ELECTRIC MOTORS

___ HOME WORKSHOP

Jim Cox
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ELECTRIC MOTORS IN THE
HOME WORKSHOP
 Electric Motors in the
Home Workshop

A practical guide to methods of utilising readily available

electric motors in typical small workshop applications

Jim Cox

NEXUS
A
SPECIAL INTERESTS
Nexus Special Interests Ltd.
Nexus House
Boundary Way
Hemel Hempstead
Hertfordshire HP2 7ST
England

First published by Nexus Special Interests Ltd. 1996

© Jim Cox 1996

ISBN 1-85486-133-6

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be

reproduced in any form, by print, photography, microfilm
or any other means without written permission from the
publisher.

Phototypesetting by The Studio, Exeter

Printed and bound in Great Britain by Biddles Ltd., Guildford & King’s Lynn
Contents

Introduction 5 1
Foreword — Safety 2

Chapter 1 Single-phase induction motors 5

Chapter 2 Three-phase induction motors 25)

Chapter 3 Commutator motors 38
Chapter 4 Overhaul and reconditioning 52
Chapter 5 Speed control 59

Chapter 6 Mobile power 74

Chapter 7 Battery power supplies 79

Chapter 8 Associated components and test gear 97

Chapter 9 Some typical workshop applications 106

Appendix 1 Converting three-terminal three-phase motors 119

Appendix 2 Motor power rating 2A

Appendix 3 Demagnetisation and remagnetisation 125

Appendix 4 Motor terminology 129

Appendix 5 Component suppliers iss

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Introduction

Electric Motors, No 16 in the Nexus model engineering community and there

Special Interests Workshop Practice Series, is a need for more comprehensive and
was written to provide basic information detailed information.
on the very wide range of motors and This new book is intended to fill this
related devices that could be used in the gap. It includes information on the how’s
home workshop environment. It has been and why’s of motor operation but the
widely read and is now in its fifth printing. main part of the text is devoted to prac-
As a matter of general interest it also tical methods of identifying and obtaining
included some advice on how to utilise satisfactory operation from discarded
motors from discarded equipment and and surplus motors. Advice is given on
some simple methods of operating indus- suitable methods of speed control and,
trial three-phase motors from domestic because many commutator motors are
single-phase supplies. It is clear from operated from battery supplies, a section
subsequent published and unpublished is also included which covers the char-
correspondence that these latter two acteristics and use of primary and
subjects are of great interest to the rechargeable cells.
FOREWORD

Safety

Electric power is in every home and is will tell you, faulty switches are not
normally so safe and convenient that we particularly rare occurrences and you
tend to take it for granted. Providing the don’t want to find out the hard way! In
high voltages are protected by properly the case of permanently wired circuits it
insulated cables and terminations, the is also good practice to use the blade of
chances of electric shock are remote and an insulated screwdriver to short together
this is the normal situation in home use. the input conductors before you allow
However, if live conductors are exposed your fingers near them — just to make
or if the connected equipment is faulty, sure that you have switched off the right
the normal 240V domestic mains supply circuit and pulled the right fuse.
is quite capable of giving the user a very 2. The strength of*an electric shock is
unpleasant, or in extreme cases, fatal determined by the amount of current that
electric shock. It is essential therefore flows and not directly by the voltage. In
to take proper care and to observe safe the human body most of the resistance
working practices when wiring up, in- to current flow is in the thin outer layer
stalling or testing mains voltage electric of dry skin. This covers our fat and muscle
motors and associated equipment. which are soaked in body fluids and
The following guidelines should always because of this offer much less resistance
be observed: to current flow. Anything which penetrates
or wets (including perspiration) the skin
1. Switch off AND unplug from the greatly increases our susceptibility to
mains before touching any conductors electric shock, so always keep your hands
that might be live in normal operation. If dry and cover any cuts or abrasions.
it is in a permanently wired circuit which A key point to bear in mind is to avoid
cannot be unplugged then switch off and the possibility of any electric shock where
remove the fuse supplying that circuit. the current path is through the chest as
Keep the fuse in your pocket to ensure this can upset the heart muscle. The
that no-one else can put it back before common danger paths are, hand to hand,
you are ready. It is NOT sufficient to just hand to foot and hand to head. Damp
switch off without also disconnecting concrete floors are quite good conductors,
the circuit. As any insurance company so if you are working on this sort of sur-

2
face wear rubber soled shoes to break the clear and understandable form. However,
hand to foot path. Hand to head paths are it is not possible to anticipate all even-
relatively uncommon — most of us in- tualities, so if you are in any doubt don’t
stinctively avoid touching things with our take risks — consult a qualified electrician.
head. The main hazard here is the head 6. At some stages in the initial installation
touching the metal*parts of an earthed and testing, live terminations may have
bench light or reading lamp. The answer to be accessible for voltage or current
here is to use either a lamp with no monitoring. Stringent observation of
exposed metal parts or a modern double the precautions outlined in 1, 2 and 3 is
insulated lamp. These have two-core necessary. Once this initial phase is com-
instead of three-core flex leads and the plete, all possibly live points must be
doubly insulated metal parts are left properly enclosed in an EARTHED metal
floating with no connection to the supply casing and protected from the ingress of
or ground. cutting fluids or contact with flammable
Occasionally, professional electricians materials. In extreme cases of failure it
have to work on live circuits which cannot is possible for overheated motors or
be disconnected. They are used to the control equipment to present a fire risk.
meticulous care that this demands and The metal casing of most motors normally
one technique which is used is never to contains this risk within the motor — the
touch the work with more than one hand same should be true of any associated
at a time — the other hand being kept safe equipment.
not touching any metallic object. You are 7. The above comments refer particularly
advised emphatically NOT to work on live to equipment operating from 220/240 volt
circuits; however, where practicable, the domestic mains supply. 115 volt supplies
principle of avoiding two-hand contact is are more forgiving, as the hazardous
a useful additional safeguard. currents are roughly halved, but still need
3. Always connect to earth/ground the to be treated with respect. Below 50
motor frame or equipment casing — even volts, shocks are rarely hazardous unless
on temporary test rigs. This is good exceptionally low resistance contact is
practice with any equipment but doubly made or the individual is particularly sus-
important on items of dubious origin ceptible to shocks of any kind. Remember
where the fault may be an intermittent that if you are unlucky enough to experi-
failure of the insulation between windings ence a really bad shock the muscles of
and frame! your hand and arm may contract so
4. Before applying power to a motor or strongly that you cannot let go. Don’t
similar device do make sure that it’s panic and try to fight it but step back-
properly anchored to something solid. wards so that your hands are dragged free
When a motor starts, the reaction to the of the danger area.
starting torque can cause it to leap off At 6 to 24 volts, which is typical of
the bench with obvious electrical and automobile and model activity, the main
mechanical hazards. hazard is thermal as the power source may
5. Be sure you understand the correct be capable of delivering large short circuit
connections of the motor/circuit that you currents which can raise connecting wires
are working on. In subsequent chapters to red heat in an em-barrassingly short
of this book advice is given on testing, time. If working on automobile battery or
operation and installation of motors in a related circuits do not wear a wrist watch

3
with a metal wrist band. It is natural to rest casing will be cooler than the windings
the wrists on the equipment when making and these temperatures are only reached
connections and if a metal wristband at full load and maximum ambient temp-
should happen to bridge terminations a erature. Nevertheless, be careful, as there
very nasty burn could result in seconds. are plenty of occasions when the outside
8. Industrial motors are rated for max- parts of a motor will be hot enough to
imum winding temperatures in the range deliver a nasty burn if grasped incautiously.
100°C/210°F to 165°C/330°F. The motor
CHAPTER 1

Single-Phase Induction Motors

1.1 General Single phase means that they are suit-

Before you start looking around for poten- able for operation from normal domestic
tially useful motors it’s useful to know two wire plus earth, three pin 240V AC
a bit about the sort of motor you are power points as distinct from three-
looking for. Induction motors are the kind phase induction motors which operate
of motor you usually find fitted to the from three wire 415V industrial supplies.
larger pieces of machinery in the home An AC supply is essential because in-
workshop, typically lathes, milling duction motors will not operate from DC
machines and pillar drills. Figure 1.1 supplies or batteries.
shows some examples. The key characteristic which makes

Fig. 1.1 Single-phase induction motors

them so suitable for machine tool use is In operation, the magnetic field from
their comparatively low and constant the stator induces large currents (this is
shaft speed. One or two stages of belt or why it’s called an induction motor) in the
gear reduction is sufficient for most rotor bars and the interaction between
machines and wide variations in cutting these currents and the stator field causes
load have little effect on cutting speed. the rotor to rotate at a speed a little slower
than the rotation of the magnetic field.
1.2 Construction This speed of rotation is determined by
A disassembled motor-is shown in Figure the supply frequency (50Hz = 50 cycles
1.2. The two vital parts are the rotor and per second) and the arrangement of the
the stator. The active part of both rotor windings in the stator. With the main
and stator is a stack of electrical grade windings grouped into two sectors (usually
silicon steel laminations. The main wind- called ‘poles’) the magnetic field rotates
ings which generate the rotating magnetic at 50 cycles per second = 3000 revolu-
field are fitted into slots in the stator. The tions per minute (rpm) and the rotor speed
rotor has no separate winding but the will be about 95% of this i.e. 2850 rpm.
slots in it are filled with copper or Two-, four-and six-pole winding arrange-
aluminium bars which are all connected ments are common with corresponding
together at the ends of the rotor by solid rotor speeds of 2850 att! 1425 rpm and
metal shorting rings. 950 rpm.

Fig. 1.2 Disassembled motor

6
 Motors can be wound with larger numbers The simplest and lowest cost method
of poles to achieve lower operating speeds is used in ‘split-phase’ motors. In this
but both output power and efficiency case, the start winding consists of slightly
suffer. They can also be wound with two fewer turns of thin wire that are con-
or three sets of windings, each giving nected in parallel with the main winding
a different operating speed. The two while the motor runs up to speed (see
pole/four pole combination (2850/1425 Fig. 1.3). This arrangement typically
rpm) is popular because it gives a useful draws six times full load current from the
range of speeds and is not much larger supply while the motor runs up to speed,
than the equivalent single speed machine. and can deliver a starting torque of about
In this book the descriptions of the one to two times full load torque. It is
theoretical aspects of motor operation unsuitable for frequent start/stop opera-
are kept to the minimum necessary to tion because this may cause the small
give a reasonable understanding of the start winding to overheat.
recommended methods of utilising par- A better but more expensive system is
ticular motor types. Fuller explanations used in ‘capacitor-start’ motors (see Fig.
can be found in my book Electric Motors 1.4). In this case a capacitor is connected
(Workshop Practice Series No. 16, pub- in series with the start winding. This
lished by Nexus Special Interests). improves the efficiency of the starting
system and both increases the starting
1.3 Starting torque and reduces the starting current.
It is unfortunate that an induction motor
stator operating from the normal domestic Start winding
single-phase supply produces a field that
pulsates rather than rotates at supply
frequency. Because of this, it cannot
generate significant torque unless the
rotor is first run up to about two-thirds
normal operating speed. To achieve this,
additional windings (start windings) are
fitted to the stator, mainly occupying the
empty or partly filled slots between the
sectors of the main winding. By control-
Fig. 1.3 Split-phase motor
ling the current flow in this winding, the
field generated by the main winding is
Start
modified sufficiently to enable it to gen- Start winding —_capacitor
erate torque right down to zero speed.
While this solves the starting problem, in
most cases it is a very inefficient way of
generating torque. Large currents are
taken from the supply while the start Centrifugal
switch
winding is in circuit, and it has to be dis-
connected automatically by a centrifugal
switch as soon as the motor reaches
operating speed to prevent serious
overheating. Fig. 1.4 Capacitor-start motor
 In each case, a centrifugally operated 1.4 Speed and torque
switch (shown on the right-hand side of With the motor running light without any
the two figures) keeps the start winding applied load, all three types almost reach
in circuit until the rotor is turning fast synchronous speed (i.e. when the rotor
enough to be able to deliver at least full rotates at the same speed as the magnetic
load torque. The centrifugal force at this field). As the load is increased, the speed
speed is then high enough to open the drops by about 5% when the motor is
switch contacts which then remain open delivering full rated’ horsepower for the
as the rotor speed continues to increase split-phase and capacitor-start types,
to its normal operating speed. and by 8% to 10% for most capacitor-
Somewhat less common, but often run types. As the load is increased
found in fans, washing machines, dish- further the speed drops, until at about
washers and ‘hobby’ grade workshop two-thirds synchronous speed it reaches
machinery, is the ‘capacitor-run’ type the maximum torque it can produce and is
motor. This is not really a single-phase delivering typically twice its rated power.
machine at all, but a two-phase machine Any increase in load beyond this point,
where the second phase is provided by a even a very small momentary increase,
capacitor that is in circuit all the time will result in the motor torque being
(see Fig. 1.5). The two sets of windings insufficient to turn the load so it will stall
occupy approximately equal space in the abruptly and come to-a dead stop. This
stator slots. The capacitor windings fre- torque is known as the ‘pull-out torque’.
quently use more turns of finer wire as If the load on the motor exceeds this
this permits the use of a smaller and less value the rotor stops turning and the
expensive capacitor. Because the capacitor- centrifugal switch brings the start winding
fed second phase provides torque right back into circuit. This attempts to restart
down to zero speed, the capacitor-run the motor but, unless the load on the
motor does not need a centrifugal starting motor is immediately reduced (within
switch, but the penalty is poor starting seconds!), the motor will be unable to
torque — sometimes less than half full start and serious overheating will occur.
load torque. Nevertheless, many items of
workshop equipment can start up at 1.5 Power rating
either no load or light load and this sort Most industrial induction motors are rated
of motor can be very suitable. to deliver their nameplate power con-
tinuously at local air temperatures of up
to 40°C. In home workshop use temp-
Capacitor phase
eratures are usually much lower, and
periods of operation at maximum load
are usually in minutes rather than hours.
The motor never approaches its con-
Main tinuous full load maximum temperature
an Run,
winding capacitor rating.
Because of this, for reasonable periods
of time, it is possible to operate in the
overload region between the torque at
rated output and peak torque where the
Fig. 1.5 Capacitor-run motor motor may be delivering up to twice its

8
rated power. The motor must never be power without incurring unacceptably
allowed to stall because all the input short tool life. My first machines in this
power is then dissipated in the windings class were an ML7 lathe and a Centec
and overheating is very rapid indeed. 2A mill — both were fitted with % hp
Many motors operate for most of the motors. These machines led a hard life in
time at a small fraction of their rated my workshop for more than ten years
power and their outside casing may be before | upgraded and the only occasions
no more than comfortably warm. There that | really missed the extra power was
is a temptation to assume that this is the in heavy turning operations on large
normal operating temperature for the diameter stainless steel.
motor and there is something wrong if
it runs hotter. This is far from true, 1.6 Picking a suitable motor
especially with modern motors. Improve- If brand new motors are bought, the
ments in design have enabled more power above comments hardly apply because
to be delivered from a given motor size. the cost saving in buying the smaller
Because there has been little change in motor is not large and it makes sense to
efficiency, the same total losses inevitably have the additional power for a relatively
heat the smaller motor to a higher temp- small increase in outlay. However, if the
erature. The insulation materials used surplus market or the scrapyard is the
are designed to withstand these higher intended source it can make a big differ-
temperatures and, depending on motor ence. Old washing machines, mainframe
design, maximum winding temperatures computers and small industrial machinery
as high as 165°C/330°F may be normal. are plentiful sources of single-phase
The temperature of the outside surface induction motors in the power range % hp
of the motor is typically 10°C to 20°C to %hp and can be purchased for, at
lower than this but still needs to be most, a few pounds each. Larger single-
treated with respect. This is not just hot phase motors are comparatively rare
enough to fry eggs — it is hot enough for because, if more than % hp is needed,
even casual contact to result in a nasty the industrial user will almost always use
burn! a three-phase machine and domestic
This ability to operate in the overload equipment turns to high speed com-
region for reasonable periods of time is mutator motors.
very useful in the home workshop as it Obsolete or faulty industrial machinery
often makes it possible to use a smaller is probably the best source of suitable
motor. Common major items are a 32” motors. Large cooling fans, pumps, motor
centre height lathe and a small vertical operated valves, bacon slicers, hoists
mill. The manufacturer’s recommendation and special purpose process control
for this size of machine is typically % hp machines are often powered by fractional
(560W), but this rating is based on the hp single-phase motors. These are usually
assumption that the machine may be foot mounted with belt drive so that they
used continuously with carbide-tipped are easy to remove and re-install. Best of
tooling near the limit of its capacity. This © all is the fact that the motors are very
can certainly happen in industrial use but rarely faulty. To the industrial user a motor
in the amateur’s workshop it is a fairly is a fairly low cost item and easy to
rare occurrence. In fact, if HSS tooling is replace. In the comparatively rare cases
used, it is difficult to utilise even half this where the motor fails it will normally be

9
replaced rather than discard the whole connections.
machine. When the machine is finally
Supply current
scrapped it is usually for other reasons
FLA = full load amps.
and it will still include a perfectly good
motor with many years of useful life Supply frequency .
remaining. Hz = Hertz = cycles per second.
The other side of the coin is to view
Shaft speed
any isolated second-hand motor on the
r/min or l/min ..or rpm =revs_ per
scrap pile with considerable suspicion. If
minute.
it's a good motor why isn’t it still on its
parent machine? Particularly unpromising Power factor ;
is an apparently undamaged motor that PF or Cos ¢ — this is the fraction of
has been carefully disconnected and the load current which represents the
removed from its original location. The true power consumed by the motor.
only time that this normally occurs is The remainder is ‘wattless’ current
when a maintenance engineer replaces a caused by the motor windings accept-
dud motor! Unless you can discover why ing power over part of one cycle of
it has been removed, leave well alone. the supply frequency and returning
Paradoxically the motor that has been this power to the supply during the
removed with the aid of bolt cutters and rest of that cycle. Domestic electricity
a cutting torch is a much better bet. meters record only the true power
These are the tools of the wrecker who component and ignore the ‘wattless’
is removing the motor to salvage its part.
copper content. If the wires to the motor This rating is only of interest to the
have been sheared off or cut, rather than large scale industrial user who wishes
disconnected, there is an excellent oS to control the overall power factor of
that the motor is good. his factory load.
The good thing about industrial motors
Mechanical power
is that they usually carry an informative
kW = kilowatts or hp = horsepower
nameplate so, you've a reasonably clear
Thp = 0.746 kW, 1 kW = 1000 W.
idea of what you’re getting.
Older motors are rated in hp. Modern
The following information is usually
motors, while still made in the original
provided:
fractional and integral hp sizes, now
Rating express these ratings in kW, e.g.
CONT =continuous or INT = inter-
”*hp 0.18 kw 1 hp 0.75 kW
mittent. If neither rating is shown
the motor will normally be continuous
Yahp 0.25 kW 1Ahp 1.1 kW
rated. ’%hp 0.37 kW 2 hp 1.5 kw
wAhp O.56kW 3hp 2.2 kW
Supply voltage
V = volts. More than one supply If the motor is a capacitor-start type,
voltage may be shown if the motor is the capacitor will usually be bolted directly
a dual voltage type. If the motor is a to the motor casing at the 10 o'clock or
six-terminal three-phase type (see 2 o'clock position (Fig. 1.6). If it is a
Chapter 2) supply voltages will be Capacitor-run type, the capacitor may be
shown for both the star and delta mounted in this position but it is often
mounted separately from the motor. Before applying any power to the motor
Capacitors come in many different sizes make sure that the windings are not wet
and shapes — examples are shown in or damp and check out the insulation to
Chapter 8. It is important to locate any frame as described in Chapter 4. With
associated capacitors and take note of the insulation checked out now make a
the connections — bétter still is to remove direct and reliable connection between
the motor with any capacitors and/or the motor metalwork and the electricity
starting gear still connected. Also take supply earth. This is essential to ensure
a note of any nameplate on the parent that, when power is eventually applied,
machine — this information may be useful insulation failure or a misconnection
if spares are needed. cannot result in ‘live’ metalwork.
Finally anchor it safely to the bench so
1.7 Sorting out the connections that a sudden start or stop doesn’t send
Once the motor is safely home there may it cavorting round the workshop.
be a problem in sorting out the right con-
nections. Unfortunately there is little 1.8 Two terminations
standardisation on the arrangement of The simplest, and fortunately the most
motor terminations and you may be faced common arrangement, is just two ter-
with almost any combination of terminals, minals with two wires connected to each
wires, colour codes and numbering sys- terminal corresponding to the wiring
tems. If you have managed to preserve arrangement shown in Figures 1.3 and
enough of the original wiring this is easy 1.4. This is straightforward and if the
but if you are faced with an anonymous motor starts and runs happily in the
set of terminals or pigtails a little detec- required direction when power is applied
tive work is needed. you are home and dry. However, pure

Fig. 1.6 Capacitor-start motor

11
cussedness will usually ensure that you 1.9 Three terminations
need the opposite direction of rotation. Life gets more interesting as the number
Unlike three-phase machines, single-phase of connections increase. If there are three
motors cannot be reversed while they terminations, first check to see if a cen-
are running and are sometimes thought trifugal switch is fitted. This is normally
to be unsuitable for operation with either located on the non-drive end of the rotor
direction of rotation. Fortunately this is shaft. If there is no switch, the motor is
not true; the construction of a single- either: :
phase motor is completely symmetrical
three phase or
and it will run equally well in either direc-
capacitor run or
tion. The direction of rotation is deter- split phase with*external relay.
mined by the relative direction of the
current flow in the start and main wind- A three-phase motor is easy to identify
ings during the initial starting period because it is completely symmetrical
while the motor is running up to speed. If (Fig. 1.7) andtheA — B,B —CandC—-A
both currents flow in one direction, clock- winding resistances will all be equal. Three
wise rotation will result. If the relation -phase motors are dealt with in Chapter 2.
between the current flows is changed by
reversing the connections to either (not A.
both) the start or the main winding, the
next time the motor is started, it will run
in the reverse direction.
If the motor is to be used to power a
lathe a reversing switch is a useful ac-
cessory, but it is only effective when the
motor is stationary. If it is operated while
the motor is running it will have no effect
and the shaft will continue to rotate in
the same direction. However, if power is C 5)
removed and the motor allowed to stop, Fig. 1.7 Three-phase winding
the next time power is applied it will start
and run in the reverse direction. The capacitor-run motor will usually
Our unknown motor will probably not have have two approximately equal.windings
any useful identification on the leads but with one end commoned (Fig. 1.8). In
in this simple case it is easy to sort them this case the A — B and B — C resis-
out by trial and error. Identify the leads tances will be roughly equal and the C —
as 1 and 2 connected to terminal A, 3 A resistance about twice as much. Which-
and 4 to terminal B. Reverse 1 and 3 so ever is the lower of the A — Band B — C
that the new grouping is 3 + 2and1 + 4. pairs is the main winding. The higher
lf you are lucky the motor will now start resistance pair is the capacitor-fed phase.
and run in the opposite direction. If not, The two sets of coils will be mounted 90
no harm is done because the ends of each degrees apart on the stator and will be
winding are connected to itself and no roughly similar in size i.e although one
current can flow. Rearrange the connections set may be wound with thinner wire it
to 3 + 1 and 2 + 4 and the motor will will have more turns so that the total
now run happily in the required direction. volume of copper is about the same.

YZ
Fig. 1.8 Capacitor-run winding

If you have the correct capacitor, con-

nect as in Figure 1.5 and apply power.
Fig. 1.9 Capacitor-run reversing
The motor should start and run smoothly
and quietly. The torque pulsations in a
Capacitor-run motor are less than in a degrees away from the main winding
split-phase or capacitor-start machine coils. The start winding has about the
and it is noticeably quieter. If the correct same number of turns as the main winding
size of capacitor is unknown, start with but is wound with thinner wire so the
about 8 yuF and try to select a value total volume of copper is much less and
which makes the voltage across the the start winding slots are less than half
Capacitor phase about equal to the supply full.
voltage (because the capacitor and the Connect as in Figure 1.10 with the
inductance of the capacitor-fed phase lower resistance winding connected
form a resonant circuit, it is quite pos- directly to the supply and the higher
sible for the voltage across this phase to resistance winding connected via a
exceed the supply voltage). Dependent starting push button. Press the start
on motor size, the useful range is about button, apply power and release the start
2 to 30 uF. Don’t worry if you haven’t button after one or two seconds. The
got a !arge enough capacitor, a smaller motor should now run normally. It can be
value will do no harm. it will reduce the reversed in exactly the same way as a
starting torque but the full-load torque
will be only slightly affected.
The motor can be reversed by inter-
changing the connections to either the
main or the capacitor-fed winding. If it is
a symmetrical motor i.e. both windings
of equal resistance, either winding can
be used as the capacitor-fed phase and
the very simple reversing arrangement
shown in Figure 1.9 can be used.
If it is a split-phase motor the resis-
tance of the start winding will be higher
than that of the main winding. The start
winding coils occupy stator slots 90 Fig. 1.10 Split-phase starting

13
split-phase motor fitted with an internal doesn’t matter which one is used but
centrifugal starting switch. This type of bear the three possibilities in mind when
motor is often used in the sealed units of sorting out the connections. A and B are
freezers and refrigerators but, apart from the most common arrangements; C is
these uses, is rather rare. rare because it needs a fourth termination
In a capacitor-run motor, the capacitor and has no particular compensating
winding may range from an equal number advantage.
of turns to nearly twice as many turns as
the main winding. Somewhat thinner
wire is used when the number of turns in
the capacitor winding is large, so that the
resistance of this winding may range
from equal to the main winding to several
times larger.
In extreme cases it is possible to
confuse the two types of motor. If there
is any doubt remove the end bell of the
motor and examine the windings. With a
split-phase motor the main winding will
occupy most, if not all, of the stator
slots. The start winding will be clearly
different because it is wound with much
thinner wire and inserted into empty or
partly filled slots occupying a much
smaller fraction of the total slot space.
With a capacitor-run motor there will
be little or no difference in the thickness
of the wire used for the two windings.
There will be no marked difference
between the two windings and each will
occupy about the same total amount of
slot space.
The last variation on the three-termination
motor is the type with a centrifugal
switch fitted in series with one of the
windings. This is usually a capacitor-
start motor for use with a separately
mounted capacitor or, more often, a
standard capacitor-start motor where
the normal 2 o’clock capacitor has fallen
off or been removed.
Three possible ways of connecting the
Capacitor start winding are shown in
Figure 1.11. They are all straightforward
series connections of the three com-
ponents and are exactly equivalent. It Fig. 1.11 Capacitor-start wiring

14
 Capacitor-start motors need much higher in series with the start winding of a split
values of capacitance than capacitor-run phase motor, the starting torque will
types. Capacitors must be suitable for usually be improved and the starting
AC working but, because they are in current reduced. The full-load perfor-
circuit for only a few seconds at a time, mance will be unchanged.
special intermittent rated AC electrolytic This interchangeability of function
capacitors can be used (see Chapter 8). only applies to split-phase and some types
These pack a large value of capacitance of capacitor-start machines because
into a small volume. The full-load torque of the similarity of their start windings.
and output power are independent of Capacitor-run machines cannot operate
Capacitance value which affects starting in this way and must always be fitted
torque only. The useful range is about with a suitable run capacitor.
15 uF to 150 uF. Low values are fine if
you are not too fussy about starting 1.10 Four terminations
torque. If you have to make a guess at Four terminations are the next step in
good value for a motor in the % hp to complexity. These are usually the same
% hp range try 50 pF for the smaller as the two-termination motors discussed
motor and 100 pF for the larger. earlier in section 1.8 but with each of the
If there is no prior information it can be four wires brought out to a separate
difficult to distinguish between capacitor- termination for convenient connection to
start and split-phase motors because the a reversing switch. The two termination
winding arrangements are so similar. For methods can be used to sort out the
the same power rating, the main windings connections.
are identical. In a capacitor-start motor A different type of four-termination motor
the optimum number of turns and the is a dual-voltage, single-speed machine,
resistance of the start winding depends usually an import from the Far East. The
on the capacitor value chosen for the main winding is split into two equal sec-
design. Usually the winding has rather tions which are connected in parallel for
more turns than the equivalent split- 115V operation (Fig. 1.12a) and in series
phase machine, but if the design is based for 240V operation (Fig. 1.12b). A single
on a rather large value of start capacitor, 115V capacitor and capacitor start wind-
the start winding can be very similar to ing is provided which is connected across
the equivalent split-phase design. one of the 115V windings via the centri-
The good news is that it may not fugal starting switch. In 240V operation
matter. If the capacitor is omitted and the two halves of the main winding act
the start winding connected directly to as an auto-transformer and provide the
the centrifugal switch, some types of 115V required by the start winding.
Capacitor-start motor will start and run In 240V operation the auto-transformer
as a split-phase machine. The starting connection of the two halves of the main
torque will be poor and the starting cur- winding permits a very simple forward/
rent high, but the full-load performance reverse switching arrangement. Figure
will be unaffected. 1.12c shows the details.
The converse is also true. If a suit-
able (i.e. about the same capacity as 1.11 Five terminations
that needed for a similar power rating Five terminations usually means a two-
capacitor-start motor) capacitor is inserted speed motor with the winding arrange-

15
 ment shown in Figure 1.13. Apart from
two-speed motors used in some early
types of automatic washing machines,
these are quite rare. This is just as well
because unless you have at least some
information, such as the number and
value of any associated capacitors, they
are not easy to sort out.

Fig. 1.13 Two-speed motor winding

The high-speed winding will always be

the highest power rating and may be
Capacitor start or capacitor run. In prin-
ciple, split-phase start is also possible
but | have never encountered one. The
same possibilities exist for the low-speed
winding but the split-phase variant is
even more improbable.
The first thing to do is to make a careful
set of measurements of the resistance
between all pairs of terminations and
draw up a matrix similar to Figure 1.14.
A digital multimeter is almost essential
c because few analog meters can measure
Fig. 1.12 Dual-voltage motor with the necessary accuracy.

