Digital control implementation basics in Power Electronics - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Digital Control Implementation Basics

📖 Scenario: You are working on a simple digital control system for a power converter. The system reads an input voltage, compares it to a reference voltage, and calculates an error signal. This error is then used to adjust the output to maintain the desired voltage level.

🎯 Goal: Build a step-by-step digital control implementation starting from data setup, adding configuration, applying core control logic, and completing the control loop structure.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a variable for the reference voltage

Create a variable for the measured input voltage

Create a variable for the error signal

Calculate the error as the difference between reference and input voltage

Complete the control loop by defining the output adjustment based on the error

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Digital control loops are used in power converters to maintain stable voltage and current levels automatically.

💼 Career

Understanding digital control basics is essential for engineers working in power electronics, embedded systems, and automation.

1

Set up reference and input voltages

Create two variables: V_ref with value 12.0 representing the reference voltage, and V_in with value 10.5 representing the measured input voltage.

Power Electronics

# Create variables V_ref and V_in with given values
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use simple assignment statements to create the variables with the exact values.

2

Add error signal variable

Create a variable called error and initialize it to 0.0. This will hold the difference between the reference and input voltages.

Power Electronics

V_ref = 12.0
V_in = 10.5
# Create variable error initialized to 0.0
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Initialize the error variable to zero before calculating the actual error.

3

Calculate the error signal

Calculate the error by subtracting V_in from V_ref and assign the result to the variable error.

Power Electronics

V_ref = 12.0
V_in = 10.5
error = 0.0
# Calculate error as V_ref minus V_in
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use a simple subtraction operation to find the difference.

4

Complete the control output calculation

Create a variable called output_adjustment and set it equal to error multiplied by a gain factor Kp. First, create Kp with value 2.0.

Power Electronics

V_ref = 12.0
V_in = 10.5
error = 0.0
error = V_ref - V_in
# Create Kp with value 2.0 and calculate output_adjustment as error times Kp
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Multiply the error by the gain to get the output adjustment.