Low Cost Position Sensor for Permanent Magnet Linear Drive

This paper deals with a custom made low cost sensor for measuring the position of a permanent magnet linear motor. The principle how to measure position and movement direction with two analog hall sensor elements is described. The following simulated and detailed error and failure treatment is very important to know exactly the performance and the possibilities of this low cost sensor element. Afterwards this position sensor is build and some measurements with a linear machine is done. After filtering, the accuracy of the two signals is high enough to be an input of a converter control to determine the correct current which has to be injected. If there is another higher ranking closed-loop control, e.g. pressure, flow or force, in the control system this low cost sensor is sufficient and works very well. It is possible to implement the very small sensor in the housing of the linear drive. This sensor costs less than 15 dollar and can not be compared to a very precise working linear senor for some hundred dollar in order to position the linear drive very exact but the accuracy is high enough to build a lower ranking closed-loop control and to stabilize a complex control system of converter, linear drive and load.