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Washing machine motor...

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brentonw2004

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Hello. I recently aquired a 1/2hp GE washing machine motor that I plan on using for a robotics project. It has 5 wires coming out of it and I believe it is from a mid 1980s washing machine. I hooked it up to a tester and it appears that 2 wires are connected together and the other three are also connected together. Does anyone know of where I can find a wiring diagram for it? Anyone know how these motors generally hook up? I want to be able to hook it up to normal 110V wall power. Any advice at all about converting a washing machine motor would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!
Brenton
 
Google will help.

You also need a capacitor to run this motor.I know one wire goes to neutral and one to live,there is a nother wire conected to live trough a capacitor.If you swap the capacitator betwen the two you should be able to change the direction the motor thurns.

The capacitor is needed to make the phase shift.

Try difrent wires until the motor starts thurning.(Unplug the mains while doing that ufcurse)You should have 2 speeds and each being reversable
 
I've tried searching Google, but I have had little luck finding any kind of wiring diagram. What size capacitor would I need? How could I test to see what wires need to go to what? Thanks!
 
Washer motors are quite complicated, because they have to be reverseable, and speed controlled - I suggest you try drawing out the original circuit from the washing machine!. Some do have starting capacitors, but most don't, they probably reverse by changing the polarity of the field coil?.

I would suggest it's not a very useful motor to use in a robot?.
 
You may be in luck and have a simple 2 direction motor with a starter winding. If so, what you may have is a common run winding wire, and one wire for each direction ( thats 3 of the wires that are related .) The other 2 wires will be the starter windings, that would need to be powered in the direction you want the motor to run in. On simpler machines, the transmission/pump does the agitation in one direction of the motor and spin/pump in the other.

I had a old washer back in my college days that was dumped because the control timer was wrecked, I got it for free since the timer control was too expensive. I wired it up with a DPDT switch and a momentary push button for the starter windings. I used a 2 dollar kitchen timer for timing how long the machine had run.

If you know the model of the machine it came from, the maker may have wiring daigrams available on the net. Often they were on a piece of paper glued to the inside of the amchine also.
 
i think i have the same motor you have got but i have no clue about the wires. The following is the information that was on the capactor and also on some type of relay which was attached to the motor. I read somewhere else you can find a schematic for the wires behind the control panel on the washer. i'll check there and let you know if i find anything. i havn't found much about this motor eigther :-/ online

Motor:
5KC41ET62AS 145619
1/2 hp 115V 60HZ 8A 1725 RPM
B-1009 INS CL B 49C AMB

wire colors: purple, red, black, orange, yellow

Relay:
110GC
MEXICO
9504
3ASM9E8A12

Capacitor:
PHILIPS
3534B2B0189A110A5
140443-000 189-227 MFD
110 VAC 60HZ 3629501
 
It may also be a 2 or 3 speed motor, do you have access to the old washing machine to see if there is a wiring diagram glue to one of the panels? post the wires, color of wire, resistance from wire to wire. Maybe even a photo or two and any names or numbers on it.
 
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Washing machine motors come in several flavors. Maybe this will help. Some are two and some are three speed with other variables. The wires mentioned connected together could be an internal thermal overload. Anyway the color schemes in the link may help.

Ron
 
Industrial Induction Motor Wiring Progress

New to forum, helped learn quite a bit with this thread...figured id share these discoveries.

I figured out how to wire up one of these babies (E113 1.2 kw induction motor) over the past few weeks. The blue and purple are tied to a common hot wire (white), through the thermal regulator. These are the Fast and slow coils for 1700 and 1100 rpm speeds

To get it to start on single phase, you need a phase shifted current through the aux coil , though it can handle quite impressive slip angle once started. I had luck putting a couple 250V, 10-100uF electrolytic s back to back with the "---"'s in. You could also purchase motor start capacitors. It is also good practice to tie the motor chassis to earth ground (the green wire), grounding static voltages.

To start, the ac 120 is attached across one of the main coils (blue to white) and the start coil (yellow to black) which is in series with a start cap. As Rotation occurs, Induced rotor fields become spatially separated relative to rpm (approaching synchronous ie 4 pole = 3600 / 2 = 1800, actually 1750. ) In this case these is a stationary magnetic field (average neutral) This is easier to think of as the LC of the capacitor - start coil circuit as a purely resistive load (RC) since the start coil has a resistance ~ 2 ohms, the 120V will charge the 200uF cap in ~.1sec, so during the initial charge, the main 60 hz is non-synchronous to the start coil voltage. as rpm increase above ~ 100, the centrifugal disconnect disengages the series capacitor - start coil. Torque will increase with rotor slip to the point of cogging and rotor heat destruction around 70% slip angle (frequency dependent)

https://sites.google.com/site/netbotinc/Home/HybridBikeCostSheetBOM.jpg?attredirects=0
 
Haha,

I imagine a robot carrying a drum of wound up mains cable on it's back moving until it pulls the plug from mains outlet. :D
 
Ha ha,

I imagine a robot carrying a drum of wound up mains cable on it's back moving until it pulls the plug from mains outlet. :D

Haha, that is a funny image - im actually going to run a 5 lb 240 inverter (3000-6000) with a series thermistor ( to prevent inverter destruction on start). Oh yeah 15V, 100 Ah Lithium pack,,,should be pretty awesome with the dual speeds, e-bike drive system with a decent power density. Otherwise im stuck with a 24V motor, this increases coil size enough to make up for the inverter (since 120V coils are thinner and lighter for 1.2 kw)
 
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