Anyone have any ideas on how/if this can be used for something useful
w/o a lot of work?

The drive board in our 3 yr old Neptune killed itself in a big way.
Blew a hole in the main chip(I'm guessing it used to be some sort of
microcontroller, can't read the numbers on it anymore) and smoked a
few drive transistors. W/O the controller board I am not sure how to
drive this motor.

Maytag gave me the replacement board(and motor) under warranty. No
questions asked. It looks like they have made some updates. There is
a AC line filter added, some other tweaks to the drive circuitry, and
a MUCH better enclosure to protect the board.

JW

Jeridiah wrote:

Anyone have any ideas on how/if this can be used for something useful
w/o a lot of work?

The drive board in our 3 yr old Neptune killed itself in a big way.
Blew a hole in the main chip(I'm guessing it used to be some sort of
microcontroller, can't read the numbers on it anymore) and smoked a
few drive transistors. W/O the controller board I am not sure how to
drive this motor.

Maytag gave me the replacement board(and motor) under warranty. No
questions asked. It looks like they have made some updates. There is
a AC line filter added, some other tweaks to the drive circuitry, and
a MUCH better enclosure to protect the board.

JW

Under the assumption that this is the 3 phase variable speed motor that
was discussed here a couple times in the past, I suspect the best way to
get some use out of it would be to get an appropriately rated VFD and
wire it to the motor. You may be able to find wiring diagrams and/or
spare parts for the controller that blew, but then, it blew once
already, right? Aside from that, I'd bet that there are a bunch of
features to the factory controller that would be of limited use outside
of a washing machine, like the multispeed agitate cycle.

Have fun!

Cheers
Trevor Jones

Trevor Jones wrote:

Jeridiah wrote:

Anyone have any ideas on how/if this can be used for something useful
w/o a lot of work?

The drive board in our 3 yr old Neptune killed itself in a big way.
Blew a hole in the main chip(I'm guessing it used to be some sort of
microcontroller, can't read the numbers on it anymore) and smoked a
few drive transistors. W/O the controller board I am not sure how to
drive this motor.

Maytag gave me the replacement board(and motor) under warranty. No
questions asked. It looks like they have made some updates. There is
a AC line filter added, some other tweaks to the drive circuitry, and
a MUCH better enclosure to protect the board.

JW


Under the assumption that this is the 3 phase variable speed motor that
was discussed here a couple times in the past, I suspect the best way to
get some use out of it would be to get an appropriately rated VFD and
wire it to the motor. You may be able to find wiring diagrams and/or
spare parts for the controller that blew, but then, it blew once
already, right? Aside from that, I'd bet that there are a bunch of
features to the factory controller that would be of limited use outside
of a washing machine, like the multispeed agitate cycle.

I've never seen a 120VAC VFD. He might have a hard time
finding one.

Since Maytag gave him a new motor, I'd think twice about
hooking any electronics up to the old one that costs
much more than free.

In article ,
Jim Stewart wrote:
Trevor Jones wrote:

Jeridiah wrote:

Anyone have any ideas on how/if this can be used for something useful
w/o a lot of work?

The drive board in our 3 yr old Neptune killed itself in a big way.
Blew a hole in the main chip(I'm guessing it used to be some sort of

[ ... ]

Maytag gave me the replacement board(and motor) under warranty. No
questions asked. It looks like they have made some updates. There is
a AC line filter added, some other tweaks to the drive circuitry, and
a MUCH better enclosure to protect the board.

[ ... ]

Under the assumption that this is the 3 phase variable speed motor that
was discussed here a couple times in the past, I suspect the best way to
get some use out of it would be to get an appropriately rated VFD and
wire it to the motor. You may be able to find wiring diagrams and/or

[ ... ]

I've never seen a 120VAC VFD. He might have a hard time
finding one.

Hmm ...

Mitsubishi FR-U110W-0,1K-UL

a cute little VFD which is supposed to be used with 1/8 HP 240 V
three-phase motors, though I am told that it will work well with up to
1/4 HP under comfortable conditions.

