A motor drive including an inverter and control logic and a method implemented by the control logic to protect an inverter. The method includes determining a temperature value of a temperature associated with the inverter; preventing restarting of the inverter if the temperature value exceeds a first temperature threshold; and preventing restarting of the inverter if the temperature value exceeds a second temperature threshold that is smaller than the first temperature threshold and the inverter was shut down due to a high load condition.

A device for driving a plurality of motors, including an inverter connected to a DC terminal; a multi-phase motor connected to the inverter; and a single-phase motor serially connected to the multi-phase motor, wherein a number of frequency of current input to the multi-phase motor when driving the single-phase motor and the multi-phase motor at the same speed is smaller than the number of frequency of current input to the multi-phase motor when driving the single-phase motor and the multi-phase motor at different speeds. Accordingly, a plurality of motors can be simultaneously driven at different speeds, by using a single inverter.

An electric motor drive apparatus comprising a voltage converter component arranged to receive a supply voltage signal and output a bus voltage signal, and a motor driver component arranged to receive the bus voltage signal and generate at least one drive signal for an electric motor from the bus voltage signal. The motor driver component is arranged to output a bus voltage feedback signal to the voltage converter component. The voltage converter component is arranged to regulate a voltage level of the bus voltage signal based at least partly on the bus voltage feedback signal output by the motor driver component.

An apparatus for controlling a motor may include: an inverter unit configured to output 3-phase AC currents through a plurality of switches to be switched by an input control signal to drive a 3-phase motor; a current detection unit including a plurality of current sensors configured to detect two or more phase currents among the 3-phase AC currents flowing through the 3-phase motor; and a control unit configured to receive respective fed-back phase currents detected by the plurality of respective current sensors, correct the phase currents by applying, to the fed-back phase currents, respective correction gains estimated in advance on the plurality of respective current sensors so as to compensate for a current detection deviation of each of the plurality of respective current sensors, and then control the inverter unit based on the corrected phase currents to control driving of the 3-phase motor.

A motor driving apparatus for a home appliance includes: a power supply part configured to supply DC power, a DC-Link capacitor connected to the power supply part, an inverter connected to the DC-Link capacitor and comprising a plurality of switching elements, the inverter being configured to convert, by operating the plurality of switching elements, the DC power into AC power and output the converted AC power to a motor, a DC-Link resistor element disposed between the DC-Link capacitor and the inverter, a signal generator connected to the DC-Link resistor element and configured to generate and output a plurality of signals based on an output current flowing through the DC-Link resistor element, and a controller configured to control the inverter based on the plurality of signals received from the signal generator.

A direct-current power supply device includes a reactor, a bridge circuit that converts alternating-current voltage output from an alternating-current power supply, which is connected to the reactor, into direct-current voltage, a capacitor that smoothes the output voltage of the bridge circuit, a current detector that detects a first current flowing as an alternating current between the alternating-current power supply and the bridge circuit, a current detector that detects a second current flowing as a direct current between the bridge circuit and the capacitor, an overcurrent determination unit that determines on the basis of a detected first current value whether or not the first current is an overcurrent, and an overcurrent determination unit that determines on the basis of a detected second current value whether or not the second current is an overcurrent. The bridge circuit stops operating when a determination result of either the overcurrent determination unit or the overcurrent determination unit indicates an overcurrent.

A system may include a power converter and a control system communicatively coupled to the power converter. The control system may determine a first DC voltage associated with the DC bus based on one or more DC external capacitance values that correspond to one or more loads coupled to the power converter. The control system may also determine a second DC voltage associated with the DC bus based on a capacitance of a system in which the power converter operates. The control system may also determine a third DC voltage associated with the DC bus based on the first DC voltage and the second DC voltage and adjust an operation of the power converter based on the third DC voltage.

A control device for drives of a machine switches between normal operation and special operation depending on power demand from a power supply. In both operating modes, the control device cyclically determines preliminary current setpoint values. In normal operation, the current setpoint values match the preliminary setpoint values. In special operation, the control device dynamically determines a proportional factor for the drives depending on nominal and/or actual operating states of the drives. The control device determines current setpoint values by modifying the preliminary current setpoint values so that a respective drive draws no more power than the product of the respective proportional factor and the available total power. The current setpoint values and the current actual values are fed to drive controllers for the first drives, by means of which the preliminary first current setpoint values are determined. The control characteristics of the drive controllers include an integral part.

A motor control method includes providing a motor comprising a plurality of windings, a rotor and a stator magnetically coupled to the rotor, coupling a plurality of power converters to the plurality of windings, configuring the plurality of power converters to operate in a first interleaving mode, controlling the plurality of power converters to dynamically adjust the number of poles of the motor and after the step of controlling the plurality of power converters to dynamically adjust the number of poles of the motor, configuring the plurality of power converters to leave the first interleaving mode and enter into a second interleaving mode.

A power converter having a dynamic bus controller to control a rectifier DC output for motoring and regenerating power flow directions, in which the controller controls a DC bus voltage between first and second regenerating voltage limits and limits power at the DC output in an increasing fashion with increasing values of the DC bus voltage according to a regenerating power limit parameter for a regenerating direction of power flow at a DC output. For a motoring direction of power flow at the DC output, the controller controls the DC bus voltage at the DC output between first and second motoring voltage limits and limits the power at the DC output in a decreasing fashion with increasing values of the DC bus voltage according to a motoring power limit parameter.