# Motor questions



## Charley Davidson (Feb 13, 2014)

Does anybody know if these motors can be reversed & can they be speed controlled as in slowed down by a rheostat?
http://www.hobby-machinist.com/ozzmodz_classifieds.php?do=viewitem&itemid=111


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## sinebar (Feb 13, 2014)

I think that the motor probably is reversible. Check out http://www.bodine-electric.com for definitive information.

jj


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## joe kozak (Feb 13, 2014)

doubt you can slow them with a rheostat.  they look like ac induction motors that is they are speed directed by 60 hetrz ac power frequency.    you need a phase converter/variavle frequency drive to speed change.   

1/6 hp is  745watts/6 = about 125 watts.

you could feed the motor with a big home stereo through either the right or left speaker channel if you send in a nice sine wave into the aux port from a computer sound generating program....  voila!  instant vfd!


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## JimDawson (Feb 13, 2014)

I am not able to find the connection diagram for the particular motor that you have.  It looks like it was a custom motor for an OEM.  If it has 9 wires then it should be reversible.

Given that it is a 1/6 hp, speed control might be accomplished by using a ceiling fan controller, on 120V only, but it would not be very efficient or work very well.  In general single phase AC motors can not be speed controlled like a 3 phase motor.

http://www.bodine-electric.com/Products/Asp/ACMotorConnectionDiagrams.asp


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## John Hasler (Feb 13, 2014)

joe kozak said:


> doubt you can slow them with a rheostat.  they look like ac induction motors that is they are speed directed by 60 hetrz ac power frequency.    you need a phase converter/variavle frequency drive to speed change.
> 
> 1/6 hp is  745watts/6 = about 125 watts.
> 
> you could feed the motor with a big home stereo through either the right or left speaker channel if you send in a nice sine wave into the aux port from a computer sound generating program....  voila!  instant vfd!



You'd need both channels, with sine waves 90 degrees out of phase..  One would drive the "main" winding and the other the "start" winding (assuming that they are capacitor motors: the nameplate photo is illegible).  You'd also need at least 250 watts to start the motor.  You would also need step-up transformers.


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## master53yoda (Feb 13, 2014)

Ther are 3 types of fractional HP motors that are common,  Start switch with a start winding,  Shaded pole,  Capacitor run motors( these can also have start switches.)

The problem slowing down a fractional  motor with a start switch is that if you slow them down very much the start switch kicks back in and that will then burn the windings or blow out the start cap if it has one.    If you hear them click when they start they have a start switch.

Cieling fans are normally a shaded pole motor,  the do not have a start winding that is feed buy the power supply, the can be controlled using resistive or transformer switching or a rheostat.

The tag does show a microfarad symbol so these motors are probably cap run motors.     these can be slowed down about 35% by droping the voltage.     You can slow them further by VFD droping the voltage and frequency.    If you don't drop the voltage as the frequency comes down it will blow out the capacitors as well as heat the windings.

I hope this helps


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## Charley Davidson (Feb 13, 2014)

Clear as mud

Sent from my LGL55C using Tapatalk 2


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