It runs from 120 VAC single phase input, but will generate 240
VAC three phase. However, like any VFD which I have encountered, it is
possible to tell it to reduce the output voltage if you so desire.

Since Maytag gave him a new motor, I'd think twice about
hooking any electronics up to the old one that costs
much more than free.

Yes -- but if the old motor can be used to run a small machine
tool (e.g. a Taig or a Sherline), it might be worth something like the
$35.00 that It cost me on eBay about a year ago or so. (I had hopes
that it would generate up to 400 HZ (as some of the larger ones will
do), so I could use it for playing with some ancient aircraft
instruments which I have (an artificial horizon, and a gyrocompass).
These were surplus back in about 1960, so they must be no great shakes,
but fun to play with.

Enjoy,
DoN.

--
Email: | Voice (all times): (703) 938-4564
(too) near Washington D.C. | http://www.d-and-d.com/dnichols/DoN.html
--- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---

On 23 Aug 2004 17:49:55 -0400, (DoN. Nichols)
wrote:

In article ,
Jim Stewart wrote:
Trevor Jones wrote:

Jeridiah wrote:

Anyone have any ideas on how/if this can be used for something useful
w/o a lot of work?

The drive board in our 3 yr old Neptune killed itself in a big way.
Blew a hole in the main chip(I'm guessing it used to be some sort of

[ ... ]

Maytag gave me the replacement board(and motor) under warranty. No
questions asked. It looks like they have made some updates. There is
a AC line filter added, some other tweaks to the drive circuitry, and
a MUCH better enclosure to protect the board.

[ ... ]

Under the assumption that this is the 3 phase variable speed motor that
was discussed here a couple times in the past, I suspect the best way to
get some use out of it would be to get an appropriately rated VFD and
wire it to the motor. You may be able to find wiring diagrams and/or

[ ... ]

I've never seen a 120VAC VFD. He might have a hard time
finding one.

Hmm ...

Mitsubishi FR-U110W-0,1K-UL

a cute little VFD which is supposed to be used with 1/8 HP 240 V
three-phase motors, though I am told that it will work well with up to
1/4 HP under comfortable conditions.

It runs from 120 VAC single phase input, but will generate 240
VAC three phase. However, like any VFD which I have encountered, it is
possible to tell it to reduce the output voltage if you so desire.

Since Maytag gave him a new motor, I'd think twice about
hooking any electronics up to the old one that costs
much more than free.

Yes -- but if the old motor can be used to run a small machine
tool (e.g. a Taig or a Sherline), it might be worth something like the
$35.00 that It cost me on eBay about a year ago or so. (I had hopes
that it would generate up to 400 HZ (as some of the larger ones will
do), so I could use it for playing with some ancient aircraft
instruments which I have (an artificial horizon, and a gyrocompass).
These were surplus back in about 1960, so they must be no great shakes,
but fun to play with.

Enjoy,
DoN.
DoN,
Recently I purchased a Danfoss inverter that goes up to 1000 HZ. It's
for a 5 hp motor. I would consider trading for one that doesn't go up
that high if it was new and comparable.
ERS

I've never seen a 120VAC VFD. He might have a hard time
finding one.
I was wondering about that part.


Since Maytag gave him a new motor, I'd think twice about
hooking any electronics up to the old one that costs
much more than free.

Agreed. I do have a small AB vfd. I will have to check to see if the
output voltage is adjustable.

I dont' think it is the motor's fault that it blows up. From reading
various boards, the location and mounting of the board itself
contributes to a lot of the problems.

JW

In article ,
Eric R Snow wrote:
On 23 Aug 2004 17:49:55 -0400, (DoN. Nichols)
wrote:

a cute little VFD which is supposed to be used with 1/8 HP 240 V
three-phase motors, though I am told that it will work well with up to
1/4 HP under comfortable conditions.

