Common Treadmill Motor Power Supply Mistakes When putting together DIY Power Supply MC60 SCR MC2100

There are lots of ways to make a treadmill motor variable power supply. You can use an SCR or you can use the treadmill motor control board, but if you put one together make sure you do it correctly. There are lots of little mistakes that people sometimes make. I put together this video to help you avoid said mistakes.
Affiliate links to items in this video:
MC60:
10K potentiometer amzn.to/3QAtiES
20 Amp circuit breaker amzn.to/3ufQDRh
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Emergency stop switch amzn.to/43mgveT
3PDT direction switch amzn.to/3ZShNLG
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MC2100:
PWM signal generator for the MC 2100 amzn.to/3z3ivu3
20 Amp circuit breaker amzn.to/3ufQDRh
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15 Amp circuit breaker amzn.to/3FgoQGP
Emergency stop switch amzn.to/43mgveT
3PDT direction switch amzn.to/3ZShNLG
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DPDT center of switch amzn.to/46hjbdM
Toroid Core for AC inductor/choke amzn.to/3QTk5Zs
Variable Transformer:
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Emergency stop switch amzn.to/43mgveT
3PDT direction switch amzn.to/3ZShNLG
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DPDT center of switch amzn.to/46hjbdM
Toroid Core for AC inductor/choke amzn.to/3QTk5Zs
SCR Voltage controller:
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100 amp Bridge rectifier amzn.to/40DjWg6
20 Amp circuit breaker amzn.to/3ufQDRh
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15 Amp circuit breaker amzn.to/3FgoQGP
Emergency stop switch amzn.to/43mgveT
3PDT direction switch amzn.to/3ZShNLG
OR
DPDT center of switch amzn.to/46hjbdM
Toroid Core for AC inductor/choke amzn.to/3QTk5Zs
10K potentiometer amzn.to/3QAtiES
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Inclosuers and inclosure parts:
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8” X 10” X 4” Power supply box amzn.to/3HEHeun
12” x 12” x 4” Large component box amzn.to/3Imerv6
7.9” x 4.7” x 2.95” Large plastic box amzn.to/3nQEylT
6.22” x 3.54” x 2.36” Medium plastic box (the one I put all the parts in) amzn.to/40JB9nn
Cable Gland amzn.to/3VZNrWb
When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission.
The choke in most of my videos is part number 130993. Instead of getting one new I would get a used one. A lot of treadmills come with a choke. Go to eBay and search “treadmill motor choke” BUT know that most people on eBay don’t know what they have and the word "transformer" will also appear in most listings. Problem is a choke and a transformer look almost identical so some listings are for transformers and some are fore chokes because the sellers think they are interchangeable. They are not. They would only be interchangeable if you modify a transformer to work as a choke. (see my DIY choke video) To tell the difference count the wires. A choke will only have 2, a transformer will have 3 or more. Please let me know if I can be of further assistance.

[@aguycalledlucas]

Daze, you’re definitely the treadmill motor controller guy! Congrats

[@dazecars]

give the people what they want 😂😂😂

[@wantlessobject]

Excellent video. I don't think that there's enough people stressing the safety side of all these diy projects. Thanks for sharing.

[@dazecars]

"Safety? Why do we need to wory about safety? its not like any of this stuff could be dangerous." 😂😂😂 Glad you liked it

[@garsonprice3441]

Thanks again, Daze. The mistake I made on my wood lathe installation was to remove the flywheel which is also the fan. You said in an earlier video this year that the motor will overheat without the fan and you are correct. It does overheat when drilling with larger Forstner bits or turning large bowls. Now I'll have to install a fan to the motor shaft. Thanks - Garson 👍👍

[@dazecars]

all you need is moving air so an external fan that is independently driven would do the job something like this would fit the bill. amzn.to/3FTJDPJ

[@rayg436]

another great video agreed all components should be grounded. I have been shocked by a dryer that someone wired wrong. I just plugged it in and the body was wired to a live wire .so yes ground is the first wire to be connected on any wiring.

[@dazecars]

👍

[@markhedquist9597]

Well, what you are to me is the "My girlfriend's favorite song for an intro" guy. She loves that Duran Duran song. Plays it all the time. Her niece was wearing a t-shirt that had "Stay Wild" printed on it when we visited once. That being said, I also love your channel for all the treadmill motor stuff. I have a pile of them, waiting to power some machines. Will be getting on that soon! Yours is by far the best channel I've seen in reference to using the most prevalent "perfectly good thrown away motors". Thanks for what you do here. Stay Wild!

[@dazecars]

"have a pile" start making somthing 😁

[@beautifulsmall]

Great video. I wonder if mounting the whole assembly verticaly so the heatsink is vertical will also help with airflow along the fins.

[@dazecars]

My experience is if you use the better rectifier its not "working as hard" so heat is less of an issue but with that said anything you can do with electronics that produce heat to reduce said heat is always going to prolong the life of the component.

