that is driven by means of sensorless rotor position control once the fan motor is activated. Because the inverter (25) is stopped after the number of revolutions of the fan motor (51) is reduced to the predetermined number of revolutions, the number of revolutions of the motor at the time of the reactivation is equal to or lower than the predetermined number of revolutions.

Description

Motor drive device, fan control device and heat pump device using the same

The present invention relates to a motor drive device.

The indoor unit of the heat pump air conditioner is equipped with an indoor fan and an indoor heat exchanger that exchanges heat between the refrigerant and the air by blowing air from the indoor fan, and serves as a drive source for the indoor fan. Brushless DC motors that can be driven with high efficiency are widely used.
In recent years, a so-called rotor position sensorless method has been applied as a drive method, in which a motor drive device can be configured at a lower cost by estimating the rotor position in the drive circuit instead of removing a position sensor such as a Hall IC from the motor. Often done.
In such indoor units, the indoor fan may rotate due to inertia even after the motor has stopped operating. When restarting from such a state, abnormalities such as overvoltage or overcurrent to the inverter may occur. May occur.
In order to solve the above-mentioned concerns, for example, a control device disclosed in Patent Document 1 (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-137106) detects the rotational speed and phase of a fan from a motor terminal voltage, and uses them. Start up according to

However, the method disclosed in Patent Document 1 requires a new detection circuit, which increases the circuit cost and prevents accurate rotor position detection due to variations in the electrical characteristics of circuit elements and motors. There is a possibility.
An object of the present invention is to provide a motor drive capable of starting a motor without causing an abnormality such as an overvoltage or an overcurrent to the inverter when the motor is restarted from a state of being rotated by inertia even after the operation is stopped. To provide an apparatus.

A motor driving device according to a first aspect of the present invention is a motor driving device that controls power supplied to a motor to drive and stop the motor, and includes a power supply unit, an inverter, and a control unit. Yes. The inverter converts the power supplied from the power supply unit into drive power for driving the motor. The control unit controls the inverter. Furthermore, when stopping the motor, the control unit stops the inverter after reducing the rotational speed of the motor to a predetermined rotational speed.
Assuming a situation where the motor is restarted immediately after the inverter is stopped, if the inverter is stopped without reducing the motor speed, the voltage induced in the winding due to the high speed High and rotational energy is large, so if the motor is not properly driven when the motor is restarted, there is a possibility that an overvoltage will be applied to the inverter or an overcurrent will flow to the inverter if the voltage is boosted. Is expensive.

However, in this motor drive device, the rotation speed when the motor is restarted by stopping the inverter after reducing the rotation speed of the motor to the predetermined rotation speed is less than the predetermined rotation speed. Compared to restarting a motor that is rotating with the same number of rotations or the number of rotations not so low, the above problems are unlikely to occur and are safe and stable A reboot can be performed.

A motor drive device according to a second aspect of the present invention is the motor drive device according to the first aspect, wherein the motor is a brushless DC motor.
The brushless DC motor has a longer time to continue to rotate due to the inertia of the rotated body than the brush motor, and therefore has many opportunities to be restarted while rotating by the inertia. Therefore, there is a high possibility that a boosting operation is performed when the motor is restarted and an overvoltage is applied to the inverter, an overcurrent flows through the inverter, or the motor steps out. In addition, compared with an induction motor, it is necessary to detect the rotor position and output a waveform corresponding to the detected rotor position. Therefore, a circuit for detecting the rotor position when the inverter is stopped is required, which increases the circuit cost and increases the magnet. Due to the presence of induced voltage, the induced voltage is high when the inverter is rotating in a stopped state, and overvoltage is applied to the inverter when the motor is restarted, or overcurrent flows through the inverter, or the motor steps out. There is a high possibility of doing. However, when the motor driving device according to the first aspect of the present invention is applied to the brushless DC motor, the possibility of the above-described problem is reduced, and safe and stable restart can be performed.

A motor driving device according to a third aspect of the present invention is the motor driving device according to the second aspect, and the control unit drives the motor by rotor position sensorless control after starting the motor.
Since the motor is driven by rotor position sensorless control, the rotor position cannot be estimated after the inverter is stopped. Therefore, especially when assuming that the motor is restarted from a high rotation state immediately after the inverter is stopped, it is necessary to drive the inverter according to the rotor position and the rotational speed when the motor is restarted. In order to perform stable restart because overvoltage is applied, overcurrent flows through the inverter, or the motor is likely to step out, the rotor position when the inverter is stopped is detected or estimated. This requires a circuit and control, which increases the circuit cost and makes the control complicated. However, since the motor driving device according to the first aspect of the present invention is applied to the brushless DC motor, the above-described problems can be solved without adding a rotor position detection circuit or rotor position estimation control while the inverter is stopped. The possibility of occurrence is reduced, and a safe and stable restart can be performed.

A motor drive device according to a fourth aspect of the present invention is the motor drive device according to the third aspect, wherein the control unit receives an operation command in the middle of reducing the rotational speed of the motor to a predetermined rotational speed. The rotor position sensorless control is continued.
In this motor drive device, since the rotor position estimation is continued until the inverter stops, the rotor position sensorless control can be continued from the time when the operation command is received, and the above-mentioned problems do not occur. Needless to say, stable driving can be continued without causing discontinuous operation or abnormal noise during restart.

A motor driving device according to a fifth aspect of the present invention is the motor driving device according to any one of the second to fourth aspects, wherein the control unit receives an operation command after stopping the inverter. A starting operation for driving the motor by outputting a predetermined voltage and a predetermined frequency irrespective of the rotor position of the motor is performed.

