Hoverboard Motor Re-Use

Thread Starter

Botoq

Joined Oct 1, 2022
2
Hey there!

Working on a couple new projects involving some old hoverboard motors that I've recently acquired and was wondering if anyone can shed some light on how to get them up and running. Attached is a photo of the wires I'm working with, I'm mainly looking for just the simplest way to get these running
(Preferably without a motor controller). I've looked online and been able to find nothing so this is sort of a last resort.
WIN_20221001_00_06_25_Pro.jpg
 

Martin_R

Joined Aug 28, 2019
137
From the photo they look like brushless motors. They do need a motor controller to generate the 3 phases . From the many wires on the photo they are probably hall effect brushless motors, but I have to admit I'm guessing on that.
 

Irving

Joined Jan 30, 2016
3,845
Yes, as stated, 3-phase BLDC motor on bullet connectors with 3 x hall-effect feedback and common ground on white connector.

Depending on your planned use a BLDC-ESC without feedback may work, but if starting under load you'll need an ESC that supports the hall-effect sensors.
 

Martin_R

Joined Aug 28, 2019
137
For motor controllers take a look at hobby king. They have a good selection of speed controllers. They are designed for r/c use, and speed is controlled by pulse width of 1-2mS (off to max).
 

MisterBill2

Joined Jan 23, 2018
18,176
The control for the motor in the discussion is the driving circuit, which switches the windings in the correct phase to rotate the motor. Rather a critical portion of the system, like the fuel control system for a car..
 

Irving

Joined Jan 30, 2016
3,845
Hey there!

Working on a couple new projects involving some old hoverboard motors that I've recently acquired and was wondering if anyone can shed some light on how to get them up and running. Attached is a photo of the wires I'm working with, I'm mainly looking for just the simplest way to get these running
(Preferably without a motor controller). I've looked online and been able to find nothing so this is sort of a last resort.
Purely as a learning exercise it is possible to run such a motor from an Arduino with a few MOSFETs and a driver chip (LF2388BTR, £2.50 from Mouser). The Arduino needs to provide the 6 phase inputs:

1664716121712.png
 

Martin_R

Joined Aug 28, 2019
137
As a learning exercise I guess it could work. Hopefully you have programming experience to write the code to generate 3 phases with speed control, monitor the motor current and shut down if excessive ( in case the motor is stalled) and provide battery voltage monitoring and shut down .
An off the shelf speed controller can provide this and more besides.
 

MisterBill2

Joined Jan 23, 2018
18,176
A USEFUL learning experience will be to trace out enough of the driver circuit from the original driver electronics to be able to separate the original portion from the rest of the controls. otherwise you are stuck with creating or copying a whole driver circuit, which is a fair task even for an experienced engineer. Creating the driver code to do it with the circuit in post #7 will demand serious assembly skill and resources as well as good programming ability. Assembling a 3-phase driver on a heat sink is not a small task.
 

Irving

Joined Jan 30, 2016
3,845
A USEFUL learning experience will be to trace out enough of the driver circuit from the original driver electronics to be able to separate the original portion from the rest of the controls
Its a valid point and one I had considered, but the TS said he'd acquired the motors salvaged from hoverboards not the boards themselves so I reasoned he probably didn't have the original PCBs. If that isn't the case then that's definitely the way to go.
 
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