16
Fig. 1.14 Resistance matrix Fig. 1.15 Predicted winding arrangement

This matrix is not as fearsome as it two- and three-terminal motors. In the

looks. The lowest resistance is usually case of ex-washing machine two-speed
the high-speed main winding and the motors, 16 uF for the high speed winding
next lowest resistance the high-speed and 2 uF for the low-speed winding is a
capacitor-fed winding: (A to D) and (E to good starting point.
D) are the obvious candidates. Since (A If the resistance matrix method doesn’t
to E) = (Ato D) + (E to D) then D must yield conclusive answers don’t despair
be the common _ termination which but simply try the spin-start method on
means that the remaining two points, A the low-resistance windings. This should
and B are the low-speed terminations. identify the high-speed main and capacitor
The low-speed windings may fall almost phases.
anywhere in the lower resistance meas- The spin-start method allows each
urements but, as in this case, they are winding to be checked individually to see
often symmetrical so look for two equal how it performs as a main winding and
resistances connected to the common immediately identifies it as a high-speed
end of the high-speed windings. If the or low-speed winding. Unfortunately this
assumptions are right this identifies all really needs two people — one to spin
four windings and their common point. the motor up to speed and a second to
Draw the winding arrangement corres- apply power at the right moment.
ponding to this with the four-resistance Operator one wraps a suitable length of
values marked in Figure 1.15 and check cord several turns round the motor shaft
that this arrangement of resistance and grasps a knot tied in the free end. A
values is consistent with the measured quick tug on the cord will spin the motor
matrix of Figure 1.14. up to speed and if operator two applies
For appropriate capacitor values use power as soon as the cord is clear of the
the guidance values recommended for shaft the motor will continue to run. If a

17
main winding is connected, the motor separate windings. Three-phase motors
will run normally and reasonably quietly. are dealt with in Chapter 2.
If a start winding is connected the motor Any of the five-termination motors can
will sometimes run but the torque will be appear in six-termination form if the two
poor and the winding will take excessive wires to the single common termination
current and heat up rapidly. are brought out separately.
Always grasp the cord by the knot
only, DON’T wrap it round your hand. 1.13 Automatic washing machine motors
If the power is applied at the wrong The earlier types of automatic washing
moment, there is a small chance that the machine were such a prolific source of
motor will start in the reverse direction useful single-phase*induction motors that
and if the cord is wrapped round your they warrant a section to themselves.
hand you can find your fingers trapped The first generation in the early 1960s
between the cord and the motor shaft! ~ > fully enclosed 1425 rpm split-phase
motors of about % hp rating protected
1.12 Six terminations by a thermal cutout so that it was impos-
By far the most common six-termination sible to damage the motor by overloading
motor is the modern three-phase machine the machine. The speed change between
with both ends of each of the three ‘wash’ and ‘spin’ ‘was by a solenoid-
windings brought out to terminals so controlled two-speed gearbox which
that it can be connected in either star or formed part of the motor assembly. A
delta configuration. It is easily recognised motor of this type is shown in Figure
because it has three equal resistance 1.16. A variant used a gearbox incor-

Fig. 1.16 Geared washing machine motor

18
porating a freewheel arrangement which right type of motor fitted — later models
automatically changed from high-speed use commutator machines of the type
ratio to low-speed ratio when the motor described in Chapter Three. If the back of
was reversed. the washing machine is still fitted, enough
These are excellent motors to power of the motor can be seen by tipping the
any of the main workshop items and unit on its side and viewing through the
have the unique advantage that the full base.
motor power is available both in the high These motors are useful for their high-
speed and the low speed mode. Unfor- speed, high-power mode. The output
tunately there are few of them left and power in the low-speed configuration is
you will be lucky to find one. less than 10 th of that of the main mode
The next generation used partially and is seldom of any practical use in the
enclosed two-speed, five-wire motors of workshop.
about /% hp rating. The usual configuration
was a 4-pole 1425 rpm ‘spin’ winding 1.14 Dishwasher motors
with a 12-pole 400 rpm ‘wash’ winding. Dishwashers are another source of useful
These motors are easy to recognise by motors. The main motor that drives the
examining the exposed ends of the wind- pump for the washer jets is an open-
ings. The high-speed winding occupies frame two-pole 2850 rpm capacitor-run
most of the stator slot area but the machine (Fig. 1.17). Typical capacitor
auxiliary low-speed winding can be value is 8 ywF. Although it is smaller in
easily distinguished by its twelve-fold size than the two-speed washing machine
symmetry occupying either the very top motors, it is usually more powerful. The
or the very bottom of each slot. The low- higher operating speed of the two-pole
speed mode uses a symmetrical capacitor- machine and the absence of a second
run configuration, capacitor value about low-speed winding enables more power
2 pF. Most machines used an unsym- to be packed into a smaller frame size.
metrical capacitor-run arrangement for
the high-speed winding but a few used
split-phase start to save the cost of the
rather large (16 uF) capacitor.
These were reliable machines and, in
spite of their venerable age, a steady
trickle is still reaching the scrapyards or
can be found as part-exchange models
junked at the back of brown goods
stores. Motor failure was very rare, most
machines were dumped because of
faulty program switches, leaking seals or
just because they were getting old and
shabby. If at all possible acquire the
whole machine because it is then easy to
sort out the motor connections at leisure
and you are also sure that you have the
associated capacitors. If you are taking
the whole machine make sure it has the Fig. 1.17 Dishwasher motor

19
1.15 Sealed unit freezer and refrigerator the current drops and this allows the
motors contacts on the relay to open and dis-
These are split-phase or capacitor-start connect the start winding.
motors hermetically sealed in a stout steel Starter relays are shown in Figure 1.20.
canister with their associated single- or The three connections to the motor are
two-cylinder compressor. Units from on a triangular arrangement of glass seals
refrigerators and small freezers are mostly and the starter relay plus a Klixon thermal
in the range Yio hp to % hp. The units protector is often mounted directly on
intended for domestic air-conditioning these seals.The Klixon thermal protector
units are higher power devices and may is a bimetal disc which snaps suddenly
be as large as 1hp. A typical unit is from convex in onedirection to convex in
shown in Figure 1.18. Small units are the opposite direction when the trigger
split-phase types but the larger ones use temperature is reached, breaking the
capacitor-start motors because of their power to the motor. When it cools down
better starting torque. Basic information it snaps back to its original shape and
on the motor current or power rating is restores power to the motor.
usually stamped into the casing or on In normal use these compressor units
some permanently attached metal label. are part of a hermetically sealed system
These motors are not fitted with cen- containing a fixed ‘charge of refrigerant
trifugal switches and the start winding is and lubricating oil. 1f any part of the
switched in and out of circuit by a special system is opened to the atmosphere the
current-sensitive starter relay. The circuit refrigerant escapes as gas but the oil
arrangement is shown in Figure 1.19. remains in the bottom of the compressor
When power is first applied to the motor, canister. The refrigerant is unfortunately
the main winding draws a large current of the type that damages the ozone layer
because the rotor is stationary. This and should first be removed by one of
current closes the contacts on the starter the facilities now set up for safe disposal.
relay which brings the start winding into The oil used is a specially refined
circuit. As the motor runs up to speed variety chosen to be compatible with the
refrigerant. With the refrigerant removed
this is no longer important and any of the
common light oils can be used. Shell
Vitrea 68, often used as general-purpose
lathe lubricant, works fine.
Although these motors can be removed
from their canisters and used as general-
purpose devices, it is an operation that
borders on the heroic. Sawing open the
canister is bad enough but you are then
faced with an open-frame motor soaked
in oil and with a small compressor as a
permanent part of one end plate. It may
be worthwhile if you are looking for a
motor of that particular size and shape,
but in most cases it is better to look for
Fig. 1.18 Sealed compressor unit a more suitable starting point!

20
Fig. 1.19 Compressor motor wiring

Fig. 1.20 Starter relays

21
 The main use for these units is as a of the canister.
vacuum pump or as an air compressor for The units are also useful as trouble-
small airbrushes. With the exception of free quiet vacuum pumps useful for de-
the larger units intended for air condi- aerating lost-wax casting investments or
tioners, they do not deliver enough air to as a vacuum source for solder suckers
operate a full-size spray gun. Insufficient used in electronic maintenance. Because
volume is the problem — the pressure the pressure side is vented to atmos-
that these units can generate can be phere no safety valve is needed, but care
embarrassingly high. On some units the should be taken to’ensure that the outlet
pressure outlet of the compressor vents is not obstructed and cannot be acciden-
directly to the inside of the sealed canister tally blocked. .
so that this is at the maximum pressure
of the system. No safety valve is needed 1.16 Shaded-pole motors
in normal operation because the com- Shaded-pole motors are a special form of
pressor is handling a fixed quantity of single-phase induction motor in which
refrigerant which will liquefy before any the start winding is replaced by one or
dangerous pressure is reached. However more copper shorting rings which sur-
once air is admitted, if the outlet is round part of the projecting pole pieces
blocked, the pressure in the canister will of the motor stator. In a roughly similar
continue to rise until either the motor way to the start winding of a split-phase
stalls or the canister bursts. The limited motor, the currents induced in these rings
evidence that exists indicates that the distort the pulsating field generated by
motor does not stall and the pressure the main stator to generate starting
builds up to over 500 psi with eventual torque. However, because they remain in
catastrophic failure of the canister! circuit all the time and cannot be dis-
These units must NEVER be used as connected, the losses in the rings severely
compressors unless a reliable and effec- degrade the performance and efficiency
tive safety valve is fitted. When charged of this type of motor.
with refrigerant the normal high-side They are mostly found in two- or four-
working pressure is about 250 psi, so a pole form but, because of the poor effici-
safety valve setting of 150 psi should be ency, the full-load speed is only about
pretty safe. two-thirds of synchronous speed i.e.
One problem with these units when about 2000 rpm and 1000 rpm. Full-load
used as compressors is that the air efficiency of the larger types is not much
delivery contains an appreciable amount better than 30% and the efficiency of
of oil mist. An effective filter is a six-inch the very small types found in musical
length of two-inch pipe mounted vertic- boxes and toys may be only 1% or 2%.
ally and stuffed with knitted mesh, stain- Starting torque is also poor, often less
less steel pot scrubbers. A drain cock will than half-full load torque.
be needed at the bottom to bleed off The one factor that redeems this type
trapped oil and water condensate. This of motor is that it is the simplest of the
will slowly drop the oil level in the canister induction motor family and can be manu-
so a dip stick will be needed to keep a factured at very low cost. It is particularly
check on this. The charge of oil in a small suitable for very small motors because it
refrigerator unit is about 500 ml which is needs no additional starting components.
a layer about an inch deep at the bottom Much of the design effort on these

22
motors has been directed at reducing twin-tub washing machines. They are
cost rather than improving performance, usually fitted with a fan that blows air
and this has resulted in a series of designs over the motor body. Do not remove this
which are very different from the essen- fan because the losses in this type of
tially cylindrical multi-winding configura- motor are so high that, without this extra
tion of the parent family. Some examples cooling, overheating can occur even
are shown in Figure 1.21. when operating at no load.
The motor on the right-hand side is a Since there is no accessible starting
four-pole machine with four salient poles winding, the direction of rotation of
projecting inwards on the stator. To reduce
manufacturing cost, windings are not
fitted to each pole piece but lumped into
just two coils surrounding two of the
four projecting poles. Each of the pole
pieces is fitted with a copper shading
ring which surrounds about one-third of
the pole-face area.
The motor on the left is an even more
radical departure. It is a two-pole machine
and this time the only winding is a single
bobbin-wound coil in the centre of a stack
of ‘U’-shaped laminations. A second
stack of laminations interlocks with the
first and carries the shading rings and the
tunnel for the rotor.
This second type is often found as the
driving motor for the centrifugal pump
that empties the water in automatic and

2=
i=
pare
7
7

Fig. 1.21 Shaded-pole motors

23
shaded-pole motors cannot be reversed the direction of rotation by removing the
electrically and the periphery of the rotor rotor, turning it end to end, and replacing
will always rotate from main-pole area to it in the stator tunnel. This is usually a
shaded-pole area (see Fig. 1.22) How- very simple operation involving no more
ever, it is easy to mechanically reverse than removing and replacing two screws.

24
CHAPTER 2

Three-Phase Induction Motors

2.1 General
There is a widespread belief that three- interconnected and all provided with
phase motors can only be operated from power from the three wires of the three-
industrial 415V supplies or, in the home phase source, it is also possible to use
workshop, via expensive commercial them individually. Provided the rotor is
phase converters. While there is a degree first spun up to speed any one of these
of truth in this if the motors are of the three windings can drive the rotor as a
very old three-terminal variety, it is cer- single-phase machine.
tainly not true of the now almost univer- With only a single winding energised, a
sally used six-terminal dual-voltage types. single-phase pulsating magnetic field is
With some very simple additional starting generated and, as with the single-phase
gear these motors will happily operate motors described in Chapter 1, section
from domestic single-phase 240V AC 1.3, there is no starting torque. How-
supplies and are often a convenient ever, when the other two phases are also
and low cost alternative to single-phase energised from a three-phase supply, the
machines. three magnetic fields combine in a way
which cancels the pulsations and leaves
2.2 Three-phase operation a pure rotating field. This rotating field
Three-phase motor construction is very produces torque right down to zero speed
similar to the single-phase types described so that it is not necessary to use any of
in Chapter 1, section 1.2. The key differ- the special starting arrangements needed
ence is that, instead of a single main for single-phase motors.
winding, it has three identical sets of The above is a drastically simplified
windings equally spaced round the explanation of three-phase motor opera-
circumference of the stator. Each of the tion intended only to provide a reasonable
three windings is connected to one of understanding of what is going on when
the incoming three phases. we make the changes necessary to
A three-phase motor is roughly equiv- operate these machines from. single-
alent to three single-phase motors rolled phase supplies. A fuller explanation can
into one, driving a common rotor. be found in the earlier book Electric
Although the three winding are normally Motors (Nexus Special Interests).

2D
2.3 Star and delta does not require 2 x 240V = 480V but
The three windings can be connected only V3 x 240V = 415V. This is because
together in either star or delta configura- the alternating voltages developed across
tion as shown in Figure 2.1. each of the windings do not reach their
Normal operation requires 240V across maximum and minimum values at the
each winding. For operation from industrial same time so that the total is less than
three-phase supplies the windings are con- the sum of the two individual voltages.
nected in the star configuration. Although For home workshop use we haven't
this presents two’ series-connected got 415V so we reconnect in the second,
windings to each pair of terminals, this delta configuration (Figure 2.1b) which
only requires 240V between terminals. It
must be emphasised that, although the
motor connections have been rearranged
to operate at a lower voltage, the motor
horsepower is unaffected. It will consume
proportionally more current and deliver
its full-rated power at the lower voltage
when it is supplied from a 240V three-
phase supply.

2.4 Single-phase operation

This is where the fun starts because we
have only a single-phase supply. The first
approach is to connect the supply to any
pair of the delta terminals. The motor can
now operate as a single-phase motor,
but first it is necessary to spin the rotor
(a) Star connection
up to speed because the single-phase
input does not provide starting torque.
This connection utilises all of the
copper in one winding and makes partial
use of the other two windings. Rated
full-load current is reached in the single
fully utilised winding when the motor is
delivering about half,its rated power. The
motor is still capable of delivering most
of its rated power for short periods but
sustained high-power operation will cause
the windings to overheat.
This simple stratagem may well deliver
sufficient power for occasional home
workshop applications but, in most cases,
the unused third terminal needs to be
(b) Delta connection
provided with at least a reasonable sub-
stitute for the missing third phase. Inci-
Fig. 2.1 Three-phase winding dentally it’s worth noting that a three-

26
phase motor runs as a_ single-phase
machine or as a three-phase machine —
there is no intermediate two-phase
mode. Two-phase operation requires the
different winding arrangement described Ss ) ()) =
in Chapter 1, section 1.3.
A good approximation to the required
voltage and phase angle can be achieved
ey,
by connecting the third terminal to one
side of the supply via a suitably chosen
Z, SS
Capacitor — usually called the ‘run’
capacitor (see Fig. 2.2). The optimum
value of this capacitor depends on the hp
rating of the motor, the load placed on
the motor and on the detail design of the Fig. 2.2 Run capacitor connection
motor. There is no easy way of varying
the value of this capacitor so it is usual to
select a single compromise value, usually at a higher flux density, and need rather
optimised for full-load operation. A list of less capacity — particularly in the larger
suitable values is shown in Table 2.1. sizes. The values shown in column (b)
are appropriate for operation near full
load, the values in column (c) are optimum
Table 2.1 ‘Run’ capacitors for operation at light loads.
A bonus that accrues from using a run
Rating 220/240V 50 Hz Capacitor is that the motor noticeably
hp kW (a) (b) (c) runs more smoothly and quietly. This is
because it is operating under almost true
0.25 0.18 10uF 10yF 7.5 pF
three-phase conditions and the torque
0.33 0.25 13uF 13yF OpF pulsations that occur with single phase
O15t'0137 20uF 18yF 14 uF
excitation are much reduced.
0.75 0.55 sOnre zou 1Opr
TO 0975 40uF 30puF 20pyF
2.5 Starting arrangements
Unls eae 60uF 40pF 25yuF
So far it has been assumed that some
2.0 125 80uF 50puF 30nF
unspecified method has been used to
bring the motor up to running speed
The values listed under column (a)-are because single-phase operation does not
suitable for the relatively large older type generate significant starting torque. This
motors operated somewhere near full is not strictly true because, if the full
load. The run capacitors used in the Table 2.1 value of the run capacitor is
conversions described in Chapter 9 all used, this usually generates enough
use the values specified in this column. starting torque to run a very lightly
They are maximum values and should loaded motor up to speed. If, under start-
not be exceeded. up conditions, the motor is completely
More modern externally finned fan- isolated from the load by a clutch or a
cooled motors (e.g. Figure 2.5) are much loose belt it is possible to dispense with
smaller for a given rating. These operate any special starting arrangements and

27
simply rely on the permanently wired-in mended to the experimentally minded.
run Capacitor. However, in this book, it is assumed that
If you adopt this solution be sure to you are not too bothered about the tech-
arrange a mechanical interlock on the nical niceties of the solution but want the
starting switch so that power cannot be quickest and simplest method of powering
applied to the motor unless the clutch or up your new acquisition. Two cases are
belt is first moved to the ‘off’ position. If considered which, between them, should
power is applied to the motor and the cover the majority of home workshop
rotor does not run up to speed, the requirements.
windings will overheat and burn out in a The first assumes that a complete
matter of minutes! machine has been acquired and it is
In most cases the run capacitor does desirable to use as much as possible of
not provide enough starting torque and it the three-phase control gear already fitted
is necessary to switch a larger value of to the machine. The second details the
Capacitor into circuit to increase the work needed if only the motor is available.
torque while the motor is starting and
running up to speed. What this capacitor 2.7 Complete machine set up
does is to lower the speed at which The first job is to remove the cover plate
maximum torque is generated. With a from the motor terminals and check the
very large capacitor (about 5 times the terminal arrangement. It will usually be a
‘run’ value) the maximum occurs near six-terminal dual-voltage motor with the
zero speed. Two to three times the full terminals linked in the order shown in
load run value puts maximum torque at Figure 2.3. This is the star connection for
about half speed. This produces the 415V working. Move the links to the
maximum average torque over the run- positions shown in Figure 2.4. This is the
up speed range and is generally the most delta configuration and the motor is now
useful choice. Larger values should only suitable for 240V operation.
be used on difficult loads such as com- lf it is very old machine, it may be
pressors which may need maximum a 415V single-voltage, three-terminal
torque as soon as the motor starts to turn. motor. If possible, replace it by a modern
The simple additional ‘start’ capacitor six-terminal motor. These are easily
system cannot produce balanced three- recognised without disassembly because
phase drive during the run-up period, so they are almost invariably of the totally
the average starting torque is not as enclosed externally finned variety (see
good as the original machine operated 4

from three-phase supplies. Nevertheless,

apart from air compressors (see Chapter
9, section 9.5), almost all workshop
machines start on light load so this is not
a problem.
Starting arrangements are needed to
switch the starting capacitor into circuit
while the motor runs up to speed and
then automatically disconnect it. Chapter
2 in Electric Motors describes a range of Fig. 2.3 Three-phase terminal block — star
different starting circuits which is com- connected

28
 The three wires from the motor can
now be traced back to the three heavy-
duty contacts on the starting contactor
inside the push button starter. These are
usually marked A B C. Immediately op-
posite are the three-phase input terminals
usually marked L1 L2 L3.
Disconnect the motor wires from A B
C — they will be connected later to the
Fig. 2.4 Three-phase terminal block — delta new phase converter box.
connected
Look around the contactor and the
inside of the casing for useful information
Fig. 2.5) and carry a nameplate which — the contactor coil operating voltage
says something helpful like 400V — and the thermal trip operating range are
440V/220V -— 260V. If no suitable usually displayed.
motor can be found convert the existing The coil voltage will usually be 415V
motor by the method set out in Appendix although some special-purpose contactors
1. This is not a job for the faint-hearted are fitted with 240V coils. If there is no
but, if carried out carefully, is usually indication of coil voltage check the coil
successful. resistance. A 415V coil will be about
With the links in the delta position now 1000 ohms to 2000 ohms, a 240V coil
reconnect the three motor wires. The about 250 ohms to 500 ohms.
wires will probably not be colour coded Several methods can be used to per-
so it is easy to forget which wire goes to suade a 415V contactor to operate from
where. The good news is that it doesn’t 240V. Quite the best method is to fit a
matter. As long as each motor terminal new 240V coil. These are available as
has a wire connected to it the motor will replacement items and are stocked by the
function. The only uncertainty is the better electrical supplies factors (check
direction of rotation. If this is wrong, it is your local Yellow Pages). However, if your
easily corrected at a later stage by inter- contactor is an obsolete or uncommon type,
changing any pair of wires. replacement coils may not be available.
It is possible to reduce the operating
voltage by removing about one-third of
the turns but most modern contactors
use resin-impregnated coils and this
makes it a messy and difficult business.
The most straightforward method is to
use an autotransformer to step up the
240V to 415V. This can be quite a small
item as the coil is a low-power device
and only consumes about 50mA. Small
240V to 415V transformers or autotrans-
formers are quite rare, but fortunately
the coil voltage is not at all critical pro-
vided it is at least 400V. Common items
Fig. 2.5 Six-terminal, three-phase motor in electronic equipment applications are

29
240V to 240V isolation transformers transformer is the low-voltage bench
and one of these (Maplin part No DH50E light systems used on some of the older
is suitable) can be used with the secon- industrial machines. These incorporate a
dary voltage added to the primary voltage small transformer to reduce the mains
(i.e. connected as an autotransformer) to voltage to twelve or twenty-four volts to
deliver 480V. It is essential that the feed a low-voltage, high-intensity bench
primary and secondary connections are light. Some (but not all) of these trans-
in the right sequence to deliver 480V — formers are provided with OV, 240V and
if either the primary or secondary con- 415V connections on the transformer
nections are reverse connected the primary to enable the lamp to operate
transformer will not be damaged but, from a 240V single-phase supply or from
instead of adding, the two winding vol- the 415V line-to-line voltage of a three-
tages will cancel out and deliver zero phase system. If a lamp transformer of
volts! this type is operated on 240V single phase
When wired to the starter, the centre- there is ample spare power available
tap of the autotransformer is connected from the OV and 415V connections to
to neutral so the full 480V only appears operate a 415V contactor coil in addition
across the operating coil; the maximum to feeding the normal lamp load.
voltage from either end to ground is only With the coil voltage sorted out the
240V. Nevertheless, don’t forget that thermal trip is the next item. All induction
you are dealing with high voltages here motors, both single phase and three
— be very sure that the mains power phase, take large starting currents when
is disconnected before touching any they are first switched on, perhaps three
possibly live parts. to six times full-load current. Fuses or
Do not be tempted to add a resistor circuit breakers in the mains input have
to drop the output to 415V. The initial to pass these large current peaks without
current taken by the contactor coil when rupturing and, while they protect the
it starts to operate is very much higher wiring against short circuits or extremely
than the final holding current and it will large overloads, they cannot protect the
fail to operate if series resistance is motor against a comparatively small sus-
added. For a 415V coil, 480V is well tained overload. The motor will happily
within the acceptable range and, in fact, accept short starting surges but a long-
some coils of this type are rated for term overload of as little as 1% times
415V and 550V operation. full-load current will eventually burn out
The comments above refer to industrial the windings. Motor starting contactors
grade contactor coils which have an are provided with thermal trips to solve
ample margin of safety under normal this problem.
operating conditions. The comments may On the contactor these take the form
not be true for less generously designed of three bare wire heating coils which
items. To be sure, the contactor should surround bimetal strips which bear against
be run operated from the step-up trans- a trip bar. Because of the mass of metal
former for at least an hour and a careful involved it takes five or ten minutes for
watch kept for signs of overheating. The the bimetal strip to reach its final temp-
coils | have checked run no warmer than erature. The short starting surge is
hand-hot after this treatment. ignored but, after a sustained period in
An alternative source of a suitable excess of the rated current, the bimetal

30
strip heats up and this makes it bend far visible and accessible (Fig. 2.7). It will
enough to operate the trip bar. This opens normally be connected for 415V three-
the contactor by breaking the circuit to phase operation as shown in Figure 2.8a
the contactor coil. and b with the 415V coil-operating
Because we have reconnected the voltage obtained from wire (a) connected
motor in delta to operate at 240V the to the L3 terminal and a link connecting
motor will take roughly twice as much the trip contact to L1.
current (1.732 x) per phase. This is now
supplied by two wires instead of three so
the maximum safe supply current is now
a bit more than twice the original current
per phase. Most three-phase motor
contactors have a calibrated adjuster
which can be used to set the thermal trip
current to any desired value over about a
2:1 range but this is not enough. For-
tunately there is an easy solution — we
simply connect all three sets of contacts
(L1/2/3 & A/B/C) in parallel and wire the
triplet in the live side of the 240V input.
This trebles the calibration of the thermal
trip adjuster and brings the motor current
within its setting range.
A popular starter/contactor found on
many machines is the MEM Auto Memota
(Fig. 2.6). When the front cover is re-
moved the contact arrangement is easily Fig. 2.6 MEM Auto Memota starter

Fig. 2.7 MEM Auto Memota starter

31
 : = = Spare
te i. Terminals

Operating
f Coil iy

Wire (a)

To
415V| 3 Phase
Motor Input

- Thermal Trip
=<
= asiustment knob
@

Start cMae er Stop

Button Button

Fig. 2.8a 475V connections

Supply

Thermal trip
contact
Fig. 2.8b 475V wiring

32
 Operating 11
1 o Coil @ Maplin DH50E 25VA Iso
i

———$—
| Pre w inns
| (S000 F000 8
| Pri Sec

|
| Liveto
Converter 240V Live
|

Neutral to eat ual 240V Neutral

Converter

Fig. 2.9a 240V connections

Live to
Converter

To
Supply

Neutral to Thermal trip

contact Neutral
Converter

Fig. 2.9b 240V wiring

 The coil circuit should be isolated by contactor to 240V operation and the
disconnecting the wire (a) from L3. At next job is to manufacture the phase
the extreme back of the contact assembly converter. This is a very simple unit —
there are two spare unconnected ter- the circuit arrangement is shown in
minals. Reconnect this wire to one of Figure 2.10 and atypical completed unit
these terminals. in Figure,2.11.
Now rewire the starter/contactor to This unit houses both the start and run
the arrangement shown in Figure 2.9a capacitors and the starting circuits. The
and b. The transformer T1 is too large starting system uses a relay which leaves
to fit inside the starter case but can be a starting capacitor connected across
fitted in any convenient location or the motor terminals long enough for the
mounted in the box housing the phase motor to run up to speed and then dis-
converter. connects it ready for the next starting
These two changes convert the motor cycle.

C1 10nF 450V Maplin 10PC450V JL11M

E2 See Table 2.3
CS See Section 2.5
R1 10kohms 3W Maplin W10k W/W Min
D1 400V bridge rectifier Maplin WO4 QL40T
RL1 240V 2P C/O 10A Maplin 240VACDPDT JG600
Relay socket Maplin SKT 10A 8P JG54J
Terminal block Maplin 15A HL54J

Live

Neutral
(Gert
tas ok
Fig. 2.10 Phase converter

34
Fig. 2.11 Phase converter

When power is first applied, C1 is rating when operated from an AC supply.

initially completely discharged and the When, as in this circuit, the AC is rectified
start capacitor C3 is connected across to DC, the operating current level is
the M1 and M2 terminals of the motor. reached at a much lower voltage. R11 is
The voltage between M2 and M3 is low included to adjust the AC cut-in voltage
because of the heavy current taken by to about 200V.
the stationary motor. As the motor runs Although, at first sight, it would seem
up to speed the voltage across M1 and better to switch the start capacitor directly
M2 rises and C1 charges up through R1 in parallel with the run capacitor, this
and D1. When the voltage across C1 circuit uses RL1 to select one or the other
reaches about 9OV RL1 operates. This and avoids the parallel connection. This
disconnects the start capacitor C3 and is to avoid the very high-peak currents
replaces it by the run capacitor. The which would otherwise occur when an
motor continues to run with the relay initially uncharged capacitor is connected
operated and the run capacitor in circuit. to a second capacitor which may already
When the motor is switched off, C1 be charged up to the peak value of the
discharges through the relay coil ready mains voltage.
for the next start cycle. Information on suitable capacitor types
DC operation is chosen for RL1 to is given in Chapter 8.
make it possible to use a standard relay The circuit values are chosen for 240V
at a lower operating voltage. Although operation using a start capacitor C3 two
RL1 is nominally a 240V relay, this is its to three times the value listed in column

35
(a) of Table 2.1 and a run capacitor C2 parts are safely earthed.
from column (b) or (c). The power input to the starter contactor
These values are suitable for the great for motors up to 1%hp rating can be
majority of small workshop applications from the normal domestic ring main via a
e.g. lathes, mills, shapers, circular saws, standard 13A fused plug. Larger motors
drill presses etc. should be supplied from their own per-
If operating from 220V supplies, or manently wired fuse box. Appropriate
using a less sensitive type of relay, it ratings are shown in Table 2.2.
may be necessary to adjust the value of
R1. The easiest way of doing this is to Table 2.2
add a second resistor in parallel with R1 Fuse ratings — single phase operation
to lower the cut-in voltage — 20 kohms
Motor Power Fuse rating
parallel connected will be about right for
220V operation Up to 1hp/0.75 kW 13 A
lf a large start capacitor (four to five 1% hp/1.1kW 20A
times Table 2.1 values) is used to increase 2hp/1.5 kW 20A
the starting torque, the voltage on the
capacitor-fed phase will rise very rapidly
with speed and RL1 may cut-in and These fuses protect only the wiring to
disconnect the start capacitor too soon. the motor. Long-term'lesser overload pro-
A small increase in the value of R1 can tection is provided by the thermal trips in
cure this but the adjustment will be fairly the starter/contactor. Workshop Electrics
critical. A better solution is to delay the (No. 22 in the Nexus Special Interests
cut-in by a large increase in the value of Workshop Practice Series) gives good
C1 — 100unF is a good starting point. advice on the installation of suitable
Construction is straightforward. The workshop power points.
terminal block and the relay mounting With the motor electrics safely in place
base provide convenient termination you should now have a working instal-
points for C1, R1 and D1. R11 gets fairly lation which will behave in much the
warm so it should not be in direct contact same way as the original three-phase set
with PVC wiring. C1 is an electrolytic up. But there is one important point of
Capacitor and must be connected the difference that should be remembered. If
right way round — the negative wire is a three-phase motor is so heavily over-
indicated by a white stripe with - - - loaded that it comes to a standstill, the
markings. Make sure that the unit is motor will restart assoon as the overload
properly enclosed in an earthed metal is removed. Under some conditions, a
case and that all live parts are safely three-phase motor phase converted by
protected against cutting fluids and these methods will not restart but remain
accidental contact. at standstill. The stop button must be
With the phase converter completed, pressed to remove power and reset the
connect the original three motor wires to starting circuits.
the converter output. Connect the con- Motor sizes are normally chosen to be
verter input to the switched 240V live large enough in relation to the machine
and neutral outputs from the modified size, so that this can never happen.
starter contactor. Check all connections Single- or three-phase motors should
and make sure that any exposed metal NEVER be overloaded to a standstill.

36
However, if some accidental foulup should
jam up the works it is important to remove Live
power before the motor overheats.

