DC Motor Drive with a Router Speed Controller Rev 1.

1 3/24/2009 Steve Nordhauser

Introduction
There are a number of sources of used DC motors in the 1/3 to 3 Hp range. Ive seen a number of industrial Dayton and Leeson motors on ebay along with a wide range of inexpensive treadmill motors. Some are open frame, some closed. Unfortunately, many of the treadmill motors are shipped with 10lb flywheels which drives up the shipping price. The 2Hp treadmills seem to be about the same size as the 3/4Hp Dayton that I have. So, we need a cheap controller. I have an older CMC Adustable Speed Drive, Series 50. I believe this is an SCR speed control but and that is generally considered an acceptable drive method. It had a 90V max output. I bought a Harbor Freight router speed control (item 43060) rated at 15A. Since it is designed for universal motors, I put a 200V 25A bridge rectifier on the output. I tried a 100uF 250V electrolytic capacitor to filter the noise but it got hot too much chopping from the switching to make it true DC. So, I compared the industrial SCR speed controller to my router with bridge.

Comparison at Various Speeds

I tested the two controllers with both motors at a number of speeds: 30V, 50V,88V (maximum output of the CMC controller), 115V and 150V. The 115V is the maximum output of the router controller set to Variable mode, the 150V is the maximum output in Full mode. Pacific Scientific 125VDC 2 HP Treadmill motor Voltage 30 CMC Controller Router Controller

50

88

115

N/A

150

N/A

Dayton 90VDC 3/4HP Industial Motor Voltage 30 CMC Controller Router Controller

50

88

115

N/A

150

N/A

Above motor specs

The displays are 50V/div with the DC 0V level being 1 division below the mid-point. I would be inclined to say they are about the same. One difference I did note is that sometimes the router controller started at 23VDC output, even with the pot set to zero. This can be circumvented with a Forward/Reverse switch added that is center off.

Electrical
I opened the box and the insides look like this:

The power device is aST BTA26-600B 600V Triac rated at 26A. The data sheet is here: http://www.maplin.co.uk/Media/product_pdfs/uk56.pdf It is mounted on a cheesy back metal plate which might be why it is down-rated to 15A. The overall manufacturing is poor but what can you expect for the money? It looks like the PCB is soldered to the front mount switch and AC outlet after those parts are installed in the case. The creates a bit of a bother for moving the board to a larger case with a direction switch and better heat sink for the triac and bridge rectifier but not too bad. Total cost for a controller: HF 43060-2RMB on sale for $12.49 in catalog 755-D, price matched in the store -20% coupon $9.99 Bridge Rectifier Digikey.com MB252-ND $2.65 DPDT on-off-on 20A switch 360-1211-ND $8.64 Add an enclosure and heat sink

Here is the wiring diagram with a safety switch. I didnt put one on mine but a friend did.