In this motor drive device, even if the start-up operation for driving the motor by outputting a predetermined voltage and a predetermined frequency is performed regardless of the position of the rotor of the motor, even if the start-up operation for driving the motor is performed regardless of the motor rotor position In addition, synchronous pull-in can be performed without causing overvoltage, overcurrent, and step-out at the time of restart, and a stable start-up operation can be performed.

A motor driving device according to a sixth aspect of the present invention is the motor driving device according to the fifth aspect, wherein the controller fixes the rotor position of the motor when receiving an operation command after stopping the inverter. After performing the above, a predetermined voltage and a predetermined frequency are output. When the rotor position fixing operation is performed in a high rotation state, an overvoltage or overcurrent of the inverter may occur due to a large braking torque. However, in this motor control device, the rotor fixing operation is performed from a low rotation state. Therefore, there is no fear that such a problem will occur.

Further, in this motor drive device, since the rotation of the rotor is stopped and restarted from a known fixed position, the synchronous pull-in is appropriately performed even in the restart operation after fixing the rotor position, and overvoltage, The possibility of occurrence of overcurrent and step-out is low, and reliable start-up can be performed.

A motor drive device according to a seventh aspect of the present invention is the motor drive device according to any one of the third to sixth aspects, wherein the predetermined rotational speed is activated when the motor is activated by rotor position sensorless control. The rotation speed does not cause overvoltage and / or overcurrent to the inverter and / or motor step-out.
When restarting a motor that is rotating due to inertia, the rotor position sensorless control cannot estimate the rotation speed before startup, so that the inverter does not cause overvoltage and / or overcurrent and / or motor step-out. It is preferable to restart when it becomes.

In this motor drive device, when the inverter is stopped, the rotational speed of the motor is reduced to a rotational speed that does not cause the inverter to cause overvoltage and / or overcurrent and / or motor step-out when activated by the rotor position sensorless control. By reducing the rotational speed, the number of revolutions at the time of restarting does not exceed that, so that the above-described problems do not occur.

A motor drive device according to an eighth aspect of the present invention is the motor drive device according to any one of the first to seventh aspects, wherein the control unit is at least one of an inverter, a motor, and a motor load. When an abnormality occurs in the motor, the motor driving operation is stopped without lowering the rotational speed of the motor to a predetermined rotational speed.
In this motor drive device, when the inverter and the motor are abnormal, if the motor is continuously driven until it is reduced to the predetermined number of revolutions, the inverter and the motor may be damaged. To prevent damage.

A motor drive device according to a ninth aspect of the present invention is the motor drive device according to the eighth aspect, wherein the control unit causes a current generated when a counter electromotive force is generated in the motor winding to flow back to the winding. A reflux operation is performed.
In this motor drive device, when the motor drive operation is stopped, a counter electromotive force is generated in the winding of the motor. However, by causing the return operation, current generated by the counter electromotive force flows through the return circuit and is consumed. Therefore, it is possible to avoid a situation where an overvoltage is applied to the inverter or an overcurrent flows through the inverter, and the motor can be stopped quickly. This operation is particularly useful when the motor or the motor load is abnormal or when an overvoltage occurs in the inverter, because the motor can be stopped quickly without generating a further overvoltage condition. .

A motor drive device according to a tenth aspect of the present invention is the motor drive device according to the eighth aspect, wherein braking is performed by causing a current to flow through the winding of the motor so that a force for braking the motor is generated when the motor driving operation is stopped. A circuit is further provided.
In this motor drive device, when the motor drive operation is stopped, a current for braking the motor flows through the winding of the motor, and the motor is quickly stopped. If such an operation is performed, there is no regenerative operation when the motor is stopped, and a situation in which an overvoltage is applied to the inverter is avoided. Therefore, this operation is useful when an abnormality occurs in the motor or the motor load, or when an overvoltage or overcurrent occurs in the inverter.

The motor drive device according to the eleventh aspect of the present invention is the motor drive device according to the eighth aspect, and stops the inverter when the motor drive operation is stopped. Specifically, all the switching elements constituting the inverter are turned off. This operation is performed when the inverter is in an abnormal state (for example, when a short-circuit failure occurs), and in an abnormal state (for example, a short-circuit state). This is useful because there is a possibility that it can be avoided.

A fan control device according to a twelfth aspect of the present invention controls a motor that rotates a fan by the motor driving device according to any one of the first to eleventh aspects.
Since the fan rotates the motor due to its inertia even after the operation is stopped, if the motor is restarted before it stops completely, an overvoltage is applied to the inverter, an overcurrent flows through the inverter, or the motor There is a high possibility of stepping out.
However, in this fan control device, when the motor drive device reduces the motor rotation speed to a predetermined rotation speed and then stops the inverter, the rotation speed when the motor is restarted is less than the predetermined rotation speed. Therefore, compared with the case of restarting a motor that is rotating at the same rotational speed as before the stop or the state in which the rotational speed does not decrease so much, the possibility of the above problems occurring is low, safe and A stable restart can be performed.

Generally, a fan has a large moment of inertia, and it takes a long time to decelerate after stopping the inverter in a high rotation state. By decelerating while maintaining the control state, it is possible to stop the fan motor without changing the actual movement and without boosting operation exceeding the voltage rating of the inverter. It is possible to realize a stable restart operation when the operation command is input again.

An air conditioner according to a thirteenth aspect of the present invention is a heat pump type air conditioner that controls an indoor unit having an indoor fan and a motor that rotates the indoor fan. A motor driving device according to the above.
Since the indoor fan rotates the motor due to its inertia even after the operation is stopped, if the motor is restarted before it completely stops, an overvoltage is applied to the inverter, or an overcurrent flows through the inverter, or the motor Is likely to step out.