2.6 Motor only conversion

This is basically identical to the complete 240V in
machine set up, but with the starter/
contactor replaced by a simple on/off RL1

switch or by push buttons operating a

latching relay. Neutral
Both systems have the disadvantage
that there is no thermal cut-out to give
protection against long-term small over- Fig. 2.12 No volt release
loads. They should not be used for un-
attended equipment operation as a worst
case overload fault could result in burnt- This facility should always be provided
out windings. For this sort of operation a on larger or particularly hazardous
thermal push-button starter or a starter/ machines such as circular saws.
contactor should be used. Figure 2.12 shows a latching relay
Simple on/off switching is normally arrangement which both provides push-
acceptable for the smaller workshop button starting and ‘no volt release’
machines but lacks a ‘no volt release’ protection. This is a useful arrangement
facility i.e if the machine is left switched for small motors up to about % hp, but
on during a power failure it will start for larger motors it is better to use a
without warning when power is restored. standard starter/contactor.

37
CHAPTER 3

Commutator Motors

3.1 General
Commutator motors are an entirely dif- points and these points are connected to
ferent type of motor. This time the main a rotating switch (the commutator). The
winding is on the rotor (now called an commutator consists of a circular array
armature). It rotates within a _ fixed of copper bars that rotate with the arma-
magnetic field provided, either by a set ture. Two or more fixed contacts (usually
of windings on the stator (now called carbon brushes) bear on this commutator.
the field) or by one or more permanent As the armature rotates, this automatic-
magnets. The armature and field assembly ally switches the current flow to different
of a commutator motor is shown in points in the windings so that the inter-
Figure 3.1. 4 action between these currents and the
The armature winding is tapped at many fixed field always produces a torque

Fig. 3.1 Commutator motor components

38
which tries to rotate the armature in the the back EMF is no longer equal to the
same directio‘. applied voltage.
A commutator motor can act both as a If a mechanical load is now placed on
motor and as a generator. If the armature the shaft, the armature will slow down a
is rotated, it will generate a voltage and little more until enough current flows to
this will appear across the brushes. This generate the torque necessary to turn
voltage, called the Back Electromotive the shaft.
Force (back EMF), is directly proportional Commutator motors come in four main
to the speed, the fixed field strength types:
and the number of turns in the armature
Permanent-magnet motors
winding.
Shunt-wound motors
If a voltage is applied to the brushes,
Series-wound motors
current will flow and the torque that this
Compound-wound motors
produces will start to rotate the armature.
This rotation of the armature will gen- For a particular supply voltage, shaft
erate a back EMF which will oppose the speed and output power all four types
applied voltage. In a perfect motor, with could use the same armature. The differ-
no mechanical or electrical losses, the ence lies in the field arrangements.
speed will rise until the back EMF equals
the applied voltage. Because the two 3.2 Permanent-magnet motors
voltages are now equal, no current can These come in a wide range of sizes but
flow and the armature will then be are particularly popular in the smaller
rotating at a speed directly proportional sizes. They are the most efficient type of
to the applied voltage. commutator motor because no power
In areal motor there will be mechanical is required to maintain the permanent
and electrical losses. This causes the magnet field. A range of PM motors is
armature to slow down slightly so that shown in Figure 3.2.

Fig. 3.2 Permanent-magnet motors

39
 This type of motor must run from a DC and shaft speed are only one pair of a
or a rectified AC supply because the wide range of equally valid shaft speed
direction of shaft rotation is controlled by and operating voltage pairs.
the polarity of the supply. The direction of These comments on higher voltage
rotation can be reversed by interchanging operation mainly apply to low voltage
the connections to the armature. motors that operate at a modest speed.
In an ideal PM motor the speed is A good example is the 12V 4A fan motor
directly proportional to supply voltage fitted to many car heaters. These run at
and the current drawn from the supply is about 5,000 rpm simply because, at any
directly proportional to the torque load higher speed, the fan would be too noisy.
on the shaft. The larger PM motors are With the fan removed, they will run at
over 80% efficient so their performance 18V and deliver about 1% times their
is reasonably close to that of a perfect normally rated power. (Do not leave the
machine. The shaft speed of a PM motor fan on — at 1% times the rated speed a
can be varied over a wide range by control fan absorbs more than three times as
of supply voltage and, at any set voltage, much power and that will certainly over-
the speed only drops slightly as the load load the motor!)
on the shaft increases. _ Mains-voltage or high-speed motors
This is very different from the induction are not generally Suitable for running
motors that we have looked at so far. much above their nameplate voltage.
Induction motors are designed to operate Mains-voltage motors may suffer from
at a fixed speed from a specific supply excessive commutator sparking or even
voltage and frequency, and these operating complete flashover. High-speed motor
conditions cannot easily be varied. designs are usually the result of an
It is perhaps obvious that a PM motor attempt to achieve.maximum power at
can be operated at a reduced voltage if minimum size and cost. The distribution
lower speed and power output are of losses is different and any increase in
acceptable. What is less obvious is that, voltage is likely to do more harm than
in some Cases, it is equally permissible to good.
operate it at a higher than normal supply Care should be taken when running
voltage and deliver more power than its any motor above its rated speed especially
original rating. in the larger sizes. The, centrifugal forces
The important rating in a PM motor is on the armature conductors increase
the armature current. At low and medium four times when the speed is doubled so
shaft speeds the major power loss in the there is a danger that the windings may
motor is the result of this current flowing break loose. The bindings and the resin
through the resistance of the armature impregnation systems used in most motors
windings. The supply voltage controls are fairly rugged and this is unlikely to be
the shaft speed but has a much smaller a problem at modest speeds. Nevertheless
effect on the power dissipated within be very sure to choose your working
the motor. Provided the rated maximum conditions so that if the armature does
armature current is not exceeded, the fail the results are not a danger to you or
supply voltage can be varied over a wide anyone else.
range both above and below nameplate Apart from a few specialised types, PM
voltage to suit the desired operating con- motors use ferrite permanent magnets.
ditions. The nameplate operating voltage This is a black ceramic-like material

40
which can operate at a high enough be connected directly across the armature
magnetic flux density for most motor supply and will typically absorb 5% to
applications and has the great advantage 10% of the input power. If the shunt
that only a short length of magnet is field is connected to a separate fixed
required. A common form of construction supply the motor will behave in exactly
uses a soft iron tube which forms the the same way as a PM motor. This con-
outer casing of the motor. The magnetic nection is frequently used if the applica-
material takes the form of two radially tion needs the speed to be varied over a
magnetised arcs which are bonded to the wide range by control of armature voltage.
inside periphery of the cylinder. A shunt-field motor can be reversed by
For most purposes these magnets can changing the polarity of the armature
be regarded as truly permanent. They do voltage or the field voltage. It is occasion-
not wear out and are not degraded by the ally useful to be able to reverse a shunt
normal use of the motor. However some motor by changing both i.e. reversing the
specialised types of motor use a different supply voltage. This is possible with the
type of magnet material and, in some arrangement shown in Figure 3.3. In this
circumstances, this can become partially case the bridge rectifier ensures that the
demagnetised. In extreme cases this can field current is always in the same direc-
also occur with ferrite magnets. For tion and the change in supply polarity
more information see Appendix 3. only affects the armature.
With the shunt field in its normal con-
3.3 Shunt-wound motors nection, directly across the armature,
In these motors the permanent magnet the speed change that would normally
field is replaced by an electromagnet accompany a change in armature voltage
usually composed of two saddle-shaped is almost cancelled out by a similar change
coils fitted to a stack of laminations that in field strength. For a small voltage range,
form a two-pole field assembly (see Fig. about the design operating voltage of the
3.1). This type of motor cannot be used motor, the speed is almost constant. The
on AC supplies so the special character- range in the upward direction is limited
istics of laminated iron circuit are not because of non-linearities in the iron
essential. Larger motors often use solid circuit and also by overheating of the
iron yokes with bolted on pole pieces. field windings. In the downward direc-
Occasionally a four-pole field assembly is
used. In an induction motor the number Forward +ve
of poles in the stator controls the shaft
Reverse -ve
speed of the motor. In a commutator
motor it has no major effect and the
number of poles is mainly chosen as a
matter of manufacturing convenience.
Any of the commutator motor types may ©
use a multi-pole field, but apart from
noting that the angle between the brush
holders is changed (to 90 degrees with Forward -ve

a four-pole field) it makes no practical Reverse +ve

difference to the user.

The shunt-field winding is designed to Fig. 3.3 Shunt motor reversal

41
tion the efficiency of the motor worsens paratively few turns of thick wire. Because
as the field strength reduces with con- it is connected in series with the armature
sequent reduction in speed. (Fig. 3.4a) the field current is now always
Nevertheless, a shunt-wound DC motor equal to the armature current. This
operated from a fairly constant voltage increase in field current with increase in
source is a good approximation to con- armature, current results in a drooping
stant speed motor and very suitable for speed/torque characteristic i.e. the speed
the type of application that would drops as the load on the motor increases.
normally use an induction motor. In a perfect loss-free series-wound
The constant speed can be varied over motor, operating from a fixed voltage,
a small range in the upward direction by the shaft speed Halves each time the
putting a variable resistor in series with torque load on the motor is quadrupled.
the field winding. The efficiency and If no load at all is placed on the shaft, the
speed regulation get rapidly worse as the speed would rise without limit. In a real
field is weakened so this is only really motor, resistive losses in the armature
suitable for trimming the motor to a par- and field result in the speed dropping
ticular speed rather than changing the more rapidly as the load is increased.
speed by any large amount. Speed can Air resistance and increasing iron losses
be reduced by putting a variable resistor limit the no load speed.
in series with the armature but the results This speed/torque characteristic is use-
are even less satisfactory. Large amounts ful for some vehicle traction requirements
of power are dissipated in the resistor but in the workshop the constant speed
and the speed is then very dependent on characteristic of the: shunt-wound motor
the mechanical load. is usually preferred. The inherent tendency
of series-wound motors to overspeed
3.4 Series-wound motors can be dangerous and operation without
The construction of series-wound motors shaft load should be avoided. Many of
is almost identical to the shunt-wound the smaller types can withstand at least
variety but with the difference that the short periods of no-load operation, but
field winding is now made up of a com- some of the larger or higher speed types

Fig. 3.4 Series motor connections

42
can reach speeds high enough to cause connection ensures that the current in
conductors to break loose from the the armature reverses at exactly the
armature. same time as the current in the field
Series-wound motors can be reversed windings so that the torque is always
by the same methods as shunt-wound maintained in the same direction.
motors, Figures 3.4b and 3.4c show the A shunt-wound motor does not behave
details. Split-series motors (Fig. 3.5) are in the same way. The shunt field has a
often used in applications that require high inductance and when operated from
frequent reversal. These use a separate an AC supply this inductance both
field winding for each direction of rota- reduces the field current and delays the
tion to simplify the switching arrangements. time at which it reverses. The reduced
field current drastically reduces the torque
that the motor can generate but this is
only part of the story. The current in the
field does not reverse until sometime
after the current in the armature has
reversed. This means that for part of
each cycle of the supply frequency the
torque generated is in the wrong direc-
tion! This results in the net output ranging
from nothing to a tiny fraction of its DC
performance.
The field winding of a series-wound
motor also acts as an inductance but,
Fig. 3.5 Split-series motor because of the reduced number of turns,
it is much smaller in value and has only a
Reversing works fine on motors oper- minor effect on motor operation. This
ating at speeds of up to a few thousand inductance behaves as a sort of AC
rpm because the brushes are in the sym- resistance in series with the motor which
metrical neutral position and the direction slightly reduces the full-load speed and
of rotation doesn’t matter. However, power. It also has the useful effect of
many series-wound motors are high- limiting the maximum current that can
speed machines and these have the brush flow if the motor is severely overloaded.
assemblies rotated slightly away from AC operated series-wound motors
the neutral position to improve commu- (often called ‘universal motors’) are used
tation (i.e. to reduce sparking). These in portable power devices such as vacuum
motors can still be reversed but there will cleaners, electric drills and power saws.
then be a some loss of efficiency and They are also used in fixed domestic
increased sparking at the commutator. devices such as washing machines, spin
The key advantage of the series-wound driers and food processors. The portable
motor is that it is that it is the only type devices are often fitted with simple
of commutator motor that can work speed control systems based on a triac
directly from AC mains supplies and, power semiconductor and a few associ-
because of this, it is more widely used ated components. These work mainly by
than any other commutator motor type. controlling the average value of the input
It can operate on AC because the series voltage to the motor. The output speed

43
still drops as the load on the motor armature is stationary because, with
increases and the speed range is fairly insufficient field current, it cannot dev-
limited, but the additional cost is small elop enough torque to turn the load. A
and the performance is generally good stationary armature draws a very large
enough for the intended application. The current from the supply. This may cause
circuit arrangements used are very similar such a large voltage drop in the supply
to the electronic dimmers used in domestic leads that the shunt-field current can
lighting and some of these dimmers are never reach the value needed to turn the
suitable for speed control of small series load and the motor will fail to start.
motors. In a compound-wound motor, the series
Automatic washing machines use a field turns only contribute a small part of
more complex control system to achieve the field flux — perhaps 5% or 10% at
tight speed control over a wide speed normal full-load current — so the motor
range. This is a true closed-loop speed behaves almost as a pure shunt-wound
control system and is discussed in machine. Now, at start up, flux from the
Chapter 5. series field is available as soon as current
starts to flow and with a 10% series
3.5 Compound-wound motors field, full-load torque is available when
Compound-wound motors carry both the initial starting current reaches about
shunt and series field winding. They are three times normal full-load current
basically shunt-wound motors with a (torque is proportional to the product of
small additional series field to modify the field current and armature current). This
starting characteristics. They are only torque is current controlled and is still
encountered in the larger sizes and the available even if the heavy current has
terminal block often uses the coding dropped the supply voltage well below
shown in Figure 3.6. normal.
In large motors the shunt-field current The magnetic flux from the series
may take a second or so to build up to its winding must always aid the shunt-
final value. For much of this time the winding flux and this must be maintained
if the motor is reversed. Motors can be
reversed by reversing the connections to
LE NAG
the armature or by reversing the con-
nections to both the series- and the
shunt-field windings.
If it is necessary te operate a straight-
Ni shunt machine on long supply leads, the
AA starting problem can be eased by using a
four-wire cable — two wires for the field
and two for the armature. There is still a
delay while the field builds up to full
strength but the large armature currents
that flow no longer cause additional voltage
drop in the field supply cables and the full
ie A field strength is available. Since the field
Current is much smaller than the full-load
Fig. 3.6 Compound-wound motor connections armature current, thinner cables can be

44
used for the field supply — typically Ys power motor to achieve 1,000 rpm spin
to 410 of the copper cross section of the speed. Variants of these types of motor
main armature cables. are fitted to different makes of washing
machine but these two frame sizes are
3.6 Common types of commutator motor representative of the common types.
Commutator motors are manufactured in Normal full-load speed of both types is
an enormous range of sizes and types about 8,000 rpm. The smaller motor can
but, for home workshop use, motors from deliver about % hp and the larger about
domestic machinery and automobiles are 1 hp. Both are fitted with a very small
the most readily available and with a little eight-pole permanent magnet generator
ingenuity they can be used in a wide mounted on the end plate at the com-
range of workshop applications. mutator end of the motor. The frequency
Domestic washing machines are a of the AC output of this generator is
fruitful source of useful motors. In their converted to a voltage by a frequency
original application they are reasonably to voltage converter in the electronic
well protected against overloading and control system and used to monitor the
misuse and most are still fully functional shaft speed of the motor.
when the machine is discarded. These motors are obvious candidates to
Figure 3.7 shows two ex-automatic replace the induction motors normally used
washing machine motors. The smaller to drive small lathes, milling machines
one on the left is from one of the first of and pillar drills. They have ample power
the automatics to change from induction and the possibility of varying the speed is
motors to series-wound commutator a useful plus. However, a fair amount of
motors in the quest of more power at work is needed to turn them into useful
less cost. The larger motor on the right is workshop workhorses. If a quick and
from a later model fitted with a higher simple method of powering a machine is

Fig. 3.7 Automatic washing machine motors

45
needed, and you are not looking for linear contact resistance of the carbon
variable speed, then an induction motor brushes. This high brush contact resis-
is a better bet. One point that should not tance only appears because the ohmmeter
be overlooked in the home environment measures the resistance at a very low
is that an induction motor at a leisurely voltage and current. At normal operating
1,425 rpm. is a great deal quieter than a voltage and current the resistance will be
commutator motor screaming away at much lower and the voltage drop across
8,000 rpm. each brush contact will be less than a
Two factors usually determine the volt. %
choice. First, if you really need variable 3. There may be no overtemperature
speed then this is the best way to go. sensor. If one is fitted it may be a self-
The second, and usually overriding, resetting bimetal thermostat or a thermally
reason is that if you’ve already got the sensitive resistor for use by the elec-
motor it seems a pity to throw it away! tronic control system. The bimetal thermo-
The first thing to do is to sort out the stat will normally read zero ohms. Posistors
connections. These are unfortunately are used for thermal sensing read an ohm or
not standardised but the connections are so at room temperature but suddenly rise
quite easy to identify — the following to a much higher value at their trigger
notes should help. - temperature. s
The next step is to check that the motor
1. There may be up to 9 connections
runs. Secure the motor to the bench and
No of Typical earth the frame. These are large high-
connections resistance speed series motors and should NOT be
run unloaded at full voltage. Even if the
Armature 2 2 ohms armature remains intact, the bearings
(see note 2) and frame are not designed for operation
Series field 2 2 ohms at these speeds (over 20,000 rpm!) and
AC generator 2 180 ohms you are likely to encounter early bearing
Overtemperature Z (see note 3) failure or fatigue cracks in the compara-
Motor frame 1 — tively light frame.
(earth)

2. Armature connections are easily dis-

tinguished from the similar resistance
series field by lifting one brush. This will
make the armature connections read
open circuit but make no difference to
the resistance measured at the field con-
Electric
nections. The true armature resistance
Fire
measured between diametrically opposite
Element
bars of the commutator will be about 2
ohms. The apparent armature resistance
measured with an ohmmeter at the input
terminals may be considerably higher —
as much as 10 ohms because of the non- Fig. 3.8 Series motor test rig

46
 Connect the motor as in Figure 3.8 wound motors in the power range 10 hp
with a 750W or 1,000W electric fire to %hp. In spin driers these motors
element connected directly across the frequently operate at full voltage with no
brushes. The current flowing through the more load than a vee belt and an empty
fire element passes sufficient current spin tub so no-load operation is quite
through the field windings to limit the no- close to their normal use. The no-load
load speed to a safe value — this arrange- speed is about 18,000 rpm and they run
ment has the same effect as adding a at this speed without obvious signs of
small shunt-wound field winding to the distress. Some types are fitted with an
normal series field. The motor should run external cooling fan — it is important
at close to its normal operating speed that this is retained both to prevent over-
with little or no sparking at the brushes. heating and to limit the no-load speed.
A little sparking is permissible but sparks They are useful for low-power, variable-
that leap across one or more commutator speed workshop applications — Chapter
segments are sure indications of a faulty 9 describes a fretsaw powered by one of
armature — fortunately a fairly rare event. these motors.
The electric fire element shunt is a Vacuum cleaner motors are high-power,
useful dodge for checking these motors high-speed series-wound machines. Older
out on the bench but it’s rather wasteful types deliver about %2 hp and more recent
of power. These motors are designed to high power types more than 1 hp. This
operate under electronic speed control performance is only possible because
and, to make good use of them, they need they operate at very high speed and are
at least one of the simpler forms of elec- very efficiently cooled by the whole air-
tronic control. Suitable speed controllers flow passing through and round the motor.
are described in Chapter 5. Robbed of this airflow and operated at a
lf the motor is to deliver its full power more modest speed they become undis-
it must be allowed to reach about 8,000 tinguished machines operating at an
rpm. They’re fairly noisy at this speed awkward supply voltage — too high for
and for the sake of a peaceful life you batteries and inconveniently low for
may settle for half power and about mains operation. They lead a hard life
4,000 rpm. Because many machine tools and motors in discarded machines are
can leave the motor running with almost rarely in good condition.
no load on it, itis not advisable to run the Portable power appliances are almost
motor at full mains voltage unless it is equally unpromising. Their shaft speed
fitted with some form of speed controller. and cooling requirements are more modest
If it is replacing an induction motor, at but, once again, the most frequent cause
least one additional stage of speed of early retirement is motor failure. In
reduction will be needed to bring the full addition, the motor is often built as an
load output speed to the 1,000/2,000 integral part of the appliance casing and
rpm region. Vee belt reductions are not operation as an independent unit is hardly
very satisfactory at high speeds and with practicable
small pulley diameters. Timing belt or Occasionally it may be desirable to
poly-vee belt drives give better results. extract a little extra power from these
This is discussed further in Chapter 5. smaller 240V AC series-wound machines.
Spin driers are another useful source This can be done by operating them from
of motors. These are rather smaller series- a rectified supply instead of directly from

47
the mains (see Fig. 3.9). The rectifier Continuous rated items are windscreen
tries to charge C1 to the peak value of wiper motors and fan motors both from
the supply voltage. If no current is drawn interior heaters and also from the main
C1 will reach about 330V. If driving a radiator. Windscreen wiper motors may
motor load this will drop to perhaps be series wound. or permanent magnet
280V to 300V but still well above the types and many have a two-speed facility.
normal 240V AC input. Even if C1 is Older types used a tapped series field
omitted there will still be a significant winding, later types use an alternate
increase in power because, when sup- brush position or an electronic regulator.
plied from a DC source, the inductance There is often very little depth avail-
of the field coils no longer reduces the able for main radiator fan motors so they
voltage reaching the armature. This is, of tend to be short, large diameter designs.
course overrunning the motor — usually Some use a very different ‘pancake’
OK for intermittent operation but watch motor design in which the conventional
out for overspeeding or overheating. radial magnetic field is replaced by an
axial one (Figure 3.10). The armature
takes the form of a thin disc of con-
ductors and does not need an iron core.
In vehicle use the main advantage of this
form of construction is its low cost and
its very shallow depth. In the workshop
it can be treated as an ordinary PM motor
but the unusual shape tends to be a handi-
cap rather than a help. Specialised types
of these axial field motors are manufac-
tured for use in high performance servo
systems which can take advantage of the
very low inertia of this form of armature.
Fig. 3.9 240V motor boost These are described in Electric Motors
(Nexus Special Interests).
Motor vehicles are a good, but often Car heater fan motors already mentioned
expensive, source of motors suitable for in section 3.2 are useful little machines
battery operation. The problem here is either for battery-powered equipment or
that the seller assumes that the motor is run from the mains through a transformer
needed as a replacement part for a rectifier set. The sample shown in Figure
treasured vehicle and even the most 3.11 has a speed constant of about 500
grotty sample tends to be sold at about rpm per volt over the useful operating
half the price of brand new spare. range of 6V to 20V. Safe full-load current
Window motors, sunshine roof motors is about 4A.
and seat adjustment motors produce a Many modern commutator motors are
lot of power for their size but are all fully enclosed and it may not be immedi-
intermittent rated. They cannot be used ately obvious whether it is a series-wound,
continuously at their full 12V to 14V shunt-wound or permanent-magnet
rating but can produce quite useful con- machine. A simple way of discovering
tinuous outputs when operated in the 3V this is to apply a few volts to the motor
to 6V range. terminals and observe what happens

48
Fig. 3.10 ‘Pancake’ motor

Fig. 3.11 Car heater motor

when the supply is reversed. If the direc- shunt-wound machine will still continue
tion of rotation reverses when the supply to draw its field current from the supply.
is reversed it must be a permanent- A series-wound machine will draw no
magnet machine. If it continues to rotate current at all.
in the same direction, lift one brush. A A once useful, but now fairly rare, item

49
is the car dynamo. Dynamos run very or near the motor. Sometimes a separate
happily as motors but the appropriate packaged interference suppressor is used.
voltages are rather different. A 12V car Automatic washing machines use a
dynamo designed to deliver 30A at its special unit looking rather like a capacitor
‘cut-in’ speed of 2,000 rpm must connected across the mains near the
actually generate about 16V because the point at which they enter the machine.
normal charging voltage will be at least Examples are shown in Figure 3.12.
13.5V and a further 2V to 3V will be lost Suppression components should be
in the armature resistance and brush retained and installed with the motor in
drop. For it to run at the same speed and as near their original position as possible.
current level as a motor the field current If the original suppression components
must be maintained at its previous level, are not available a useful reduction can
but the armature requires the 16V opera- be obtained by connecting a 0.01 pF
ting level plus the 2V to 3V lost in the capacitor directly between the brushes
armature resistance and brush drop i.e. using the shortest possible leads. Ceramic
18V. Capacitors are the best type to use. For
To merely duplicate its lowest ‘cut-in’ mains-voltage motors they should be at
operating speed at least 18V is required, least 500V rating (e.g. Maplin No BX15R/
but this is not the end of the story. Car 10,000 pF — 10,000 pF is exactly the
dynamos are rated to operate up to at same as 0.01 uF — it is just a matter
least 6,000 rpm and operation as a of using different units to describe the
motor at this speed needs about 5OV. same value of capacitance!). If this does
Somewhere between these extremes is not give enough reduction then add a
reasonable and 12V on the field and 24V triple capacitor motor suppressor and a
on the armature results in a constant pair of RF suppression chokes (see Fig.
speed motor running at about 2,800 rpm Sill Sis
with a continuous rating of about % hp. For larger motors, a washing machine
Higher voltage operation of a dynamo suppressor unit installed in the incoming
as a motor Is not overrunning it but
simply using a different part of its speed/
voltage characteristic. The same com-
ments do not apply to the field. This
must continue to operate close to its
original rating — any significant increase
in field voltage will lead to overheating. A
small reduction to trim the speed is OK but
any large reduction ruins the efficiency.

3.5 Radio interference

A point that should be remembered is
that all commutator motors are prolific
generators of radio interference — mainly
in the medium and long wavebands.
Modern equipment using commutator
motors is fitted with interference sup- Fig. 3.12 Washing machine radio interference
pression components usually mounted on suppressor

50
 mains lead is usually the best solution.
In all cases the wires between the
L1 motor and the suppression units can
radiate interference. To control this,
| Sup 1, To Motor these wires should either be covered
|
|
with an earthed metal braid or be located
entirely within an earthed metal enclosure.
L2
Neutral

Fig. 3.13 Radio interference suppression

Sup 1 Maplin HWO7H Delta Cap

L1&L2 Maplin HWO6G 3A RF SUPPRESSOR CHOKE

Sil
CHAPTER 4

Overhaul and Reconditioning

4.1 Induction motors insulation. If the motor is of the totally

Induction motors are fairly reliable devices enclosed variety itis better to remove at
and, if you have selected your acquisition least one of the end bells so that air can
with care, in all probability there will be circulate freely around the motor windings.
nothing wrong with it. However, if you are Once you are sure the windings are dry
unlucky, the likely problem areas are bear- use the ohms range of a multimeter to
ings, starter switches and start windings. check that there is no short circuit or
Before starting overhaul, the first thing excessive leakage.between motor wind-
to do is to ensure that the motor is dry. ing and the external metalwork. The
Motors can withstand being soaking wet ohmmeter should indicate infinity i.e.
for surprisingly long periods and mech- open circuit — anything less than many
anical failure from rust is likely to occur megohms shows that the insulation is
before the electrical insulation is perm- faulty or not properly dried out.
anently damaged PROVIDED that power With the insulation checked out, now
is NOT applied to a wet or damp motor. make a direct and reliable connection
Leakage current flowing though damp between the motor metalwork and the
insulation can form carbon tracks which, electricity supply earth. This is essential
in time, will lead to complete failure. If to ensure that, when power is eventually
the motor has been wet at any time it is applied, insulation failure or a miscon-
essential to ensure that the windings are nection cannot result in ‘live’ metalwork.
thoroughly dried out before applying Finally anchor it safely to the bench so
power. This can take a long time at room that a sudden start or stop doesn’t make
temperature but even a small amount of it leap off the bench.
heat can accelerate the process. A fan Use the methods described in Chapters
heater or hot air gun for an hour or so are 1 and 2 to identify the appropriate con-
useful accelerators, but leave a reasonable nections and apply power to the motor to
gap between the heat source and any check that it runs — there is no point in
exposed windings to ensure that the air overhauling the mechanics of a motor
is never hot enough to damage dried out that’s electrically dud!