[@gaetan_b_2611]

I would have liked to see one of your montages operate a treadmill.

[@dazecars]

👍

[@minskmade]

good video...flipping the psu is smart..going to be posting my treadmill motor driven drill press soon :P. what electric box is that?

[@dazecars]

Thanks!! It's the little things that get you. I have made mistakes like that where I didn't think it through. flipping it around is simple but effective. Here is a link to the electrical box amzn.to/3HEHeun

[@DrumSmithRich]

Daze, if I’m using the thermal overload protection (blue wires from dc motor), should I still add a 15amp fuse on my AC power in? Thanks for the info from one Ford guy to another, I appreciate your videos!

[@dazecars]

yes you should. The blue wires will only trip the system if the motor gets too hot. Any other overloads in the system will not trip the thermals in the motor so the additional breaker is required.

[@carlkellogg5342]

Great video. I have a question. Not sure you can answer it but here we go. Do you have ant idea what size choke to use on a 2.5 HP treadmill motor using a SCR. What should the Henry and MA be ? I have junked 9 treadmills and not one of them had a choke on them. All had one or two transformers but no choke. Thank you.

[@dazecars]

Not being an electrical engineer I can't give you technical specs but I can say this, the small choke I show in the videos works with all the motors regardless of HP. The important factors are that that the wire is at least 16awg and the bigger the choke the better it functions.

[@williamnicklaus2203]

I guess I missed the part about needing a transformer? Would be real useful to learn how to specifically wire up the 2100. Did you use a choke on the output side? Thanks > Bill

[@dazecars]

Some MC-2100 have the transformer on board some have it external. A DC choke is not required with the MC-2100 but still a good idea if you happen to have one. I go over setting up an MC-2100 in this video kzbin.info/www/bejne/iJrOlomPra6Hi7M

[@gregeisenbarth2353]

The control box, where can I find one or information on it,,,? Thanks,,!!!

[@dazecars]

The enclosure, the MC2100, the MC 60, or the SCR setup?

[@JohnnieBravo1]

Hey Daze; a question was asked of me that I didn't technically know the answer to, but instinctively I "think" I know the answer to. That was, does the size of the choke matter?? For the 10-130 VDC treadmill motors, say 1.5 - 3.0 CHP motors, how do you know how to size the choke.

[@dazecars]

It needs to have at least 16 awg wire to handle the load. I am sure there are specific calculations one can do to determine the motor choke size. Not being an electrical engineer I do not know those calculations. What I do know from my own projects and experiments, is that the bigger the choke the better job it does. The one I show in most of my videos is about the size of a tennis ball. The one on my lathe is closer to the size of a softball and works better.

[@jamest3618]

Have you ever used an MC1648DLS controller? I have one from a commercial treadmill I salvaged, but I can't find any diagrams or info about using it.

[@dazecars]

No I have not gotten my hands on one to mess with it and see if I can hack it

[@cynthiahood89]

We got a proform they had cut the wires we reconnected and there was a green wire which we believe is the ground wire. We connected it with a screw to the outside hole. But have no power. Any suggestions please?

[@dazecars]

you need to trouble shoot things. Assumings it is DC as most but not all treadmill motors are, start by checking the motor on a battery. if it works then the issue is likely the control board.

[@genetomblin2883]

Thermal management of electronics is complicated and often done wrong. Fan air cooling Works but degrades over time as dust and dirt plug things up. Natural convection cooling requires the largest heat sink. For this reason you don't see it used very often any more.

[@dazecars]

excellent points

[@alexbat4313]

Daze, will all of these work with a 4hp tradmill motor?

[@dazecars]

HP is not the important number; Amps is the important number. What is the amp raiting on the motor?

[@douggarson50]

Any reason why the enclosure can't be a wooden box? Would vent openings with filter cloth to keep out dust be a good idea (application is a drill press in a wood shop).

[@dazecars]

Plastic, wood, or metal they all make a good enclosure. If using something non conductive like wood, make sure everything is properly grounded. With a metal box it's easy to tie everything together through the box. With wood extra grounding is going to be required. Venting is a good idea but dust needs to be avoided.

[@kensherwin4544]

Wood makes a fairly good insulator so a fan with a filter would be required. That means the filter would have to be maintained regularly and that means remembering to do it. My rememberer doesn't work as well as it did 40 years ago.

[@douggarson50]

@@kensherwin4544 Good point, rather than a filter with a fan, which I considered, I chose to cut a hole in the back of the enclosure so the heat sink sticks out the back and the heat is not released inside the enclosure. Still working on the conversion, other things keep getting in the way, so can't confirm if it works but can't see why it won't.