However, in this air conditioner, the motor drive device reduces the motor rotation speed to a predetermined rotation speed and then stops the inverter, whereby the rotation speed when the motor is restarted is equal to or less than the predetermined rotation speed. Therefore, compared with the case of restarting a motor that is rotating at the same rotational speed as before the stop or the state in which the rotational speed does not decrease so much, the possibility of the above problems occurring is low, safe and A stable restart can be performed.
In particular, in an indoor unit of an air conditioner, for example, it is required to respond immediately to a user's remote control operation. However, in the air conditioner of the present invention, restarting during deceleration can be performed quickly. The operation according to the user's request can be realized. Furthermore, even if a stop operation is mistakenly performed due to an erroneous operation, and a situation occurs in which a driving operation is immediately performed again, it is possible to promptly and stably restart / continue the operation. Operation can be performed.

An air conditioner according to a fourteenth aspect of the present invention is the air conditioner according to the thirteenth aspect, wherein the motor drive device rotates when an abnormality occurs in any of the refrigerant control systems in the air conditioner. The motor driving operation is stopped without reducing the number to a predetermined rotational speed.
In this air conditioner, when an abnormality occurs in any of the refrigerant control systems in the air conditioner, the operation of the refrigerant control system is continued if the motor is continuously driven until the motor is reduced to a predetermined rotational speed. Since parts may be damaged, damage is prevented by quickly stopping the motor drive operation.

In the motor drive device according to the first aspect of the present invention, the rotation speed when the motor is restarted becomes equal to or less than the predetermined rotation speed by stopping the inverter after reducing the rotation speed of the motor to the predetermined rotation speed. Problems such as overvoltage, overcurrent, and step-out compared to restarting a motor that is rotating with the same number of revolutions as before the number of revolutions or the number of revolutions has not decreased so much. Is unlikely to occur, and safe and stable restart can be performed.
In the motor drive device according to the second aspect of the present invention, the possibility that an overvoltage is applied to the inverter, an overcurrent flows through the inverter, or the motor steps out is reduced. Safe and stable restart can be performed.
In the motor drive device according to the third aspect of the present invention, an overvoltage is applied to the inverter or an overcurrent flows through the inverter without adding a rotor position detection circuit or rotor position estimation control while the inverter is stopped. Or possibility that the problem that a motor will step out will generate | occur | produce becomes low, and safe and stable restart can be performed.

In the motor drive device according to the fourth aspect of the present invention, since the rotor position estimation is continued until the inverter stops, the rotor position sensorless control can be continued, and the above-described problems do not occur. Needless to say, stable driving can be continued without causing discontinuous operation or abnormal noise during restart.
In the motor drive device according to the fifth aspect of the present invention, since the rotational speed at the time of start-up is reduced to a predetermined rotational speed, the motor is driven by outputting a predetermined voltage and a predetermined frequency regardless of the rotor position of the motor. Even if the start-up operation is performed, synchronous pull-in can be performed without causing overvoltage, overcurrent, and step-out at the time of restart, and a stable start-up operation can be performed.
In the motor drive device according to the sixth aspect of the present invention, since the rotor fixing operation is performed from the low rotation state, there is no possibility that problems such as overvoltage and overcurrent of the inverter occur at the time of fixing the rotor. In addition, since the rotation of the rotor is stopped and restarted from a known fixed position, even during the restarting operation after fixing the rotor position, synchronous pull-in is performed appropriately, and overvoltage, overcurrent, and step-out are performed. Can be reliably started.

In the motor drive device according to the seventh aspect of the present invention, when the inverter is stopped, when the motor rotation speed is started by the rotor position sensorless control, the inverter is overvoltage and / or overcurrent and / or motor step-out. By reducing the rotation speed to a value that does not cause the rotation, the rotation speed at the time of restarting does not exceed that, so that the above-described problems do not occur.
In the motor drive device according to the eighth aspect of the present invention, when the inverter and the motor are abnormal, the inverter and the motor may be damaged if the motor is continuously driven until the motor is reduced to the predetermined rotation speed. Damage is prevented by quickly stopping the motor drive operation.
In the motor drive device according to the ninth aspect of the present invention, when the motor drive operation is stopped, a counter electromotive force is generated in the winding of the motor. However, by causing the return operation, the current generated by the counter electromotive force is returned. Since it is consumed by flowing in the circuit, it is possible to avoid a situation where an overvoltage is applied to the inverter or an overcurrent flows to the inverter, and the motor can be stopped quickly.

In the motor drive device according to the tenth aspect of the present invention, when the motor drive operation is stopped, a current for braking the motor flows through the winding of the motor, and the motor is quickly stopped.
In the motor drive device according to the eleventh aspect of the present invention, there is a possibility that an abnormal state (for example, a short-circuit state) can be avoided when the inverter is in an abnormal state (for example, a short-circuit failure).
In the fan control device according to the twelfth aspect of the present invention, when the motor drive device reduces the motor rotation speed to a predetermined rotation speed and then stops the inverter, the rotation speed when the motor is restarted is the predetermined rotation speed. Compared to restarting a motor that is rotating at the same rotational speed as before the stop or when the rotational speed does not decrease so much even when a fan with a large moment of inertia is used as a load. Thus, a safe and stable restart can be performed.

In the air conditioner according to the thirteenth aspect of the present invention, when the motor drive device reduces the motor rotation speed to a predetermined rotation speed and then stops the inverter, the rotation speed when the motor is restarted is the predetermined rotation speed. Since it is as follows, it is possible to perform a safe and stable restart compared to restarting a motor that is rotating at the same rotational speed as before the stop or a state where the rotational speed does not decrease so much. it can.
In the air conditioner according to the fourteenth aspect of the present invention, when an abnormality occurs in any of the refrigerant control systems in the air conditioner, damage to the refrigerant system components can be prevented.