52
 If it fails to start the most likely faults tages it is of little use for this sort of
are: test because the digital display does
not change fast enough to give a clear
All machines indication of the kick. Some of the more
Broken lead out wire expensive digital multimeters have a
Burnt-out main winding facility for directly measuring capacitance
but this is limited to low values of capaci-
Single-phase machines
tance — less than 20 uF.
Faulty centrifugal starter switch
There is a very wide range of different
Burnt-out starter winding
designs for the centrifugal switch but the
Dud starting capacitor
types of fault encountered are pretty
standard. There is either some mechanical
Most of these faults are easily identified fault or obstruction which prevents the
by visual inspection. The difficult item is weights flying out and reclosing at the
the capacitor — usual faults are open appropriate speeds, or the switch con-
circuit or short circuit. Partial loss of tacts are badly worn or excessively dirty.
Capacitance is possible but infrequent — Major faults are rare and clean up of the
if this is the problem it will show up as contacts followed by a careful check of
reduced starting torque, not as failure to the mechanics will usually restore the
start. Short circuits are easy to detect switch to working order.
with a multimeter. Open circuits will Burnt-out main windings are a different
appear as absence of the initial ‘kick’ of kettle of fish. Unless there is something
the needle when a multimeter switched totally unique about the motor it is just
to the ohms range is first connected to not worth the time, trouble and cost of a
the capacitor. rewind.
With a good capacitor there should be A burnt-out starter winding on a split-
a significant kick when the meter is first phase motor is a marginal case. The
connected and the needle should drop starter winding is a small winding which
back to zero reading, i.e. infinity ohms, only occupies a few slots and it can often
as the capacitor charges up to the full be removed and new windings inserted
voltage of the battery in the multimeter. without disturbing the main winding. If
There should be little or no kick if the you're feeling lucky, it may be worth
meter is briefly disconnected and recon- the effort. If you’re tempted to try this,
nected because the capacitor should examine the main winding very carefully
retain its charge. If the meter is then at any place where it has been in contact
disconnected and then, without delay, with the burnt-out winding to make sure
reconnected with the leads reversed a that the insulation has not been damaged.
somewhat larger kick should be observed If the motor is electrically OK then
as the capacitor first discharges and then check for excessive play in the output
recharges in the reverse direction. shaft bearing and listen for untoward
These tests are easy to carry out with noises when the motor is run up to speed.
an analog meter and the size of the kick With a motor fitted with plain sleeve
gives some indication of the value of the bearings it should run quietly apart from
Capacitor — more pF results in a more a little vibration and the low-pitched hum
pronounced kick. Although a digital multi- from the 50OHz excitation. If the motor
meter has many compensating advan- has led a long hard life there may be

53
significant play in the output shaft bear- replace the offending bearing. Bearing
ing but sleeve bearings are pretty tolerant replacement used to be the automatic
of reasonable wear and catastrophic choice but many modern motors are
failure is unlikely. Unless you are a per- basically designed as throw away rather
fectionist no action is needed. Unless than repairable items and it may be very
there has been a lubrication failure, the difficult to remove the faulty bearing
bearing at the non drive end of the shaft without damaging the rest of the motor.
is usually OK. Very often it is safer not to attempt to
The sleeve bearings are usually sintered remove the bearing in one piece but to
bronze pressed into the end housing and destroy it and remove it piecemeal. Grind
carry enough oil in their porous structure right through the*outer race at one point
for many hundreds of hours of normal — it can then usually be sprung clear of
operation. Larger or more heavily loaded the inner ring plus caged balls assembly.
bearings may also be surrounded by an If it is a heavy-duty bearing it may first be
oil-soaked felt pad which acts as an addi- necessary to first grind a deep flat or
tional oil reservoir. In either case a little groove on the outer race, diametrically
extra oil is helpful. It is usually impossible opposite the gap, to weaken the strength
to discover the original manufacturer’s oil of the resultant ‘c’ spring.
recommendation. For low-speed motors Remove the exposed cage and bails
(less than 3,000 rpm) | use the machine and grind a pair of generous flats on
oil (Vitrea 68) that also lubricates my opposite sides of the exposed inner race.
lathe and mill. For higher speed motors | Continue the grinding on at least one of
use the readily available ‘3 in one’ oil or the flats until the thinnest part of the
sewing machine oil. The important thing inner is only a few thou thick. With the
is to avoid the use of grease because this inner gripped in a vice by the two flats,
clogs up the pores and interferes with a forceful twist will crack it open at the
the intended capillary fed lubrication. thinnest point and it will slide easily off
A motor fitted with ballraces needs to the shaft.
be treated rather differently. Ballraces Occasionally the dud race is easily
are inherently noisier than sleeve bearing accessible but is still very difficult to
so a somewhat higher noise level at remove. This usually means that it has
operating speed is not a cause for alarm. been secured with one of the anaerobic
The key test is to slowly rotate the rotor locking compounds. In this case the
by hand and feel for any roughness, bearing will be a sliding or very light
grating or radial play. Ballraces tend to interference fit and if the assembly is
live a long and trouble-free life until they heated to about 150°C, the glue will
start to develop fatigue cracks in the soften and the bearing can be slid off
surface of the inner or outer race tracks. easily. This must be done while the
Small scales of the track surface break assembly is still hot because, as soon as
away and mix with the grease to form a it cools down, the glue regains much of
sort of grinding paste. Once this process its strength.
has started, deterioration is rapid and the Ballrace sizes are pretty standard and
remaining useful life is at best measured it should not be too difficult to obtain a
in tens of hours. replacement from a specialist bearing
If roughness or grating is detected the supplier. However it may be worth con-
choice is either to scrap the motor or sidering that you are very unlikely to

54
 need the thousands of hours of use that in the domestic oven at 100°C. Don’t
the correct :eplacement can endure. A forget to put something under the bear-
replacement made in the form of a plain ing to catch any oil that may leak out
bearing mounted in a dummy of the during the cooking process. The bearing
ballrace may well be all that is needed. will then readily slide onto the shaft but
Oilite sintered bronze bearing sleeves are it is important that it is pushed quickly
readily available in appropriate sizes and and without hesitation to its final posi-
mounted in a suitable slug of mild steel or tion — once the bearing has made good
light alloy are a simple replacement for contact with the shaft it almost immedi-
an expensive or hard to find ballrace. ately cools to shaft temperature and the
If you choose to use a replacement benefits of the preheating disappear.
ballrace remember that you must NEVER A fairly common bearing fault is a
force it on to the shaft by applying pres- bearing that passes the slow rotation
sure to the outer race. The inner race is test with flying colours but appears to
an interference fit on the shaft and con- have a lot of radial play and is rather
siderable force is needed install it. If this noisy when run up to speed. This is
force is transmitted via the outer race usually a good bearing that has worn a
and the balls, the contact pressure is clearance between its outer ring and the
high enough for the bails to make small end bell housing of the motor.
indentations on the race tracks and this In initial manufacture, the fit of the
will cause early failure. bearing outer into the housing is quite
If possible use a press or a vice to critical. It cannot be a heavy interference
provide steady controllable pressure via fit or the forces required to assemble and
a sleeve sliding over the shaft and disassemble the motor will be too large
butting squarely against the race inner. A and damage the race tracks. Equally,
light dab of anti-scuffing paste or molyb- there must not be significant clearance
denum disulphide grease will act as an between the bearing and the housing or
extreme pressure lubricant and lessen the the housing will not properly support the
chance of a slightly misaligned bearing outer ring and it will flex very slightly as
seizing on the shaft. This is a fairly trouble- the peak loads transmitted by the balls
free set up and you should have no rotate round the inner circumference.
problems. Although this flexure is extremely small
Life is a bit more difficult if the rotor is it causes the outer ring to slowly ‘walk’
too big to fit in the vice or the press and round the inside of the housing. There is
it is necessary to drive the bearing on to no lubrication at this interface and, over
the shaft with hammer blows. A suc- a long period of time, wear increases the
cessful installation is still possible but clearance to the point where the motor
you need to be sure that the driving becomes unacceptably noisy. If the motor
sleeve is a close fit on the shaft and that is disassembled it is quite easy to spot
you use a good heavy club hammer. A this — even in the early stages. A blue-
light blow with a heavy hammer is safer black discolouration develops on the
and more effective than a heavy blow bearing outer which contrasts strongly
with a light hammer. with the normal fine-ground finish.
The force required to install the bearing Provided the wear is not excessive an
can be greatly reduced if it is first ex- easy and permanent cure is to secure the
panded by cooking it for twenty minutes bearing in its housing with one of the

55
anaerobic locking compounds. A high- back and forth until the brush end takes
strength compound is not needed. up the curvature of the commutator. If
Loctite 270 is formulated for this sort of the correct brushes are not available look
application and is easy to use. If the wear for a larger brush intended for a motor of
is severe (>0.010”) it approaches the similar operating voltage — low-voltage
gap-filling limits of most anaerobics and motors need fairly soft high-conductivity
it is better to use an epoxy resin (Araldite brushes, high-voltage motors need a
or similar) but these are high-strength rather harder brush material and need not
adhesives and will probably make future be quite so conductive. Brush material
disassembly difficult or impossible. If can be machined with carbide-tipped
you are using either of these adhesives tools but it is difficult to hold the brush
to clear this problem make it the final securely without cracking it. Unless a
step in the overhaul process and allow large amount of material needs to be
the adhesives to cure with the motor removed, it is usually simpler to rub it
fully assembled and mounted with the against a sheet of 60 grit ‘wet or dry’
shaft axis vertical — this gives the best paper stretched over a flat surface.
chance for capillary forces to centre the If you are replacing brushes, be sure
bearing in its housing. the commutator is in good condition. If it
is at all worn it is worth reconditioning it
4.2 Commutator motors because new brushes will both bed in
Commutator motors have the same mech- quicker and last longer on a freshly
anical problems as induction motors but machined commutator. Brand new spare
the brushes and the commutator may motors will have. bright copper com-
also need attention. mutator bars. After a few hours of use
Carefully inspect the commutator and the area swept by the brushes settles
brushes. Withdraw each brush from its down to an even blue-black colour. All
holder being careful to observe its orien- commutator bars should have a similar
tation. Check that it is a reasonable appearance. One or more bars unusually
length, that it moves freely in its holder worn or a different colour indicates a
and that the business end is properly faulty armature. A commutator will nor-
formed to the shape of the commutator mally outlast several sets of brushes so a
and free from chips or erosion. If the badly worn commutator is an indication
brushes are OK and the commutator is an of a faulty motor, or one that has seen
even blue-black colour, without obvious a great deal of use. Badly worn com-
signs of wear, refit the brushes being mutators can be skimmed to provide a
careful to maintain their original orien- new surface but, unless there is a good
tation. This is a classic case of ‘if it ain’t reason for rescuing that particular motor,
broke don’t fix it’. If a motor passes this it is better to look for a more promising
inspection the commutator and brushes sample.
are nicely bedded in and are best left well If you decide to skim a commutator take
alone. great Care to ensure that the new surface
If the brushes are in poor condition is truly concentric with the armature shaft.
they should be replaced and bedded in by Most motors have 60° conical centres cut
wrapping a small strip of 400 grit silicon into each end of the shaft so that it is
carbide ‘wet or dry’ paper round the com- both possible and convenient to true the
mutator (grit side out!) and working it commutator with the armature mounted

56
between centres. the tool to the shape shown in Figure 4.1
Some lack this useful feature. In this and then stone a small radius — Yea” or
case support the commutator end of the less round the cutting corner. This is
shaft in a fixed steady and grip the drive the only part of the tool that does any
end with a collet chuck or reasonably cutting so be sure that it is really sharp
accurate three-jaw self“centering chuck.
The obstruction posed by the fixed steady
will usually make it impossible to reach
the commutator with a lathe tool so use
an appropriately sized combination centre
drill to cut a new centre in the exposed
Radius
end of the shaft. The fixed steady can 1/64" max
now be removed and the commutator
end of the shaft supported from a hard
centre mounted in the tailstock.
If you haven’t got a fixed steady, bolt Side and front
a lump of hardwood to the cross-slide. clearance 10 deg
Lock the cross-slide so that it cannot
accidentally be moved. With a drill
mounted in the headstock chuck use the
normal carriage traverse to drill a hole
right through the hardwood. Use a sharp
drill of the same nominal size as the shaft
at the commutator end. Much depends
on the drill, but in most cases the fibres Fig. 4.1 Tool geometry
of the wood close up slightly when the
drill is removed. You are then left with a and that the 10° front clearance is main-
hole which is exactly on centre height tained right up to the cutting edge — itis
and a very light interference fit on the better to have too much rather than too
shaft end. This hole replaces the fixed little front clearance.
steady and the rest of the operation can Machine at about 200 FPM, 0.005”
proceed exactly as described in the depth of cut and fine feed until the old
previous paragraph. worn surface is completely removed.
Recommended tool geometry for gen- Then take the final finishing cuts at not
eral purpose machining of pure copper is more than 0.001” infeed. At these very
7° front clearance, 7° side clearance, light cuts cutting fluid is not needed as a
10° back rake and 25° side rake, HSS coolant but a little light oil or soluble oil
tool at surface speed of 100 FPM to 200 may make it easier to obtain a good
FPM. In practice, at the very light cuts finish.
typical of commutator skimming, the Inspect the commutator carefully after
tool geometry is not at all critical and if machining. Small slivers of copper may
you simply grind up a tool with plenty of bridge or intrude upon the intersegment
top rake and front clearance (about 20° separators and these must be carefully
and 10°) it will cut fine. Two important removed. Care is very important here as
points are the tip radius and the fact that it is only too easy to accidentally scratch
the tool must be really sharp. Fine grind the freshly machined commutator surface.

Sif
 It is slightly easier to guide a tool that is
oot
pulled rather than pushed so a broken
hacksaw blade ground to the hook shape
shown in Figure 4.2 is useful.
Motor manufacturers may or may not
undercut the intersegment insulation.
High-voltage motors with mica _ inter-
segment insulation are usually undercut.
Low-voltage motors or motors with moulded
plastic insulation are often left flush. Be
guided by the construction in the unworn
part of the commutator surface. Com-
mutators that are intended to have under-
cut insulators usually have sufficient initial
undercut to survive one or two skimming
operations. If the commutator is a type that
needs undercutting, and it is also badly
worn, carry out the necessary deepening
of the undercuts before skimming.
Fig. 4.2 Hook tool Accidental scratches on the copper: are
almost inevitable when digging away at
the undercuts but these are then auto-
matically removed by the subsequent
skimming process.

58
CHAPTER 5

Speed Control

5.1 General both single- and three-phase induction

Many items of workshop equipment need motors is controlled by the supply freq-
to be operated over a range of different uency and the number of poles in the
speeds and variable speed motors are a stator (see Ch. 1, section 1.2).
very convenient means of providing this The maximum speed cannot exceed
facility. However, not all motors are the synchronous speed corresponding to
suitable for speed control and, even on the supply frequency. If an attempt is
suitable types, operation below the rated made to operate at reduced speed by
design speed necessarily sacrifices output reducing the supply voltage, the initial
power. Motors are essentially constant speed change will be quite small as the
torque devices — for a given frame size motor tries to stay close to its natural
the maximum torque that a motor can synchronous speed. With further reduc-
deliver is almost independent of speed. It tion the motor speed falls to the speed at
sounds very attractive to have a 10:1 which it develops maximum torque —
speed range but at the lower end of its usually about two-thirds of the synch-
speed range the motor can only deliver ronous speed. With any further reduction
Yio of its full-speed rated power. If a the torque developed is insufficient to
wide range electronic variable speed drive the load and the motor abruptly
system is to be used to eliminate or stalls.
reduce the need for mechanical speed The above comments apply to the sort
changes then an appropriately larger of induction motors normally used to
motor is needed to provide sufficient power workshop equipment. Some types
power at lower speeds. of induction motors are manufactured
In this section it is impossible to avoid for use in servo mechanisms or to drive
the use of some electronic jargon. In most variable speed overhead fans. These are
cases the meaning should be evident from special-purpose low-power machines
the context — in addition, a list of defi- that make heavy sacrifices in efficiency
nitions can be found in Appendix 4. to obtain the convenience of voltage-
controlled speed. The nearest common
5.2 Induction motors equivalent to these is the small shaded-
In normal operation, the shaft speed of pole motor. These can be voltage con-

Se,
trolled over about a two to one speed few hp the electronic controllers operate
range if they are operated with very light from 240V single-phase supplies so, with
loads or just driving a small fan. three-phase output, this is also a con-
For motors suitable for the general run venient way of operating three-phase
of workshop machinery the choice is motors from single-phase supplies.
limited to pole changing motors or opera- With both the frequency and output
tion from electronic variable-frequency, voltage under direct electronic control it
controlled-voltage inverters. These change is easy and inexpensive to add bells and
the supply frequency to the value needed whistles to this type of inverter. Typical
for the desired output shaft speed. features are:
Pole changing motors are single- or Automatic overload protection
three-phase motors provided with inde-
Torque limiting
pendent sets of windings that enable Acceleration limiting
them to operate as normal induction Preprogrammed speed profile
motors at two or three fixed speeds. The
Soft start option
speed change is made possible by dis-
Remote speed control
tributing the windings round the stator
so that each set of windings generates a Apart from overload protection (which
different set of magnetic pole pairs — is universally provided) and remote speed
typically 2, 4 or 6 pole with corresponding control these features are very limited
full-load speeds of 2,850 rpm, 1,425 rpm value to the home user and should not be
and 950 rpm. They are rather larger and allowed to divert attention from the
more expensive than their single-speed usually dominant constraints of price and
counterparts. Now that electronic variable- physical size!
frequency speed control is becoming These controllers control the motor
more affordable this is the more com- speed from the motor’s normal 50Hz rated
monly chosen option. : speed down to less than 100 rpm. Both
These electronic controllers first the torque developed and the power dis-
rectify the single- or three-phase input sipated within the motor are approxi-
power to generate a DC supply and then mately constant over the whole of this
use digitally-controlled semiconductor speed range. If the motor is fan cooled it
switches to convert this to AC power at may be necessary to add a separately
a frequency controlled by an internal driven external fan to cool the motor
oscillator. The control system also adjusts when operating at the lower end of the
the output voltage to the value required speed range because the internal fan
by the motor for each output frequency cannot shift enough air at low speeds.
and corresponding shaft speed. Some controllers allow the motor to
Systems of this type are basically Operate at speeds above the 50OHz rated
capable of driving single-phase or three- speed — typically up to twice this value.
phase motors but are usually configured However, both the motor power and
to drive standard 240V delta-connected output torque reduce when the set speed
three-phase machines as this avoids the is increased, so that this higher speed
complications of the special starting range is only useful on comparatively
circuits needed by single-phase motors light loads.
when operating from variable-frequency Remote speed control is a useful option.
supplies. For motor powers of up to a Few home workshops ever operate more

60
than one machine at a time so it is per- only do this if they are connected as
fectly practicable to use a single controller intended. One wrong connection or a
to supply a number of machines — a short circuit between two printed board
typical combination could be a lathe, a tracks can divert enough of the load
mill and a pillar drill. Simple on/off switch- power to instantly destroy one or more
ing controls the power distribution but it of the control components. If you are
is very useful to have the option of a lucky a wisp of smoke may indicate
remote speed control mounted on each which one but, in many cases, more than
machine. one component is damaged and there are
For lathe and milling machine use, the no visible signs of failure. This turns
electronic controllers are probably the what should have been a straightforward
most desirable speed control system of assembly and test operation into a lengthy
all — they are quiet, reliable, easy to and frustrating detective exercise.
install and cover a wide speed range with The moral of this is to check, check
good speed regulation. The downside is and check again before applying power
that, in spite of more affordable pricing, to the set up. Some of the set ups use
they still remain the Rolls-Royce of speed stripboard with the components soldered
control systems. The average home user to closely spaced copper tracks. Inspect
will find it hard to justify the expense the space between the tracks very care-
and will look long and hard at cheaper fully — it is easy to accidentally bridge
alternatives. this space with a tiny sliver of solder.
Also check that all the required breaks in
5.3 Commutator motors the tracks are present and in the correct
position.
5.3.1 General
It is much easier to control the speed of 5.3.2 General-purpose triac controller
commutator motors. By suitable choice This is a simple triac controller of the
of armature and field operating condi- same general type that is fitted to portable
tions the shaft speed can be varied from electric drills, food processors and similar
a few rpm to many thousands of rpm, domestic variable-speed devices. Figure
mostly from simple home-brew controllers 5.1 shows the circuit arrangement and
assembled from low-cost components. component list. Figures 5.2 and 5.3 show
An enormous variety of control systems the mechanical layout when assembled
are possible but to keep life simple, a few on standard copper track strip board.
types are described here which, between Q2 is the main power control triac.
them, should cover the majority of home This is a semiconductor device that is
workshop requirements. normally open circuit. and prevents any
Inevitably many of these circuits require power reaching the motor terminals. If
the use of small electronic components triggered ‘on’ by a short pulse from Q1 it
soldered to printed boards. This technique remains on for the rest of that half cycle
may be unfamiliar to some readers but of the supply frequency. It automatically
there is nothing inherently difficult about switches ‘off’ as the input supply voltage
it and your success rate should be high. passes through zero and does not switch
The important thing to remember is that on again until another pulse is received
the tiny components which control from Q1.
hundreds of watts of load power can Triacs are bidirectional devices — they

61
 C) FIELO

ARMATURE

R1 4.7 kohms 0.6W Maplin M4K7 C1 0.1 uF 250V" Maplin BX76H

R2 22kohms 0.6W Maplin M22KO C2 0.033 250V © Maplin BX730
R3 100 ohms 0.6W Maplin M100 C3 0.01 n 250VAC Maplin JR31J
VR1 220kohms 0.4W Maplin FWO6G Z1 250L 250VAC Maplin HW13P
Q1 DB3 Diac Maplin OLO8J Q2 C246M 600V/16A Maplin UR31J
Hardware
Stripboard 2939 Maplin JP47B Spade connectors (M) Maplin AS33L
Heatsinks Maplin FG55K Spade connectors (F) Maplin AS30H
Connector covers Maplin AS31J

Fig. 5.1 GP triac controller

can be switched on by a positive or a cycle of the supply frequency that the

negative pulse at the gate electrode and, voltage on C2 reaches the level needed
when on, can pass current during both to switch on Q1 and Q2. If VR1, the
the positive and negative half cycles of speed control, is set near maximum resis-
the supply frequency. tance Q1 and Q2 do not switch on until
Q1 is a bidirectional trigger diode usually almost the end of each half cycle. They
called a diac. It is a semiconductor device are off most of the time and the average
that is normally open circuit but suddenly voltage reaching the motor is very small.
breaks down and turns itself on if the If VR1 is set to zero, Q1 and Q2 switch
voltage across it reaches 32V in either on almost at the very beginning of each
direction. In this circuit it is used to half cycle and the full mains voltage
discharge C2 into the gate of Q2 and reaches the motor.
thus switch Q2 on whenever the voltage C1 is the main timing capacitor in this
on C2 reaches 32V. network — the value chosen allows VR1
VR1, R1, C1, R2 and C2 are the com- to control all the way from zero output to
ponents that control the time in each half full power. Higher or lower (up to about

62
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+ 100% or —50%) values can be used current connector so it helps to lubricate
to alter the range of speeds covered by the contact faces with a trace of Vaseline.
VR1. A 25W or 40W soldering iron is needed
C3, R3 and Z1 are protective com- to solder these pins to the stripboard
ponents added to prevent fast transient tracks. If you are limited to the smaller
voltages upsetting the proper operation 15W size then gently preheat the con-
of Q2. nector tab with a butane lighter.
Q2 is specified as a 6OOV 16A device It is essential that the triac is firmly
which provides an adequate margin of bolted directly to the heatsink so that
safety for motor powers of up to about metal to metal contact is maintained as
1hp and should be sufficient for all the heatsink temperature cycles over its
normal workshop applications. If you are full range from room temperature to about
sure that it will only be used with smaller 100°C. To ensure this, a 7.5mm clear-
motors such as spin drier motors, then a ance hole is provided in the stripboard so
6O00V 8A device will do. However, the that the securing bolt operates directly
difference in cost is not large and the on metal-to-metal surfaces and is not
extra safety margin is worth having. The affected by the rather large thermal
triac used to control the main commutator expansion coefficient of the stripboard
motors in automatic washing machines material. $
is usually a GOOV 12A device and is also The copper tracks are only suitable for
suitable for use in this controller. currents of up to a few hundred milliamps
The triac only has to handle large peak so the triac connections are not routed
currents and transient voltages during the through the copper tracks but soldered
brief period after power is first applied to directly to the spade connectors. There
a motor while the armature is starting to is no suitable termination for the gate
turn. Once normal operating speed is connection of the triac so a flexible wire
reached the current and voltage require- is soldered to the triac leadout and taken
ments are quite modest. The triac is then to hole X17 on the stripboard.
working at a small fraction of its full- With the remaining components. in-
power ratings so that it only needs a serted and soldered in, inspect the board
small heatsink. very carefully looking particularly for any
The construction is quite straight- point where a soldered joint may have
forward — first drill the additional holes accidentally bridged adjacent tracks.
and then cut away the copper tracks at Once you are sure that all is well, to test
the points shown in Figure 5.3. A special it, connect the VR1, speed control to the
tool is available to do this but for the few end connectors and a 6OW light bulb to
breaks needed on this board a little the armature and field connectors. With
careful work with a sharp knife is all that power applied RV1 should control the
is needed. lamp brightness smoothly from zero to
Next fit the spade connectors to the full brightness. Once you are sure that all
two ends of the board. These come with is well on a lamp load it is safe to try it
straight mounting pins which should be out on a Suitable motor. Don’t forget that
bent over at right angles and mounted in the whole the board (including the heat-
the 1.5mm holes marked XX in Figure sink!) is live at mains potential — unplug
5.3. The insertion and removal forces it from the mains before touching any
can be rather high with this type of high- part of it.

64
 This sort of controller is fine for the easily converted to the equivalent shunt-
smaller series-wound universal motors wound machine by supplying the field
driving a fairly constant load — it is the current from a separate rectified low-
type used to drive the power fretsaw voltage supply. The ubiquitous automatic
described in Chapter 9, section 9.7. How- washing machine motor is normally series
ever, it simply controls the average power connected, but it is quite easy to convert
input to the motor and takes little account by this method.
of motor speed. At maximum power The arrangement is shown in Figure 5.4.
setting an unloaded series-wound motor The low-voltage transformer is chosen to
can still overspeed. supply about the same field current as
the load current of a fully loaded motor.
5.3.3 Series-shunt controller The armature current is still routed
A big improvement in speed regulation through the series-field winding as this
can be obtained by rectifying the output has the twin benefits of both reducing
of the GP triac controller and using it to the peak starting current and also in-
supply either a permanent-magnet motor creasing the torque. On very heavy mech-
or a wound-field motor provided with a anical loads, once the armature current
separate field supply. exceeds the shunt-field current, the extra
240V permanent-magnet or shunt- series-field current results in more field
wound machines are not too common. ampére/turns and this increases the
However, series-wound machines are maximum torque.

G.P, TRIAC CONTROLLER

D1 JO4 400V 10A Maplin BH46A

D2 & D3 MR7/54 Maplin YH97F
Te Ze ONE CONA Maplin DH30H

Fig. 5.4 Series-shunt controller

65
 Be very careful to ensure that the motor controlling small motors operating from
is connected as in Figure 5.4 which routes low-voltage transformers. The principal
the low-voltage shunt-field current through disadvantage is that it is only suitable for
the field windings in the same direction use with permanent-magnet machines,
as the armature current. If either of the or wound-field machines with a separate
rectifier Connections are reversed the fixed field supply. Series-wound universal
armature current will oppose the shunt machines do not generate enough back
field — the motor will fail to start and EMF for it to work properly.
probably take enough current to blow The arrangement is shown in Figure
your fuse protection! Of course, it is OK 5.5. This time the triac is triggered ‘on’
to connect the field winding either way by the voltage at*the slider of RV1. Over
round to suit your choice of direction of several cycles of the supply frequency
rotation. the motor accelerates until it reaches the
This controller plus one of the larger speed when the back EMF that it gener-
ex-automatic washing machine motors is ates exceeds the peak voltage at the
a useful variable-speed set up for driving slider of VR1. This reverse biasses all
the average small workshop lathe, milling four diodes of D1 which prevents the
machine or drill press. If replacing a trigger electrode from switching the triac
1,425 rpm induction motor an additional on again at the néxt positive or negative
speed reduction of about 1:3 to 1:4 will half cycle. The triac will now remain off,
be needed to enable the new motor to until the speed and the corresponding
operate in the middle of its useful speed back EMF drops enough to allow the
range. triac to switch on-again.
A gear reduction stage is likely to be At low-set speeds and light loads the
too noisy and the preferred choice is a triac will remain off for a number of cycles
poly-vee belt or a timing belt drive. A of the supply frequency. At higher speeds
0.2”/5mm tooth pitch timing belt will and loads the triac switches on at every
easily handle the power provided the half cycle but the length of each ‘on’
motor pulley has more than 18 teeth. period depends on the motor speed and
Teeth are an unnecessary luxury on the load.
larger driven pulley as, at this diameter, The length of time that the triac is on
friction will provide sufficient drive in each half cycle is controlled by the
torque with a flat-faced plain pulley. difference between the back EMF of the
Since neither pulley face is crowned both motor and the set voltage at the slider of
pulleys should carry flanges to keep the the speed controh potentiometer. This
belt centred. It is perhaps natural to think is a form of closed-loop feedback and
of metal for the large pulley but at these results in good speed regulation.
belt speeds the forces involved are quite In this circuit, the downside is that it is
small and plywood pulleys have more not possible to switch the triac on for
than sufficient strength. If the thought of less than a quarter of one cycle of the
wood on your machine offends you, then supply frequency. On very light loads, at
spray the pulley with aluminium paint low-set speeds, a quarter cycle may con-
and nobody will know the difference! tain enough energy to cause the motor to
accelerate well beyond the set speed.
5.3.4 Low-voltage triac controller When this happens, the triac controller
This very simple controller is useful for switches off and waits for the speed to

66
drop back to the set level before it current the motor will probably only run
provides another pulse, so that the motor over the top quarter rotation of RV1 and
hunts between the set speed level and a may not reach full speed.
higher level. This only occurs at low- The values in Figure 5.5 are chosen to
speed settings and disappears as soon as suit the input voltage range 9V to 30V.
either the set speed is increased or the Below 9V the voltage needed to switch
mechanical load on the motor is heavy the triac on is too large a fraction of the
enough to limit the speed increase from supply voltage. Above 30V too much
a single impulse. power is dissipated in VR1.
In practice this is only really bothersome The triac type should be chosen to suit
on a lightly loaded motor at low speeds. the motor — a 400V 8A device should be
If the motor is delivering significant power sufficient for most applications.
to a load, the effect is either absent or When switched on there is a voltage
the impulses are so closely spaced that drop of a bit less than 2V across the
the speed of the motor is almost constant. triac. For anything over 1A continuous
This circuit relies on the fact that most full-load current the triac will need to be
triacs need very little current to trigger bolted to a heatsink to get rid of the heat
them on — much less than the manufac- that this generates. For load currents of
turer’s guaranteed limit. | have checked up to 6A the small heatsink used in the
this circuit out with a wide range of triac general-purpose controller mentioned in
types from several manufacturers with section 5.3.2 is adequate. For higher
current ratings of up to 16A. Most worked currents a larger heatsink can be used
fine so you are unlikely to have prob- but it is usually more convenient to bolt
lems. If you should be unlucky enough to the triac directly to the metal case of the
get a triac that needs a excessive trigger controller so that the whole case acts as

VR1 1kohms 2W Maplin YPO5F

R1 100 0hms 0.6W Maplin M100
D1 PWO1 100V 6A Maplin WO58N
Q1 CF225D 400V 8A Maplin UR36P

Fig. 5.5 Low-voltage triac controller

67
a heatsink. The mounting faces of most At light loads, when the motor is con-
triacs are ‘live’ so they must be insulated nected to the rectifier, the DC output
from the metal case. Insulating kits are voltage rises and is higher than the AC
available (Maplin Kit P Plas, WR23A) but, input voltage. This happens because on
unless you already have the triac, it is light loads, the motor tries to accelerate
more convenient to use the CF225/246 to the speed corresponding to the peak
series of triacs which are already fully value of the rectified DC. It doesn’t quite
insulated and can be bolted directly to a achieve this but it reaches a speed high
case without additional hardware. enough for the back EMF to exceed the
normal average value of the rectified
5.3.5 Variac speed controller output. It is this that is responsible for
For the experimenter who is determined the higher measured voltage at the motor
not to get involved in electronics this is terminals. The motor behaves rather like
an extremely simple, but more expensive, a capacitor — it only draws current for
speed control system. A Variac is a short periods near the peak value of the
variable transformer that can operate input voltage and this causes the average
from the 240V AC supply and deliver an value of the voltage at the motor terminals
output that is continuously variable from to lie somewhere between the RMS and
zero volts up to 240V. On some types the peak (see Appendix 4) value of the
there is an alternative tapping point that input voltage.
then allows the output to be varied from Both the speed and the back EMF drop
OV to 270V. Maplin DM96E or DM97F as the load on the motor increases and
are suitable for this use. at full load, the motor will be drawing
They can be used to directly control a current for most of the time. The rectified
series-wound universal motor without voltage and speed can be expected to be
any additional equipment. However, this about two-thirds of the no-load figures.
perpetuates the very poor speed regula-
tion of a series-wound motor and it is 5.3.6 Commercial speed controllers
much better to rectify the output of the You may be tempted to try to adapt one
Variac and use the rectified output to of the many different types of speed con-
control a permanent-magnet motor. troller boards fitted to automatic washing
The no-load performance on a typical machines. In some cases this is possible
motor is shown in Tabie 5.1 but it is an exercise that can be difficult
and frustrating. Unless you are a hardened
electronic experimenter it is better to
Table 5.1 Motor performance
content yourself with recycling the triac
and the transient suppressor. Both of
AC input DC to motor Shaft speed
volts volts rpm these items are suitable for use in the
controller described in section 5.3.2 .
50 56 1,600 The main problem is that the boards
Ws 87 2,900 are optimised for operation at two or
100 119 4,100 three widely separated fixed speeds and
150 187 6,600 not intended for variable-speed operation.
200 PAS 8,900 In addition, there are many different
240 303 10,700 types of board and a fix suitable for one
may be useless on another.

