Low Cost DC Motor Controller For Treadmill

[@dekurvajo]

Omg, i have watched over 50 videos if not more, digging on forums and everything to find a simple, affordable solution to this problem. Thank you, i still don't understand why others can not explain this so simple like you!

[@ucrash2]

Caution: a brushed a/c motor such as in a drill is intended to be variable speed. An induction motor such as the band saw example is dependent on the 60 hz frequency for it's speed. Reducing the voltage to an induction motor lowers it's torque but not it's speed. Brushed motors using this setup should work ok, but notice the band saw (induction motor) lost power and only slowed when torque fell so low it could no longer turn. D/c motors do need the rectifier as shown to produce pulsed d/c. Excellent video, I have 2 treadmill motors and 4 power chair motors to experiment with.

[@oohsam]

This is, hands down, the best DC motor wiring video on KZbin. Thank you sir. You have made a very confusing thing, clear.

[@kellyvcraig]

Pumping the output of that triac straight into the motor was just scary. It'd be like plugging straight into a 120 volt household circuit - a plan that needed work. But live and learn. Sharing the mistake makes it a valuable one. For that, many owe you thanks.

[@DavidLaFerney]

I just ordered the parts for this to put on my home built belt grinder. I've been using it for about a year with the plastic console from the treadmill - which works, but is awkward in more ways than one. It's such a useful tool that improving it like this is well worth the effort. Thanks!

[@langstonbraxton8621]

Instablaster.

[@allendedman523]

This is fantastic. I am very thankful to finally see a cost effective, simple solution to using these treadmill motors I have laying around. Much appreciated.

[@lesisamess9436]

Mike, you did a great job on the videos showing how to use the DC motor, you showed me that I remember more of my electronics I learned but never used in the USAF. Aircraft maintenance was a case of drag it out of the rack and shove another one in it's place and send it back to the factory to be repaired. That 22 weeks of basic electronics school was a waste of time! An idea for another video, figure out how to get the stepper motor from the tilt unit on the treadmill to work. I would like to put casters under my wood lathe and use the tilt unit to lift the lathe off the floor. I have a bad back and can use some help.

[@quarter42coralli]

This totally worked for me. I went with the 120v speed controller because I don't need 220, and it works great. I spent around $30 because I didn't want to wait, but I could have spent much less if I was patient. I also got 2 bridge rectifiers and 2 potientiometers for that price, so I have backups. Everything came from Amazon. Thanks!!

[@JohnnieBravo1]

built 3 of these things now, and converted my Craftsman Atlas 12" lathe and my little Atlas 618 lathe to treadmill motors with these controllers. Added a tachometer on them also, dirt cheap.

[@chuckintexas]

What the parts are, HOW they work together, an alternate or two for each choice (and WHY ! ) and how to find - and cost for - parts, EXCELLENT WORK ! Personally NOT _so_ interested in shaving 1 or 2 bucks here and there, but for those ( us ;-) ! ) on a tighter budget, we're up & RUNNING ! Thanks !

[@scott99920]

Thanks Mike, worked great! I used a different controller (P/N 090456) and the potentiometer that is already installed on that unit works great. The first 1/3 turn does nothing but after that I get full variable control from very slow to top speed and everything in between. I also mounted the rectifier on a heat sink from an old dell PC, not sure if necessary but using on a lathe and just want to keep everything cool. Excellent video Mike!!

[@boots7859]

You should be able to get that full range back by adding a resistor to one of the leads going to the pot. Just use your dmm to get resistance ohms just before it starts spinning. Lets say its 200 ohms. Just add a 200 ohm or maybe 180 in series with one of the wires going to the pot and you should have mostly full range back.

[@Hawk-qn2zk]

You saved me. I disassembled a treadmill for a sander project. I then dropped the Mc 60 control and when I pulled it back in it fried. $15 is a whole lot easier to take then a new/used mc60.

[@rogerlarratt9651]

Hawk 1911 i

[@Hawk-qn2zk]

Update, the controler I bought last all of about 5 minutes and then would only run on full blast. I have now purchased a Harbor Freight router speed controller and keep the bridge rectifier seems to be holding up better.

