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Nice Looking Motor.... But Any Good?
By FlyByNight, Section Newbies Posted on Sat Feb 07, 2009 at 11:32:50 AM MST
Got my hands on a nice motor but can it generate power?

Hi Everyone,
I have been lurking here for a few weeks now and learning loads of great things about wind power generation.
For my first "baby" project I have got my hands on a really nice looking motor from an AC ventilation fan. It looks like it should be a PM motor but ferrous metals don't seem to be attracted to the casing at all (its uses the motor housing as the rotor). There are four wires coming out of the stator one of which is an earth wire and the others are blue, black and brown. The motor measures approximately 3.5'' in length and 3.5'' in diameter too.

I have put my volt meter on pairs of the wires in turn and spun the rotor. Checking for both AC and DC voltage coming out I can only get a few mV at most.
Now for the questions: Is this a PM motor? Why are there 3 wires? And mostly why can't I produce any voltage with this motor? Is this motor type totally unsuitable for generating power?
Thanks in advance,
Paul.

Nice Looking Motor.... But Any Good? | 7 comments (7 topical)

Re: Nice Looking Motor.... But Any Good? (3.00 / 0) (#1)
by ghurd on Sat Feb 07, 2009 at 08:03:13 AM MST

It is not a PM motor.

The 3 wires are for different speeds.

No magnets means no voltage.

It is not suited to add magnets. At least not simple, or worth the effort.
There is no room for the magnets in the spinning part.
Multi speed motors of that style have coil winding patterns not suited to making a conversion.

If you want to try an AC conversion (adding magnets to an AC motor),
cheap and easy to start with an old motor with 6 coils. Old-style single speed vent fan is easier electric, or box fan motor is easier tools.
Need a lathe. Or hacksaw, file and strong arm.
http://www.otherpower.com/images/scimages/2050/VentMtrGuts.jpg

G-
Ghurd.info

Re: Nice Looking Motor.... But Any Good? (3.00 / 0) (#2)
by FlyByNight on Sat Feb 07, 2009 at 11:21:15 AM MST

Thanks for that Ghurd, you have saved me a lot of time and effort. I think I'll be heading straight into building an axial field generator now.

When I got my hands on this motor I just figured that maybe I could throw together a quick and dirty generator and start charging a couple of batteries. Now it looks like there's significant work involved in modifying this motor I reckon I'll spend that time building "the real thing" instead. Heaven knows I have been meaning to do it for long enough :-)

Thanks again,
Paul.

[ Parent ]

How about this one? (3.00 / 0) (#3)
by FlyByNight on Tue Feb 24, 2009 at 08:07:14 AM MST

I was at my local washing machine shop yesterday desperately hoping that they had an LG Direct Drive machine for scrapping that I could pull the motor out of for use in my first wind turbine. Imagine how my heart-rate increased when I saw a fairly modern LG machine in their scrap pile. I pulled it apart but my heart sank as I discovered it wasn't a direct drive motor :-(

Anyway, I decided that the motor looked clean and tidy so I may be able to salvage the copper wire from it. When I got it home I started pulling it apart but as I did I found that it didn't look quite like motors I had seen before. I put it back together, got out my multimeter and connected it up the the wires. Even just spinning the motor with my fingers yielded around 6V AC. I tried a different pair of wires and got the same result. The rotor is magnetic so does this make it a permanent magnet motor? And therefore a permanent magnet alternator?

Is it likely that this motor is suitable for use in a wind turbine? There are three wires coming from the motor and I can get the same voltage out of each pair - does this mean it is behaving like a three phase motor/alternator? It came from a single phase domestic washing machine so I am guessing that it isn't a three phase motor??

Thanks,
FlyByNight

[ Parent ]

Re: How about this one? (3.00 / 0) (#4)
by JB on Tue Feb 24, 2009 at 08:19:03 AM MST

it looks like it could be a nice candidate for a garbogen type wind turbine.JB

[ Parent ]

Re: How about this one? (3.00 / 0) (#5)
by ghurd on Tue Feb 24, 2009 at 08:43:12 AM MST

Stop!
You may be very lucky.

How magnetic is the rotor? Can it hold up a small screw driver? Pick up a pile of paper clips?

If it can, it may be a 3-ph PMA motor. Like an F&P or GE ECM.
I read LG was using them, but I never saw one. Nothing like I expected one to look.
Yellow/Red/Blue is the same as a GE ECM.

Short a pair of wires and see how hard it turns. Then short all 3 and try again.
Hard to turn is good.

The bearings look pretty decent too.

Do not store it disassembled, just in case.

It could be a pretty decent PMA as it is.
Let us know. I am very interested.
G-

Ghurd.info
[ Parent ]

Re: How about this one? (3.00 / 0) (#6)
by FlyByNight on Tue Feb 24, 2009 at 01:40:13 PM MST

The rotor is magnetic enough to hold a very large screwdriver. I span the rotor by hand with no wires shorted and it did maybe 10 revolutions before stopping, I shorted two wires and and span it with the same force - it did 1.5 revolutions, with all three shorted it did about 1/3 revolution. It really was quite stiff to turn with all three shorted.

The bearings do appear to be good and there is no sign of wear in them.

I am looking forward to trying it at higher speeds to see what she'll give.

FlyByNight

[ Parent ]

Re: How about this one? (3.00 / 0) (#7)
by ghurd on Tue Feb 24, 2009 at 06:18:11 PM MST

You may be the first person to try one.
Do keep us updated!
G-
Ghurd.info
[ Parent ]

Nice Looking Motor.... But Any Good? | 7 comments (7 topical)

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