68
 The following pointers may be helpful. should be reduced to 1 pF.
The timing capacitor (usually 0.1 pF)
(a) There will be two heavy current spade which determines motor speed connects
tags usually marked ‘N’ and ‘F’. to pin 10 via a small signal diode. The
N goes to 240V AC neutral. Wiring other end connects to the slow-start
loom colour code — grey/blue. Capacitor. Some variation of the controlled
F goes to one motor field connection. speed can be made by varying timing
Wiring loom colour code — red/blue. resistors associated with this part of the
The remaining field connection links circuit, but wide-range speed control is
to one armature connection. better carried out by switching in different
The remaining motor armature connec- values of timing capacitor — 0.068 pF to
tion goes straight to 240V live. 1.0 uF is the useful range.
(b) There will be a multiway connector — Most of the examples in this book have
usually 16 pin. One or more of pins 14, been thoroughly tested and, unless you
15, 16 will go to a high power resistor. have been very unlucky with your par-
This is the 240V live connection — the ticular sample of a motor type, should
cable loom wire is usually colour coded work as described. However, this does
white/blue. not apply to this section. If you happen
(c) At the opposite end of the connector, to find the right type of control board this
pins 1 & 2 are the tacho generator connec- set up can work very well indeed. But
tions — both grey wires in the cable loom. equally you may well waste a lot of time
(d) Three or four cable loom wires go to on an unsuitable module and finish up
the middle pins of the connector. These with no useful result!
are the control pins and each of them
goes directly to separate high value 5.3.7 DC controllers
resistors. Usual colour codes — green/ The controllers so far described all rely
black, brown red,black and grey/black. on the use of an AC supply to. switch
Green/black to the almost adjacent 240V triacs or operate transformers. Although
live pin switches the motor on. 240V live special switching circuits can be used to
to one of the other pins selects the enable SCRs and triacs to operate from
operating speed mode. DC supplies, the operating conditions
(e) Because triacs prefer negative going need to be tightly controlled and are not
trigger, the low-voltage rail is negative very suitable for general purpose home-
with the common positive connected to brew controllers.
240V neutral. A better type of device for battery and
DC supplies is the power MOSFET. This
Not all modules conform to these con- is rather similar to the more familiar bipolar
nections but many of the types that use power transistor but has the advantage it
the popular TDA1070 control IC are can be switched on or off by a small
generally similar. voltage applied to the gate electrode.
The high-speed spin mode is the useful The gate electrode requires little or no
one but it includes a soft start feature current to operate it, so simple low-
which takes many seconds to bring the power control circuits can be used, even
motor up to speed. With the TDA1070 for power MOSFETs that are handling
this is controlled by a 47 uF or 100 uF many hundreds of watts. Bipolar power
capacitor connected to pin 13 — this transistors can be used in similar applica-

69
tions but require large currents (typically With the slider near R1, pin 3 is high for
Yo of the output current) to switch less than 2% of the time.
them on and this complicates the drive The MOSFET Q1 is only on when its
arrangements. gate voltage is high. It is nearly a perfect
Figure 5.6 shows the circuit arrange- switch — the ‘on’ resistance is only 0.03
ment for a general purpose MOSFET ohms, so the average value of the output
speed controiler for operation from a voltage is almost exactly the supply vol-
12V battery or 9V to 16V DC supplies. tage times the duty cycle. The switching
IC1 is the very popular 555 timer set to frequency is so high that the inductance
oscillate at about 10kHz. VR1 controls of the motor armature smooths this to
the duty cycle — the fraction of the time almost pure DC *so that the controller
that the output on pin 3 is high. When acts as a duty cycle controlled, variable-
the slider of VR1 is near R2, pin 3 is near voltage source. This means that, if it is
supply voltage for about 98% of the time. used to control a permanent-magnet or

R1 1kohms 0.6W Maplin M1KO D1 1N4148 Maplin QL80B

R2 1kohms 0.6W Maplin M1KO D2 MBR745 Maplin GX31J
R3 150 0hms 0.6W Maplin M150 IC1 NE555N Maplin QH66W
VR 100 kohms 0.4W Maplin FWO5F Q1 BUZ11 Maplin UJ33L
C1 0.01 400V Maplin BX70M
C2 1000nF 50V Maplin JL57M
Hardware
Siripboard 2939 Maplin JP47B Spade connectors (M) Maplin AS33L
Heatsink Maplin FG55K Spade connectors (F) Maplin AS3OH
Connector covers Maplin AS31J

Fig. 5.6 MOSFET controller

70
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fixed-field DC motor, the speed regulation There are four links on the board. Two
will be good. are on the component side — just above
R3 is included to slightly slow up the C1. The other two are on the track side
switching speed of Q1. D2 and C1, and link IC1 pin 4 to 8 and pin 2 to 6.
mounted close to Q1, provide a path for MOSFETs can:be damaged by static
the transient currents generated during electricity discharges — typical hazards
parts of the switching cycle. These com- are the tiny sparks generated when brush-
ponents limit the peak transient voltage ing against dry synthetic fabrics. Because
reaching Q1 and keep switching tran- of this, new items are sometimes deliv-
sients out of the battery leads. To be ered with conducting black plastic foam
really effective the connections Q1 to or silver paper Shorting all the pins
D2, D2 to C2 and C2 to Q1 should be as together. This should be left in place until
short and direct as possible. after the MOSFET is safely connected to
The maximum continuous-load current the other components on the circuit
is limited by the size of the heatsink but board. Tin-foil shorts should be removed
is OK over the range OA to 10A. The before applying power to the circuit.
peak-load current should not exceed 30A. Plastic foam can be removed but does
The normal worst case peak currents no harm if it is left in place. If you are
are: fully charged battery into a stalled wearing plastic- dr rubber-soled shoes
motor, or rapid reversal of a motor that is you may be carrying a static electricity
already running at full speed. This should charge. Touch an earthed metal object
be ample current capability for the smaller to discharge yourself before handling
motor projects but the peak-current limit MOSFETs. These power MOSFETs are
may be a problem with larger motors — fairly rugged devices and static damage
if in doubt check the current taken by the is uncommon — nevertheless it is better
motor directly from the supply With the to be safe than sorry!
armature locked stationary. With modifications the controller can
Construction is straightforward — the also be used on 24V supplies. Q1 and D2
details are shown in Figures 5.7 and 5.8. need to be higher voltage versions —

Fig. 5.9 Triac and MOSFET controllers

72
IRF540 and MBR1090 are suitable items. The standard controller will also work
The 555 timer is limited to 16V max. The below 9V but the MOSFET may not be
easiest way round this is to feed pins 4 fully switched on when delivering large
and 8 and R11 from the output of a 7812 currents. Set VR1 to maximum output
voltage regulator. This accepts 24V from and measure the DC voltage between S
the supply and delivers 12V to the 555 an D of the MOSFET. This should be no
circuits. The power consumption is very more than 1%V when delivering your
small so the 7812 does not need a largest load current.
heatsink.

74)
CHAPTER 6

Mobile Power

6.1 General with a free choice of all components. In

Most of this book is concerned with the practice, the starting point is more likely
use of motors as power,sources in the to be ‘‘here’s a likely looking motor —
home workshop. A slightly different field how do we make best use of it!’”.
which is of interest to many model For home workshop projects the range
engineers is the use of battery-powered of suitable motor power ratings is quite
motors for 3%” and 5” gauge electric small. If the loco, buggy or car is to be
locos, children’s buggies or electric car capable of carrying at least a one-person
projects. Each of these applications can payload over a reasonable range of
be fairly major undertakings so detailed terrain then % hp jis about the minimum
description is beyond the scope of this practicable rating. If it’s a buggy for a
book — my own experience in this field small child or a loco running on a level
involved a home-brew electric wheelchair track then % hp is possible but marginal.
which was a reasonably successful pro- In the upward direction % hp is ample
ject but it occupied a full year of my spare for almost all buggy and loco require-
time! However there is much common ments but, without other limits, a little
ground in the power train arrangements electric car could happily absorb many
for the larger locos, the buggies and the hp. However, high-power motors need
electric cars and a few comments on the correspondingly large batteries to supply
motive power aspects may be helpful. them and the upper power limit is then
severely constrained by the cost, weight
6.2 Motors and size of the necessary battery pack.
Generally, the motor should be the first Batteries as the prime power source
item to be chosen as the motor power dictate the choice of a commutator motor
rating is dictated by the performance both for its compatibility with a DC supply
required from the vehicle. The chosen and its suitability for wide-range speed
motor, in conjunction with the vehicle control. In principle, a motor of the series,
range or operating time, then defines shunt, compound wound or permanent
the drive train and battery capacity magnet type could be used but a per-
requirements. manent-magnet motor is the preferred
This is, of course, in an ideal world choice as it is slightly smailer, lighter

74
 and more efficient than its wound field able to operate from a reduced supply
counterpart. However, while small, low- voltage. After allowing for the slightly
voltage permanent-magnet commutator reduced efficiency, a 24V motor operated
motors are plentiful, motors in this higher from a 12V supply will deliver about 40%
power range are much less common and of its rated power at a little less than half
you will be lucky to find a suitable item. its rated full-load speed. This assumes
A source that is, at first sight, attractive that the motor is operated with the same
is the large permanent-magnet motors field strength and at the same full-load
used to directly drive the 10” reels of 1” current.
magnetic tape in some of the older main- If it is a permanent-magnet or series-
frame computer tape decks. These motors wound field motor the field strength will
were chosen for their high torque at low still be correct and no change will be
speeds which provides the high accelera- needed to the motor or its connections.
tion needed for the rapid start/stop motion If it is a shunt- or compound-wound
of the tape reels. Typically, they operate motor, the two shunt field coils which
from a transistor controlled 24V supply are normally connected in series should
but at this voltage their maximum speed be reconnected in parallel so that the full
is often only 500 rpm. This is ample for supply voltage reaches each field coil.
their intended computer use because the The same comment applies to the shunt-
reels never continue to rotate in either wound coils of a compound-wound motor
direction long enough for the motors to but the series-wound coils will already
approach their supply voltage limited be correctly connected and should not be
speed, but it severely limits the output disturbed.
power — at this low speed an impres- The 40% power estimate is very con-
sively large motor is often only capable servative because aircraft and military
of Y:0 hp or less! machines are normally rated to operate
Of course, the performance can be at very high ambient temperatures —
recovered by increasing the supply voltage 55°C—130°F or more. This is far higher
and these motors will comfortably deliver than will be encountered in home-brew
Y% hp at 3,000 rpm, but this needs at projects so the normal rated full-load
least a 100V supply which is a wildly current can be significantly exceeded
inconvenient level for small battery- without fear of the motor overheating. In
powered vehicles. many cases the duration of a sustained
Another possible source is the wide overload will be limited by a fading
variety of ex-aircraft and surplus military battery rather than an overheated motor.
machines. These are mostly 24V machines Another possibility is the use of a car
which is fine for a vehicle that can com- dynamo as a motor as described in
fortably accommodate a pair of 12V Chapter 3, section 3.4. Although these
batteries, but not very suitable for a loco have long been replaced by alternators,
or a buggy where even a single 12V dynamos were originally fitted to a very
battery occupies a large fraction of the large number of vehicles and usable
available space. survivors are not too difficult to find. The
Some of the ex-aircraft machines are big problem here is the field supply — if
sufficiently small and light but are rated a 12V dynamo, used as a motor, is to
to deliver more power than needed for deliver anything more than a small fraction
your project. In this case it is quite accept- of its capability, the armature needs to

us
run at 24V or more while the field supply can be used and the load will be shared
must be maintained at 12V. The simple fairly equally between the two motors.
solution is to feed the field from the 24V
supply via a dropping resistor although 6.3 Batteries
this doubles the power absorbed by the Batteries are the Achilles heel of mobile
field circuit. A better solution is to feed electric projects. It is rarely a problem to
the 12V field from the 24V main supply carry enough fuel to achieve the desired
via a 2:1 step-down, duty-cycle regulator range/endurance:in a steam or internal
of the type shown in Figure 5.6. These combustion-engined project. This is not
operate at well over 80% efficiency so the case with electric-powered vehicle
very little power is wasted in the 24V to because the cost and weight of the
12V conversion. battery makes it almost always necessary
At the time of writing there are still a to accept severe limitations on range/
few motors remaining from the ill-fated endurance. If aiming for extended per-
Sinclair C5 electric vehicle on the surplus formance it is quite easy to be faced with
and second-hand market. These are ideal a design in which the majority of the
for small vehicle projects but unless weight and cost of the vehicle is taken
some entrepreneur decides to make some up by the battery — if this sounds
more, they will soon be unobtainable. extreme check thé weight of the battery
The comments so far have mainly in your friendly neighbourhood electric
referred to the use of a single-drive motor. milk float!
However, if the available motors are on Currently there are plenty of ‘gee whiz’
the small side there is a lot to be said for articles on the wonder batteries of the
multiple-motor drive. Twin-motor drive, future but the rate of progress on com-
driving separate wheels, is popular on mercially viable items is disappointingly
wheelchairs as differential control of the slow. The present position is that the
two motors results in a very simple form only systems practicable for small projects
of power steering. It is also a convenient are the well-established lead—acid and
method of sidestepping the requirement nickel—cadmium technologies. Nickel
for mechanical differentials on conven- hydride (NIMH), and lithium ion recharge-
tional two- or four-wheel drive vehicles ables are becoming established in the
but it carries with it the penalty of two or portable computer and camcorder field
four separate drive trains to match the but are only competitive at low and
motor speed to the driven wheel speed. medium discharge rates. At the high dis-
If more power is the only requirement it charge rates typical of vehicle projects,
is much simpler to couple two or more lead—acid and NiCads are still the best
motors to the single-drive belt providing bet.
the first-stage speed reduction. The small sealed NiCads (e.g. D and F
The motors can be connected in series sizes) are very convenient to use and,
or in parallel. At constant field strength, with proper precautions, tolerant of very
if the motors drive independent wheels, high charge and discharge rates. But
series connection results in equal torque unless a very small vehicle is contem-
output, parallel connection results in plated the maximum available capacity
equal wheel speed. If the motor shafts are (less than 10Ah) is inadequate. Industrial
closely coupled together, either directly unsealed NiCad cells are available in a
or through the road, either connection wide range of capacities and are often

76
used in electric fork-lift trucks and similar state any longer than necessary. If pos-
applications. While these are excellent sible, recharge immediately after use.
batteries and stand up well to the arduous (e) If possible use constant voltage charger
operating regime of repeated charge/deep set to 14.4V. If an ordinary DIY charger
discharge cycles they are too expensive is used, check the battery voltage near
for general use. the end of charge and aim to stop the
Special varieties of lead—acid batteries charge before it reaches 15V. In an open
are made for traction use. These use a battery it is possible to replace the water
plate construction which is more resistant lost by overcharging so occasional over-
to damage from repeated charge/deep charging for limited periods is quite
discharge cycles. While they are a little acceptable. However, if the battery is
more affordable than NiCad traction bat- frequently overcharged for extended
teries, for equal capacity, they are still periods the lead matrix in the positive
substantially larger and more expensive plates will start to swell and distort and
than the readily available car starter this results in early failure.
batteries and general-purpose sealed (f) Don’t allow the batteries to sulphate
lead—acid types. This means that unless up when out of use. Sealed cells need
you have a very deep pocket, or are six-monthly recharges. Open car batteries
lucky enough to find a small second- self-discharge more rapidly and need
hand traction battery, you are limited to top-up charging at least once every two
car batteries for the larger projects and months.
sealed lead—acid for smaller items.
Car batteries are well suited for brief Occasionally you may come across
periods of rapid discharge but do not discarded traction cells or aircraft starter
stand up well to repeated deep discharge batteries. Lead—acid cells are usually
cycles. The manufacturer’s life guarantees beyond recovery but open (i.e. unsealed)
are usually invalid if the battery is used NiCad cells in rectangular steel or plastic
other than as a starter/lighting battery in cases can sometimes be rescued. The
a normal road vehicle. To get the longest basic electrode structure of these cells is
possible life take the following points extraordinarily long-lived and often it is
into account: only the electrolyte that is at fault. | have
a 12V stack of 20Ah cells that are well
(a) Use the largest battery that the project over twenty years old and are still happily
and/or your pocket can accommodate. powering the starter motor on my tractor
(b) If space constraints necessitate the lawnmower.
use of two or more battery compartments, The correct electrolyte is potassium
use low-voltage sections series connected hydroxide in distilled water SG 1.305
e.g. use two 6V batteries in series not (approximately 31% by weight). Don’t
two 12V batteries used independently or forget that this is very caustic — no skin
in parallel. contact, always wear rubber gloves and
(c) No matter how great the temptation eye protection when handling electrolyte.
don’t over-discharge the battery. This There is a strong heat build-up when
means don’t over-discharge any individual potassium hydroxide is added to waiter,
cell in the battery — it only takes one dud so if you make up your own electrolyte,
cell to ruin a battery! add the potassium hydroxide slowly to
(d) Don’t leave the battery in a discharged the distilled water and give it time to

Ta.
dissolve. NEVER pour water on to neat retained in the plates until the cell is
potassium hydroxide — it will boil and brought up to a full state of charge and
spit electrolyte in all directions! is gassing freely. Four or five electrolyte
Unlike lead—acid cells, the electrolyte change and charge cycles are needed to
in these cells remains chemically un- get rid of most of the old electrolyte.
changed throughout the whole charge/ At each change the charger should be
discharge cycle and its primary function switched off when the cell is gassing
is to act as an extremely low-resistance freely and the electrolyte quickly poured
conducting liquid. Unfortunately over a off while the pores in the electrodes are
very long period (years) the electrolyte still full of gas. Refill with fresh electro-
slowly reacts with carbon dioxide from lyte and repeat the cycle. The gas is, of
the atmosphere and partially converts to course, an inflammable hydrogen/oxygen
potassium carbonate. This eventually mixture so carry this out in a well-
raises the internal resistance of the cells ventilated area and ensure that there is
to the extent that they can no longer no chance of accidental ignition — be
meet the fast discharge requirements sure that you switch off the charger
and are scrapped. before breaking any connections!
The obvious solution — to change the This is quite a major operation with a
electrolyte — is not as easy as it sounds. set of traction cells but it is not too
Most of the electrolyte is absorbed into difficult with the smaller cells used in
the pores of the porous plate material aircraft starter batteries. These are usually
and less than a quarter can be poured a stack of small individual cells that can
away, the remainder staying in the cell. If be handled separately and each change
fresh electrolyte is added it does not of electrolyte in each cell needs less than
readily mix with the stale electrolyte 50 ml of fluid.

78
CHAPTER 7

Battery Power Supplies

7.1 General
Many of the smaller commutator motors current’ and ‘low current’ occur freq-
are operated from batteries. Primary bat- uently. These terms are related to the
teries are a very convenient, but spec- capabilities of the cell under discussion.
tacularly expensive, source of power As a rough guide, a high current will
ranging from about £200 per kilowatt- discharge a cell in less than one hour
hour for the larger sizes to £5000 per while a low current can be maintained for
kilowatt-hour for the small, silver-oxide at least one hundred hours. No prizes for
wristwatch cells! Secondary (i.e. re- guessing that a ten-hour life will result
chargeable) batteries are more economic. from a moderate load.
Based on a life of 500 charge/discharge The capacity of cells is often quoted in
cycles the cost drops to less than £10 ampére/hours (Ah) or milliampére/hours
per kilowatt-hour. This cost is based on (mAh) — the product of the current
the purchase price divided by the number delivered by the cell and the time it takes
of charge/discharge cycles — at a few to discharge it at that current.
pence per kilowatt-hour the cost of the
recharging power from domestic supplies 7.2 Primary cells
is negligible. The main types of primary cells are listed
In the following notes the terms ‘high in Table 7.1

Table 7.1 Primary cells

Generic name Popular name Initial End life Shelf Cost

voltage voltage life

Leclanche Zinc carbon 1.5 0.9 1-2Y low

Zinc chloride High power a5 0.9 1-2Y low
Alkaline Alkaline 5 1,0 3-5Y medium
Mercury Mercury 1:35 ihod 3=5Y high
Silver oxide Watch 1.55 haul 3-—5Y high
Lithium Lithium 320 2.0 >10Y high

79
7.2.1 Zinc carbon and alkaline cells Both types of cell use an acidic electro-
There are three types in this category lyte contained in a cylindrical zinc negative
and, between them, they represent the electrode. Most modern cells surround
vast majority of the primary cells in this with an outer protective plastic or
common use. They are all initially 1.5V metal cover. When a cell is completely
cells and this voltage drops steadily in discharged, the zinc electrode can no
use until they reach the end of their useful longer resist the attack of the electrolyte
life at about 0O.9V. They are manufactured which eats its way through the zinc and
in the same range of external shapes and tends to leak past the cover. The cover is
sizes and, in many applications, any of usually successful in containing this for a
the three types can be used. month or so but after that leaking cells
The widely available basic Leclanche/ can do a lot of damage.
zinc carbon type is suitable mainly for These cells are not hermetically sealed
low-current loads or intermittent use at and even in normal use a very small
higher currents. Typical uses are as torch amount of electrolyte can find its way
batteries or for powering small transistor onto the adjacent battery contacts and
radios. wiring. This produces bright green cor-
Operation at very low currents is limited rosion products on unprotected copper
by the comparatively short shelf-life and and many copper alloys. Commercial
in critical applications it is advisable to battery holders mostly use nickel-plated
replace the battery at least annually, steel which is fine providing the plating
even if the current drain is negligible. thickness is adequate. Stainless steel
Storage temperature has a marked effect and nickel silver are good materials for
and a temperature increase of less than home-brew contacts. Stainless steel is
10°C will halve the shelf-life. very good from the corrosion resistance
These cells are only suitable for opera- point of view but the contact pressure
tion at high currents if used on an inter- must be high enough to break through
mittent basis. At high currents, gas is the surface oxide film that is always
generated at the electrodes faster than it present. A good source of nickel silver is
can be absorbed by the chemicals in the the contact springs of old relays.
cell. This gradually increases the internal Don’t use brass or phosphor bronze as
resistance of the cell and the output voltage the green corrosion products will soon
falls with an apparent loss of capacity. generate high contact resistance. Occa-
In intermittent use most of this lost capa- sionally you may come across a piece of
city is restored after a period of rest which equipment that, through ignorance or ex-
enables the excess gas to be absorbed. pediency, breaks this rule. Cleaning the
The zinc chloride/high power cell is a contacts will only give short-term relief
variant of the zinc carbon cell with a — the best solution is to solder a piece of
lower internal resistance and a higher nickel silver or, better still, an old relay
rate of absorption of excess gas. It is contact to the two points which contact
only a little more expensive than the the battery. Corrosion will still occur on
standard zinc carbon cell but is more the supporting springs but since it no
suitable for motor loads because of its longer affects the contact resistance it is
improved high current performance. At relatively unimportant. The corrosion is
low currents it is similar to the standard mainly surface corrosion and has little
cell. effect on the strength of the springs.

80
 Alkaline cells use a central powdered- at low-discharge rates — typically 100
zinc negative electrode with an alkaline hours to full discharge. At discharge
electrolyte (potassium hydroxide) sur- times of a few hours, typical of many
rounded by a manganese-dioxide positive small motor applications, the useful
electrode. They are a considerable im- Capacity will be less than half this value.
provement on the basic zinc carbon cell When choosing battery size it makes
in almost every respect. Unfortunately good sense to err on the large side. The
they are also more expensive. Some of larger sizes cost less per mAh and,
this increase in cost can be offset against because the discharge times are then
the improved performance when deliver- longer, deliver a much larger fraction
ing high currents for long uninterrupted of their nominal capacity. A D size cell
periods, but the extensively advertised replacing an AA size will deliver well over
6:1 increase in life needs to be examined four times the useful operating time on a
with some care. This degree of improve- typical small motor load.
ment only occurs when compared with
the basic zinc carbon cell operated con- 7.2.2 Mercury cells
tinuously on a high current load i.e. a Mercury cells are mainly encountered as
thoroughly unsuitable load. If the com- small button cells in deaf aids. They are
parison is with a zinc chioride/HP cell or easily produced in small sizes and deliver
if the zinc carbon cell is allowed rest a little more capacity per unit volume
periods on no-load the difference is than alkaline cells. They are characterised
considerably smaller. On moderate loads by alow (1.35V) and extremely constant
the improvement is about 3:1 and on cell voltage with a flat discharge charac-
low-current loads it is less than 2:1. teristic which only falls to 1.1V at the
However on extremely low-current loads end of life. Larger sizes are used in military
the advantage returns because of the and some professional application which
better shelf-life of the alkaline system. take advantage of their wide operating
Alkaline cells also suffer loss of capacity temperature range and stable discharge
if discharged at high rates although not characteristics but they are too expensive
as severely as zinc carbon and HP cells. for general-purpose use.
Table 7.2 lists the nominal capacities of
the common cell types. However, these 7.2.3 Silver-oxide cells
figures are the capacity which is delivered Silver-oxide cells are again produced as

Table 7.2 Alkaline cells

Size Voltage Diameter mm Length mm Capacity mAH

N ‘es 12 29 800
AAA i}as 10.5 44.5 1,100
AA ats 14.6 50 2,700
Cc als 26 50 7,700
D ies 34.2 (ia) 2 18,000
PP3 9 16x25 48 550
MN21 12 10 28 33

81
small button cells and dominate the current hazard may be present for months
watch battery market. They have about or years. The reverse current isolation
the same energy density as a mercury provided by ordinary silicon signal diodes
cell but with the key advantage that they is not good enough and selected low-
have a flat discharge characteristic with leakage types are necessary.
the output voltage remaining above 1.4V
for most of the useful life. This voltage is 7.3 Rechargeable cells
high enough to allow the electronics to
operate from a single cell. 7.3.1 General
Rechargeable cells are described in terms
7.2.4 Lithium cells of their ampére-hour capacity and this is
Lithium cells are a more recent develop- usually abbreviated to the single letter
ment and are characterised by a very “‘C’’. For example a cell discharged at
high initial voltage (3V to 3.5V depending C/10 rate would be fully discharged in 10
on type) together with exceptionally long hours, one discharged at 5C rate would
shelf-life. For the same cell size the be discharged in about % hours = 12
ampére/hour capacity is similar to silver minutes.
oxide but since the output voltage is The word ‘‘about”’ is used in the high
about doubled the watt/hour capacity is rate discharge exdmple because the useful
proportionately higher. For specialised ampére-hour capacity of a cell reduces at
professional use there is a wide range of high rates. Cells designed for high peak
lithium cell types based on _ several currents may deliver ten or eleven minutes
chemical systems. However the readily at 5C rate. Other cell types may only
available commercial types are limited to deliver output for a minute or so and
a few cylindrical cell types for primarily some may be unable to deliver the current
photographic applications and a range of corresponding to 5C rate even when
button cells for calculator and computer directly short circuited.
memory backup purposes. The same nomenclature is used for
The photographic types use a lithium/ specifying the recharging current e.g. a 5
manganese dioxide system and are opti- Ah cell charged at C/10 rate would
mised for short bursts of high current charge at a rate of 5/10 A = 500mA. In
drain to drive camera motors and elec- an ideal world this would fully recharge a
tronic flash systems. The button cell types discharged cell in 10 hours. However,
are mainly intended for low-current drain the efficiency of the recharging process
applications with battery life measured in is rarely higher than 70% so that about
months or years. fourteen hours would be necessary.
When lithium cells are used in conjunc-
tion with other power sources, extreme 7.3.2 Recharged primary cells
care must be taken to prevent reverse Most primary cells can be recharged to
current flowing into the cell. Any current some extent but the results are seldom
trying to charge up the cell will cause worth the effort. Only a fraction of the
release of gas which is unable to escape Original capacity can be restored and
and, over a period of time, pressure will there is a danger that the cells may leak
build up and cause the cell to burst. The or burst. Most manufacturers state either
problem is acute in computer memory that their primary cells are not recharge-
backup applications where the reverse able or expressly forbid it. if you should

82
be tempted to experiment along these and occasional misuse. They are avail-
lines be very sure that a leaking or bursting able in two main types — a range of
battery cannot harm you or anyone else. cylindrical cells suitable for general
There are a few primary cell battery purpose and high discharge rate use, and
chargers on the market and while these a range of mass plate button cells for
can undoubtedly significantly extend the low-current applications and where long-
useful life of suitable primary batteries term charge retention is important.
they are not miracle ‘new batteries for Data on commonly available types is
old’ machines. They can restore a partially given in Tables 7.3 and 7.4. The capaci-
discharged battery to near its fully charged ties listed are approximate as they vary
state several times but the self-discharge slightly between manufacturers and
rate of the recharged battery is much between particular cell types. However,
higher than the original. To be really they are a good general guide — in the
effective less than one-third of the battery case of the very popular C size cell the
capacity should be used before recharging professional types range between 1.4Ah
and the recovered charge of the revived and 2.2Ah but are mostly 1.8Ah or 2.0Ah.
battery used within a day or so. Less of Domestic types sold in supermarkets and
the battery capacity is recovered on each similar outlets are a cheaper version and
cycle and a fully discharged or an old are almost universally 1.2Ah. Note the
partially discharged battery will usually enormous difference in capacity between
not respond at all. Alkaline batteries professional and domestic D size cells.
respond somewhat better than Leclanche The domestic D size is simply a sub-C
and HP types. size cell mounted inside the larger D
size case. They are easily distinguished
7.3.3 NiCad cells because nickel and cadmium are heavy
Sealed nickel cadmium rechargeable cells metals and the domestic D cell is less
(NiCads for short) are probably the most than half the weight of the professional
generally useful rechargeable cell. They version.
can be charged and discharged at very Note that although many of the NiCad
high rates and are very tolerant to neglect cell sizes are identical to alkaline primary

Table 7.3 Cylindrical NiCad cells

Size Diameter Length Capacity 16 hour

mm mm mAh charge rate mA

AAA 10.5 44.5 220 22

AA 14.6 50 500 50
sub-C 22] 42.1 1,200 120
C (professional) 26 50 1,800 180
C (domestic) 26 50 1,200 120
D (professional) 34.2 61.2 4,000 400
D (domestic) 34.2 CileZ 1,200 120
PP3 16x25 480 120 12

83
 Table 7.4 Button NiCad cells

Size Diameter mm Length mm Capacity mAh 16 hour

charge rate mA

se lien, 559 30). 3

- 15.8 6.25 . vhs 8
is 22.6 4.8 N20. 12
he 25-5 6.0 190 19
i PAR 4 9 280 28
Hy 35 10 600 , 60

*There are no standard designations for button cells but these are commonly
encountered sizes.

cell types, NiCads store less than one- electrodes are porous discs of sintered
quarter of the energy available from the metal powder which provide such a large
same size alkaline primary cell. This is internal surface area that only two or
the penalty for rechargeability. three discs are required to make up a
On the plus side, NiCads are very cell. This construction has a lower self-
much better at high discharge rates. One discharge rate than cylindrical cells and
to two amps is about the maximum useful stores about the same energy per unit
peak discharge rate for a C size alkaline, volume. However,the internal resistance
but the same size NiCad will cheerfully is considerably higher and these cells are
deliver fifty amps for a short and glorious not suitable for high discharge rates.
discharge cycle! For routine low-rate recharging, chargers
The cylindrical cells use positive and are designed to deliver a fixed current
negative electrodes in the form of long that recharges a cell in about sixteen
thin strips which are interleaved with a hours. This charging rate is the C/10
thin porous plastic separator. This is then current i.e. the current that would fully
rolled up into a sort of ‘Swiss roll’ and discharge the cell in ten hours. Low-rate
sealed inside a nickel-plated steel outer charging is not very efficient. About one-
case. Enough electrolyte is added to third of the charge energy is converted
saturate the separator. There is no free into heat so that at least sixteen hours at
liquid electrolyte so the cell is not position- C/10 is needed for a full recharge. The
sensitive and can operate any side up. great advantage of low-rate recharging is
This form of construction packs a large that the cell can withstand prolonged
electrode area into a small space. The overcharging for days or even weeks at
cell design has an exceptionally low this rate.
internal resistance — a few thousandths Prolonged overcharging does have a
of an ohm so that it is capable of delivering small effect on cell life and C/10 should
very large currents. not be used for float charge operation i.e.
The mass plate button cells achieve for standby operation where it is perm-
the necessary large surface area needed anently connected to a charging source
by using electrodes in the form of porous to ensure that it always remains fully
sintered plates. Both positive and negative charged. Float charge rate should be