[@loganstevens540]

Hawk 1911 is it still working I’m about to try it

[@VintageCraftsmanTools]

I had lot of problems with these speed controllers, but never really got the right answer. Now I know what I need to do. Thank you. well done.

[@rcelkins75]

Talk about simple.....and cheap. Thanks a million for taking the time to go through the setup. I'm not sure you could have made it any easier to understand. Great video!

[@mikemanmade3087]

Exactly what I was going for. Thanks for watching.

[@NavinBetamax]

I second this.....really straightforwardly Simple.......Thanks for this Video.

[@Evan-e-cent]

Thanks for this demo. I would suggest adding one or two fixed resistance resistors (about 10k ohms) in series with the potentiometer. If placed on the correct side of the potentiometer it will allow you to use the full range of the potentiometer instead of 3/4. (Trial and error). The ramp up time may be important. I am fitting a similar motor to a Boxford engineers lathe. It is 2.5 HP and its resistance when stationary is only 2.2 ohms. That means that when you apply 180 volts without the ramp up, it could draw 82 amps and blow out your circuit or a fuse. Once it is spinning it acts like a generator causing a voltage opposing the supply voltage. This means that the effective voltage is decreased to supply voltage minus the reversed generated voltage and once up to speed it limits the current. For this motor it draws 8.5 amps at 4700 RPM. There is a better method now available with units from China HQ-SXPWM-X for about $US57 plus tax and free shipping. This is specifically designed for controlling DC motors of various voltages. Different models for different voltages. This is being discussed on the Boxford users group.

[@danielrogerson6635]

I have a variable speed controller with a 500K potentiometer driving a DC 180v motor. The motor has an RPM of 4000 but I really only want to use a range of 50-400RPM. When using the potentiometer I'm finding it is overly sensitive and isn't giving me the control over the lower RPM that I need. Would adding a fixed resistor across the Pot reduce the range of RPM? If so what value resistor should I start experimenting with and which wires does it need to intersect?

[@Evan-e-cent]

​@@danielrogerson6635 Hi I see you are having fun with this. I think what you need is a fixed resistor in series with the potentiometer. This is how I think about it: You appear to have a two wire connection for the potentiometer rather than three. So the circuit is being regulated by reading the resistance. You check all this with a multimeter. I have the HQ-SXPWM-X controller and it uses a three wire connection. A reference voltage of 5 volts is connected to one end of the resistor inside the potentiometer and the other end of the resistor is connected to ground. This creates voltage gradient along the length of its internal resistor. Then the wiper moves along the internal resistor and picks up the voltage at its current position. If turned to half way it reads 2.5 volts. At 20% of the way along it reads 1 volt etc. So the controller circuit is being regulated by the voltage. Your SCR circuit appears to be different. (I have one of these $15 SCR AC speed controllers and it runs a sewing machine motor really well, straight out of the box.) Yours only has two wires connected to the potentiometer as far as I can see. One wire would be connected to one end of the internal resistor and the other wire must be connected to the moving wiper. If you have an old potentiometer pull it to bits to see how it works! The circuit must be controlled by the resistance it sees. I imagine that it goes fastest with zero resistance. If so, when it is turned fully clockwise to maximum speed the wiper is connecting almost directly to the other wire. That is one wire is connected to the wiper and the other wire connects to the clockwise end of the internal resistor. Lets say the potentiometer has an internal resistor rated at 100,000 ohms and it is a linear scale rather than logarithmic. Now if you discover that you have to turn the knob 75% of the way before the motor begins to turn, the resistance the circuit is seeing is 25% of 100,000 = 25,000 ohms. It is only using the top (clockwise) end of the resistor. Then you need a 25,000 ohm variable resistor to give you full range. The RPM should vary from 0 to 4000 as you rotate the knob of the 25,000 ohm potentiometer. However you only wanted 400 RPM, that is 10% so you only need the first 10% of this 25,000 ohm range. So you would need a 2,500 ohm variable resistor followed by a fixed resistor to make up the total of 25,000. Ideally a fixed resistor of 22,500 ohms. You may be able to get 22 kOhms, but if not any where from 20,000 to 25,000 would probably be good enough. This should give you a speed range from 0 to 400 RPM. If you put a 'shunt' resistor in parallel with the potentiometer you can calculate what happens to the overall resistance R from the formula: 1/R = 1/R1 + 1/R2 Where R1 and R2 are the two resistors wired in parallel. In your case one would have a variable resistance. If you had a shunt resistance that is lower resistance than the variable resistance you could increase the variable resistance towards infinity (1/R=0) and the shunt resistor is what the SRC circuit would see. You would not be able to turn the motor down to 0 RPM. My video about how pulse width modulation and variable frequency drives work is on my lathe channel evan-e-cent. Look for the blue square wave image. I am not an electrical or electronics engineer but have studied science and engineering all my life while working in medicine.

