How do I know if my motors are brushless or not? They came off a Ranger X from Invacare but Google’s been no help. Please help this newbie! I did read somewhere that if it has three wires then it’s a brushless motor. If not then it has brushes. Is this true?
Hi Coleman,
Thank you again. Here is an image of one of the motors.
As far as the slipping is concerned, I may be overthinking it all. I am making a ride-on cart for Burning Man. I hope to be able to also carry a yet to be named svelte, female. Here is an image of the chasis.
I will be using a microcontroller to run the motor controller as well as led’s. I purchased an Arduino Uno for this.
Hi Coleman,
Thank you. Unfortunately the stickers have been hopelessly faded by weather. Nothing helpful there. But these are from an old Invacare Storm Series Ranger X powered wheelchair and I found replacement chargers for it and they are 24v.
The black cap at the back held an electric brake that was powered by two of the four wires. I’ve removed the brakes and tested the motors using the two remaining wires. They work so I assume I need a brushed controller.
Are there any steps I can take using a microprocessor, multimeter and motor controller to determine continuous output and its nominal range?
Hi Coleman,
Thank you.
I suppose I’ll simply attach two 12’s (in series to get 24v) to the motors, attach a in-line switch and a multimeter, get in the cart and add enough ballast to equal my intended cart and go. Does that sound about right?
Hi Cbenson,
Thanks for your reply. I’m not near the motors at the moment but they are from an old Invacare powered wheelchair (Ranger X Storm Series). Very similar to this image I found on Google images:
[i.ebayimg.com/t/Left-Right-Motor … ~60_35.JPG](http://i.ebayimg.com/t/Left-Right-Motors-Gearboxes-for-Invacare-Torque-SP-Power-Wheelchair-/00/s/MTE5NVgxNjAw/z/7wAAAOxyMZ5RnOSj/$(KGrHqVHJFIFGW98PnfsBRnOSjWVV!~~60_35.JPG)
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There were four wires per motor all told. I removed the electric brake and the two wires that supplied it. Now I’m left with two wires. I connected the two wires to a battery and was pleased to find that the shafts turned. I have bought and Arduino Uno but I’m wondering which motor controller to get.
By the way, in case it’s important, I plan on riding this vehicle and, if I have enough power, carry a passenger.
Thanks again,
Chris.
Thank you! Any tips on a controller? 
Unfortunately I cannot find any info on these motors so I’m even clueless as to the continuous output that will be required. The labels have been damaged due to weather. The only thing I found was a replacement 24v charger.
Is there a relatively safe continuous output and operational range that I can assume for motors of this type?
I do have a multimeter. I will hook up each motor to a 12v lead acid battery. Do I simply take a reading from the wires that are attached to the battery? I’ll also get the physical dimensions.
I’m beginning to see how important it is to know all about my motors. I just learned what maximum continuous stall torque is and would like to incorporate that into a failsafe in my program. I want to anticipate the possibility of wheel slip or bogging in a few inches of dirt.
This could get complicated. I’m thinking a motion detector pointed at the wheel would detect when one wheel is not turning in spite of a command to do so. But how would I detect slipping? Can I get rpm info from the motor and somehow detect a lack of motion just on that side? Or is it as simple as monitoring for the motor drawing more power than it should need to perform a given task? Hmm…
Can you post a picture of the motor? Three wires usually means brushless.
Yes, you can take the readings either on the battery or on the motor.
This is a lot less easy. Not many robots have traction control or can detect slipping
You can create a simple optical encoder or magnetic encoder. However, you will need a microcontroller as well as coding.
That means it’s over-exerting itself, but does not tell you if the robot is slipping.
Can you tell us more about the project and what you want to do?
That is physically larger than any of the motors we carry. There are some specs on the motor - can you use that information to find the specifications? The two main ones you need are nominal voltage and anything related to current. It looks like there is an encoder at the back which explains the second set of wires (likely four smaller wires). The larger one (with the really thick wires) are for the motor - how many are there (just red and black = normal brushed DC).
Multimeter is best to figure out the current under load. Once you know that, you can select a dual DC motor controller capable of providing ~24-30V (charged 24V batteries can easily be 30V when charged) and more than the maximum continuous current. Tell us the tests you do to get the current and use a safety factor (like multiply the value by 2 for example).
Yup. Good approach.
That seems likely to be brushed. I have yet to see brushless motors with that type of gear box.
If you can get your hands on a multimeter and 12V lead acid battery pack, you can measure the continuous current (be very careful about not touching the leads etc). A “safe” board would be one which would be very expensive and perhaps entirely overkill, but the choice is yours. If you want to take this approach, can you provide some dimensions (put the motor next to a ruler perhaps)?