84
limited to about C/100 for button cells or best life and several thousand cycles
C/50 for cylindrical cells. Typical perfor- may be possible. Unfortunately, if the
mance for a button cell operated under cell is always treated gently, it becomes
these conditions is a life of about three ‘lazy’ after many cycles (memory effect)
years. With the exception of a few and exhibits a temporary loss of capacity.
specialised types, cylindrical cells are not The cell is not usually harmed by this and
really suitable for float charge operation full capacity can be restored by sub-
because they suffer from ‘memory effect’ jecting it to several deep discharge, full
(see later) and their higher self-discharge recharge cycles. Memory effect is mainly
rate necessitates a larger float charge encountered in cylindrical cells and the
current which has an adverse effect on temporary loss of capacity is often quite
life. small (less than 20% with some types).
The sub-C size cell is popular in high Unless it is essential that the cells be
discharge rate and fast charge applica- kept in maximum capacity condition it
tions. Typical uses are portable power may be better to accept some loss of
tools, model electric racing cars, cam- Capacity rather than reduce cell life by
corders and similar devices. Premium frequent deep discharge cycles.
versions of these cells are available Sintered plate button cells are designed
in matched sets which are capable of to be especially suitable for shallow dis-
delivering most of their rated capacity at charge battery backup applications and
5C rate i.e. fully discharged in 10 minutes! do not suffer from significant memory
Cell life in normal charge/discharge effect.
operation depends on charge and dis- As long as the correct charging condi-
charge conditions. The most unfavourable tions are observed the cylindrical cell
cycle is deep discharge followed by pro- types can be recharged more rapidly, but
longed overcharge and cell life may be no the recharging conditions must be more
more than a few hundred cycles. Partial closely controlled. Table 7.5 shows
discharge, followed by no more than the charge time restrictions for charging rates
recommended recharge time, gives the of up to C. For charge rates of up to C/5,

Table 7.5 NiCad charge rates

Charge time Charge Remarks

hours rate

16 (AKO) Normal low rate charge

May continue for several days
6 Gis Quick charge
Limit charge duration to less than 7 hours
1 GiileZ5 Fast charge
Batteries must be discharged to 1V per cell before start
of charge
Charge must be terminated at 1 hour with cell 80% charged.
Top up at C/10 or lower rate

85
provided the cell is at least partially the next discharge cycle. Secondly, during
discharged and the charge is terminated reverse charge, gas may be generated in
promptly, it is not essential to start with the cell at excessive rate and vented
a fully discharged cell. Rates higher than through the safety-valve located under
C/5 must start with fully discharged cells. the bump that forms the positive contact
For the very highest charge rates only on the cell. Any gas that is vented in this
partial recharge is advisable. way cannot be recombined to form the
Cells subjected to very rapid discharge water that the cell needs and so results
can get quite hot. They must be allowed in a small permanent loss of capacity.
to cool down before any form of rapid There are several ways to avoid this
charging is attempted. problem. The sintplest method is to never
The above comments apply to simple discharge a battery below an average
chargers using a fixed current for a known of 1V per cell. With small numbers of
time. More sophisticated chargers can reasonably well-matched cells this average
recharge cells in only an hour or so even voltage is high enough to ensure that no
if the previous state of charge is un- cell becomes reverse-biased. Once cell
known. These measure the voltage and voltage has reached 1V it is falling rapidly
current characteristics and/or the cell and continuing to.a lower voltage delivers
temperature during charge and modify little extra capacity. If a battery is in-
the charge rate accordingly. advertently discharged beyond this point
Button cells should NOT be rapid no great harm is done, but follow it by a
charged. This is partly because of their prolonged low-rate recharge to ensure
higher internal resistance but also because that the weakest cell receives a full
this type of cell is not fitted with a pres- recharge. An alternative solution is to
sure relief valve. The first indication of
excessive charge rate is the cell starting
to expand into a near spherical shape
and, in extreme cases, bursting!
As single cells, NiCads can be stored in
any state of charge. They are not harmed
by being completely discharged and are —-
é-—-—
normally shipped in this condition. How-
ever more care is needed with a stack of
cells forming a complete battery.
In a battery of cells, one cell may have 10 ohms
a slightly lower capacity and, on load,
will completely discharge before the
remainder. The remaining good cells will
continue to supply current to the load.

HHA
This current will flow through the com-
pletely discharged cell and try to charge
it up with reversed polarity (see Fig. 7.1).
This has two adverse effects. First, the
reverse charge delays the effective start
of the next charge cycle for that cell so Fig. 7.1 Weak cell polarity reversal during
that even less capacity is available for deep discharge

86
connect a silicon diode in parallel with the battery. A cut-off point corresponding
each cell (see Fig. 7.2). In normal opera- to an average of 1V/cell is pretty safe
tion this diode is reverse-biased by the up to about 8 cells in series. Reverse
cell voltage and does not conduct. If the polarity is still possible on a badly mis-
cell completely discharges and the cur- matched cell but is unlikely to be bad
rent supplied by the remaining cells tries enough to lead to permanent damage
to force a reverse voltage across it, the provided that the battery (particularly
diode conducts and prevents the reverse including the weak cell) is fully recharged
voltage across the cell rising beyond after each deep discharge. Failure to
about 0.8V. This is a good method for ensure this will result in deeper reverse
load currents of up to a few amps but charge on the weak cell on each cycle
beyond this the diodes become a signifi- and early failure.
cant size and cost item. At 10 cells in series, as shown in Figure
For the extremely high rates of dis- 7.1, it becomes easier for mismatched
charge typical of model car racing neither cells to seriously reverse drive the weak
method is very suitable. The batteries are cell (third from the top) and, unless well-
being used at the limit of their power matched cells are used, it is advisable to
Capacity and normal on-load cell voltages limit the reverse voltage by diode protec-
will often be below 1V. Diode protection is tion as shown in Figure 7.2. At 20 cells
still possible but needs expensive diodes. in series (the normal number for military
The normal solution is to buy the batteries 24V to 28V supplies) the problem can be
as a computer-matched set of cells or as acute and it is common practice to
a factory-matched assembly. include diode protection, even on initially
A lot depends on the number of cells in well-matched cellpacks. Diode protection
does not entirely eliminate reversed
polarity but limits the maximum reverse
voltage to a safe level.
If the very highest charge capacity is
needed the battery should be discharged
to less than 1V per cell and then rapid
charged foilowed by a lower rate top-up
charge. A car headlamp bulb is a con-
venient discharge load but it is very
important that the discharge process is
10 Ohms not taken far enough to reverse charge
the weakest cell. A much better and
safer way of rapid discharging a NiCad
battery is to connect a low-value dis-
charge resistor across each cell. With
this method the cells can be discharged
as rapidly, and completely, as desired
and there is no possibility that any cell
can become reverse-biased.
Typical charge and discharge curves
Fig. 7.2 Diode protection against polarity are shown in Figures 7.3 and 7.4. On
reversal charge, the voltage across an initialiy

87
discharged cell rises rapidly to a bit less charging results in a small drop in cell
than 1.4V and then more slowly to just voltage. The size and shape of this voltage
over 1.5V. The cell voltage is strongly peak is very dependent on charge rate,
dependent on temperature as can be temperature and cell design and, at low
seen from the three curves in Figure 7.2. charging rates may be completely absent.
When charged at room temperature, the At high charge rates the effect is more
cell is nearly fully charged at about eleven pronounced and some of the more ex-
hours and most of the charge power now pensive chargers use the voltage drop
appears as heat instead of chemical after the peak to switch from a high-rate
change. The increase in cell temperature charge to a lower top-up rate.
reduces the cell voltage so that further

1
Pie 10 12 14 16 Hours

pc
40 50 60 70 80 90 100
% Rated Capacity
Fig. 7.4 Discharge characteristics

88
 When charge current is removed the temperature. This is an expensive luxury
open circuit voltage declines within so the alternative is an ordinary 40W iron
minutes to about 1.4V and down to or an old-fashioned copper iron heated
1.35V in a few hours. There is not a by a blowlamp. The small 15W irons
direct relation between open circuit used for electronic assembly are not man
voltage and state of charge and little enough for the job.
charge is lost in this initial drop. The self- Work with the surface uppermost and
discharge rate of cylindrical NiCads varies scrape the joint area bright shining clean.
between samples and is quite high in the Wet the area with a single drop of Bakers
first few days. It is usually safe to rely on Soldering Fluid (this is a powerful liquid
about half capacity remaining after one acidic flux — most paste- and resin-based
month and perhaps one-tenth after three fluxes are not sufficiently aggressive for
months. Good new cells can do consider- this job). Melt a small blob of solder on
ably better than this. Figure 7.4 shows the end of the iron and bring it into firm
typical discharge characteristics for a contact with the joint area. Within a
discharge rates of C/5 (this is the normal second or two at most the solder should
discharge rate for rated capacity), and flow and tin the cleaned area. Allow to
also for 1C and 3C. cool and wash off the flux residue with
At C/5 rates the cell voltage drops water/detergent.
quickly to 1.25V and drops slowly to 1.2V If the solder fails to fully wet the surface
when about 10% of the charge remains. at first attempt, do not scrub away with
It then drops fairly rapidly to the end the soldering iron but immediately remove
point of its rated capacity at 1.1V. Beyond the soldering iron and allow the cell to
this point the voltage falls steeply and completely cool down to room tempera-
there is little point in trying to continue ture. Repeat the attempt with a fresh and
below 1.0V per cell. more thoroughly cleaned surface.
At very high discharge rates (more Now using ordinary resin-cored solder,
than 1C) the plateau is less marked and tin the end of the connecting wire. Make
the output voltage and also the effective the joint by pressing the tinned wire into
capacity is reduced by the internal resis- the tinned area with the soldering iron
tance of the cell. and, at the same time, feeding in a little
Pressure contacts are not satisfactory more resin cored solder to complete the
at very high discharge rates and it is thermal contact. As soon as the whole
necessary to solder wires directly to the solder blob melts remove the iron and
cells. This is NOT recommended by the you should be left with a near-perfect
manufacturers and will invalidate any joint. Artists with a soldering iron can
warranty. However, there may be no complete this process in one step using
alternative and if carried out carefully is only resin cored solder, but the two-step
usually successful. The trick is to thor- process using Bakers fluid is kinder to the
oughly clean the surface and use a very cell and gives consistently good results.
hot soldering iron so that the whole If you are newcomer to this sort of
operation is complete in a few seconds soldering, first practise on a piece of
before the main body of the cell has a nickel plated or bare mild steel.
chance to heat up. NiCads have two main failure modes.
The ideal iron for the job is a 40W temp- The first and most common is progres-
erature controlled iron set to its maximum sive loss of capacity. This is the normal

89
wearout mechanism of the cell and is This type of failure is common if the
accelerated by excessive overcharging cell is frequently low-rate charged for
or frequent deep discharge/recharge very long periods with little or no inter-
cycles. Although the cell is fairly well mediate discharge operation. Lead—acid
sealed it is not a hermetic seal and there cells thrive on this sort of treatment but
is a very slow loss of electrolyte mainly NiCads prefer to be at least partially
in the form of water vapour. A very small discharged before being subjected to a
amount of the potassium hydroxide full low-rate recharge cycle.
(caustic potash) active constituent may Cells that have failed in this way can
also migrate and this is often seen as a often be recovered by subjecting them to
white powdery deposit around the posi- a short high-current pulse to burn out the
tive contact. Fortunately, caustic potash offending needles. The current must be
rapidly combines with carbon dioxide high enough to burn out the needles but
from the atmosphere and the white deposit once the short circuit has been cleared
is not the caustic electrolyte but the com- the voltage must not rise high enough to
paratively inert potassium carbonate. damage the inter-electrode spacer. A con-
Much of the capacity of a cell that has venient source is two series-connected
been lost by drying out can be recovered fully charged NiCads of similar or larger
by drilling a small hole in the case and capacity. s
injecting a measured amount of water. Put the faulty cell on charge in the
This is a desperate move and not recom- normal way with a meter across it to
mended (see ‘Nickel-cadmium cells’ by monitor cell voltage. Apply the high-
K. C. Johnson in Wireless World, February current source (+ve to +ve and —ve to
1977, pp. 47-8). If you should be tempted —ve) for about one second — it should
to experiment don’t forget that there raise the cell voltage to about 2V. The
may be a high pressure inside the cell cell voltage will drop back when the high
(the pressure release valve hidden under current source is removed but the normal
the positive contact doesn’t open until charge current should bring it up to the
the internal pressure reaches about 200 normal voltage range within the next
psi!) and some of the caustic electrolyte minute or two. If the cell voltage remains
could be released. near zero repeat the treatment. Two or
As mentioned earlier, cells can suffer a three pulses are enough to clear most
temporary loss of capacity if subjected cells but a few may remain obstinately
to a long series of shallow discharge/ stuck at zero. Increasing to three or four
slow recharge cycles. This is caused by series-connected cells may do the trick
the slow formation of relatively large but the chances are not good. Don’t
crystals in the active area instead of the prolong the current pulse — if the needle
normal fine structure and this results in a is going to burn out it will do so in the
loss of active surface area. Occasionally first second or so. Longer applications
these crystals can take the form of needle- will cause excessive general heating in
like structures which penetrate the inter- both the faulty cell and the current
electrode spacer and short circuit the source Cells.
cell. A cell with this fault will register Once the short circuit is cleared follow by
zero volts no matter how long it is charged several full charge/deep discharge cycles
at any normal charging rate. to restore the normal crystal structure.

90
7.3.4 Nickel-hydride (NiMH) cells ferent discharge characteristics. The initial
These are a more recent development voltage at full charge is about 4V and
and are a popular replacement for NiCads this falls steadily as it discharges to the
in premium applications such as portable discharge cut-off point of a little before
computers and some classes of military 2.5V.
equipment. : The high-rate discharge performance
They are manufactured in similar sizes is rather better than NiMH cells and they
and shapes to the major NiCad sizes. The can be rapid recharged from a constant
cell voltage characteristic over the dis- voltage source in one to two hours.
charge cycle is almost identical to NiCad However, both charge and discharge
cells but, for a given cell size, the nickel- conditions must be extremely tightly
hydride cell under optimum conditions controlled. The cells are damaged if over-
delivers 50% to 100% additional capacity. charge allows the cell voltage to rise
However, this performance can only beyond 4.2V and may fail completely if
be achieved at fairly light loads — C/3 discharged to below 2.5V.
rate or less i.e. time for complete dis-
charge 3 hours or longer. If discharged at 7.3.6 Lead—acid rechargeable cells
higher rates the internal losses are Perhaps the most familiar lead—acid
excessive which leads to self heating batteries are the 12V starter batteries
and reduced output voltage and it is no fitted to almost every car. At present
longer better than a standard NiCad. most of these are unsealed with the
The self-discharge rate is about three electrolyte accessible for topping up, but
times worse than NiCads so that the fully sealed zero maintenance types are
main field of application for these cells is now fitted in many cars. For most small
for use on moderate loads without long workshop projects the smaller fully sealed
intervals between recharging and sub- batteries are the most useful — a range
sequent use. of these is shown in Figure 7.5.
The cells can be constant current low The rectangular block type is most
rate (15 hours) recharged on standard commonly encountered and is manufac-
NiCad chargers. They can also be fast tured in sizes ranging from less than 1Ah
charged (1 hour) but special chargers are to more than 50Ah. The electrodes con-
needed because the end of charge drop sist of lead cast into rectangular plates
in cell voltage which is normally used to which carry the active material. Metallic
terminate the fast charge is smaller than lead is the main current carrying con-
the NiCad end of charge voltage drop ductor but the active material takes the
At present these are considerably more form of a paste pressed into the lead
expensive than NiCads although this is matrix which covers the working area of
reducing as manufacturing quantities the positive and negative plates. Typically
increase. three to eleven alternate positive and
negative plates are interleaved and sep-
7.3.5 Lithium-ion cells arated by porous plastic spacers to form
This is a recent entry into the recharge- a cell. The porous spacers are saturated
able field and has an even higher energy with electrolyte which is dilute sulphuric
density than NiMH cells. They cannot be acid. There is no free liquid acid and the
used as direct replacements for NiCad/ electrolyte is always retained within the
NiMH systems because of the very dif- active volume. This makes it possible to

91
Fig. 7.5 Sealed lead—acid batteries

operate the cell any way up. the apparent terminal voltage by an
A cylindrical form of construction is additional 0.1V or 0.2V. In this case an
favoured by Cyclon. This uses the ‘Swiss endpoint of 1.7V or 1.6V — 10.2V or
roll’ electrode configuration mechanically 9.6V for a 12V battery — is tolerable
similar to cylindrical NiCads. This results although not recommended. The terminal
in extremely low internal resistance — voltage will, of course, rise to nearly 2V
the 5Ah cell is rated to deliver 200A peak as soon as the motor load is removed.) In
current! fact there is little energy left below 2V
Although often used in similar appli- per cell and if the discharge is terminated
cations, the characteristics of sealed at this level and the battery recharged
lead—acid cells are very different ‘from without undue delay, battery lives of well
their NiCad counterparts and this must over a 1000 charge/discharge cycles are
be taken into account in the management possible. With frequent discharges to
of their charge/discharge cycles. 1.8V per cell and lower, the plate struc-
The useful life of lead—acid batteries is ture starts to disintegrate and the life will
degraded by frequent deep discharges. be reduced to a few hundred charge/dis-
Lead—acid batteries should never normally charge cycles.
be discharged to below 1.8V per cell — Because of this, unlike NiCads, lead—
below this voltage part of the active acid batteries shold not be completely
material in the plates start to convert to discharged. They do not suffer from the
a form of lead sulphate which reduces NiCad memory effect and should be
the ability of the cell to accept charge recharged as soon as possible after use
with consequent loss of capacity i.e. the and, in any event, before the voltage falls
cell becomes ‘sulphated’. (Note 1.8V is to 1.8V per cell. The self-discharge rate
for a cell that is being discharged at of the sealed batteries is much better
normal or light loads that could be supplied than that of the open car-type batteries
for 10 or more hours. For very heavy but it is still advisable to give a top-up
loads, such as a traction motor load that charge at least every six months to
would discharge the cell in one hour, the batteries stored for long periods.
internal resistance of the cell may drop If you are buying lead—acid batteries

o2
on the surplus market, take a voltmeter as the current drawn by the battery drops
with you to measure the open circuit towards the end of charge, the charging
voltage. On no-load, a fully discharged voltage rises well above the 2.4V per cell
battery will read just under 2V per cell. A level. The gassing rate increases rapidly
battery that has dropped to 1.7V per cell as the cell voltage increases and, at
has started to sulphate up (see later), but somewhere between 2.5V and 2.8V per
is probably recoverable. Below 1.7V per cell (15.0V to 16.8V for a 12V battery)
cell there is likely to be permanent loss of exceeds the rate at which the cell
capacity. This is quite different to the chemistry can recombine it to water. The
behaviour of NiCads which can be hap- gas pressure in the cell rises and the
pily stored, discharged to zero volts! excess gas is vented through the safetv
Correct charging is very important. vent. There is very little excess water in
Ideally lead—acid batteries should be the electrolyte and this lost water rep-
charged at a fixed voltage of 2.4V per resents a permanent loss of capacity. In
cell (14.4V for a 12V battery). The cur- extreme cases prolonged over-voltage
rent at the start of charge should not charging can dry out a cell almost com-
exceed Ah/4 (i.e. 2% amps for a 10Ah pletely.
battery) but this is not a problem with Apart from buying an_ expensive
most small chargers. If the current is voltage-regulated charger it is not too
excessive, then a short length of electric easy to completely avoid this problem.
fire element or florists’ iron wire in the Fortunately it results in steady degrada-
charger output will bring the initial tion rather than catastrophic failure, so
current down to safe limits. exceeding the voltage or current limits
A more serious problem is the charging simply results in reduced capacity and
voltage at the end of charge. Purpose- shorter life rather than complete failure.
built commercial chargers have a built-in The damage is reduced if you use a small
voltage regulator which keeps the output car battery-type charger and do not leave
voltage constant throughout the charging the battery on charge for unnecessarily
period. At 2.4V per cell a battery will be long periods.
about fully charged in about 4 to 6 hours, The readily available NiCad chargers
and the residual charging current will are the worst sort as these are designed
have dropped below Ah/20 (% amp for to deliver an approximately constant
a 10Ah cell). This adds little additional current — the exact opposite of the
charge because most of this current is lead—acid constant voltage requirement
not true charging current but is starting (a constant current charger delivers the
to break down the water in the electrolyte same Current all the time and the current
into oxygen and hydrogen (i.e. gassing). does not drop much as the battery voltage
At this current level the chemical system increases). The only way to safely use
in the cell can recombine the gases into these is to choose a current setting, or to
their original water form. The composition add additional resistance, to ensure that
of the electrolyte does not change and the final current is less than Ah/20. The
there is little increase in the internal charging current efficiency at these low
pressure in the cell. charging rates (Ah/20 is not much more
However if a typical DIY car battery than a trickle-charge maintenance rate)
charger or a NiCad charger is used the is very poor and more than 30 hours will
voltage will not be closely regulated and, be needed for full recharge. However, it

93
has the advantage that the charging time The LM317T is good for charging currents
is not critical and even 60 hours charging of up 1%A and has built-in thermal over-
is unlikely to do much harm. load protection. It will get quite hot if
If in doubt check the final voltage with supplying anything like its full current
a good meter — use a digital voltmeter if rating so the mounting tab should be
possible because few analog voltmeters securely bolted to a suitable heatsink or,
can be relied upon to much better than via an insulating mounting kit, to the
5% and this is not good enough. Always main metalwork of the charger. Unlike the
check the charger output voltage at or popular 78xx and’ 79xx series regulators,
near the end of charge WITH A BATTERY the LM317T tab is connected to the
CONNECTED. The output of the charger output terminal of the regulator.
is not smooth DC but has a large ripple At the end of charge the battery should
component and this introduces large be disconnected from the charging regu-
errors unless a battery is connected. lator to prevent it slowly discharging
DIY car battery chargers are a better through R1 and R2.
bet but, unless you are using a small The above comments on charging dif-
charger to charge a rather large battery, ficulties apply only to completely sealed
the output voltage at the end of charge lead—acid batteries. There is no problem
will be well over the 15V permissible for with unsealed car*batteries because any
a sealed 12V battery. The simplest way water lost by gassing is easily replaced
of dealing with this is to connect a small by topping up with distilled water.
voltage regulator between the charger The appropriate charge voltage is 2.4V
and the battery as shown in Figure 7.6. per cell for cells in cyclic use i.e. cells

12V
| Charger

R1 100 ohms 0.6W Maplin M100

R2 1.5 kohms 0.6W Maplin M1K5
RV1 100 ohms 0.3W Maplin WR38R type 100R
C1 4,700uF 50V Maplin CW74R
Q1 LM317T Maplin LM317T AV29G

Fig. 7.6 Charging regulator

94
that are frequently first charged and then chance of recovery although it is a long
fully or partly discharged. It should be process. The following section is based
reduced to 2.3V per cell for batteries on the method recommended by Yuasa.
which are kept on continuous float charge Sulphation can be broken down by
for standby applications. constant current charging for up to twelve
Another problem with both sealed and hours with the current limited to not
unsealed batteries is sulphating of the more than C/10. With a 12V sulphated
plates. This occurs if the battery is allowed battery as much as 30V may be needed
to stand for long periods in a low state of to reach C/10. As the sulphation is broken
charge. A white film of lead sulphate down the battery voltage will start to
forms on the surface of the plates and drop and, as soon as it drops to 15V,
since this is a semi insulator the internal constant current charging should be dis-
resistance of the cell eventually rises to continued and charging continued for 5
the point where it can no longer deliver hours on a normal constant voltage
or accept charge. This should not occur charger set to 15V output.
if you recharge soon after use and give a It's important that the current is limited
top-up charge at regular intervals to bat- and the battery is not allowed to get
teries that are stored for long periods. warm during the first high voltage phase.
However, it is easy to forget top-up This is because the sulphate film does
charges and you may be faced with a not break down uniformly — at first,
sulphated battery. If it is only slightly most of the current that flows is concen-
sulphated it will still accept charge at a trated into a few isolated spots where
reduced rate from a normal charger and the sulphate film has been penetrated.
deliver half or more of its rated capacity. Although the total power into the battery
Two or three charge and discharge is small it is all concentrated into these
cycles should clear this and restore most small areas and, if the current is too high,
of the rated capacity. Because of the these can easily get hot enough to perm-
reduced charge current, the charge time anently damage the plastic separating
should be longer than normal. Discharge membrane — this can occur while the
should be into a lamp load that would battery as a whole is barely warm.
discharge a reasonably good battery ina lf the battery was badly sulphated this
few hours — perhaps three or four. For may only result in partial recovery. How-
the first one or two discharges you won't ever, two or three full charge/full dis-
know how long the charge will last and charge cycles should recover most of the
you don’t want to further degrade the original capacity.
battery by over-discharging. This is It is difficult to obtain 30V constant
where the lamp comes in — put it where current chargers, but a good enough
you can see it and end the discharge as approximation is to connect a fully charged
soon as it starts to dim. 12V car battery and a resistor in series
lf the battery is badly sulphated, the with an ordinary car battery charger as
output voltage of a standard charger may shown in Figure 7.7. The addition of the
be not be enough to break through the capacitor plus the car battery brings the
sulphate film and the battery will not total output up to about 30V. The resistor
accept any charge at all. Provided you value is not critical but should be chosen
have the right sort of power supply (up to to limit the current to between C/20 and
30V for a 12V battery) there is still a fair C/10 when the sulphated battery has

95
 12V
Charger

Fig. 7.7 High-voltage charging rig

started to recover and the voltage across continued until the SG ceases to rise and
it has fallen to 15V. remains steady. The battery is then
With most car batteries there is the refilled with fresh acid SG 1.250 and
additional freedom that it is possible to given a normal charge. .
change the electrolyte. The Chloride Elec- Both of these processes are for recovery
trical Storage Co. recommend that the of sulphated batteries that are otherwise
acid electrolyte be replaced by distilled in reasonably good condition. There is
water and the battery given a prolonged no point in trying them on cells whose
charge until the specific gravity rises to plates are badly buckled or starting to
1.100— 1.150. The battery is then refilled disintegrate.
with fresh distilled water and charging

96
CHAPTER 8

Associated Components

8.1 General the capacitor — usually less than 1%.

This chapter is limited to just a few essen- The fundamental unit of capacitance is
tial components and test equipment used the farad but this is too large for every-
in conjunction with motors and their day use so Capacitors are mostly marked
control systems (a wider range is covered in uF which are microfarads i.e. millionths
in the earlier book Electric Motors pub- of a farad, or in pF which are picofarads
lished by Nexus Special Interests). i.e. millionths of a pF. Many different
types are used in electronic applications
8.2 Capacitors and in an enormous range of values. A
computer may use Capacitor values rang-
8.2.1 General ing from a few pF in the high-speed logic
Capacitors consist of two metal electrodes to several hundred thousand pF for
separated by a thin layer of insulating memory backup.
material. They are a bit like rechargeable Capacitors used in connection with
batteries that can be charged and dis- motors cover a much smaller range —
charged with extraordinary rapidity — about 1 uF to 500uF for start and run
fractions of a millionth of a second. By capacitors for induction motors and
rechargeable battery standards their 0.001 nF (= 1000pF)«to O41 pf for
energy storage capacity is rather small. interference suppression on commutator
Even small rechargeables can store motors.
watt/hours of energy. The start and run Quite large currents flow through
capacitors used with motors store only Capacitors in motor Circuits but this is
watt/seconds of energy but since this because the alternating current supply is
charge is circulating in and out of the causing charge to flow in and out of the
capacitor one hundred times a second Capacitor at supply frequency. In any DC
(i.e. once each negative and once each circuit the capacitor charges up almost
positive half cycle of the 50Hz mains) instantly to the supply voltage and that
the circulating power is hundreds of ends the current flow. If alarge capacitor
watts. This is usually called volt amps to is checked with an ohmmeter there is an
differentiate it from watts because very initial kick as the capacitor charges up to
little of this power is dissipated within the voltage of the battery in the ohm-

Sh7/
meter, but after that, no further current 8.2.2 ‘Run’ capacitors
can flow so, the meter settles down to These are capacitors that are in circuit
read open circuit. the whole of the time that the motor is
Capacitors can be connected in parallel running. They must be rated for con-
or in series to make up non-standard tinuous operation at the full AC mains
values (see Fig. 8.1). voltage. Types designed for AC working
will include the letters AC as part of the
marking giving .capacity and working
C1 C2) aiGs Parallel voltage e.g. 7.5 uF 250V AC.
Sed nee C=C1+C2+C3 Originally this,type of capacitor used
oil-impregnated paper as the insulating
layer but modern capacitors use a thin

AKHIH
plastic film usually Mylar, polycarbonate
or polypropylene. The electrodes take
1 C2 C3
the form of long strips of aluminium foil
or, in some cases, an extremely thin
1 coating of zinc or aluminium deposited
SE C= Wer s4c2+ 1103 directly onto the insulating film. Capacitors
of the size needed,for motor capacitors
Two equal capacitors in series - capacity = C/2 need many square feet of electrode area.
Three equal capacitors in series - capacity = C/3 etc. The very thin sandwich formed by the
electrodes and insulating layers is rolled
Fig. 8.1 Series and parallel connection up on itself, either as a straightforward
‘Swiss roll’ for cylindrical capacitors or
If a capacitor is disconnected from a on a thin flat former to produce an
circuit it will remain charged up to the approximately oval section suitable for
voltage that existed on it at the moment stacking in rectangular housings.
of disconnection. This charge may take This sort of capacitor is not too common
hours or days to leak away and if it is a in electronic equipment. They are most
large capacitor charged to a high voltage often encountered as power factor cor-
this can give an unpleasant shock to rection capacitors in industrial fluorescent
unwary fingers. Run and start capacitors lamp fittings and they are, of course,
operating in mains voltage circuits come associated with some types of induction
into this category and should be treated motor. The types used in fluorescent
with respect. It is good practice to perm- fitting are rarely larder than 8 uF so two or
anently connect a slow discharge resistor more are necessary for most motor
across the terminations of this type of applications. A selection of capacitors
capacitor (100K ohms 1W is a good value) used with fluorescent lamp fittings is
and this will reduce the discharge time to shown in Figure 8.2
a few seconds or tens of seconds. If in They are also stocked as spares for
doubt, discharge the capacitor through a the earlier types of automatic washing
low value resistor — about 100 ohms. machines.
Don’t use a screwdriver to short circuit Paper and film capacitors with very
large high voltage capacitors — the resul- similar internal construction to the AC-
tant explosive discharge is not good for rated types are used in military and
the capacitor or the screwdriver! industrial electronic equipment. These

98
 supplies (see below) and not suitable for
use as run Capacitors.