[@Evan-e-cent]

PS the link to my video on this subject is kzbin.info/www/bejne/joC7aGSCptBsZpY

[@boots7859]

@@danielrogerson6635 I know this is old, however try this. Measure Pot resistance at lower/far left setting as R1. Get your motor at the 50rpm low end you want, then remove power and measure resistance of pot as R2. Now do R2 - R1 = R3. Now get an appropriately sized resistor that is around R3 - 10%, and add that to one of the leads to the Pot. Now when your pot is at Low the motor should not spin, but just a tick above low it will start spinning at close to your 50rpm. Without getting a new pot its going to be harder to get full range between your desired settings. Doing it this way will at least get your control at the low end much closer to where you expect it to be by knob position.

[@dragan3290]

I tested the 180 volt DC treadmill motor with my dewalt 18 volt battery! An AC speed controller with a kcp5010 bridge rectifier ( 50 Amps at 1000 volt peak! ) works like a charm. Lol

[@scroungasworkshop4663]

Hi Mike, finally got all the parts together and it works a treat👍👍👍. The potentiometer that came with the controller seems to work quite well so I probably won’t change it. I couldn’t for the life of me remember where I put the bridge rectifiers I bought so I used the one I found on the circuit board. Next job is to mount it in all control box. I will also use the iron ring on the wires as well as the power filter that came with the treadmill. I don’t know if the filter is necessary or not but as I have it I figure I may as well use it. When ordering the bits and pieces I took the opportunity to also order a tacho so that will also go in the control box as well as an illuminated master on / off switch. Thank heaps for your very informative video. Cheers Stuart 🇦🇺

[@rayhughes8240]

Hi Stuart I see this is an old post and assume by the flag that you are in Aus. Do the items listed work with 240V and if you have any details about the motor or parts I would be really grateful. (not savy with electrical gear) Cheers mate Ray

[@HappyYodeler4]

I accidentally fried my treadmill controller, and this is the perfect solution! Thank you

[@gappudada]

Hello , Did you manage to fix your treadmill using this option? My PCB circuit had failed but moto ris good. Please advice.

[@rayfalcone6897]

I just did my 9'' lathe, just like you mentioned and great, it works just the way it should,'ll never go back to changing speeds with the belt changes...thank you job well done.

[@billpuller4364]

Just hooked up a treadmill motor to a SCR and rectifier and worked like a champ- thanks Mike! Going to convert my bandsaw from wood-only to wood or metal (with the appropriate blade change of course)...

[@ben10237]

I used all the same parts with a 2K watt treadmill motor. Ran it for 2 minuets and everything got hot. Added a diode across the motor leads and the heat went away. I think the inductive spikes produced by the motor is breaking down the bridge rectifiers. That's why a 600V rectifier won't work. The kick back voltage is way above that.

[@krafte72]

Can't get motor boards for mine anymore. This video saved me over $1,000 in hauling the old and buying new.

[@marvincarvin1846]

EXACTLY the information that I have been looking for. Well presented. THNX!

[@smythie08]

same!!

[@page76metalcraft19]

Hey Mike thanks foe the informative vid. I'm in the process of doing what you did here. the one thing in the video you did not reveal is what size of potentiometer did you end up having to order to make the motor work correctly? 400k is too big and and 100K was too small I gathered that much information but what size did you end up ordering?. PS I have the exact same motor as your video.

[@supurbian]

@@page76metalcraft19 200k linear potentiometer

[@bobbg9041]

@@supurbian How's that holding if you go to low it will burn up.

