A method and apparatus for operating a motor controller to cause balanced positive and negative current half-cycles in a motor phase, the method comprising the steps of, for an occurring half-cycle, identifying the most recently obtained valid shut-off angle, identifying the fire angle immediately preceding the identified shut-off angle, mathematically combining the identified fire angle and the identified shut-off angle to identify a next virtual zero crossing (VZC) angle, mathematically combining the next VZC angle and the notch angle to determine a fire angle for the occurring half-cycle and repeating the method for the next half-cycle.