8.2.3 ‘Start’ capacitors

Typically two to five times more capaci-
tance is needed for start capacitors.
While it is quite possible to use the
Capacitor types described above, com-
mercial motor start capacitors are usually
a special type of electrolytic capacitor
which are suitable for intermittent use on
AC supplies. They are smaller and less
expensive than similar capacity run
capacitors.
These electrolytic capacitors consist
of two strips of specially processed
aluminium foil interleaved with a porous
Fig. 8.2 Fluorescent lamp capacitors
separator which is impregnated with a
conducting electrolyte. This is rolled up
are rated for DC working but with suffi- into the familiar ‘Swiss roll’ construction
cient derating are fine for use on AC. For and housed in an aluminium or plastic
240V AC working the DC rating must be tube. Examples are shown in Figure 8.4.
at least 350V and preferably more. In manufacture the aluminium foil is
Capacitors with values large enough for coated with an extremely thin anodic
motor work are usually housed in rec- film of aluminium oxide. This film can
tangular steel cans. Examples are shown withstand several hundred volts across it
in Figure 8.3. providing the aluminium is always positive
If you use any capacitor which is not and the surrounding conducting electro-
marked with an AC rating, check that the lyte is negative. If the polarity is reversed
terminations are not polarity marked in the film behaves as a low resistance
any way. Red and biack or plus and when only a few volts are applied to it.
minus coding are sure indicators that it is Because the film is so thin the area
a electrolytic capacitor for use on DC needed for a given capacitance is very
much smaller than the amount needed
for the equivalent paper or film capacitor.
If only one of the strips is coated in this
way it can be used as a capacitor pro-
vided there is enough DC voltage present
to ensure that the electrode polarity never
reverses. Almost all the electrolytic
capacitors used in electronic and general-
purpose applications are of this polarised
type and cannot be used directly in motor
applications.
The reversible type used for motor
Fig. 8.3 Stee! can paper and film capacitors start capacitors has both strips coated in

Shs)
Fig. 8.4 Electrolytic capacitors

this way so that one strip acts as the two electrodes of the non-polar capacitor
capacitor on the positive half cycles of and the linked positive terminals con-
the AC supply and the other one takes nect the two electrolytes together. The
over on the negative half cycles. The rectifier diodes across each capacitor
internal AC losses in this type of capacitor steer the positive and negative half cycles
are much higher than in a paper or film to the correct capacitor and prevent more
capacitor. The capacitor will overheat if than a fraction of a volt reverse polarity
operated at full ratings for more than a appearing across either capacitor. As
few minutes but this is more than suffi- far as the motor is concerned the two
cient for motor start purposes. capacitors are electrically in series so the
These are special capacitors, not much effective value is half the individual value
used for other purposes and not easily i.e. two 200uF 350V DC capacitors
available as over the counter sales. Mail- would be required to replace a single
order suppliers are listed in Appendix 5. 100 nF 250V AC non-polar capacitor.
The alternative, generally available In operation this’ results in the two
polarised electrolytic capacitors cannot positive terminals charging up to the
be used singly for motor starting but it is peak value of the applied voltage. This is
quite possible to use them series con- a nuisance because the capacitors may
nected as back-to-back pairs. The arrange- retain their charge for several hours after
ment is shown in Figure 8.5. The negative the supply is removed. The high-value
electrode of each capacitor replaces the discharge resistors connected across

100
 almost exactly the same as some types of
ceramic capacitor. At the rated operating
voltage the device behaves as a very high
resistance and passes very little current
but as soon as this voltage is exceeded,
large currents flow which limit the
transient voltages to a safe level.

8.4 Test meters

Most of the setting up and operation of
D, D, 5A 400V common workshop motors can be carried
R, R, 100KQ /,W out with little or no test equipment. How-
ever, there are a few items that are well
worth having if you are considering some-
Fig. 8.5 AC operation of electrolytic capacitors
thing more ambitious than installing a
standard motors in their normal location.
each capacitor do not affect normal The most generally useful item is a
circuit operation, but reduce the time multimeter capable of measuring voltage,
taken for the capacitor to discharge to a current and resistance. The AC and DC
safe voltage. voltage and current ranges should cover
The rectifier diodes are not essential up to at least 500V and 10A. The resis-
items and are only included to ensure that tance ranges will mostly be used for
the published ratings of the capacitor are checking values of a few ohms or tens of
never exceeded i.e. never operating with ohms, but should also be capable of
polarity reversed. With the diodes present reading up to at least several megohms for
and the capacitors rated for at least 350V checking windings to case insulation.
DC operation they will be operating wholly Small analog meters, similar to the type
within their normal continuous voltage shown on the right-hand side of Figure
ratings and for short periods at least, 8.6, are quite low-cost items and meet
could even be used as emergency run most of the requirements. Their principal
Capacitors. limitations are poor accuracy — rarely
much better than 5% and only the more
8.3 Metal-oxide varistors expensive ones include AC current ranges.
Semiconductor devices used in motor However, quite a lot can be done with
control systems can easily be permanently these little instruments and they are a
damaged by transient over-voltage even useful basic minimum.
if this over-voltage only exists for less than Next up in the scale is the digital multi-
a thousandth of a second. Metal-oxide meter. These are more accurate and can
varistors are devices that are placed at key be obtained in a very wide range of
points in the circuit to prevent excessive capabilities. Types that include AC current
voltages reaching the sensitive semi- ranges are suitable for motor work and are
conductors. available at about twice the price of the
They are made in the form of small small analog meters. The better accuracy
round plates of ceramic-like material with of the voltage and current ranges is useful,
electrodes metallised on each side of the but the key difference is the much
plate. The construction and appearance is improved resistance measurement facility.

101
Fig. 8.6 Digital and analog multimeters

This is needed for checking safe motor the field magnets around a stationary
temperatures (see Appendix 2). The resis- armature. The AC output can then be
tance ranges of analog multimeters are taken directly from the armature coils.
not accurate enough for this purpose. This eliminates the need to use slip rings
Additional facilities available on the to bring out the armature connections but
more expensive digital meters include the original motor bearings cannot now
capacitance and frequency measurement. be used. The field magnets have to be
Capacitance measurement is directly mounted on a new input shaft which is
useful but frequency measurement needs carried on its own pair of bearings.
extra equipment before it can be used to Maximum output will be obtained if the
measure motor rpm. connections are made to two diametrically
opposite bars on the commutator. In the
8.5 Speed measurement common case of a three-pole armature
The minimum voltage needed for frequency this is exactly the same as any two
measurement on most digital multimeters segments, ignoring the third. Unless you
is about 1V rms. It is possible to convert are lucky enough to be using a high-
almost any small permanent magnet DC voltage motor, more than 1000 rpm will
motor into an AC generator to provide this be needed to reach 1V output. In this case
voltage but it needs a fair amount of work. remove the existing windings and rewind
The best way of doing this is to reverse with as many turns as possible using
the motor’s normal function and rotate much thinner wire. A good choice is 42

102
 swg/0.1mm enamelled wire. Slightly more between black and white PVC sticky
output is possible with 44 swg/0.08mm tape — strips can be applied directly to
but 42 swg is easier to handle (Maplin the motor shaft. Equal black and white
BL61R and BL62S). sectors is the ideal distribution but it is
In the case of a three-pole armature, put not at all critical — even a 5:1 ratio is
_all the winding on one pole and ignore the acceptable. The sensor is specified to
other two. In the case of a multi-pole operate at a working distance of 0.05”/
armature, wind in a pair of slots that are 1.3mm but with good black/white con-
exactly or, for odd numbers of poles, trast larger clearance distances are
nearly diametrically opposite. possible. Operation is easily checked by
With a normal two-pole field magnet the measuring the change in DC voltage at
output frequency will be 1 cycle per the test point as the sensor view moves
revolution of the input shaft which is 60 from a black to a white surface.
rpm per Hz so the measured shaft rpm One point that should be watched is
will be the frequency meter reading in Hz that substances that are black and white
X 60. in visible light are not necessarily black
The above arrangement needs no addi- and white at infra-red wavelengths. Most
tional power supply and provides an whites seem to be OK but blacks can be
almost exact replacement for the rather a bit variable. A true black that has a
expensive mechanical tachometers. How- shiny surface can also reflect a significant
ever, it is limited to fairly high speed amount of light. Because this is a specular
shafts. For many purposes an optical (i.e. mirror-like) reflection this generates
pick-off arrangement is a more convenient additional false ‘whites’ which result in
alternative because the measurement can variable false high rpm readings which
be made without any direct mechanical are sensitive to small changes in the
connection to the motor under test and it working distance. With experience this
is also possible to use it at lower speeds. can be avoided by a small change in the
The system is shown in Figure 8.7. sensor position but it is usually better to
Q1 is a photo reflective infra-red sensor. cover the shiny surface with a dab of
This consists of a photo transistor quick-drying photographic matt black
mounted directly alongside an infra-red retouching paint.
light-emitting diode (LED). The photo The equivalent of the AC generator set
transistor is normally non-conducting up can be achieved by using the photo
but if a reflective surface is placed near sensor to monitor the speed of a separate
the working face the reflected emission mounted disc or drum painted with black
from the infra-red LED turns the photo and white stripes. If 60 stripes are used
transistor ‘on’ which drives the output the meter will now read rpm directly and
negative. it will also be possible to measure much
If, as the shaft rotates, the sensor sees lower shaft speeds.
alternate black and white surfaces it will An alternative method is to use a photo
deliver square pulses which can be con- interrupter-type sensor — RS Components
nected directly to the digital multimeter. stock No. 306—061 is a suitable type. In
The best contrast is between the diffuse this sensor the LED is mounted directly
reflection from matt black and matt opposite the photo transistor which is
white painted surfaces. Nearly as good, now always ‘on’ unless the IR beam is
and much more convenient is the contrast interrupted by a slotted disc. This com-

103
 R1 10kohms 0.6W Maplin M10K
R2 330 ohms 0.6W Maplin M330
C1 0.47 uF 100V Maplin BX80B
$1 Push switch Maplin FH59P
Q1 OPB706B Maplin UK81C_ (opto reflect)
or Q1 Stock No 304-560 RS Components (opto interrupt)
— Battery connector Maplin HF28F/PP3
— Screened cable Maplin XR16S

Fig. 8.7 Optical pick-off

pletely avoids any specular reflection meter and the outér metal screen of this
problems but it is now essential to use a cable connected to the earthed metal-
slotted disc or drum beam interrupter and work of the motor and controller.
it is no longer possible to avoid a direct With the above methods the speed
mechanical connection to the motor. measurement can be directly read from
If you are checking a motor that is the digital multimeter frequency readout
operating from a speed controller, switch- and no special calibration is needed. An
ing frequency pulses radiated from the alternative method is to simply measure
speed controller may interfere with the the DC output voltage of a small per-
digital frequency measurement. To avoid manent-magnet motor. If driven from the
this, screened cable should be used for shaft under test, the motor acts as a
the lead from the sensor to the digital tacho—generator and the voltage output

104
 is linearly proportional to speed. The illuminating it with either a 240V neon
output voltage per thousand rpm will lamp (i.e. aneon lamp with built-in resistor
depend on the motor type chosen and for 240V operation) or an LED operated
the setup will need to be calibrated on from half wave rectified AC. The neon
a shaft turning at one or more known lamp emits light pulses at 400 per second
_speeds. The most readily available known (= 6000 rpm), the LED rate is 50 per
rpm is the no-load speed of almost any second (= 3000 rpm). The single white
single- or three-phase induction motor. marker will appear stationary when the
On full load, the rpm may be 4 to 10% shaft is rotating at the light pulse fre-
below synchronous speed but at no-load quency or a higher exact multiple. If the
the speed rises to about 1% below synch- shaft rotates at a lower exact sub multiple
ronous speed and this can be used as a the light will flash more than once per
reliable calibration speed. shaft rotation and multiple white markers
A shaft speed can be directly checked will be visible — two at half speed, three
by placing a white marker on it and at one third speed etc.

105
CHAPTER 9

Some Typical Workshop

Applications
9.1 Background drove the variable delivery hydraulic pump
Over a rather large number of years my in a Boulton Paul gun turret. Power for
workshop has accumulated a very useful the motor was obtained from a 24V 40
selection of power tools and machines. amp battery chafger and taps on the
Some of these are of quite venerable age charger gave a limited range of speed
but still fully functioning and rendering control. The 40 amp charger occupied
excellent service. One of the good things valuable workshop space but earned its
about older machines is that they were keep because it also supplied a pre-war
invariably built with more than adequate vintage pillar drill and a small grinder,
safety factors on section strengths and both of which were fitted with ex-aircraft
sizes and this makes them easier to 24V commutator motors.
repair and overhaul than their modern The low-voltage motor set up gave
equivalent. many years of useful service but was
Many of these items were originally eventually retired when | came across a
broken or scrapped and the repair and 110V DC compound-wound lift motor
refurbishment included motor conversion and a large Variac (see Ch. 5, section
or the fitting of replacement motors. 5.3.5) both ripe for recycling. With the
Since other home workshop enthusiasts addition of a bridge rectifier this made
may have similar requirements the fol- an ideal variable DC source to drive the
lowing examples of this work are included motor armature. The 110V shunt field
to give guidance on suitable motors was supplied directly from 240V AC via
and conversions for different types of the voltage halving rectifier circuit shown
machines. in Figure 9.1.
This slightly unusual rectifier circuit
9.2 10” Swing Southbend lathe delivers an average of 0.45V x 240V to
This massive 1942 vintage machine was the field coils. A full explanation of how
rescued from a factory update program this rectifier works is beyond the scope
before it reached the scrapyard. It was of this book, but as a rough guide D1
originally fitted with a % hp three-phase supplies power to the field on the positive
motor. This was initially replaced by a half cycles of the supply while D2 absorbs
large 24V commutator motor which once the negative inductive overswing and

106
 sible speed and voltage. However it has
survived this treatment for more than ten
years so | am well satisfied with the set
up.
Y VITA
If you are tempted to experiment along
these lines with largish motors be very
sure that the motor is properly secured
and protected. There is a lot of energy
stored in a heavy armature spinning at
Fig. 9.1 Voltage halving field circuit 7,000 rpm and if the windings break
loose much of this energy is transferred
allows the current to continue during the to the motor frame. The motor fixings
negative half cycle of the supply. This and protection must be strong enough to
circuit only works properly if it is driving prevent the motor or any broken bits
a load that is an almost pure inductance from flying round the workshop.
so that field coils are an ideal load. The
voltage halver will work after a fashion if 9.3 Schaublin 13 toolroom mill
it is used to drive a motor armature but When acquired this was fitted with three,
an armature is not a pure inductance — six-terminal three-phase motors — a 2hp
the voltage regulation will be dreadful, main spindle drive motor plus 0.3 hp and
and on light loads the output voltage 0.1hp motors for the table traverse
may more than double. mechanism and the suds pump. The
Although the motor is compound motors were reconnected in delta for
wound it still takes a very high peak 240V operation and a box containing
starting current during the small fraction three separate single phase to three
of a second needed for the shunt-field phase converters mounted out of harm’s
current to build up to its full value. To way at the back of the machine.
avoid this problem a small 12V relay is It would have been possible to use
included with its coil in series with the only one converter with component
field circuit. The contacts on this relay do values chosen for 2% hp operation. This
not close until the shunt-field current has is sufficient power to operate the spindle
built up to working level. These contacts drive motor plus both the suds pump and
are wired in series with the main arma- traverse motors provided the spindle
ture contactor coil so that this cannot drive motor is always in circuit. It would
apply power to the armature until the not be possible to run the pump or
shunt field has reached working level. traverse motors without also running
The Variac plus rectifier system is the spindle motor as the start and run
good for 10:1 speed variation at light capacitor values in the phase converter
loads dropping to about 3:1 range for would be quite unsuitable for a load of
heavy cuts. | still use back gear occasion- less than % hp. This was felt to be an
ally, but the six-speed belt shift is left unreasonable restriction so a separate
permanently in its lowest speed setting. converter was used for each of the three
At maximum speed the lift motor is motors.
running at about 7,000 rpm at more than Most of the bits for the converters
twice its normal armature voltage which came out of my electronics junk box. The
must be close to its maximum permis- run capacitors were rectangular paper

107
dielectric capacitors, ex-World War 2
radar transmitters. The start capacitors
were back-to-back pairs of ex-TV electro-
lytic smoothing capacitors.
The Schaublin 13 is usually operated
with a very solidly built vertical milling
head which is fine for general purpose
milling operations but has no quill feed
for sensitive drilling and jig boring opera-
tions. An alternate light-duty quill-feed
vertical head is available but it is an ex-
pensive item and changing over and
realigning the alternate heads is a fairly
lengthy operation.
To solve this problem | use a perm-
anently attached offset quill-feed head.
The mill is normally operated with the
heavy-duty vertical head fitted and aligned
to be truly vertical. A separate home-
brew, quill-feed drilling spindle is bolted
to the side of the main milling head and
displaced 3.250” to the right (Fig. 9.2).
This makes both facilities immediately
available interchangeably without loss of
the datum setting on the workpiece. Fig. 9.2 Schaublin 13 drill head
To keep the size and weight of this
attachment to a minimum, a high-speed and these are selected by a 2-pole, 4-way
permanent magnet commutator motor is switch to total 22V, 27V, 37V and 49V.
used as the power source. This powers These are not carefully selected voltage
the spindle via a two-stage, three-speed intervals but just a useful way of utilising
timing belt drive. The commutator motor an existing transformer. No attempt was
is much lighter than a 50OHz induction made to use voltages below 22V because
motor of similar power rating and the this was the lowest voltage at which the
timing belt drive can operate with short motor could supply sufficient torque to
centre distances which helps to make drive the larger drill sizes.
the head very compact. This makes it
possible to carry the whole motor/speed 9.4 Jones & Shipman 540 surface grinder
reducer assembly directly on the quill- Surface grinders are not common items
feed column with the weight counter- in small workshops but they are very
balanced by a 4-ply constant force versatile machines and with a few extra
Tensator spring. attachments can carry out a wide range
The motor is an ex-aircraft 28V DC of work. Mine is used fairly frequently for
machine and a limited range of speed surface preparation and finishing but it
control is obtained by operating it from a also doubles as a centre grinder, a
transformer and rectifier unit. The trans- slideway grinder and as a tool and cutter
former has 10V, 12V and 27V secondaries grinder.

108
 The main spindle is driven by a three- provided a balanced 415V three-phase
phase 1hp motor with a smaller % hp output with sufficient power to start
motor to power the hydraulics. It is an either or both of the surface grinder
old machine and both motors are of the motors. Each of the surface grinder motors
415V three-terminal variety so recon- was provided with its own run capacitor
nection for 240V would have entailed wired straight across the motor terminals
removal of both motors from the machine so that in any of the possible run con-
and surgical operations on the windings figurations the optimum value of the run
(see Appendix 1). This was my first essay capacitor was always in circuit.
into phase conversion and with no pre- The pilot motor is a 3hp, 2850 rpm
vious experience of modifying motors machine and the only load on its shaft is
| decided to keep the machine in its a small fan which keeps the modified
standard 415V configuration and operate welding transformer cool. A much smaller
it from a home-brew 240V single-phase motor could have been used but this hap-
to 415V three-phase converter. pened to be the size | had. The large pilot
The most difficult item in this type of motor provides lots of starting power
converter is the input auto-transformer and also improves the system balance by
needed to convert 240V single phase to reducing the minimum to maximum load
the 415V single phase needed to drive ratio.
the motor and the phase shifting capaci- With hindsight it would have been much
tors. Fortunately this was in the early simpler to delta connect the motors and
1970s when conservatively rated old use separate phase converters as | later
welding transformers could still be found, did with the Schaublin 13. However, |
wound with copper wire and assembled had most of the bits for the 415V con-
with nuts and bolts securing the lamina- verter on hand and it had the attraction
tions. It was fairly easy to strip one of that it could be used at a later date to
these down, replace the 5OV welding power other three-phase machines.
secondary with a 175V additive overwind The main grinding head fitted to the
and re-assemble. This is not now an J&S 540 is an excellent tool for the job
option because, in modern welding trans- that it was designed for but it is not
formers, the laminated core joints are suitable for wheels less than 5” diameter
welded in position and it is no longer (the speed is too low and the drive mech-
possible to strip them down and rebuild. anics are too large) and it cannot be
The capacitors were not a problem as tilted. For some jobs, particularly slideway
the values needed for 415V star operation grinding and some types of cutter grind-
are only one-third of the value needed for ing, a tilting high-speed head is a great
the 240V delta connection. Commercial advantage. This has to be small enough
440V power correction capacitors were and light enough to bolt to the existing
used. The 1hp and % hp motors, used cast iron wheel guard and it also needs to
singly or together, presented a load be vibration free and develop enough
range of % hp to 1% hp which was too power for reasonably speedy stock
wide a range to permit a single pair of removal.
start and run capacitors. This was solved The grinding head made for this job is
by including an unloaded pilot motor shown in Figure 9.3. Once again it is
which was first run up to speed using its based on surplus aircraft equipment but
own start and run capacitors. This then this time the motor used is a “%hp,

109
11,000 rpm three-phase high-frequency per revolution of the feed dial. The total
induction motor. These motors, first used vertical travel is 11” and this distance
in early post-war military aircraft, can requires 550 turns of the feed handle
develop extraordinary amounts of power which is quite an arm-aching process !
in a small frame size. The snag of course A rapid traverse motor drive is the
is finding the necessary 115V 400Hz obvious, solution but it is essential that
three-phase power needed to drive them. the drive does not degrade the sensitivity
This was solved by yet another surplus and accuracy of:the manual feed. It is
item — a type 8a 28V DC to 400Hz also necessary that the motor drive
three-phase rotary converter and powered system is tightly controlled and does not
in this case by the original 24V 40 amp suffer from overshoots that could result
battery charger. The type 8a is only rated in the grinding wheel crashing into the
to deliver 350W which is not enough to workpiece.
fully power the % hp load but fortunately The normal solution to this problem is
it is a rugged military machine and fairly to use a constant-speed motor with a
tolerant to reasonable overload. It has mechanically or electrically operated
led a hard life for some years now and clutch to engage and disengage the
nothing has burnt up yet! drive. This works: fine but it entails a lot
The most recent upgrading of the J & of work to manufacture the necessary
S 540 is on the vertical feed system. The motor drive and clutch arrangement. To
standard manual feed mechanism will avoid this, a relatively large low-speed
easily and repeatedly advance the cut in high-torque motor was used which made
0.0001” increments, but to achieve this it possible for it to be permanently con-
resolution the feed rate is only 0.020” nected it to the manual feed dial by a

Fig. 9.3 Surface grinder high-speed grinding head

110
low-ratio direct belt drive. At this low
reduction ratio, when power is not applied
to the motor, the armature rotates freely
and places little additional load on the
manual feed. 5
The motor used is an ex-washing
machiné commutator machine. This
doesn’t sound promising as it is normally
classed as a high speed, fairly high power
machine — about 8,000 rpm and % hp
— but this is another example of the way
in which the characteristics of a com-
mutator machine can be matched to a
particular application by suitable choice
of the armature and field operating con-
ditions. We need the torque that this
machine can deliver but at a lower ap-
proximately constant speed — about
1,200 rpm.
In its original washing machine applic-
ation, the motor is operated as a series-
wound 240V AC machine. In this new
application, to obtain the low constant
Fig. 9.4 Surface grinder fast-feed motor drive
speed characteristic, it is operated as a
low-voltage (40V) shunt-wound DC
machine. A small transformer rectifier the large pulley and the belt runs in a
unit provides a 40V DC armature supply simple flat-bottomed groove. The '%”
and a separate 6V DC output supplies the wide belt is made by slitting a standard
field current. It would, of course, have ¥%” wide belt with a sharp knife and
been possible to eliminate this low- snipping the embedded helically wound
voltage field supply by rewinding the steel cable with a pair of cutters.
field coils with thinner wire to operate The one remaining problem is that,
directly from the 40V armature supply. with any traverse distance greater than
However, it was much less work to gen- about /%”, the feed dial overruns by about
erate a separate 6V field supply by piling two full turns after the motor power has
additional! turns on top of the windings of been switched off. A simple way to fix
an existing 40V transformer. this is to keep the field permanently
To provide the belt drive with minimum energised and to use a relay to short
modification to the basic surface grinder, circuit the armature in the ‘off’ switch
an extremely narrow (/%” wide) size XL position. This electric braking almost
timing belt drive is used directly between instantaneously stops the feed but has
the motor shaft and a 6%” pulley mounted dire effects on manual feed operations.
on the periphery of the manual feed dial The motor is now acting as a short-
— Figure 9.4. A 14-tooth pulley is used circuited generator and strongly resists
on the motor but, because the ratio is any rapid movement. The manual feed
well over 3:1, teeth are not necessary on feels as if it has been dipped.into a pot of

111
extremely stiff glue! It is not recommended unless you are
This could be cured by an additional prepared to make the modifications neces-
switch to remove the field when using sary to reduce the large peak starting
manual feed but a more convenient torque that is needed when the com-
arrangement is shown in Figure 9.5. The pressor restarts while feeding an already
essential addition is.;C1 connected across pressurised air receiver.
the field circuit. When a compressor is operating and
When the traverse switch is in the delivering air to a spray gun, the pressure
central ‘off’ position the armature is in the cylinder only reaches the system
short circuited and no power is applied to operating pressure over the latter part of
the field. In the absence of any field its compression stroke. The flywheel
current there is no electric braking and effect of the rotating motor rotor averages
normal manual feed is possible. When the peak torque corresponding to this
the traverse switch is in the ‘upfeed’ or system pressure over the whole intake
‘downfeed’ position, the armature short and compression cycle, so that the effec-
circuit is removed and power applied to tive average torque load on the motor is
both armature and field. However, when less than one-quarter of the peak demand
the traverse switch is returned the ‘off’ of the compressor.
position, although external field power is When the motor.has been stopped, at
removed, the charge remaining on C1 restart the averaging effect is no longer
keeps field current flowing for the small present and in the first revolution the
fraction of a second needed for the com- motor has to supply the full-peak com-
bined electric and friction braking to bring pressor torque demand. In addition to
the motor to a halt with less than 0.001” this, while the compressor is stationary,
overshoot. The field current decays to some high-pressure air from the air
zero in less than a second which then receiver will leak back through the rarely
allows unimpeded manual feed. perfect compressor delivery valve so
that the initial pressure in the cylinder
9.5 Paint spray compressor will rise well above atmospheric pressure
This is one of the most demanding applica- and may approach system pressure. This
tions for converted three-phase motors. causes the peak torque demand to occur

up \
1)!

