Hey hey let's do a treadmill motor thread!

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Hukshawn

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I'm sure I'm gonna beat a dead horse here... I did a search and found a bit about treadmill motors and whatnot, but not enough specific info to get me running.

I was given a treadmill. It's in fine working condition. If my wife had her way, I'd use it for running and lose weight, buuuuuuut, I'm gonna put it on my lathe. Which will be good cause the bearings are shot in my 1hp lathe motor.


Soo, here are some pictures and info... Where do I even begin to have a simple on off switch, forward reverse, and speed control.
It's a horizon ct9.3, the reviews state it's HIGHLY overpriced. Sweet. Lol.

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This is a picture of the cable from the control pad to the motor controller. There is also a lift motor wired into the DC controller.
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I'm not opposed to scrapping this controller for something reasonably priced and easier to use. However, I don't see any digital signal stuff, like a serial cable. It seems there should be enough here to get some level of control.
 
I fired up the treadmill. Played around with the controls and tried to meter out some outputs, I can't make heads or tails of anything.
The user interface is very treadmill like. Slow ramp up speeds, count downs to motor starts, no immediate stop, even if you pull the safety switch.
I was wondering if it would have been simple enough to just take the start stop and speed control buttons and seperate them from the control panel and use the system as is, but there's too much interface. Each time you turn the unit on it wants user info. And the 3 second countdown to start is annoying.
The motor also has a sensor on it so I assume using a switch to switch the polarity to reverse wouldn't be possible.

So, I assume it's looking more towards getting a different DC controller.
So I'll take recommendations on something like that.
 
Do you have a schematic diagram that you can post? It might help others offer up some suggestions to get you going in the right direction.
 
I sure don't. I tried looking for one earlier with no success but I'll try again.

Which would you be looking for? The whole unit or just the controller?
 
Well, the more the merrier but at least the motor control. Are you sure you want to replace a 1 hp motor with a 2.5 hp? That might be big overkill on a lathe.
It might be easier to just put new bearings in your lathe motor and use the treadmill motor to make a belt grinder or some other tool for your shop.
Just a thought
 
Looking for the schematic. Not going well. The number on the board is mlh0910pd.

And yes, I'm fine with swapping the motors. I dont turn anything heavy enough to put my lathe at risk, and the 10" lathe is heavy duty enough to handle it. It's vbelt driven, which would slip before anything. I more so want the DC motor for the speed control and the higher speeds. The high speed pulley on the motor is not balanced very well and shakes and vibrates in high speed. So bypassing the high speed pulley on my lathe would be an advantage.
 
I bought a 1.5 hp DC treadmill motor with an aftermarket controller recently. It runsmof a pot and has an RPM meter to help determine speed. I’ll look around the shop tomorrow and see if I kept the box and wiring diagram for themcontroller. If so will post. I think the guy who put it all together didn’t pay more than 20 bucks for the controller, and another 8-9 $ for the speed gauge, very simple and cheap components now days.

Glenn
 
I bought a 1.5 hp DC treadmill motor with an aftermarket controller recently. It runsmof a pot and has an RPM meter to help determine speed. I’ll look around the shop tomorrow and see if I kept the box and wiring diagram for themcontroller. If so will post. I think the guy who put it all together didn’t pay more than 20 bucks for the controller, and another 8-9 $ for the speed gauge, very simple and cheap components now days.

Glenn
Perfect!
 
I agree with the speed control.
If you can’t figure out the board you have you can get a MC-60 for a resonable price.
That seems to be the most common control board and very user friendly. I have that on my buffer stand with a 1.5 hp and a 3 hp on my belt grinder.
 
Not too many mc60’s on eBay right now, and not terribly cheap either. Especially to Canada. But I’ll keep my eye out.
 
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