Can you pull the fly wheel off and run it again?

From the TS:

But it's impossible to remove the flywheel right now and see. I don't have proper tools and i may cause more damage.

 

Get a heavy duty AC variac power transformer to control the motor power and take that circuit board mess completely out. Keep it simple and it will be more durable. Ha ha. They put microprocessors in hot water heaters.....DUMB.....all it needs is a good old reliable thermostat!!!!. Microprocessors have their place in this world but not where a simple mechanical control will work.

 

Hey guys,

I called a Treadmill expert to check it out. He told me i did a good job on the motor and everything. But the primary cause of the problem is ... the RUNNING BELT. It is by far the number one problem of all older (over 3-4 years old) treadmills. I told him that i have the treadmill for 4 years, but i worked on it for 3 years. The 1st year the treadmill was left idle. He told me this is the absolute worst thing for a treadmill belt (ie. being left idle for long time periods).

All of this strain on the belt for years and me sprinting on it have almost destroyed its grease material, causing the current flow to spike way up. He also tested this amperage live with me utilizing a current clamp. The amperes were 1.5A more than the average for my treadmill size in 4kms/h and things were much worse in higher speeds. So that's it. All of this talk about needing another supply and having a VARIAC etc would be totally inappropriate. I would probably make things worse, not to mention the pain.

So the belt is a little expensive, it costs 80Euro if i change it myself (and i will). The noise, apart from the belt, is also coming from the motor bearings. So i will buy 2 of them and change them too. But he said this isn't such a crucial step, because the motor in general is fine, especially after me fixing it. But i want to lower the noise and get the treadmill in tip-top shape, so i will buy those too, as they are cheap ~10Euro for good japanese ones, or swedish ones ("SKF" top brand). With the replacement of the running belt and with lubrication applied every ~3 months the treadmill wiil undoubtedly perform as good as new.

I will probably need some help though on how to remove the 2 motor bearings and replace them with new ones.. I feel better now, knowing what's wrong and i will fix it soon. After this entire process is complete i should seek a job as a treadmill expert too, with all this technical knowledge and hands on experience i gathered out of this. : D

Cheers.

 

One thing to watch when dismantling the motor is when you withdraw the rotor, it is going to want to slam up against the magnets on the stator, so care is needed to avoid snapping one of them, or other damage.
Re-inserting it is also tricky as the same effect will occur.
Max.

 

Yes Max. I remember from dismantling it before. It was a pain.

So i will need a puller to take the bearings out of the motor right?

 

Or a press of some kind usually (manual or hydraulic)..
Max.

 

Hello.

I fixed it. I'll tell you later how. However the magnetic speed sensor is broken, or turn sensor idk what's it called, you know the one that straps onto the fuselage and counts the motor turns and then displays the speed on the counter. Whenever i go above 8km / h it behaves bad. Can you tell me what kind of sensor it is and where can i find one? The technician told me it costs like 1 dollar and i can find it in a local electronics shop. But i'm searching online and i can't find what it is. I think it's a hall sensor. Suggestions?

Thanks.

 

Just check the brushes on the motor as well. They could be worn, even to the point where only the springs contact the commutator, or they may be sticking in their housings so they don't contact properly. You'd expect the motor to run roughly especially under load but if the drive to the motor is increased via a feed back loop in response to a drop in speed this may not be very obvious. Also the speed sensor output, but you might need an oscilloscope for that. But as people have suggested the bearings seem likely. If they are worn and allow the rotor (armature) to wobble it often spins freely when tested by hand or under light load, but when heavily magnetized under load the rotor can be pulled against the field winding laminations and lock the rotor. If you take the motor to bits you'll see marks on the rotor and/or field. Also Ive had a motor bearing seize but the rotor shaft span in the seized bearing, wearing a groove round the shaft that allowed the rotor to wobble and lock up under load, but you couldn't see what was happening until the motor was in bits

 

An intermittent shorted turn on the motor is a possibility. Shorted turns are quite common on motors but theyre not usually intermittent, once one develops they're usually pretty permanent. Intermittent shorts are extremely difficult to spot, they tend to occur when the motor is hot and cause almost limitless current to flow, at least until something in the motor drive shuts down or fails. But if that happens before the short permanently welds itself, it's possible the fault could occur repeatedly. Thats a new motor or a rewind

 

...

