Identifying different types of motors (and one in particular)

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Supernerd Sven

Joined Feb 16, 2015
6
Hello everyone, I salvaged the motor in the attached pictures from an old discarded clothes dryer and was hoping to use it as a generator. I'm assuming it's wired for AC - there are three wires that come out of the stator and all were connected to a mechanical switch that shift contacts when the motor was turned. When I measure resistance across any pair of these wires, I find little resistance, which seems odd to me - I would have thought it was shorted out, but I already checked to see whether or not I could get any voltage or current by turning it by hand (I know, it's meant for a higher RPM, but hands are what I had) I measured some tens of millivolts and milliamps, though only in DC mode. AC mode didn't see anything, but it could've been below the range of my multimeter, which is apparently only meant to measure AC voltage on the scale of volts or hundreds of volts.

I know all about the physics of electromagnetic induction and thus understand the operating principle of a motor; I just don't know how it's actually done in practice. If anyone could help me with this, I'd really appreciate it. Thank you!
 

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MaxHeadRoom

Joined Jul 18, 2013
28,617
No good as a generator, it is a split phase AC induction motor, normally there will be a capacitor that the centrifugal switch opens for the start winding.
IOW the field is induced into the rotor by the application of the stator supply.
If you want a generator, look for BLDC, DC brushed, or Auto alternators.
Or a modern Fischer-Paykel 3ph washing machine motor.
Max.
 
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