1 is a block diagram illustrating an overall configuration of a system in which a motor drive device according to an embodiment of the present invention is employed and an internal configuration of the motor drive device. The block diagram of the indoor unit of an air conditioning apparatus. The block diagram of the sensorless control circuit as an example. The graph which shows the change of the rotation speed of a fan motor after a microcomputer receives the stop command of a fan motor until it stops an inverter. The graph which shows the change of the rotation speed of a fan motor when a microcomputer receives an operation command again before stopping an inverter after receiving the stop command of a fan motor. The flowchart which shows the operation | movement which a motor drive device performs.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. The following embodiments are specific examples of the present invention and do not limit the technical scope of the present invention.
(1) Overview FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an overall configuration of a system 100 in which a motor drive device 20 according to an embodiment of the present invention is employed and an internal configuration of the motor drive device 20. In FIG. 1, a fan motor 51 is a brushless DC motor for driving an indoor fan 15 mounted on the indoor unit 10 (see FIG. 2) of the air conditioner 1. The motor drive device 20 is also mounted in the indoor unit 10.
(1-1) Indoor unit 10
FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of the indoor unit 10 of the air conditioner 1. In FIG. 2, the indoor unit 10 is an indoor unit of a heat pump air conditioner, and includes an indoor heat exchanger 14 and an indoor fan 15. The indoor heat exchanger 14 is connected to the outdoor unit 3 by the refrigerant pipe 5 to constitute a refrigeration cycle. The refrigeration cycle and the control device that controls their operation constitute a refrigerant control system.

The indoor fan 15 is a cross-flow fan, and performs heat exchange by sucking room air from the suction port of the indoor unit 10 by rotation and blowing it to the indoor heat exchanger 14.
(1-2) Fan motor 51
The fan motor 51 is a three-phase brushless DC motor, and includes a stator 52 and a rotor 53. The stator 52 includes U-phase, V-phase, and W-phase drive coils Lu, Lv, and Lw that are star-connected. One ends of the drive coils Lu, Lv, and Lw are connected to drive coil terminals TU, TV, and TW of U-phase, V-phase, and W-phase wirings extending from the inverter 25, respectively. The other ends of the drive coils Lu, Lv, and Lw are connected to each other as a terminal TN. These three-phase drive coils Lu, Lv, and Lw generate an induced voltage according to the rotational speed and the position of the rotor 53 as the rotor 53 rotates.

The rotor 53 includes a plurality of permanent magnets including N poles and S poles, and rotates about the rotation axis with respect to the stator 52. The rotation of the rotor 53 is output to the indoor fan 15 via an output shaft (not shown) that is on the same axis as the rotation shaft.
(2) Configuration of Motor Drive Device 20 As shown in FIG. 1, the motor drive device 20 includes a power supply unit configured as a DC power source by a commercial power source 91, a rectifying unit 21 and a smoothing capacitor 22, and a voltage detection unit 23. The current detector 24, the inverter 25, the gate drive circuit 26, the sensorless control circuit 29, and the microcomputer 30 are provided. These are mounted on, for example, one printed board.
(2-1) Rectifier 21
The rectifying unit 21 is configured in a bridge shape by four diodes D1a, D1b, D2a, and D2b. Specifically, the diodes D1a and D1b and D2a and D2b are respectively connected in series. The cathode terminals of the diodes D1a and D2a are both connected to the plus side terminal of the smoothing capacitor 22 and function as the positive side output terminal of the rectifying unit 21. The anode terminals of the diodes D1b and D2b are both connected to the negative side terminal of the smoothing capacitor 22 and function as the negative side output terminal of the rectifying unit 21.

A connection point between the diode D1a and the diode D1b is connected to one pole of the commercial power supply 91. A connection point between the diode D2a and the diode D2b is connected to the other pole of the commercial power supply 91. The rectifying unit 21 rectifies the AC voltage output from the commercial power supply 91 to generate a DC power supply, and supplies this to the smoothing capacitor 22.
(2-2) Smoothing capacitor 22
The smoothing capacitor 22 has one end connected to the positive output terminal of the rectifying unit 21 and the other end connected to the negative output terminal of the rectifying unit 21. The smoothing capacitor 22 smoothes the voltage rectified by the rectifying unit 21. Hereinafter, for the convenience of explanation, the voltage after smoothing by the smoothing capacitor 22 is referred to as “smoothed voltage Vfl”.
The smoothed voltage Vfl is applied to the inverter 25 connected to the output side of the smoothing capacitor 22. In other words, the commercial power supply 91, the rectifying unit 21, and the smoothing capacitor 22 constitute a power supply unit for the inverter 25.

In addition, as a kind of capacitor | condenser, although an electrolytic capacitor, a ceramic capacitor, a tantalum capacitor etc. are mentioned, an electrolytic capacitor is employ | adopted as the smoothing capacitor 22 in this embodiment.
(2-3) Voltage detector 23
The voltage detector 23 is connected to the output side of the smoothing capacitor 22 and detects the voltage across the smoothing capacitor 22, that is, the value of the smoothed voltage Vfl. The voltage detector 23 is configured, for example, such that two resistors connected in series with each other are connected in parallel to the smoothing capacitor 22 and the smoothed voltage Vfl is divided. The voltage value at the connection point between the two resistors is input to the sensorless control circuit 29.
(2-4) Current detection unit 24
The current detection unit 24 is connected between the smoothing capacitor 22 and the inverter 25 and connected to the negative output terminal side of the smoothing capacitor 22. The current detection unit 24 detects the motor current Im flowing through the fan motor 51 after the start of the fan motor 51 as a total value of currents for three phases.