[@marsk6611]

Same here

[@ucrash2]

I made it, values given are good. I ran with no load, nothing got warm. I did not put a meter to anything, maybe later. Thanks Mikemanmade.

[@darkorkodi3582]

well i finally got it working, trying to be clever i bought a controller different to the to the one mikemanmade used, i sent off for the same type from china and hey presto worked straight off, i have two motors , one 130 volts, one 180 volts, the 130 volts pops the fuse at high end but the 180 works fine all way round to the top , plus the 180 works fine for variability with the original pot , thanks mikemanmade i can now move onto making the grinder frame

[@paynetyler4173]

I tried this yesterday and got it working. I used a BR5010 bridge rectifier, and 110v 4000w controller, and a 1HP treadmill motor. (My controller is the two inputs- two outputs variety.) Ive had no trouble so far, but it pays to be skeptical about the wattage ratings on these cheap imported parts. Eventually I intend to control a larger motor with the 10,000W type, hoping that the rating is realistic. I have yet to try the proposed solution to the problem of not being able to power on at a set speed, but rather having to zero it out first, but that would be a welcome change for the people that find this annoying. I'd also love to be able to add a board with a electronic tachometer with RPM readout. If anyone can offer information on this, please let us know, much appreciated.

[@samehdarawshi3537]

hicould I ask how did you wire yours? from the wall into the controller two inputs and from the two outputs to the rectifier or you wires one of the leads going to the rectifier from the controller input?in the video here I did not catch the 3 wiring inputs..i have scr 4000watts and it has 2 inputs 2 outputs

[@tonyb3906]

GREAT VIDEO MIKE! It came at exactly the right time.Tomorrow a.m. I'm picking up a free treadmill to use for my 60 yr old bandsaw. (It's almost as old as I am!) I watched your first video and have been checking daily for your promised follow up one. This will be my first use of a treadmill motor for power tool operation. Thanks so much for the simplistic explanation. I'll keep watching and look forward to more great videos. You'd be a terrific shop teacher! Keep up the great work Mike!

[@PMoney365]

That absolutely works 100%! I'm going to gobble up all the treadmills in Oregon now.

[@AJDRAGON01]

Hi, Thank you for showing how to hook a controller to the motor. I used the same setup as you, and now have my Craftsman table saw up and run with it.

[@paulsalverda1246]

You just saved my old '90's Craftsman lathe with a 90VDC original motor with a blown controller. I think it works better than the original. Thank you!

[@MrMikeinbc]

I got one of those craftsman 90vdc lathe motor too and was wondering if you had to modify any of the parts or setup?

[@danielrogerson6635]

I've been searching for weeks to find the solution that you've just explained. Thanks very much!

[@tyz3r420]

Searched for something simple like this for my 2x72 belt grinder for quite some time. I did everything to the T, part number match and all. I noticed at first that noticable torque was lost and 2 minutes into some light grinding the motor started to release the smoke. cheap enough to buy, decent amount of effort to put together and package nicely but it was worth the try

[@katough]

built something similar with a wall light dimmer switch, a bridge rectifier, and a capacitor to run a 90vDC motor. it came on about at about 1/4 turn and topped out near the end of the dial. your method looks a bit easier. although i've found some DC motor controllers on ebay for 10-15 bucks now.

[@fisharmor]

Everyone doing this needs to bear in mind that when you rectify wall power, if you put on a smoothing capacitor then you will be WAY overdriving your motor. The treadmill motors I've pulled are usually rated 90-100 VDC. When you rectify and smooth wall power, you're getting over 160VDC. So bear in mind that your full speed in that case is actually 60% over speed.

[@briantorsell]

If I understand you correctly, this won't be an issue if I don't use a capacitor, correct? Or if I have a DC motor rated at ~160 volts.

[@fisharmor]

Right. The higher voltage comes from the fact that there are voltage spikes in your line power - it actually can spike that high, and the cap will even it out at the maximum voltage. But if you don't put a cap on it you'll get spikes and also lows, and it'll average out to 120vac. And yeah, if you have a 160vdc motor it won't be a problem, but I haven't seen one in a treadmill. Lastly, you CAN overdrive a permanent magnet DC motor. I drove mine long enough to get a read on how many RPMs it ran at 160vdc and there was no problem, but I wouldn't put it under load or run it for a long time when that high. SOME overdriving is fine, but I don't know how much. I think if you have a 100vdc motor and you're driving it at 120vdc rectified, un-smoothed power, you can probably do that for extended periods.

