4 Conclusion

tSPI protocol offers a simple and versatile method of controlling multiple motor drivers that can significantly simplify the necessary wiring for multi-motor control applications by allowing PWM duty cycle and current sense amplifier information to be interfaced over a traditional serial interface. tSPI’s simple and straightforward SPI physical interface allows it to be easily integrated into existing designs involving MCUs. From a software and communications perspective, the interface is convenient and more versatile compared to traditional approaches like daisy-chained SPI. Products with the tSPI protocol, such as the DRV8311, are therefore highly valuable for any end applications where design complexity and size are concerns. End applications such as drones and gimbals will benefit greatly from the tSPI protocol. With further exposure in learning how to leverage the features of tSPI, users can design their systems to accompish additional performance improvements such as fast multiwrites for multimotor systems with synchronous PWM duty cycle updates. This particular example being mentioned is achieved with the tSPI feature of automatic write pointer address incrementing, which is discussed in the application note Implementing multi-motor systems using tSPI. Check out TI’s tSPI protocol enabled device DRV8311 by visiting ti.com/product/DRV8311.