The current detection unit 24 may be configured by, for example, an amplifier circuit using a shunt resistor and an operational amplifier that amplifies the voltage across the resistor. The motor current detected by the current detection unit 24 is input to the sensorless control circuit 29.
(2-5) Inverter 25
The inverter 25 is connected to the output side of the smoothing capacitor 22. In FIG. 1, an inverter 25 includes a plurality of IGBTs (insulated gate bipolar transistors, hereinafter simply referred to as transistors) Q3a, Q3b, Q4a, Q4b, Q5a, Q5b and a plurality of free-wheeling diodes D3a, D3b, D4a, D4b, D5a. , D5b.
The transistors Q3a and Q3b, Q4a and Q4b, and Q5a and Q5b are connected in series with each other. The diodes D3a to D5b are connected to the transistors Q3a to Q5b, the collector terminal of the transistor and the cathode terminal of the diode, The transistors are connected in parallel so that the emitter terminal of the transistor and the anode terminal of the diode are connected.

The inverter 25 is applied with the smoothed voltage Vfl from the smoothing capacitor 22 and the transistors Q3a to Q5b are turned on and off at the timing instructed by the gate drive circuit 26, thereby driving the fan motor 51. SU, SV, SW are generated. The drive voltages SU, SV, SW are output to the fan motor 51 from the connection points NU, NV, NW of the transistors Q3a and Q3b, Q4a and Q4b, and Q5a and Q5b.
(2-6) Gate drive circuit 26
The gate drive circuit 26 changes the on / off states of the transistors Q3a to Q5b of the inverter 25 based on the command Vpwm from the sensorless control circuit 29. Specifically, the gate drive circuit 26 is configured so that the pulsed drive voltages SU, SV, SW having a duty determined by the sensorless control circuit 29 are output from the inverter 25 to the fan motor 51. Gate control voltages Gu, Gx, Gv, Gy, Gw, Gz to be applied to the gate of Q5b are generated. The generated gate control voltages Gu, Gx, Gv, Gy, Gw, Gz are applied to the gate terminals of the respective transistors Q3a to Q5b.

In addition, although the inverter 25 of this embodiment is a voltage source inverter, it is not limited to it, A matrix converter and a current source inverter may be sufficient.
(2-7) Sensorless control circuit 29
The sensorless control circuit 29 is connected to the voltage detection unit 23, the current detection unit 24, the gate drive circuit 26, and the microcomputer 30. The sensorless control circuit 29 is a circuit that drives the fan motor 51 in a rotor position sensorless system based on an operation command including the rotation speed command Vfg sent from the microcomputer 30.
The rotor position sensorless system is a predetermined mathematical model related to various parameters indicating the characteristics of the fan motor 51, the detection result of the voltage detection unit 23 after the fan motor 51 is started, the detection result of the current detection unit 24, and the control of the fan motor 51. Is used to drive the motor by estimating the rotor position and the rotational speed, performing PI control on the rotational speed, PI control on the motor current, and the like. Examples of various parameters indicating the characteristics of the fan motor 51 include the winding resistance, inductance component, induced voltage, and number of poles of the fan motor 51 used.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of a sensorless control circuit as an example. In FIG. 3, the sensorless control circuit 29 is mainly configured by a motor model calculation unit 29a, a rotor position estimation unit 29b, an operating rotation speed estimation unit 29c, an LPF 29d, a rotation speed control unit 29e, and a current control unit 29f.
The motor model calculation unit 29a calculates the ideal value of the motor current from the command voltage Vpwm to the fan motor 51, the estimated rotor position, and the estimated rotation speed, using various parameters indicating the characteristics of the fan motor 51 as a motor model. To do.
The rotor position estimator 29b estimates the current rotor position using the result obtained by subtracting the ideal value from the motor current Im actually detected by the current detector 24 as an input.

The operating speed estimation unit 29c estimates the current rotational speed of the fan motor 51 using the estimated rotor position. The estimation results in the

respective estimation units

29b and 29c are corrected so that the difference between the ideal value of the motor current and the actual motor current Im is “0”, and the motor model is corrected. The LPF 29d removes noise components and harmonic components from the estimated rotation speed. The rotation speed of the fan motor 51 output from the LPF 29d becomes a desired rotation speed signal FG by the waveform shaping section 29g and is output to the microcomputer 30.
The rotation speed of the fan motor 51 output from the LPF 29d is subtracted from the rotation speed command Vfg included in the operation command sent from the microcomputer 30. When the result of the subtraction process is input, the rotation speed control unit 29e performs PI control on the rotation speed. The current control unit 29f detects the voltage of the q-axis torque current command Iq *, which is the control result of the rotation speed control unit 29e, and the command “Id * = 0” such that the d-axis current command Id becomes “0”, for example. Current control is performed on the basis of the voltage detected by the unit 23, and a command voltage Vpwm that is a current based on these commands is generated. By such control of the current control unit 29f, the command voltage Vpwm including the duty of the drive voltages SU, SV, SW is generated and input to the gate drive circuit 26.

It can be said that the sensorless control circuit 29 having such a configuration estimates the rotor position only when the inverter 25 is controlled by the microcomputer 30 and the gate drive circuit 26. When the inverter 25 is being controlled, the fan motor 51 is started by a start command and is being driven.
In other words, the sensorless control circuit 29 cannot estimate the rotation speed or rotor position of the fan motor 51 before the fan motor 51 is started. This is because, as described above, in the rotor position sensorless system, the motor current and the command voltage are used for estimating the rotation speed and the rotor position, and therefore the rotor position cannot be estimated in the fan motor 51 before starting. It is.
(2-8) Microcomputer 30
The microcomputer 30 is connected to the sensorless control circuit 29. The microcomputer 30 is also connected to a system control unit (not shown) that controls each device of the air conditioner 1 in an integrated manner, and drives the fan motor 51 according to whether there is an abnormality in each device. To control. Therefore, the microcomputer 30 functions as a control unit.