 

Hello.

I fixed it. I'll tell you later how. However the magnetic speed sensor is broken, or turn sensor idk what's it called, you know the one that straps onto the fuselage and counts the motor turns and then displays the speed on the counter. Whenever i go above 8km / h it behaves bad. Can you tell me what kind of sensor it is and where can i find one? The technician told me it costs like 1 dollar and i can find it in a local electronics shop. But i'm searching online and i can't find what it is. I think it's a hall sensor. Suggestions?

Thanks.

Post a picture of it, they are usually slot opto detectors, but could be hall effect if the local shop said so.
Max.

 

Here are the pictures. I hope you know. It is a magnetic sensor. But i want to know what it is, so i know what i'll be looking for.

 

Almost appears to be a reed switch, if so there must be a corresponding magnet on the disc, at first I though may be a retro-reflector, but normally that would be a 3 wire device.
Max.

 

It probably is a reed switch. I showed it to the technician. He advised me this one: http://www.markidis.gr/product_info.php?cPath=40_177_175&products_id=30652 as a replacement. Bought it, installed it, but its not working. Treadmill stops at 4km/h at 1 minute, indicates sensor / switch problem. Advice if you can. I'll call the technician tomorrow.

 

That is a magnet operated reed switch often used in security systems, it may be the fact it does not respond fast enough at speed. The better choice is a semiconductor answer.
Max.

 

Hello.

Leaving final feedback about this matter here.

All issues have finally been resolved (a week now).

As i suspected, it wasn't the sensor. It was a potentiometer glitch, the pot that was controlling the current flow to the board. We figured out that i must have accidentally moved / unscrewed the potentiometer while removing some hot-glue to inspect various circuits on the board. And as such it couldn't provide necessary power to the motor at high speeds, so the motor couldn't turn as fast (hence E1 error).

That was of course the minor problem and it happened after my treadmill's fuse blow. Everything i said before holds (the running belt was the primary problem).

It is working perfect for a week now. And incredibly quiet too. We also checked the current flow and its very low and stable, even with full load at highest speeds.

Thank you all and especially Max for all the help! : )

 

My treadmill also having the same typical problem. following test connected.

1. More than 2 time error1 message appeared & once power reset started to working fine.

2. after few days fuse blown ,But after replacing the fuse treadmill not working just continuously showing error 1.

3.i check the sensor by manually rotating belt. while rotate belt MCB LED start blinking. So i considered sensor is ok.

4. tested motor with 12v battery , motor running smoothly without any nocie

Please explain how u solved.

@MaxHeadRoom you said "O/L" so i think this means Open Loop.

You are right. That makes sense. Ok i will try that. In the meantime i took another photo of the motor just in case.

Since you said sensor, i forgot to mention something. The first time this happened the fuse didn't blow. This happened the 2nd time. The first time, the treadmill's monitor displayed an "E1 error", which according to the manual, means that "The motor speed is faster than what the display shows". I knew this was probably a critical error, because it had never happened to me before and i was actually pushing the treadmill too hard at the time. But i kind of ignored the error, because i was in the middle of my sprinting session and i had to keep on going until i finish. So i just removed the power for like a couple of minutes, reinserted it again and started again. No error was showing then, so i fired it up. After a minute or so the fuse blew.

I forgot to mention that. It may be helpful. Now you guys have the full story.

View attachment 119122

 

I have mentioned how i solved it.

I had to change the running belt of my treadmill. It was 4 years old. It was rusty, it was trying to generate too great currents and motor was failing.

Also i had made a mistake with the potentiometer in my MCB. I accidentally moved it out of place while inspecting its parts, thus causing malfunction.

Change your power MOSFET, eliminate any other causes of problems such as mechanical, inspect other treadmill parts, then check whether you need new belt.