[—

10,000uF

Fig. 9.5 Surface grinder fast-feed control gear

12
earlier in the compression cycle and rescued from a burnt-out single-phase
increases the duration of the peak. Capacitor start motor. During the starting
To be sure of trouble-free restarting at period this is switched in parallel with the
full system pressure the motor needs a run Capacitor by a motor current operated
starting torque at least four times normal relay so that the total value of the start
full-load torque and, unless an excessively Capacitance is 140uF. This current-
large motor is used, this is too much for controlled system is one of the alternative
the simple three-phase to single-phase methods of starting three-phase motors
conversions described in this book. This described in Electric Motors (Nexus
performance is possible if the necessary Special Interests). However, the method
increased balanced starting currents are described in Chapter 2 of this book is
supplied by a large pilot motor as des- equally suitable and has the advantage
cribed in section 9.4, but it is much easier that it does not need a specially modified
to modify the compressor system to motor current relay.
reduce the demands on the motor. When the compressor is operating,
The most effective scheme, often used the cooled output from the compressor
commercially, is a compressor unloading delivery valve contains condensed water
system that uses a solenoid which only vapour and alittle oil, both in the form of
allows the inlet valve to close when air a fine mist. A condensate filter in the line
delivery is required. The motor runs con- removes this from the high-pressure air
tinuously but, because the compressor before it reaches the main air storage
inlet valve is always open, the pressure receiver. In commercial compressors this
in the cylinder never rises above atmos- filter is a fairly small item and is provided
pheric and there is no significant load on with a manually operated valve at the
the motor. When air delivery is required lowest point to drain away accumulated
the inlet valve is allowed to close in the tramp oil and water condensate.
normal manner. This immediately restores In the home-brew system, as part of
the normal compressor peak torque the reduced starting torque strategy, the
demands, but since the motor is already volume of this item is made quite large —
running at normal speed this is not a more than ten times the compressor dis-
problem. placement. It is connected to the main air
Not all compressors lend themselves receiver via a non-return valve. An auto-
to this solution — the inlet valve may be matic pressure dump valve releases the
an inaccessible reed type or may be just pressure in this filter volume whenever
a row of ports in the cylinder wall near the motor is switched off.
the bottom of the stroke. However, with When the motor restarts, the com-
some additional items to reduce the pressor now delivers air into the empty
initial compressor torque peaks it is still filter volume. Long before the pressure
possible to drive these with a phase con- has built up in the filter to full system
verted three-phase motor. pressure the motor has reached its full
The drive motor in my home-brew rig is running speed and can handle the full
fairly generously sized at 1hp with a average torque load without difficulty.
40 pF of run capacitor provided by two The additional items required are the
large 20 uF rectangular capacitors adjacent oversize condensate filter, the non-return
to the motor. The start capacitor is a valve and the pressure dump valve.
100 uF reversible electrolytic capacitor The condensate filter is simply a length

i)Wee}
of 3” pipe provided with ‘‘O”’ ring sealed pair of flat belt fast and loose pulleys for
end caps retained by a central stud run- drive from overhead shafting but these
ning the full length of the filter. The filter were replaced by a single vee belt pulley.
is mounted with its long axis vertical and | initially powered it with a “%hp,
the top two-thirds tightly packed with 1,425 rpm split-phase motor with a step-
knitted stainless steel pot scrubbers from up vee belt drive to run the twin 10” by
the local supermarket. Air enters at the 1” wide wheels at 2,300 rpm. This is not
bottom and exits at the top. The pressure the right type of motor for this sort of
dump valve connects to the bottom of duty — it takes several seconds for the
the filter so that every time it operates, it motor to run the heavy twin wheels up to
vents any accumulated oil and condensate. operating speed and this is far too long
The non-return valve is a simple manu- for a split-phase motor. A single start is
factured item using a 2” diameter stain- OK but two or three successive starts
less steel ball, spring loaded into contact will seriously overheat the start winding
with an ‘’O” ring seating face. The unless ample time is allowed for the
reverse leakage of this type of valve is windings to cool down between starts. A
almost nil. When the compressor is used capacitor-start motor is the right type of
as an ever-ready workshop-compressed single-phase motor for this sort of duty,
air supply the air receiver retains its but since | did not,have one | used the
pressure all day without topping up. split-phase machine and tried to treat it
The pressure dump valve is a com- gently.
pletely standard 240V AC _ solenoid- After a couple of years the inevitable
controlled water inlet valve removed happened and the’starting winding burnt
from a junk automatic washing machine. out. However, by this time | had worked
Although designed to control water flow out the techniques for converting three-
it seems to work equally well on com- phase machines and this was the obvious
pressed air even when (or perhaps solution. The local scrapyard yielded a
because!) this is contaminated with con- 1 hp six-terminal machine which fitted
densate and tramp oil. The solenoid nicely because it was about the same
cannot be connected directly across the size as the previous % hp machine and
motor terminals because the dump valve there was plenty of room for the usual
opens when the solenoid is energised. phase conversion components. which
Instead, an additional relay is used which fitted in a small box beside the motor.
is energised when power is applied to the The starting torque of the converted
motor. When it is energised the normally three-phase machihe is rather better —
closed contacts on this relay open and the wheels now reach operating speed in
remove the power from the solenoid. less than two seconds — but the impor-
This closes the dump valve and allows tant point is that the whole of the three-
pressure to build up in the system. phase winding is used during the starting
cycle. This takes much longer to heat up
9.6 10” Twin-wheel grinder than the relatively small amount of copper
This is a really ancient machine rescued (about Y%10) which makes up the start
from the breakers yard (Figure 9.6). The winding of a split-phase machine, so the
main shaft runs on two substantial white three-phase motor is very much more
metal bearings in a heavy solid bench tolerant of long starting periods.
mounting casting. It came fitted with a

114
 js i

Fig. 9.6 10” grinder

9.7 Power fretsaw The motor is operated from the simple

This machine doesn’t need a lot of power triac controller described in Chapter 5
to drive it but variable speed is a useful and has more power than is really neces-
asset to enable it to be used for both sary. Because of the very light load on
woodworking and metalworking. The the motor this gives a useful speed range
small commutator motors used to drive of about 4:1 and most operation is in the
domestic spin driers are ideal for this sort lower part of the coverage.
of job.
Figure 9.7 shows the set up with one 9.8 Linisher
of these motors driving a small fretsaw. Figure 9.8 shows a small linisher powered
A 12:40 ratio, size XL timing belt drive is by an ex-dishwasher main pump motor.
used and this is a good example of the Once again a size XL timing belt is used
short centre-to-centre distance that is for the drive. The motor has ample
possible with this type of drive. A col- power for this application and the 2,850
lector shoe picks up a little air from the rpm shaft speed is convenient as it allows
centrifugal cooling fan on the motor and a near 1:1 ratio drive for the abrasive belt
this is used to blow swarf clear of the speed of about 1,800 ft/minute. The dish-
cutting edge. washer motor is a capacitor-run type

11S
Fig. 9.7 Power fretsaw

(7.5 uF) which has poor starting torque 9.9 Pillar drill
but, as the linisher always starts withno This a Startrite Mercury %” pillar drill
applied load, this is not a problem. fitted with a %hp single-phase motor

Fig. 9.8 Linisher

116
 driving the quill through a four-step pulley
vee belt drive. It is a good general-purpose
machine, but the lowest speed setting is
not low enough for large diameter fly
cutting and shifting the belt on the four-
“step pulleys for the normal speed changes
means messing about with a spanner
and retensioning the belt.
Eventually | got fed up with this and
fitted it with a variable speed commutator
motor drive. The set up is shown in
Figure 9.9. One of the larger ex-automatic
washing machine motors is fitted with a
32-tooth XL flanged timing belt pulley
and this drives an 8” diameter Tufnol
pulley bolted to the top of the original
four-step, motor-mounted vee belt pulley.
Out of sheer laziness | retained the
original Y% hp drive motor although its
only remaining function is to provide a
pair of bearings for the four-step pulley.
The drive ratio is just over 1:4 so no
teeth are needed on the large pulley.
Tufnol was used simply because my
scrap box happened to have a disc of the
right size. A pulley made from varnished Fig. 9.9 Pillar drill drive (belt guard removed to
Ye” thick plywood would have been show drive arrangement)
quite OK. Either way, it’s a lot quicker
and easier to make than the equivalent
125-tooth pulley. in this box.
After much head scratching, | managed In fact, the variable speed control is so
to sort out the connections to the par- effective that | only ever use the two
ticular speed control board fitted to this lower speed vee belt settings and, apart
washing machine and this is housed in a from fly cutting, it stays permanently on
small control box mounted on the left of the second lowest setting. The variable
the drill head. With four vee belt drive speed facility is a great convenience. The
ratios and a wide-range, fully variable only real drawback is the noise level — at
motor speed control | expected it to be maximum speed a largish commutator
easy to lose track of spindle speeds so | motor screaming round at 8,000 rpm at
also fitted a simple tachometer readout close range is far from peaceful!
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APPENDIX 1

Converting Three Terminal

Three Phase Motors
This procedure is only included as an is the case, your only choice is to either
appendix because not all three terminal scrap the motor or to buy a commercial
motors are suitable for conversion. Some phase converter. Don’t be too discouraged
may have the windings so heavily dunked by this possibility because delta-connected
in resin that the junctions are inaccessible windings are quite rare in the power range
and some of the larger sizes may already likely to be used in the home workshop.
be delta connected. However, about Once you have identified the junctions
80% of these older motor types can be to the three leadout wires look for the
successfully converted so the attempt is fourth piece of sleeving — this will be the
well worthwhile. star point where the three inner wires of
Remove both end bells from the motor. each winding are joined together. This is
This will expose the three leadout wires the first joint to be made in the assembly
bound in to the end turns of the windings of the motor, so it is usually buried under
with a mess of string, tape and resin. The one of the other three junctions. Very
star point is usually buried beneath the carefully cut or scrape away the resin
joints between the leadout wires and impregnated sleeving until the twisted
the windings. Carefully cut through all the and soldered joint between the three wires
string and tape and gingerly prise one is visible. Don’t attempt to unsolder the
leadout wire free of the windings. The joint — this is too fiddly a job — but cut
junction between the leadout wire and each wire just before the soldered joint.
the wire of the motor windings will usually Scrape each of the three ends to bright
be covered with a short length of black clean copper and twist and solder to
or yellow sleeving. three new leadout wires. To simplify
Check that only one wire emerges from sorting out the final connections, use a
the other end of this sleeving. This means different colour for the new leadout wires
that the windings are star connected. If so that they cannot be confused with the
you’re really unlucky you may find two original wires from the outer ends of the
wires emerging — this means that the windings.
windings are already delta connected, Occasionally each of the main windings
there is no star point, and the motor is is not a number of complete turns but
only suitable for 415V operation. If this includes an extra half turn. In this case

UUs
the star point is not buried under the safely insulated continue the tape wrap-
leadout junctions but appears as a single, ping up the first inch or so of the new
three-wire joint at the other end of the leadout wires so that the wires will still
stator. In this case the new leadout wires be protected even if the temperature
can be attached directly to these three gets high enough to soften the PVC.
wires and it is not necessary to disturb Tie the six leddout wires to the end
the original leadouts at the other end of turns of,the motor windings with string
the stator. and secure the string and any potentially
The maximum temperature of the loose ends or wires with two-part epoxy
windings is too high to risk using friction resin. Pair each inner wire with its respec-
tape or any of the ordinary PVC or cel- tive outer by checking continuity with an
lulose sticky tapes. High-temperature ohmmeter. Twist,.each pair together and
electrical grade Mylar or glass fibre tape connect to the terminal block as shown
is OK but only available from specialist in Figure A1.1. Because the three wind-
suppliers. The simplest solution is to bind ings are identical, the order in which the
with half a dozen layers of the very thin windings are connected to the block
PTFE/Teflon tape used by plumbers doesn’t matter. The only point to watch
instead of pipe jointing compound. This is to be sure that each terminal carries
is available at any central heating stockist. the inner of one winding and the outer of
Once each of the three new joints is another.

FINISH

FINISH

Fig. A1.1 Delta winding connection

120
APPENDIX 2

Motor Power Rating

Section 1.5 in Chapter 1 included some greatly on motor design and cooling but
comments on the nameplate rating of only one-third of the low-speed value
induction motors and permissible over- may be available at 24,000 rpm.
loads for intermittent working. This is Comparisons based on rotor/armature
fine when an informative nameplate is size are useful but only if the rated speed
fitted but many useful motors carry no is either known or can be measured.
nameplate, and power rating is a matter An alternative approach relies on the
of guesswork. Size alone is not a reliable fact that, for motors operating at shaft
indicator. Accurate assessment is not speeds of up a few thousand rpm, reason-
possible without extensive testing and able guesses can be made based on the
expensive test equipment, but the fol- fact that the fraction of the maximum
lowing notes should enable estimates to input power that is dissipated in the
be made that are good enough for most winding resistance is roughly constant.
requirements Providing the normal operating voltage
The maximum torque that a motor can of the motor is known, estimates can be
deliver is mainly controlled by the volume made based on the measured winding
of the active part of the rotor/armature resistance. Figure A2.1, reproduced from
and not much affected by the other Electric Motors, shows this in graphical
dimensions. A large overall diameter form for commonly encountered supply
stator/field assembly may improve the voltages. No great accuracy can be
efficiency and reduce the temperature expected from this very simple method
rise of a motor but has little effect on the because it assumes that all motors have
maximum torque that can be delivered roughly similar distribution of losses.
from a particular size of rotor/armature. Nevertheless, it is a useful first approxi-
Low-speed motors (up to about 3,000 rpm) mation and will give consistently better
can utilise a roughly constant fraction of results than guesses based only on
this torque, but at higher speeds un- overall size and weight.
wanted losses in the iron increase and it The method is not suitable for high-
is necessary to accept a lower torque speed commutator motors because the
rating to avoid excessive temperature distribution of losses is different and the
rise. The amount of the reduction depends indicated power would be unduly opti-

121
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 mistic. However, it is a reasonable basis fugal switch, so it is necessary to either
for low-speed commutator motors and disconnect this winding or hold open the
the normal range of single- and three- centrifugal switch. For three-phase motors,
phase induction motors. measure across any pair of terminals.
To avoid the variable contact resistance For most workshop applications the
_of the carbon brush contacts, armature actual power output capability is of limited
resistance should be measured directly interest — the key question is whether
across the appropriate commutator bars. the motor will overheat when driving your
Series- and shunt-field windings should worst case load. For most of the examples
be ignored. in this book, the motor described has
In single-phase motors, measure only ample power capability and overheating
the resistance of the main ‘run’ winding. is not a problem. However, you may be
With capacitor-start or capacitor-run faced with a case where the motor
motors this is the resistance across the séems to be running very hot and you
motor terminals because the DC connec- don’t want to run the risk of damaging a
tion to the start winding is blocked by the hard to replace motor. In most cases
capacitor. With split-phase motors the your fears are likely to be unfounded —
start winding is normally connected modern motors running near the limit of
across the main winding via the centri- their ratings run very hot indeed. Subjec-

°C

160 hoe 7 320

| SAFE FOR HIGH 4300
140 | TEMPERATURE 4280
MOTORS Jogo
120+ SAFE FOR 1240
MOST MOTORS 220
100 | SAFE FOR 200
80 ALL MOTORS 180

1160
60 7140
7120
40 1 100
80
20 tes
gee i ul) Seat 20
100 120 140 160 180
% OF VALUE AT 20°C/68°F

Fig. A2.2 Change of winding resistance with temperature

123
tive guessing of the running temperature, armature and use the multimeter to
or even taping a thermometer to the measure the voltage drop between well
outside casing, is likely to be wildly separated commutator bars. A bar near
inaccurate. The only safe method is to or under each of the brushes is suitable.
directly measure the temperature of the The set up is shown in Figure A2.3 —
windings. several amps may be needed and a starter
Copper has a temperature co-efficient battery or battery charger is a convenient
of 0.4% per degree C. If the resistance source. 3
of a winding is first. measured at room Use the 2V range of the multimeter.
temperature, the increase in resistance Set the current to give a convenient
at final working temperature is a direct meter reading. If 1.000V is chosen, with
indication of the actual winding temp- the windings at room temperature the
erature. Figure A2.2, again taken from multimeter will directly indicate the per-
Electric Motors, shows safe limits for the centage increase in winding resistance
common types of motors. Use a digital when hot. The current must be maintained
multimeter to measure the resistance at the same set level for both the cold
— few analog meters are sufficiently and hot measurements. To avoid errors
accurate. arising from variable contact resistance,
This is an easy measurement on 240V it is essential that the multimeter is
single- and three-phase induction motors, connected directly to the commutator
but the armature resistance of commutator bars and that the current flow is intro-
machines may be too low to measure duced through separate contact points
accurately on even on the lowest multi- — the main motor brushes are usually
meter ohms range. In this case pass a the most convenient current connection
fairly large fixed DC current through the points.

Fig. A2.3 Low-value resistance measurement

124
APPENDIX 3

Demagnetisation and
Remagnetisation
A3.1 Magnet materials which is much more resistant to de-
Many of the older types of permanent- magnetisation than the older types of
magnet motors used metal (Alnico, metallic magnets. Much shorter magnets
Alcomax and similar alloys) magnets. can be used, length less than half the
Long magnets (about twice as long as width, and it is usually possible to remove
their width) were necessary because and replace the armature without signi-
the metal magnets are not as resistant ficant loss of flux. This is fortunate
to demagnetisation as modern ferrite because ferrite magnets are much more
magnets. The highest performance could difficult to magnetise than the Alni/
only be obtained if the magnets were Alcomax family. The latter can be mag-
magnetised after assembly with the netised with a single pulse of about
armature in position. If the magnetic 8,000 ampére/turns per inch length of
circuit was broken by removing and then magnet. A ferrite magnet needs about
replacing the armature as much as 30% 30,000 ampére/turns per inch.
of the flux would be lost and this could Ferrite magnets can easily be disting-
only be restored by remagnetising the uished from metal magnets by their
assembled motor. lower density and their appearance when
Some very high-performance servo a small area is lightly ground. The grinding
motors still use this type of magnet wheel will make little impression on the
because they can operate at a higher ferrite and the appearance of the freshly
maximum flux density than ferrite magnets ground surface will not differ much from
(i.e. produce more torque). To simplify the rest of the magnet. The ground
the remagnetisation problem, these surface of a metal magnet will show the
motors sometimes carry a few turns of characteristic silvery metallic sheen.
thick wire wound round each magnet. In addition to these magnet types
After final assembly, a several thousand there are now the rare earth magnets
amp current pulse is passed through based on samarium cobalt (SmCo) and
these windings to fully magnetise the neodymium iron boron (NdFeB) alloys.
field magnets. These are metallic magnets that combine
Modern motors mostly use ferrite the advantages of both the metal and the
magnets — this is a black ceramic material ferrite ceramic magnets. However, they

125
are very expensive and will only be en- Demagnetisation often appears to
countered in very high performance servo develop slowly as if the magnets were
motors and similar items. They can be wearing out. This is because of the
distinguished from the older metallic random timing of the occurrence of peak
magnets by the characteristically short current surges. In battery-operated sys-
magnet lengths used — even shorter tems, the worst cases occur with a
than similar ferrite field magnets. freshly charged battery driving a stalled
motor or reversing from high speed.
A3.2 Demagnetisation problems Large currents flow under these condi-
Armature currents exert a demagnetising tions but the actual demagnetising effect
force on the field magnets and manu- on the field magnets depends both on
facturers take this into account when the size of the current peak and on the
choosing the magnet size. Large currents, precise position of the armature at the
limited mainly by the armature resistance, instant of the current peak.
occur when the supply voltage is first On most, or all, of the occasions the
applied to the motor. This current is combined effect is below the threshold
almost doubled if the supply voltage is value needed to decrease the field strength.
reversed and re-applied to a motor that is However, if it exceeds the threshold, it
already running at full. speed in the reduces the field strength by an amount
forward direction (this is because the which depends on.the position of the
back EMF now adds to the supply voltage armature at the time of the current peak.
instead of opposing it). Manufacturers Once the field strength has been reduced
allow for this rather brutal treatment it will not be further reduced (i.e. there is
and, at least in the small and medium now a higher threshold) until it is sub-
sizes, the field magnets will retain their jected to an even higher demagnetising
full flux density indefinitely. peak. Over a large number of starts and
However, if the motor is being operated reversals the field strength will eventually
at say twice its normal rated voltage, the reach the reduced level corresponding to
current surge at startup will already be the worst case peak current and armature
twice the normal value and may approach position combination.
four times if the motor is suddenly Change in field strength can easily be
reversed. This is likely be sufficient to monitored by looking for any change in
partially demagnetise the field magnets the voltage required to maintain some
and reduce the operating field strength. chosen fixed no-load speed. Convenient
If operating a permanent-magnet motor speeds are 1,500 rpm or 3,000 rpm as
above its normal voltage rating, sudden they are easily checked with a neon lamp
reversal should be avoided or steps taken (see Chapter 8). With a fixed-supply
to limit the maximum current that can voltage, no load-speed increases in direct
flow. proportion to the loss of flux. With the
It should be emphasised that loss of speed set to a chosen value by the neon
flux due to demagnetisation is an effect strobe monitor the voltage measured at
which occurs almost instantaneously the motor terminals will decrease if there
when a particular excessive current level is any loss of flux.
is reached. There is no second chance Demagnetisation can certainly occur,
and the loss can only be restored by but it is not often encountered in low-
remagnetising. speed motors fitted with ferrite magnets

126
and operated within their normal ratings. large current will flow but it takes several
High-speed motors are a little more sus- milliseconds for fuse wire to heat up to
ceptible because they usually have the its melting point and break the circuit —
brushes slightly advanced away from the this is sufficient time and current to
90-degree neutral position to improve magnetise the size of magnets we are
the high-speed commutation and this in- likely to encounter in small, permanent-
creases the interaction between the two magnet motors.
magnetic fields. The set up is shown in Figure A3.1. F1
is a standard ceramic body 13A cartridge
A3.3 Remagnetising fuse. The two rectifier diodes are rather
To remagnetise a magnet, all that is special but readily available low-cost
needed is to apply a powerful magnetic devices. Although the continuous rating
field to it to temporarily raise the mag- of these diodes is only 6A their peak
netic flux density within it above the current rating is very high — 400A for
saturation value. When the applied field 8mS. At this sort of current there is
is removed the flux density within the significant voltage drop in the domestic
magnet falls back a little and then remains wiring, but with typical installations this
at this lower value indefinitely. The circuit will cheerfully deliver 400A peak
change of state occurs almost instan- into a % ohm magnetising coil — a peak
taneously and it is only necessary to power of 80kW which is more than enough
apply the field for a few thousandths of to magnetise quite sizable magnets.
a second. At this current level it is not necessary
We can take advantage of this to jury to use an iron-cored purpose-built electro-
rig an extremely simple home-brew mag- magnet. A convenient starting point is
netiser. The normal domestic 240V AC 28ft/8m of 23 swg/0.6mm PVC insulated
ring main is protected by a 30A fuse and single-core wire (Maplin PA56L). This
each outlet plug can be fitted with a 3A, has a total resistance of about half an
5A or 13A fuse. A standard 13A fuse ohm and is thick enough to accept a
will carry 13A for long periods. If a short single short duration 400A current pulse
circuit is placed across the outlet a very without melting the PVC. Sufficient field

wlachens: sec’
D1

13A CARTRIDGE
FUSE

240V AC

DI & D2 MOTOROLA MR754 (MAPLIN YH97F)

Fig. A3.1 Magnetising rig

27/
Fig. A3.2 Magnetising setup

can be generated if the magnetising coil replace it with a slug of mild steel which
is wound directly on the motor or the carries the magnetising winding.
magnet to be magnetised. Wind as much The normal domestic 30A ring main is
as possible on to the workpiece with the designed to be capable of blowing the
remaining wire left as a single loop com- 13A fuses fitted to standard 13A plugs
pleting the connection to the rectifiers. — but only as occasional infrequent
To complete the magnetic circuit, a U- events arising from faulty user equipment.
shaped iron circuit should enclose one The peak current’from such events will
side of the coil and finish at least reason- cause the ring main voltage to instan-
ably close to the outside casing of the taneously drop well below normal voltage
motor. Any convenient lumps of scrap limits and this may interrupt the program
mild steel can be used but, for small operating on any computer connected to
motors, the simplest scheme is to lightly the same ring main. It is also beyond the
grip the coil and motor assembly in a rating of many 13A wall switches and
small machine vice. Figure A3.2 shows a may damage switch contacts.
typical set up. For these reasons you should only
With small motors the field strength ‘resort to this technique on those very
is strong enough to both saturate and rare occasions when it is necessary to
penetrate the outer soft iron casing to remagnetise a motor. Frequent fuse blow-
remagnetise the field magnets contained ing activities are likely to be very un-
within the casing. Larger motors may popular with local computer operators
have magnets fitted within heavy cross- and also, probably, the electricity supply
section cast or welded soft iron return company! Also, use only the standard
paths. In this case locate the magnetising ceramic cased 13A cartridge fuses that
winding in two sections — one round are designed to fail safely and reliably on
each of the field magnets. An alternative domestic 240V supplies.
technique is to remove the armature and

128
~ APPENDIX 4

Motor Terminology

Although in the main part of the book mutator motor or dynamo.

every attempt is made to explain things Autotransformer A transformer in which
in everyday language it is impossible to the secondary winding is either joined
completely avoid specialised terms and to, or forms part of, the primary
jargon. The following list of admittedly winding — see transformer.
rough definitions is provided to help sort Back EMF When power is applied to a
out some of the more commonly used motor and it rotates, it also acts as a
terms. generator and produces within it a
voltage that opposes the applied
AC Alternating Current — current that voltage. This voltage is called the
continuously varies smoothly back back EMF.
and forth from positive to negative Bridge rectifier An interconnected as-
values. In domestic AC supplies this sembly of four rectifier diodes. Two
occurs 50 times per second — this terminations are the AC input — the
frequency is normally called 50c/s or other two are the DC output.
50Hz. Brush A fixed carbon or metal conductor
240V AC Used in this book to refer to which is spring loaded to bear on, and
the normal UK domestic AC supply. to make electrical contact with the
Most of Europe uses a 220V nominal commutator of a motor or dynamo; or
supply. In the future, both areas the sliprings of a generator.
intend to standardise on a rather wide Contactor A heavy-duty relay (see relay)
tolerance 230V + 10% nominal supply. used for controlling high power circuits.
This range is wide enough to cover Closed A pair of contacts or a switch in
the total normai voltage variations of the connected ‘on’ position.
both 240V nominal and 220V nominal Capacitor A device consisting of con-
supplies. Each area happily continues ducting surfaces separated by an
to distribute its original supply voltage insulator which can store electrical
range but is now entitled to call it 230V energy — see Chapter 8.
nominal whenever this is politically Commutator A rotating multi-way switch
more acceptable! which controls the direction of cur-
Armature The rotating part of a com- rent flow in the armature of a DC ar

129
 universal-motor. It usually consists of by field coils wound round an iron
a cylindrical array of copper segments yoke or by permanent magnets.
mounted on the rotating part of the Heatsink Many power semiconductor
motor. Each segment of the array con- devices such as transistors or recti-
nects to part of the armature windings fiers will overheat unless bolted into
and power is fed to the windings by thermal contact with a larger area of
fixed carbon or metal brushes which metal that can dissipate the unwanted
bear on the segments. heat — a heatsink.
DC Direct Current -— current which Hz See AC.
always flows in the same direction. Impedance In AC circuits the effective
Batteries are a source of direct current. resistance to-current flow may differ
Although, strictly speaking, the term from the DC resistance because of the
defines a current it is commonly used presence of inductors or capacitors.
to mean unidirectional e.g. DC vol- Impedance is the AC resistance of
tages or DC currents are unidirectional such a circuit.
voltages or currents. Inductance A coil of wire possesses
Diode A semiconductor device that inductance because it can store energy
only allows current to pass in one in the magnetic field that it generates
direction. Higher power diodes or when a current is passed through it.
assemblies of more than one diode are On AC _ supplies, the alternating
often called rectifiers. There is no polarity of this magnetic field causes
fundamental difference between a the apparent resistance to current
diode and a rectifier — the terms are flow (i.e. the ‘impedance’) to be much
just different names for the same higher than the DC resistance.
device. LED Light-Emitting Diode. Several
Displacement The volume of air (at colours available in the visible light
normal air temperature and pressure) region but diodes emitting infra-red
displaced by the piston moving from are more efficient.
the bottom to the top of its stroke in MOSFET A type of three-terminal semi-
the cylinder. conductor that is normally ‘off’ but
EMF Electro Motive Force. An almost can be switched partially or fully ‘on’
archaic term for voltage but. still by a voltage applied to the third (gate)
commonly used when referring to the terminal.
back EMF of a motor — see above. Open A pair of contacts or a switch in
Energised When sufficient power is the ‘off’ position.
applied to a relay to cause it to operate Open circuit Non-conducting, discon-
it is said to be energised. nected or without any load connected.
Excited excitation When current is Parallel Parallel connection. Components
passed through a winding of a motor (e.g. resistors, switches, motors etc.)
or generator, a magnetic field is gen- connected across a pair of wires so
erated and the winding is said to be that the same voltage appears across
excited. each component.
Field The fixed magnetic field in which Peak Alternating current moves smoothly
the armature of a commutator motor from a maximum value in one direc-
or dynamo rotates. The field can be tion to a maximum value in the other
provided by an electromagnet formed direction. These maximum values are

130
 referred to as the peak value of the rms Root-mean-square. The single figure
voltage or current. The peak voltage used to identify the effective value of
of domestic 240V supplies is 1.414 an alternating current or voltage — in
x 240 = 339V spite of the fact that the actual value
Pot. See potentiometer. is changing all the time. Roughly speak-
Potentiometer A three-terminal variable ing, it is the AC equivalent of the DC
resistor — the slider and both ends of value. One amp rms through a one
the resistive element are available as ohm resistor would require one volt
connections. rms and dissipate a power of one watt
Reed relay A relay in which the con- i.e. exactly the same power as 1 volt
tacts take the form of two flat metal and 1 amp DC. The peak value of
blades (‘reeds’) hermetically sealed domestic 240V rms AC supplies is a
into opposite ends of a small tubular little more than 1.4 X the rms value.
glass enclosure. The reeds are made rpm Revolutions per minute.
of magnetic material and this makes Rotor The rotating part of an induction
them stick together and switch on motor or AC generator.
when current is passed through the SCR_ Silicon-Controlled Rectifier. Some-
relay coil that surrounds the glass tube. times called a thyristor. A semi-
Relay A switch or series of switches conductor switch that works in the
(usually called contacts) operated by same way as a triac but the controlled
an electromagnet. conduction Is in one direction only. In
Relay coil The coil of wire that sur- the reverse direction current flow
rounds the magnetic parts of a relay is always blocked i.e. it acts as a
to form an electromagnet. When suf- rectifier. See also triac.
ficient current is passed through this Series Series connection. Components
coil it generates a strong magnetic (e.g. resistors, switches, motors etc.)
field which operates the contacts of connected together daisy-chain fashion
the relay. so that the same current flows
Rectifier A semiconductor device that through every component.
only allows current to flow in one Solenoid A _ special type of electro-
direction. Used to convert (i.e. rectify) magnet in which the moving part
alternating current (AC) to direct (often a cylindrical iron slug) moves
current (DC) which is needed by some within, and is surrounded by, the coil
types of motor. See also diode. which produces the magnetic field.
Resistor A component that impedes or Used when a relatively long move-
reduces (i.e. resists) the flow of cur- ment is required.
rent round an electrical circuit. The Stalled Stationary rotor or armature.
value of a resistor is stated in ohms, Usually when the torque generated by
kilohms (thousands of ohms) or meg- the motor is insufficient to turn the
ohms (millions of ohms). load.
RFI Radio Frequency Interference. Com- Stator The fixed part of an induction
mutator motors and some electronic motor or AC generator that usually
speed controllers may radiate radio carries the main power windings.
interference, mainly in the medium Tacho generator A device which gen-
and long wavebands. Check out your erates a voltage or a _ frequency
motor rig with a portable radio! proportional to shaft speed.

Ss
Torque Turning or twisting force. May Transistor A three-terminal semicon-
be used to describe the turning force ductor type that is normally ‘off’ but
exerted by a motor shaft or to describe can be switched partially or fully ‘on’
the force necessary to turn the device by a current entering the third (base)
that the motor is driving. terminal. ;
Transformer A device for changing the Triac A semiconductor switch which
voltage of an AC supply. Consists of can block or allow large currents to
a primary (input) winding and one or flow into a load. When it is switched
more secondary (output) windings on by a small current into its gate
wound round a laminated iron core. electrode it conducts in both direction
Transients Transient voltages and/or so that it is suitable for use in AC
transient currents are extremely short circuits.
duration excessive voltages or cur-
rents. They can occur as a result of
switching an inductive load, such as a
motor or they may appear at random
times on the 240V AC mains.

isS2
APPENDIX 5

Suppliers

Cirkit Distribution Ltd. Power Capacitors

Park Lane 30 Redfern Road
Broxbourne Tyseley
Herts EN10 7NO Birmingham
Tel: 01992 441306 B11 2BH
Tel: O21 708 2811
Mail-order suppliers of a wide range of
electronic components mainly aimed at Start and run capacitors.
the electronic constructor market.

J & N Factors RS Components

Pilgrim Works PO Box 99
Stairbridge Lane Corby
Bolney Northants NN17 9RS
Sussex RH17 5PA Tel: 01536 201201
Tel: 01444 881 554
Major supplier of extremely wide range
Retail factors — motor start and run of electronic, electric and allied com-
capacitors. Battery charger parts and ponents. Mail order plus local outlets in
miscellaneous surplus motors. London, Birmingham, Corby and Stockport.

Maplin Electronics
P.O. Box 3 Rush Industrial Sales
Rayleigh Biggin House
Essex SS6 8LR 126 Station Rd
Tel: 01702 554161 Tempsford
Sandy
Retail distributors of enormous range of
Beds. SG19 2AY
electronic equipment, electronic com-
Tel: 01767 640779
ponents and related supplies. UK and
overseas mail order. Annual catalogue Helpful stockist of a very wide range of
on sale at branches of the W. H. Smith motor start and run capacitors.
stationers chain.

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4
WORKSHOP PRACTICE SERIES from Nexus Special Interests.
1. Hardening, Tempering and 9. Soldering and Brazing 18. Basic Benchwork
Heat Treatment Tubal Cain Les Oldridge
ae 10. Saws and Sawing 19. Spring Design and
2. Vertical Milling in the Home lan Bradley Manufacture
peace
Arnold Throp
11. Electroplating Tubal Cain
J. Poyner 20. Metalwork and Machinii
3. Screwcutting in the Lathe Hints and Tips
Martin: Cleeve 12 . it:
Drills, ai
Taps and Dies
: lan Bradley
4. Foundrywork for the Amateur i , a,"

ae a ae Tubal Cain David Lammas

~ §. Milling Operations in the ; :
Lathe 14. Making Small Workshop 22. Workshop Electrics
Tubal Cain Tools Alex Weiss
6. Measuring and Marking S. Bray 23. Workshop Construction
Metals 15. Workholding in the Lathe Jim Forrest and
Ivan Law Tubal Cain Peter Jennings
7. The Art of Welding 16. Electric Motors 24. Electric Motors in the
W.A. Vause Jim Cox Home Workshop
8. Sheet Metal Work 17. Gears and Gear Cutting Jim Cox
R.E. Wakeford 1. Law

bed the basic principles of operation and methods of applicati == |

motor types likely to be encountered in small engineering appl
cluded some practical information, it was mainly educational a |
requests for more detailed practical information on popular v 2

tify and make good use of discarded and surplus motors frc
industrial sources and also how to operate three phase mot
supplies. Examples are given of actual workshop applications
because many model engineers are interested in battery drive
included on battery supplies and the use of motors in mobi -