Hello, This motor came from a VCR I believe. I know traditionally it cannot be driven without a controller. Are there any non-conventional ways. So far i have been able to drive it with my arduino. For some reason when I set it up with transistors to drive more power it wont respond. I did have the motor hooked to three pwm pins. Could that be the difference. No clue here. Thanks in advance!


I have soldered jumper wired to all 4 of those points you see...

 

Hi,
first of all in the vcr system the motor are spindle motor for the head, carriage motor for the threading
of the tape nad lastly motor for driven the loading assy of the tape.
it look like it was the motor of the tape head. if tape head motor this type of motor are driven
by controller ic. which needed a microcontroller . So it cannot be converted to a casual conventional
motor driven by ordinary control.

 

It's an old Capstan Servo motor, they used to run using a synch pulse method from the tape, using a PLL circuit.

 

Well that is definitely helpful. Only problem is this method uses the original board and chip. I think im making some progress with my Arduino driving it. Like i say i had it going. just very under powered as you could imagine...

 

Here is a link with a little bit of info on driving the BLDC motor...
http://www.mind-dump.net/vcr-capstan-control-with-atmega328p
And another link on BLDCs...
http://elabz.com/brushless-dc-motor-with-arduino/
It will probably be easier to drive the on board controller with an Arduino if you can find data on the IC type used and figure out the connections.
One other idea mat be to scrap all the electronics and use a BLDC controller like from a quad copter. You will need some interface as an Arduino cannot drive it directly.
I will be interested to see how you go.

 

Ok so it is just like any brushless dc motor? hrm. I guess the very odd shape kinda threw me but, it does make since. Very kewl guys. Dendad ill post when i make further progress im thinking with what you have told me I should be able... Big Thanks!


Wow those website are great!...

One thing im still not real sure about. can i amplify the pwm signals from pins 9,10 and, 11 like i was attempting. could this be even easier ?

Is my motor the same as the one on this website: http://elabz.com/brushless-dc-motor-with-arduino/ mine has 4 wires (C,U,W and,V) and not 3 but im thinking they might still be the same somehow. thanks again.

 

It may be your motor is a 3 phase one but with a center tap like...
http://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/186251/how-to-sense-rpm-from-4-pin-bldc-motor

Can you find data on the original driver chip? Or measure the resistance of the windings?
What type of video machine did it come out off?

 

You nailed it again Dendad! 4 wires with a center tap. checked the ohms (8,4,4,4). added up just like they should on
the link you provided. Excellent btw. Would you mind to explain to me how this changes things. I assume it
does I'm going to do more reading and keep checking back. Thank you once again!

Oh and I can not remember the model. The parts are in the trash. A unit I scrapped. I do that a lot. Had I known I would take such interest in this motor. I would have taken more care. Hopefully I didn't fail the mission due to that. I got a feeling we are about to make it run...

Crap I want to add this too. I'm thinking once I get it going that it would look really nice. to set it up to mock an old aircraft rotary engine (see how the coils look a lot like the cylinders?). Would be only for display no real purpose other then to look awesome. Purchase a maybe 9-12" wooden model aircraft prop.. whatcha think'?

 

Have a look at this link...
http://www.instructables.com/id/BLDC-Motor-Control-with-Arduino-salvaged-HD-motor/step4/The-Motor/
Just leave the center tap wire unconnected.That should work I reckon.
If you cannot find Hall sensors on it, the motor could be run without them and the code modified to just free run I think.
Yes, having it set up as a model radial engine would be great. They do look similar