 

I had faced the same problem and got another solution from Facevallue

 

I'm trying to find out what is wrong with my treadmill LifeGear 97370 Power Track Pro. I will describe everything as detailed as i can, to give more insight into the situation in order to figure out what's wrong. I have this treadmill for about 3 years now and have literally put hundreds of km's of sprinting @ 16mph into it (intermittent sprinting exercises). I couldn't be happier with it and it was actually quite cheap.

About 2 weeks ago while i was running on the treadmill (as usual) i heard a sudden bump and i found out that the fuse flew. First i tested out the motor and found out it was running properly (from both directions) under the power of a 12V battery. I also run another test. By moving the belt by hand, once with the motor intact and the other with the motor's leads shorted. In the second case the belt was turning much harder, which clearly indicates the proper working condition of the motor (induced anti-EMF preventing motor from turning smoothly). Thus, i realized that the problem lies in the MCB.

I first did a quick inspection in the circuit board's backplane (for which i will post an image) and checked for any black marks under the component leads and for any blown, malformed top surfaces in the electrolytic caps. I found out that the MOSFET's leads as well as some power resistor's ones were totally blackened. Thus, by checking the MOSFET IRFP460 i realized it was shorted and thus the culprit. I'm not sure about those power resistors. More on that later. I also removed some thermal paste here and there, but i shouldn't have and i plan to apply more. So I went ahead and ordered another MOSFET and replaced it. The treadmill was running again (with a few hiccups in speed) and it did so for about 20 minutes. Then the fuse (which i too of course replaced with an appropriate slow blow fuse @ 12A) blew up again and so did that same MOSFET. (I later realized that i should have connected the MOSFET in a better way to the circuit along with it's heat sink, but i don't think this caused it to blow.)

To my frustration i had to pay more attention to all the components. I have to find out what is causing this power surge. So i checked all resistors, diodes, the 1 zener diode, the bridge rectifier (KBPC2506W), the power relay (HONGFA HF2150). What i didn't check are the various other IC's, just because they seem fine. All the caps, resistors, diodes, the bridge, the transformer measure to their nominal values. I didn't desolder every single one, but i figured i didn't have to do it for each, since the readings from in circuit were already pretty good. With the exception of one diode (labelled D1 as you can see in the image), which is to the relay. This one showed bizarre readings. Continuity test both forward and backward direction shows it's @ 0.127 V. This means that it's shorted, which seems strange, because it seemed fine. So i took it off circuit and found out it's working perfectly just like the other diodes (which i tested in circuit). I know these components ought to be tested out of circuit, but i was confused as to why this particular diode showed values so offset while all the other ones were on spot. Maybe someone knows ? (i think it doesn't matter now though)

I cleaned the board, and the treadmill's belt thoroughly, although it wasn't in such a bad condition even after 3 years. I did not check the ceramic and tantalum caps, because it's very unlikely they're bad. I checked the NTC thermistor SCK 0512 which found to be working perfectly. I checked the CNR-14D471K varistor for shorts and in DMM continuity mode and found 0.57V across it both ways. I checked it for open circuits too, and it's @ ~820Ohms. So the varistor seems to be alright as well, as I don't have any specialized equipment to test it further. Hopefully it will be ok.

The components i'm unsure off are the two white power resistors, which are apparently rated @ 10W & 30KJ. They display a black-orange like paste around their bases, which seems suspicious. They seem to be connected in parallel. I tested them and found them both to be @ 15KΩ (which to be limited knowledge seems quite a large amount for a power resistor?) Anyway, i hope someone can give me an opinion on that.

Neste ponto, não sei que outros testes devo fazer sobre isso. Estou solucionando o problema há cerca de 2 dias e não sei mais o que fazer. Encomendei 2 desses MOSFETs e estou esperando para descobrir o que mais pode ser a causa. TENHO que consertar minha esteira. Amo, adoro correr (sempre fui corredor) e NÃO posso ficar sem ela por muito mais tempo. Certamente não posso comprar outro MCB ou esteira agora. Qualquer ajuda será muito apreciada. Incluí várias imagens do motor, da placa, dos componentes, etc. Agradecemos antecipadamente.
View attachment 119112 View attachment 119118 View attachment 119114 View attachment 119115 View attachment 119116 View attachment 119117

I'm trying to find out what is wrong with my treadmill LifeGear 97370 Power Track Pro. I will describe everything as detailed as i can, to give more insight into the situation in order to figure out what's wrong. I have this treadmill for about 3 years now and have literally put hundreds of km's of sprinting @ 16mph into it (intermittent sprinting exercises). I couldn't be happier with it and it was actually quite cheap.