The microcomputer 30 is always supplied with power different from that of the inverter 25 regardless of the driving state of the fan motor 51.
Further, since the indoor fan 15 rotates the fan motor 51 by its inertia even after the operation is stopped, there are many opportunities to restart the fan motor 51 before it completely stops, and as described above, the rotor position In the sensorless method, since the rotor position of the fan motor 51 before starting cannot be estimated, for example, when the fan motor 51 is restarted immediately after the inverter 25 is stopped, the inverter 25 performs a boosting operation and an overvoltage is applied. There is a high possibility that an overcurrent will flow through the inverter or the fan motor 51 will step out. Therefore, when the operation of the fan motor 51 is stopped, the microcomputer 30 controls the inverter 25 to stop after the rotation speed is reduced to a predetermined rotation speed.

When the microcomputer 30 receives an operation command after stopping the inverter 25, the microcomputer 30 outputs a predetermined voltage and a predetermined frequency to drive the fan motor 51 regardless of the rotor position of the fan motor 51. Is doing.
Since the rotational speed at the time of startup is reduced to a predetermined rotational speed that does not cause overvoltage and / or overcurrent to the inverter 25 and / or step-out of the fan motor 51 when the fan motor 51 is started, Even if the above startup is performed, the startup operation can be performed stably.
Moreover, in the indoor unit 10 of the air conditioner 1, although it is calculated | required to respond immediately with respect to a user's remote control operation, according to this invention, since the restart during deceleration can be performed rapidly, It is possible to realize an operation according to a user request.

Furthermore, even if a stop operation is mistakenly performed due to an erroneous operation, and a situation occurs in which a driving operation is immediately performed again, it is possible to promptly and stably restart / continue the operation. Operation can be performed.
However, in the motor drive device 20, when an abnormality occurs in at least one of the inverter 25 and the fan motor 51 or the load of the fan motor 51, the motor drive operation is performed without reducing the rotational speed of the fan motor 51 to a predetermined rotational speed. To stop. This is because damage or expansion of damage can be prevented by stopping the fan motor 51 promptly.
When the motor driving operation is stopped, the inverter 25 is stopped by turning off all the switching elements constituting the inverter 25. With this operation, when the inverter 25 is in an abnormal state (for example, when there is a short circuit failure), there is a possibility that an abnormal state (for example, a short circuit state) can be avoided. Specifically, for example, in the case of a one-phase short-circuit failure, the short-circuit state is avoided by turning off all the drive signals of the switching elements.

FIG. 4 is a graph showing changes in the rotational speed of the fan motor 51 from when the microcomputer 30 receives a stop command for the fan motor 51 until the inverter 25 is stopped. 1 and 4, when the microcomputer 30 receives a command to stop operation, the rotational speed is gradually increased from a target rotational speed 1 to a predetermined rotational speed to the sensorless control circuit 29 before receiving the stop command. A rotational speed command is issued to reduce the speed. Based on the rotational speed command, the sensorless control circuit 29 performs the motor driving operation while maintaining the waveform output to the gate driving circuit 26 on until the rotational speed of the fan motor 51 reaches the predetermined rotational speed. When the number is reached, the waveform output to the gate drive circuit 26 is turned off.
FIG. 5 is a graph showing changes in the rotational speed of the fan motor 51 when the microcomputer 30 receives the operation command again after receiving the stop command for the fan motor 51 and before stopping the inverter 25. 1, 4, and 5, the microcomputer 30 outputs a waveform output to the gate drive circuit 26 until the rotational speed of the fan motor 51 reaches a predetermined rotational speed even after receiving a stop command for the fan motor 51. Since the inverter 25 is not stopped and the inverter 25 is not stopped, when the operation command is received again before the inverter 25 is stopped, the rotor position of the fan motor 51 can be estimated by the rotor position sensorless method. The rotational speed command is made closer to the new target rotational speed 2 by acceleration, and the rotational speed command is kept constant after reaching the target rotational speed 2.

The brushless DC motor employed for the fan motor 51 has a longer time to continue to rotate due to the inertia of the rotated body than the brush motor, so there are many opportunities to be restarted while rotating by the inertia. Also, compared to an induction motor, it is necessary to detect the rotor position and output a waveform corresponding to the rotor position. Therefore, a circuit for detecting the rotor position when the inverter is stopped is necessary, and an induced voltage due to the magnet exists. The induced voltage when rotating with the inverter stopped is high. Further, since the fan motor 51 is driven by the rotor position sensorless control, the rotor position cannot be estimated after the inverter 25 is stopped.
Therefore, when assuming a state in which the fan motor 51 is restarted from the high rotation state immediately after the inverter 25 is stopped, particularly when the inverter 25 is stopped without reducing the rotation speed of the fan motor 51, Since the number of revolutions is high, the voltage induced in the winding is high and the rotational energy is large. Therefore, when the fan motor 51 is restarted, if the proper driving according to the rotor position and the rotational state is not performed, the boosting operation is performed. Therefore, there is a high possibility that an overvoltage is applied to the inverter 25 or an overcurrent flows through the inverter 25.