[@dazecars]

👍

[@jameswaltz1661]

Hi Dazecars I have a few questions if you dont mind? How can you tell if you have a bad board. It seems no matter how i look it up, it seems to trip the breaker. Is there a way to test it? Is there a way to tell which board you have? None of my boards look like your MC 2100 or the MC 60 and i cant see where they say MC 60 or any other number. Im also curious what that yellow tapped coil is that is on the board? Is that a choke or an Inductor/Inducer of some kind? Last but not least, does it matter which way the current goes through the choke, because i dont see a positive or negative on it?Thanks for being patient with my dumb question. Thanks again with all your help

[@dazecars]

This may be an odd question but if you don't know what board you have how do you know how to hook it up correctly? They all wire differently and use different parts to control them. Best way to test a treadmill board is in the treadmill before disassembly. Then depending on the type of board there are other techniques for testing. Contact me through my website and send me pictures of your board and I may be able to identify it. Not exactly sure what you are referring to as "yellow tapped coil" but it is likely a transformer to step the AC coming from the wall down to less than 20V so it can be converted to DC to power other parts of the system. That is just a totally blind guess and I would need to see a picture to identify it for sure. A choke is not polarized, the current does not care how it goes through it however some chokes work better on the negative side and some work better on the positive side. Do you have an actual motor choke out of a treadmill or a component called a choke purchased off eBay or other source that "looked right". Asking because it happens all the time. Also send me pix of how it is hooked up and I will see if I can identify any issues.

[@jameswaltz1661]

@@dazecars Thats why im asking where to find out what board i have. The way i do it now is by taking pictures of the board while its still in the treadmill and by what knowledge ive learned from you or on the net

[@dazecars]

Again contact me through my website and send pictures.

[@joeclark9042]

Well I know this is a year old but for some reason you keep popping up so they must be pretty good so I got a question for you if everybody's taking these things up wrong I'm 60-years-old I couldn't hook one up if I tried any way you could build me one if I send you everything just let me know or just make one I'll pay you I'm looking to get one made for a treadmill motor thank you sir

[@dazecars]

Thank you for the offer but I am not interested in building systems for people.

[@codfishknives8526]

No choke? Is it outside the box or did I miss hearing the explanation.

[@dazecars]

Because the power supply is an MC2100 (PWM type instead of SCR) a choke is not required. Would it help, probably but the improvement would probably be minimal.

[@hamishjohnson9678]

Where can I buy a Choke?

[@dazecars]

The choke in most of my videos is part number 130993. Instead of getting one new I would get a used one. A lot of treadmills come with a choke. Go to eBay and search “treadmill motor choke” BUT know that most people on eBay don’t know what they have and the word “transformer" will also appear in most listings. Problem is a choke and a transformer look almost identical so some listings are for transformers and some are fore chokes because the sellers think they are interchangeable. They are not. They would only be interchangeable if you modify a transformer to work as a choke. (see my DIY choke video) To tell the difference count the wires. A choke will only have 2 wires, a transformer will have 3 or more. Also before I started doing videos chokes on eBay could be had for $25 or less shipped but now that more people are looking for them (due to my videos) the eBay sellers have raised their prices quite a bit. Your best bet might be the DIY option out of a Microwave transformer. Please let me know if I can be of further assistance.

[@tomnorton8218]

Hey! I just got my mc2100 and pwm setup. It works but to increase the rpm I have to make a lot of turns of the knob. Is there a way to change this?

[@dazecars]

Sounds like you have it setup for 1000 steps instead of 100

[@tomnorton8218]

@DazeCars How do I change this? Going to use the set up on my wood lathe.

[@dazecars]

@@tomnorton8218 I go over that in this video Bandsaw Upgrade Using the Tach Input on an MC-2100 to Have More Consistant Speed Tach Input Test kzbin.info/www/bejne/pnKql4V-pa2UY5I

[@tomnorton8218]

@DazeCars Thanks I will check it out!

[@dazecars]

👍

[@robgonzo151]

LoL,love intro!

[@dazecars]

Thanks!!

[@MrCubflyer]

couldnt hurt to add a fan also.

[@dazecars]

excellant point

[@Z-Ack]

Nah. Youre the “im gonna make videos of whats interesting to me at the time” guy and it just happened to be a topic not discussed much on youtube so people screwing around with em or diy’ing them are going to click on videos where the creator is competent, speaks freaking english for christ sake, and is talking about topics on the subject that are more common to be questioned.. good job and i hope your at least pulling some kinda money for your time and troubles..

[@dazecars]

Thanks, I am glad you like it. Mostly it's about the info and helping people. Yes I get a little add revenue but when I do the math and take into account the time it takes to shoot and edit a video, not to mention the time it takes to respond to questions, comments and emails I may be at about $1.00 an hour 😂😂😂 Good thing I'm not in it for the money.

[@angelooldman7201]

hi, my name is angelo and i try to get my tmill motor going but i don,t know ,if you or someone that a re smarter than me and care to help me with this projec, i will greatly apreciated, thank you

[@dazecars]

what seams to be the problem?