[ ... ]

Yes -- but if the old motor can be used to run a small machine
tool (e.g. a Taig or a Sherline), it might be worth something like the
$35.00 that It cost me on eBay about a year ago or so. (I had hopes
that it would generate up to 400 HZ (as some of the larger ones will
do), so I could use it for playing with some ancient aircraft
instruments which I have (an artificial horizon, and a gyrocompass).
These were surplus back in about 1960, so they must be no great shakes,
but fun to play with.

[ ... ]

Recently I purchased a Danfoss inverter that goes up to 1000 HZ. It's
for a 5 hp motor. I would consider trading for one that doesn't go up
that high if it was new and comparable.

I've got a couple of others -- a 2 hp and a 3 hp one
(respectively for my Clausing lathe and my Bridgeport) which will go
above 400 Hz, but I don't want to hang the instruments on something that
large (and deprive my machine tools of it.)

And somehow, I doubt that my little 1/8 HP VFD would do for your
5 hp motor. Running a 1/4 hp motor from it is already exceeding the
specs. :-)

Enjoy,
DoN.
--
Email: | Voice (all times): (703) 938-4564
(too) near Washington D.C. | http://www.d-and-d.com/dnichols/DoN.html
--- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---

Headline: A VFD will NOT work here.

The SR motor in the Neptune is made by Emerson. SR motors are *not*
the same as 3-phase induction motors, not even close. The SR motor
has a sailient pole rotor with no windings. The unique aspect is that
the rotor has a different number of poles than the stator, so some
poles are always slightly out of line when others are lined up. A
stator pole that is slightly misaligned with a nearby rotor pole is
energized. Magnetic attraction "pulls" the misaligned rotor pole to
align it with the stator, thus producing torque. As soon as it is
aligned, torque would stop unless excitation is then switched to a
pole then slightly misaligned -- and so on.

The advantages to such motors a capable of very high speed because
there are no windings on the rotor, good torque at low speeds, wide
range of speed controllability. Disadvantages can be high torque
ripple and acoustic noise. A lot of innovation and good engineering
went into the Neptune to make it accceptably quiet.

A "sensorless" SR motor drive technique was developed and patented
( but never commercialized) by Honeywell.

On 23 Aug 2004 06:25:29 -0700, (Jeridiah) wrote:

Anyone have any ideas on how/if this can be used for something useful
w/o a lot of work?

The drive board in our 3 yr old Neptune killed itself in a big way.
Blew a hole in the main chip(I'm guessing it used to be some sort of
microcontroller, can't read the numbers on it anymore) and smoked a
few drive transistors. W/O the controller board I am not sure how to
drive this motor.

Maytag gave me the replacement board(and motor) under warranty. No
questions asked. It looks like they have made some updates. There is
a AC line filter added, some other tweaks to the drive circuitry, and
a MUCH better enclosure to protect the board.

JW

Don Foreman wrote in message . ..
Headline: A VFD will NOT work here.

tech stuff snipped

So will it just not run, or will it blow up my VFD?

Research on the Internet seemed to indicate a 3 phase sinusoidal would
work, but it is not the ideal waveform. Something square wave is
better for max torque output.

I dont' have any sort of actual application in mind for this thing
yet, but if it could be useful I will keep it around. If not, off
with it(trying to cut down on my packrat tendencies).

JW

I don't know. I know a little about SR motors but much less than
some other RCM folks about VFD's. It's conceivable that some SR
motors might run on 3-phase excitation, don't know how well. They
don't necessarily have 3-phase geometry in the stator.



On 26 Aug 2004 06:15:12 -0700, (Jeridiah) wrote:

Don Foreman wrote in message . ..
Headline: A VFD will NOT work here.

tech stuff snipped

So will it just not run, or will it blow up my VFD?

Research on the Internet seemed to indicate a 3 phase sinusoidal would
work, but it is not the ideal waveform. Something square wave is
better for max torque output.

I dont' have any sort of actual application in mind for this thing
yet, but if it could be useful I will keep it around. If not, off
with it(trying to cut down on my packrat tendencies).

JW