However, as shown in FIG. 4, the rotation speed when the fan motor 51 is restarted is reduced to a predetermined rotation speed or less by stopping the inverter 25 after the rotation speed of the fan motor 51 is reduced to the predetermined rotation speed. Therefore, compared with a case where the fan motor 51 that is rotating in a state where the rotation speed before the stop or the rotation speed has not decreased so much is restarted, the overvoltage, overcurrent, Or the possibility that troubles such as step-out of the fan motor 51 will occur is low, and safe and stable restart can be performed. Therefore, it is not necessary to add a rotor position detection circuit or rotor position estimation control while the inverter is stopped.
Further, as shown in FIG. 5, when the operation command is received again before the inverter 25 is stopped, the rotor position of the fan motor 51 can be estimated by the rotor position sensorless method, and the above-described problems are solved. Of course, stable driving can be continued without causing discontinuous operation or abnormal noise during restart.

(3) Operation FIG. 6 is a control flow diagram illustrating an example of an operation performed by the motor drive device 20. Hereinafter, the operation of the motor drive device 20 will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 6.
Steps S1, S4 and S6: When the microcomputer 30 has acquired the operation command for the indoor fan 15 (Yes in step S1), it issues a rotation speed command (step S4). The sensorless control circuit 29 outputs a waveform to the gate drive circuit based on the rotational speed command from the microcomputer 30 and controls the waveform output state (step S6).
Steps S1 to S3: When the microcomputer 30 has not acquired the operation command for the indoor fan 15 or has stopped acquiring it (No in Step S1), whether or not the rotational speed of the fan motor 51 is equal to or lower than the predetermined rotational speed. Is determined (step S2). If the rotation speed of the fan motor 51 is equal to or less than the predetermined rotation speed (Yes in step S2), the microcomputer 30 turns off the waveform output to the gate drive circuit 26 via the sensorless control circuit 29 (step S3). In this case, the drive voltage SU, SV, SW is not output from the inverter 25 to the fan motor 51.

Steps S2, S5, and S6: When the rotational speed of the fan motor 51 is greater than the predetermined rotational speed in Step S2 (No in Step S2), specifically, deceleration to the predetermined rotational speed after the operation command is lost. In the middle, the microcomputer 30 issues a rotation speed reduction command (step S5), and the sensorless control circuit 29 continues to output the waveform to the gate drive circuit based on the rotation speed reduction command from the microcomputer 30, and the waveform thereof. The output state is controlled (step S6).
(4) Features (4-1)
In the motor drive device 20, when the microcomputer 30 stops the fan motor 51 that drives the indoor fan 15, the microcomputer 30 stops the inverter 25 after reducing the rotational speed of the fan motor 51 to a predetermined rotational speed. The fan motor 51 is a brushless DC motor, and is driven by rotor position sensorless control after startup.

Assuming a state in which the fan motor 51 is restarted immediately after the inverter 25 is stopped, if the inverter 25 is stopped without reducing the rotation speed of the fan motor 51, the winding speed is high. Since the voltage induced by the voltage is high and the rotational energy is large, if the appropriate driving according to the rotational state is not performed when the fan motor 51 is restarted, a boosting operation is performed and an overvoltage is applied to the inverter 25, or There is a high possibility that an overcurrent will flow through the inverter 25 or step out.
However, in this motor drive device 20, by reducing the rotation speed of the fan motor 51 to a predetermined rotation speed and then stopping the inverter 25, the rotation speed when the fan motor 51 is restarted becomes equal to or less than the predetermined rotation speed. Therefore, the problem as described above may occur as compared with the case where the fan motor 51 that is rotating in a state where the rotation speed before the stop or the rotation speed has not decreased so much is restarted. Therefore, safe and stable restart can be performed.

(4-2)
In the motor drive device 20, since the rotor position estimation is continued until the inverter 25 is stopped, when an operation command is received while the rotational speed of the fan motor 51 is being reduced to a predetermined rotational speed, the rotor position sensorless Control can be continued and stable driving can be continued without causing the above-described problems to occur and without causing discontinuous operation or abnormal noise at the time of restart.
(4-3)
In the motor drive device 20, when the microcomputer 30 receives the operation command after stopping the inverter 25, the rotational speed of the fan motor 51 is reduced to a predetermined rotational speed, so that it does not depend on the rotor position of the fan motor 51. Even if a starting operation for driving the fan motor 51 by outputting a predetermined voltage and a predetermined frequency is performed, synchronous pull-in can be performed without causing overvoltage, overcurrent, and step-out at the time of restart. Start-up operation can be performed.

(4-4)
In the motor drive device 20, the microcomputer 30 does not reduce the rotational speed of the fan motor 51 to a predetermined rotational speed when an abnormality occurs in at least one of the inverter 25, the fan motor 51, or the load of the fan motor 51. Stop motor drive operation.
This is because if the fan motor 51 is continuously driven until it is reduced to the predetermined number of revolutions, the loads of the inverter 25, the fan motor 51, and the fan motor 51 may be damaged. Therefore, damage is prevented by quickly stopping the motor drive operation.
(5) Modification (5-1) First Modification In the above embodiment, since the rotation speed of the fan motor 51 after the inverter 25 is stopped is equal to or lower than the predetermined rotation speed, the restart is performed safely. Ideally, it is preferable to restart the fan motor 51 from a stopped state.

Therefore, in the motor drive device 20 according to the first modification, when the microcomputer 30 receives an operation command after stopping the inverter 25, the microcomputer 30 performs an operation of fixing the rotor position of the fan motor 51, and then a predetermined voltage. And a predetermined frequency. When the rotor position fixing operation is performed in the high rotation state, an overvoltage or overcurrent of the inverter 25 may occur due to a large braking torque. However, since the rotor fixing operation is performed from the low rotation state, There is no risk of such problems.
Further, since the rotation of the rotor of the fan motor 51 is stopped and restarted from a known fixed position, the synchronous pull-in is appropriately performed even in the operation after the rotor position is fixed, and overvoltage, overcurrent, In addition, the possibility of occurrence of step-out is low, and reliable start-up can be performed.
(5-2) Second Modification When the inverter 25 is stopped without decelerating to a predetermined rotational speed, a counter electromotive force is generated in the winding of the fan motor 51, and an overvoltage is applied to the inverter 25, or Current may flow.

