Aloha from the simpe life in the Puna rainforest, I am new mostly to forums but love the sharing, totally support the global sharing shift, thank you everyone, I get "little boy giddy" when I repurpose things, it has to be my greatest joy! so, I salvaged 6 great fans from hybrid battery cases that i use the batteries out of for my home PV systems, and the fans would be perfect for low power air cycling in my microhome choices in this incredible rainforest on the Big Island of the Hawaiian chain, what i have found for the second time trying this is, the motor won't turn on with straight 12v dc, I think i am seeing, with the help of my ebike projects in the last 4 years, is that the motors are brushless dc and need some sort of pulse to get them spinning, is that called PWM? and how can i accomplish this on a scalvaging process? repurposing the awesome fans would be so nice! what's the minimum I need to do to get them spinning? I'm guessing there may be answers already here. but where? thanks in advance, wishing moments of joy and content to all things...

 

How many wires are on the fan?

 

4

 

Hybrid battery cases from what exactly vehicles?
Any info on the fan like specs or model number?

 

toyota prius, ford escape, nissan xtrail, honda civic

 

i know 1 was a shinano kenshi dr series but i'll send some label pics

 

here are 4 of the labels, i think at least 2 are shinano kenshi dr series

 

What are the colors of the wires on that fan in the first photo. Nidec?
Show a photo of the wiring harness.

 

the nidek is a 5 wire red, black, blue, yellow, brown

 

Usually just 4 wire, hmmmm.
Show a photo of one with a 4 wire fan harness

 

I have a dish washer pump I'd like to use for a fish pond. Problem is it has two wires for power and three more wires to control the motor speed and direction. I've never been able to find information on how to control that motor. It looks like your motor(s) may be similar in nature. It's understandable that they don't just run when you power them. They need a control signal of some sort. Since they come from automobiles you might have some luck looking at a wiring diagram, but I think you're going to run into a box that mysteriously controls things. Without that controller you may be out of luck.

 

actually i think i have come up with some ideas, it seems that brushless motors are more efficient, so many of them now, and PWM pulse width modulation is one of the controls, my ebike motors are 3 wire dc, so, it looks like positive and negative combined with wye/delta type coil wiring and nice permanent magnet rotors, so 3 wire makes sense plus 2 for the dc. there are small ESC speed controllers with red/black, and 3 wires to feed the motor and a potentiometer to control speed , easy anywhere from $0.66- $1000, or more, so i just ordered 4 of this type speed controller from aliexpress, i started with the super inexpensive one to see if it operates at all, and if it's too small i will spend a little more , maybe around$10, for the ESC. I'll keep updating and would like to hear anyone elses successes

 

also this guy shares a great video of making our own. :

 

Yes, they are all controlled using pwm and feedback from the vehicle ECU.
I read on a forum where one could test a fan motor by touching the blue wire to battery negative. Or by rapidly touching the wire on and off the negative to simulate the pwm.

 

yes, i saw that too, touch the control wire to hot for full speed and ground for slowest speed, i haven't tried it yet, but might

 

If the motors really are "brushless DC " motors, then the only way to make them spin is to apply the power to the coils in the correct sequence. ALL of the cartoons show that somehow they are magicly made to spin from some tiny module that you purchase. The way to success is to recover the drive electronics at the same time as the motor is recovered. OR only salvage the motors that include their internal electronic drives.
The motors without the drivers can be used as generators if you add diodes, that is what they can do if there is no driving electronics part with them.

 

If the motors really are "brushless DC " motors, then the only way to make them spin is to apply the power to the coils in the correct sequence. ALL of the cartoons show that somehow they are magicly made to spin from some tiny module that you purchase. The way to success is to recover the drive electronics at the same time as the motor is recovered. OR only salvage the motors that include their internal electronic drives.
The motors without the drivers can be used as generators if you add diodes, that is what they can do if there is no driving electronics part with them.

right, that too, thank you

 

Commonly speaking - BLDC motors of the small variety may have 12VDC inputs that run the fan at full speed. A feedback wire may control a PWM to run the fan slower, which is controlled by (in the instance I'm thinking) the computer board. Commonly speaking - BLDC motors of the higher power variety may have 12VDC (for instance) with heavy wires, but the motor would not run unless three wires controlled by a controller board are sending the proper signal. As I said before, I have one of these heavier motors with the three control wires which I have never found any information on how to power them. If I had the controller that motor was once connected to I might stand a chance of scoping the signal and understanding just how it's controlled.

Still - others - the three wire variety such as may be found on larger quad copters or drones (and other hobby electronics) have ONLY three wires. Energize any two wires and the motor will move to a certain point. Switch which two wires are powered (pwr & gnd). Depending on which wires are switched on and off controls the direction of the motor. How quickly they are switched controls the speed.

The motors pictured are not clearly enough pictured as to what sort of configuration they are. It DOES make a difference in how we shape our answers.

 

well! i am excited! on 2 of the 4 wire fans i am getting full speed spinning by touching 2 wires to the negative side and 1 to the positive side, so, i am thinking i can get variable speeds with the right simple component combos! wo wow wow, love it, GOT TO SAY, FOR ME, JUST TALKING WITH OTHERS MAKES THINGS HAPPEN WITH ME , thank you all

 

Sharing knowledge and insights is what this forum section of this site is all about!!