Consultation on DC motor voltage in linear actuator

[lazarus666]

hello everyone,

I have a linear actuator whose DC motor is encapsulated and has no visible label or specification. I need to know for sure if it is 12V or 24V.

I have measured the voltage at the actuator terminals with a 12V supply connected and got a reading of 12.6V. Does this confirm it is a 12V motor?

Additionally, I would like to measure the internal resistance of the motor. How can I do this correctly and what range of values should I expect for a 12V motor? Is this method reliable for determining motor voltage?

I appreciate any help or advice you can give me.


Greetings.

 

[rjenkinsgb]

Dc resistance is usually very low on a DC motor; that's what sets the stall current, not the operating current.

Voltage will control the motor speed, and stall torque.

If you have some idea of how fast the actuator should move, try it with 12V and see of the speed is about correct?

Either way, if the speed and power are acceptable at 12V, it does not matter if it's actually a 24V motor.

 

[Tony Stewart]

You can estimate the no load current as 1% for gentle holding and rated power dissipation as 10% and locked rotor current as 100%. Put in a CC amount to heat up the motor until it loses 30% force or gets too hot (say 85'C core) That will be your heat rated power, = rated current, voltage and 10% of max current value unless you limit that otherwise.

Can you measure force? or control current. The other way is to measure DCR with a DMM and estimate power, P dissipation from mass or size then V= sqrt(P*DCR) (from P=V^2/R)

Another way is what rjenkinsgb said.

 

[Tony Stewart]

Another way is to measure spring compression with 24V at 25% duty factor at say 1 Hz for a long time (force vs X) Then measure temperature rise then decide on voltage. 25% power is 1/2 average voltage.