About 2 weeks ago while i was running on the treadmill (as usual) i heard a sudden bump and i found out that the fuse flew. First i tested out the motor and found out it was running properly (from both directions) under the power of a 12V battery. I also run another test. By moving the belt by hand, once with the motor intact and the other with the motor's leads shorted. In the second case the belt was turning much harder, which clearly indicates the proper working condition of the motor (induced anti-EMF preventing motor from turning smoothly). Thus, i realized that the problem lies in the MCB.

I first did a quick inspection in the circuit board's backplane (for which i will post an image) and checked for any black marks under the component leads and for any blown, malformed top surfaces in the electrolytic caps. I found out that the MOSFET's leads as well as some power resistor's ones were totally blackened. Thus, by checking the MOSFET IRFP460 i realized it was shorted and thus the culprit. I'm not sure about those power resistors. More on that later. I also removed some thermal paste here and there, but i shouldn't have and i plan to apply more. So I went ahead and ordered another MOSFET and replaced it. The treadmill was running again (with a few hiccups in speed) and it did so for about 20 minutes. Then the fuse (which i too of course replaced with an appropriate slow blow fuse @ 12A) blew up again and so did that same MOSFET. (I later realized that i should have connected the MOSFET in a better way to the circuit along with it's heat sink, but i don't think this caused it to blow.)

To my frustration i had to pay more attention to all the components. I have to find out what is causing this power surge. So i checked all resistors, diodes, the 1 zener diode, the bridge rectifier (KBPC2506W), the power relay (HONGFA HF2150). What i didn't check are the various other IC's, just because they seem fine. All the caps, resistors, diodes, the bridge, the transformer measure to their nominal values. I didn't desolder every single one, but i figured i didn't have to do it for each, since the readings from in circuit were already pretty good. With the exception of one diode (labelled D1 as you can see in the image), which is to the relay. This one showed bizarre readings. Continuity test both forward and backward direction shows it's @ 0.127 V. This means that it's shorted, which seems strange, because it seemed fine. So i took it off circuit and found out it's working perfectly just like the other diodes (which i tested in circuit). I know these components ought to be tested out of circuit, but i was confused as to why this particular diode showed values so offset while all the other ones were on spot. Maybe someone knows ? (i think it doesn't matter now though)

I cleaned the board, and the treadmill's belt thoroughly, although it wasn't in such a bad condition even after 3 years. I did not check the ceramic and tantalum caps, because it's very unlikely they're bad. I checked the NTC thermistor SCK 0512 which found to be working perfectly. I checked the CNR-14D471K varistor for shorts and in DMM continuity mode and found 0.57V across it both ways. I checked it for open circuits too, and it's @ ~820Ohms. So the varistor seems to be alright as well, as I don't have any specialized equipment to test it further. Hopefully it will be ok.

The components i'm unsure off are the two white power resistors, which are apparently rated @ 10W & 30KJ. They display a black-orange like paste around their bases, which seems suspicious. They seem to be connected in parallel. I tested them and found them both to be @ 15KΩ (which to be limited knowledge seems quite a large amount for a power resistor?) Anyway, i hope someone can give me an opinion on that.

At this point i don't know what other tests to perform on this. I'm troubleshooting it for about 2 days and i don't know what else to do. I ordered 2 of these MOSFET's and i'm waiting to find out what else might be the cause. I HAVE to fix my treadmill. I love it, i love running (i was always a runner) and i CANNOT do without it for much longer. I certainly cannot afford to buy another MCB, or treadmill now. Any help will be greatly appreciated. I have included multiple images of the motor, the board, the components etc. Thanks in advance.
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Hello sir
I have a treadmill lifegear like this one but I had a problem with the control card and some components burned. I managed to replace all only the resistance r47 did not identify the value. You can tell me the value of that resistance. I will be very grateful for this attention.