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Gutted hard drives used as gyrosopes

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u4gubbins

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Hello,
I have harvested the gubbins (guts) from two hard drives. I am trying to figure out how to make them run at full speed all the time so that I can use them as gyroscopes. They turn on for only a few seconds as things are now. presumably because the circuits are designed to shut down the spindle if anything is wrong with the drive.
I do not remember the brands of the drives.
these are three phase brushless motors. 12 volt
the driver chips are:
HA13626
and B996W0411 (I think this is the driver on this one, not 100% sure)

the first question is. since the motors and chips are still on the board, is there a set of pins I can jumper to make the motor go?

...and...

could the board be modified to better suit the task at hand?

if not, would I be better off to try get a tunable three phase BLDC driver or trying to reuse the chips that came with the drive?

note: I removed the case. arm and all other parts that are not needed, in order to reduce the weight.
 
Those driver chips are very sophisticated with error feedback and phase detection and a heap of stuff you don't really need.

I think it would be easier to scrap the ICs and just use a PIC and 3 FETs to drive the 3 phase windings. As long as you ramp the speed up from zero to the desired speed that should work fine for gyroscope use you can just run it at a set speed with the 3 phases switched by the PIC.
 
I like PICs. that would reduce the size and weight a little as well.
I think the motors like a sine wave though. maybe a capacitor on each output, or maybe it doesn't care if it's sine or square?

I am not sure exactly how to tune it either.
do you adjust the on-time the off-ime or both?
as far as I know hard drive motors shouldn't need feedback, as they run at one or two set speeds. These have 4 wires so there is a chance the forth wire is the sensor, however I don't know how it works. just building a tunable circuit seems easier.
 
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