[@briantorsell]

Thanks for the reply, that was really helpful! I have a few treadmill motors, some 90VDC and at least one 130VDC. I plan on restoring a bandsaw that was rescued from the trash and I think it will work out. Thanks again for the explanation.

[@allanmarshall7674]

funny i got one 180 vdc see pic tinypic.com/r/15gqs5j/9

[@fisharmor]

Wow! What did you pull that from? I like how the RPMs is down at 4800 too. And 6 amps? What's not to like!

[@Letyreyes-iw5dy]

Mike I just want to thank you for this information. My kid start to play baseball and he like it alot He ask me to build a pitching machine and one's I saw the video Man was game on I build from scratch a pitching machine that pitch 60mph thanks for this valuable information. I appreciate it.

[@revilolavinruf]

I've been looking around for months on how to control my DC treadmill motor. This is the perfect video to answer my questions. Thank you so much.

[@facesmasher4216]

this scr controller will eliminate those hideous super huge and hard to dismount treadmill boards thank you for this golden tip - great job 🏆

[@bluestarindustrialarts7712]

great info. I have a 1 yr old treadmill motor and speed control board and controle board. Not crazy about the soft start that is programmed into the sc. This SCR/Bridge rectifier seems like a good change.

[@johntamez7971]

Well, I've ordered the parts to get my motor running! I'm pretty excited. Thanks for the tutorials!

[@jaywenzel2232]

I love you so much right now! Everything here is available on Amazon. Think I paid maybe $30 for this build. All available on Prime.

[@TheTrooper777]

Thank you for sharing, it really helps to know that the processes does not have to be rocket science

[@missingthe80s58]

Good stuff. I need to copy this for a corning machine. I need high torque and variable RPM. This will work perfectly.

[@bikerides]

The higher 240v AC mains in UK and elsewhere is much more dangerous to work with. Safer to convert down to DC at the voltage used by the motor and then insert a speed controller. Let us know how this works out long term though as we all like a low cost solution.

[@jasonweight4591]

thanks for the video .I bought all the parts you mentioned and have just put it all together and it works a treat .Thanks, had cooked the main board and needed a cheaper fix, makeing belt sander

[@TSPhotoAtlanta]

Alright, I'll try it! Got the motor a few years ago, so I've long since dumped the control boards to e-recycling. Didn't let go of that 18Amp DC motor, though: it looked like it could power something I could create - grinder, buffer, another over-arm tile-saw, or maybe? Not quite enough power for the 20" bandsaw I'm restoring - it came with a pretty dated 5 hp, 3 phase motor. Still looking for that one....

[@newstart49]

It's folks like you who make life a little easier for many of us- Thanks!

[@joedrake4465]

Just tried this out, and I gotta say, so far this works. Thank you so much! My original treadmill board was neither an MC-60 nor a MC-2100 or anything like that, and I think it was fried anyway. This will make things just so much easier. Ran it for a few minutes, no load, and no magic smoke. Rectifier was just ever so slightly warm, so no danger of major heat buildup that I can see. Only real testing under load will really let me know. However, I'm only getting a little more than half the dial in adjustment on the 200k pot. Should I try a different size, like a 100k?

[@kellyvcraig]

USE A HEAT SINK

[@carkrazd]

Thank you for posting this video. I have collected 5 treadmill motors and was looking for a cheap way to run them. The information and part #s given worked perfect. Now on to powering some shop equipment.. Thanks for sharing

[@steveofz6358]

I have a question. My treadmill motor.. it has 4 wires. It's a permanent magnet. Wires are .. black. Red. And 2 blues.. are the blue wires needed to use this set up?. Thank you for the video.

[@Frankcw43506]

The Blue wires are normally for a speed sensor on the motors I've worked with

[@DarrenJenkins]

Thanks Mike! I have a treadmill motor with all the control gear with it. Ill get one of these and throw the other junk away.

