How do I wire this motor?

[Tedison]

How do I wire this motor? The ground wire seems obvious as it is green/yellow and connected to the frame. Black should go to black. But then there are multiple wires (brown, red, grey, blue). Motor came out of a GE Window unit AC and had multiple speeds for the fan. My son and I are making a radio telescope and need two inexpensive motors to aim the dish and plan to use this as one of the two. So my ask is what wire or combination of wires do I need to connect to the white wire to run the fan? Can I control the speed a little by choosing a specific wire? There would be some super bonus points for anyone who can point me to some DIY plans on how to make a mount that allows for movements in two axes pointing at the sky. I think it is called a gimbal? Haven't found anything yet. Thanks in advance for any help.View attachment 2132757

 

[LXCam]

Picture of the motor tag would be very helpful

 

[The Cobbler]

not sure if there's a standard on wire colours & speeds, but that's what you have , a multi speed motor . you may have to just try each lead and see what you get
can't visualize how you plan to use it to aim , do you have a speed reduction that it's going to hook to?

 

[PCustoms]

can't visualize how you plan to use it to aim , do you have a speed reduction that it's going to hook to?

& Lock in place?

I think what you really need is a servo motor, not a fan motor from a window AC.

 

[wyliesdiesels]

Picture of the motor tag would be very helpful

 

[micromind]

That's a permanent split capacitor fan motor, 3 speed.

If there are 2 browns, they connect to a capacitor.

If only one brown, it connects to one side of the capacitor, the other side goes to the incoming hot.

Black might be the incoming neutral but gray could be too, no way to know without the wiring diagram.

The other wires are for different speeds, connect only one pod them.

Further, this motor will have very low starting torque and the different speeds will work only if some sort of load is connected to the shaft.....like a fan......lol.

If the A/C unit is large, the motor might be 230 volts, same as the power it's connected to.

 

[walta]

To my ear this motor does not sound like a good fit for your project. This motors slowest speed option seems likely to be about 900 RPM and is not easily reversible.

I would look for an old sofa or chair with a power reclining motors. This will let you move slowly in both directions.

Amazon.com

Walta

 

[dogdog]

Probably the wrong motor for the job even if you can get that fan motor running. That’s already mentioned. Maybe look into some servo motors if it is industrial grade or some of those cnc motors like stepper motors nema23 ? And get a proper driver for it.



Not sure how old your kid(s) are, just driving back from a long drive hearing a pod cast about local high school robotics programs with MIT resources for robotics. Maybe have your kids take a free online course?

Introduction to Robotics | Mechanical Engineering | MIT OpenCourseWare

This course provides an overview of robot mechanisms, dynamics, and intelligent controls. Topics include planar and spatial kinematics, and motion planning; mechanism design for manipulators and mobile robots, multi-rigid-body dynamics, 3D graphic simulation; control design, actuators, and...

ocw.mit.edu

If you must search for a plan, maybe search for

Motorized pan tilt camera mount
Motorized pan tilt telescope mount

Or that other search gets you on the fbi list. Maybe.. lol
diy motorized auto turret

Plenty of YouTube videos on these

 

[mm08822]

& Lock in place?

I think what you really need is a servo motor, not a fan motor from a window AC.

Agreed, without a low motion speed output (as in using a gearbox) it will constantly overshoot even at 900rpm.

A servo will give speed control and position control. With feedback on, it will stay locked in at commanded position or current position depending on control scheme used.

 

[Tedison]

Picture of the motor tag would be very helpful

 

[Tedison]

Having trouble with picture uploads on this forum. Maybe I can retake pictures at lower resolution

 

[Tedison]

Agreed, without a low motion speed output (as in using a gearbox) it will constantly overshoot even at 900rpm.

A servo will give speed control and position control. With feedback on, it will stay locked in at commanded position or current position depending on control scheme used.

I believe treadmills and vacuum cleaners use step motors? My son is on the robotics team and is familiar with them. Trying to do this with all salvaged parts.

 

[Tedison]

Picture of the motor tag would be very helpful

Appliance Repair Help. Questions & Answers | Looking for an explanation of this wiring diagram | Facebook

Looking for an explanation of this wiring diagram. I pulled a fan motor out of a GE window AC and plan to repurpose the motor. Not sure how to wire it. There is a wiring diagram on the motor (see...

www.facebook.com

Please let me know if you can see the pictures I posted in FB. For some reason I cannot upload pictures to this thread

 

[PCustoms]

Here you go.




I still don't see how you're going to (successfully) use this for position control.

 

[Tedison]

Here you go.




I still don't see how you're going to (successfully) use this for position control.

With gears? I understand that a stepper motor or servo would be better, when I looked at them they were pricey and the goal of this project is to do it on the cheap mostly with salvaged or 3d printed parts. I don't have any experience with setting up or gearing motors so I appreciate the insights that your response and others have given me.

 

[Viper98912]

For position control, I'd also recommend some type of servo or stepper motor. You can probably find some cheap hobby ones on Amazon

 

[PCustoms]

With gears? I understand that a stepper motor or servo would be better, when I looked at them they were pricey and the goal of this project is to do it on the cheap mostly with salvaged or 3d printed parts. I don't have any experience with setting up or gearing motors so I appreciate the insights that your response and others have given me.

I suppose you could gear in super low and run a "controller", but really it's just on/off and timing based on RPM. Kind of crude and not really how things work, so not sure the learning value.

Looking quick you can get small servo motors on Amazon for $10-$15, not sure what the controller costs.

 

[RPH]

Dc linear motor, this site shows higher end gear.

LMS Series Direct Drive Linear Stage - Linear Motor Slide

The LMS Series utilizes a linear motor eliminating the use of a leadscrew for precise backlash-free operation.

www.newmarksystems.com

 

[American Locomotive]

The diagram shows how to wire it. The capacitor (you still have it, right?) goes between grey and brown.

One of your hot feeds gets connected to grey, then the other hot feed goes to red, blue or black to select speed. However as others mentioned, I don't think this motor is super appropriate for what you're trying to do.

 

[walta]

With gears?

OK with enough gears you can slow down this motor. Now what is the plan to reverse the direction of travel

Walta