In the motor drive device 20 according to the second modification, in order to avoid the above situation, the microcomputer 30 returns the current generated when the counter electromotive force is generated in the winding of the fan motor 51 to the winding. The reflux operation is performed.
Specifically, in FIG. 1, by turning on the lower arm IGBTs Q3b, Q4b, and Q5b, the current generated by the back electromotive force flows through either the lower arm IGBT or the freewheeling diodes D3b, D4b, and D5b. Rotational energy is consumed by returning to and from the motor.
As a result, a situation where an overvoltage is applied to the inverter 25 or an overcurrent flows through the inverter 25 is avoided, and the fan motor 51 can be stopped quickly. In this operation, when an abnormality occurs in the fan motor 51 or the load of the fan motor 51, or when an overvoltage is generated in the inverter 25, the fan motor 51 can be quickly stopped without generating a further overvoltage state. It is particularly useful because it can.

(6) Other embodiments (6-1)
The motor driving device 20 preferably further includes a braking circuit for the fan motor 51. The braking circuit is a circuit that causes a current to flow through the winding of the motor so that a force for braking the fan motor 51 is generated when the inverter 25 is stopped.
Specifically, by providing a brake circuit in the DC section or by providing a brake circuit that short-circuits the windings, a current for braking the fan motor 51 flows, and the fan motor 51 stops immediately. As a result, there is no regenerative operation when the motor is stopped, and a situation where an overvoltage is applied to the inverter 25 is avoided. This operation is useful when an abnormality occurs in the fan motor 51 or the load of the fan motor 51, or when an overvoltage or overcurrent occurs in the inverter 25.

(6-2)
When an abnormality occurs in any of the refrigerant control systems in the air conditioner 1, the microcomputer 30 stops the motor driving operation without reducing the rotational speed of the fan motor 51 to a predetermined rotational speed.
This is because, when an abnormality occurs in any of the refrigerant control systems in the air conditioner, if the fan motor 51 is continuously driven until it is reduced to a predetermined number of revolutions, the operation of the refrigerant control system is continued and the refrigerant system components This is because there is a possibility of damage. Therefore, it is possible to prevent damage or expansion of damage by quickly stopping the motor driving operation.

As described above, according to the present invention, even a motor whose rotor position before starting is not estimated can be started without causing abnormalities such as overvoltage, overcurrent, and step-out to the inverter. This is useful for motors that are later driven by rotor position sensorless control.
A motor that is relatively less susceptible to the influence of an external force is particularly useful because it extends the range in which a safe and stable restart can be performed without providing a rotation state detection circuit before the start.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Air conditioner 20 Motor drive device 25 Inverter 30 Microcomputer 51 Fan motor

JP 2005-137106 A

Claims

A motor drive device that controls power supplied to the motor (51) to drive and stop the motor (51),
A power supply unit;
An inverter (25) for converting electric power supplied from the power supply unit into driving electric power for driving the motor (51);
A control unit (30) for controlling the inverter (25);
With
When the control unit (30) stops the motor (51), the inverter (25) is stopped after reducing the rotation speed of the motor (51) to a predetermined rotation speed.
Motor drive device (20).
The motor (51) is a brushless DC motor,
The motor drive device (20) according to claim 1.
The controller (30) is driven by rotor position sensorless control after starting the motor (51).
The motor drive device (20) according to claim 2.
The controller (30) continues the rotor position sensorless control when receiving an operation command in the middle of reducing the rotational speed of the motor (51) to a predetermined rotational speed.
The motor drive device (20) according to claim 3.
When the control unit (30) receives an operation command after stopping the inverter (25), the control unit (30) outputs a predetermined voltage and a predetermined frequency regardless of the rotor position of the motor (51) to output the motor (51). ) To start the drive
The motor drive device (20) according to any one of claims 2 to 4.
When receiving an operation command after stopping the inverter (25), the control unit (30) performs an operation of fixing the rotor position of the motor (51) and then outputs a predetermined voltage and a predetermined frequency. ,
The motor drive device (20) according to claim 5.
The predetermined rotational speed is a rotational speed that does not cause overvoltage and / or overcurrent and / or step-out to the inverter (25) when the motor (51) is started by the rotor position sensorless control.
The motor drive device according to any one of claims 3 to 6.
The controller (30) reduces the rotational speed of the motor (51) to the predetermined rotational speed when an abnormality occurs in the load of the inverter (25), the motor (51), or the motor (51). To stop the motor drive without
The motor drive device (20) according to any one of claims 1 to 7.
The control unit (30) performs a recirculation operation for returning a current generated when a counter electromotive force is generated in the winding of the motor (51) to the winding.
The motor drive device (20) according to claim 8.
A braking circuit for passing a current through the winding of the motor (51) so that a force for braking the motor (51) is generated when the motor driving operation is stopped;
The motor drive device (20) according to claim 8.
The controller (30) stops the inverter (25) when the motor driving operation is stopped.
The motor drive device (20) according to claim 8.
The motor for rotating the fan is controlled by the motor driving device (20) according to any one of claims 1 to 11.
Fan control device.
A heat pump type air conditioner,
An indoor unit having an indoor fan;
The motor drive device (20) according to any one of claims 1 to 11, which controls a motor that rotates the indoor fan;
Comprising
Air conditioner.
When an abnormality occurs in any of the refrigerant control systems in the air conditioner, the motor driving device (20) performs the motor driving operation without reducing the rotational speed of the motor (51) to the predetermined rotational speed. Stop,
The air conditioning apparatus according to claim 13.