[@normschilling4622]

Question: Will this hold the motor to rpm under a small to medium amount of load? I assume that a treadmill controller has some kind of feedback from the motor, so that it increases power if the motor is bogged down a bit, so that it will maintain the speed of the big treadmill belt. Heavy person would then get the same walking pace as a child...?? Or maybe the treadmill controller doesn't do anything but send x amount of voltage for a given setting?

[@boots7859]

Obviously this won't as there is now feedback mechanism. The first complicated idea I think would solve this would be to paint the shaft black, draw a small stripe in white paint on it, put a photo-diode across from it so it can get send an interrupt back to a small microcontroller that will increase or decrease the voltage to the motor to increase or decrease torque. Unless there is an easier way to control current, which would also be stymied as the current would increase also as you are pushing the workpiece into the tool..... All in all, a bit more involved and probably can be avoided by just supplying power and maybe running it at a slightly higher speed before starting cutting/grinding.

[@AffordBindEquipment]

If you put a resistor inline with the pot, then the top speed will be reduced, if you don't need or don't want the high speed the motor can put out. I will be using this circuit (thanks for putting this up!) on a potter's wheel, and even with belt reduction, I have a feeling the top speed will still be too high. I am looking for only 300 rpms top speed and to do that I need a HUGE pully on the final out put shaft. a resistor is cheaper!

[@DavidWeidner10]

Fricking awesome. I just got the parts in today...badabing...works great. Thanks a bunch. I already have one of these running my lathe...but with a commercial motor controller. I used a treadmill board to control another motor on my drill press. BUT...I had another motor and a fried controller from the treadmill. This make that motor work great. Only problem is....the motor spins at 6500 RPM!!! I'll really have to gear things down. This isn't the fault of this controller....its what the sticker says on the side of the motor.

[@mikemanmade3087]

Ha! Best of luck!

[@cri8tor]

Great video. Straight to the point and the detail that a lot of us appreciate. Cheers

[@michaelselland5120]

I have blown up two of the 10000 scr Motor controllers so far. I’m trying to power a treadmill motor for a belt grinder. I have hooked it up just like you said twice with a bridge rectifier and both of them blew up.

[@davidernster3675]

Hi Mike, I am trying to do this with a router speed controller and a full wave bridge rectifier. It works but the motor does not slow to zero. Is it the potentiometer causing the issue?

[@johnobrien142]

same problem on my lathe, in the zero position the motor runs at a few hundred RPM

[@charleskolliker6391]

Sir thank you so much your information was valuable I was able to use an old treadmill motor to operate a shopsmith 10 ER lathe. I purchased the parts that you recommended and this thing works beautifully now I can control the speed!!!!

[@eCitizen1]

Or just change the range of your potentiometer. Rt = (R1 * R2) / (R1 + R2). So soldering a 2 Watt resistor across the 470k pot changes the values as follows; 680k changes the pot 278k 560k changes the pot 255k 400k changes the pot 216k 390k changes the pot 213k 330k changes the pot 193k 270k changes the pot 171k etc. BTW: Use one of the handy online Parallel Resistance Calculators to find the best combination.

[@WaveDudeTX]

Is there a danger of going too low with the range? I've got a 180K on there now and do get a better feeling (turn wise) out of the pot but it still has to be set to 3 or higher for the motor to start.

[@eCitizen1]

@@WaveDudeTX - My advice would be to adjust the pot range so that the lowest possible setting still makes the motor turn reliably. That way you will never forget to turn the power switch off. Using the pot to stop the motor drops the apparent voltage to a level below the threshold that makes it turn, but still leaves voltage applied to the windings. It's too easy to forget to turn off the power switch when the motor isn't turning.

[@petecurtice6340]

Love it....now let's make the motor run forward and reverse without having to switch wires every time you want to go in the opposite direction. Thanks Bud

[@kellyvcraig]

A simple two way toggle will do that. Just feed the center and throwing the toggle feeds the terminals at the outside.

[@garyjordan3181]

Thanks for sharing your setup, before I finish watching the video I went on Amazon ordered 2 of the same setup. Came in at right at $40.00 but it will be giving me 2 3hp motors to use. Thanks

[@violetgrowers]

Cheers Mike, based on your vid i just made my controller for my grinder. Great info for us noobs

[@PaulAndMuttley]

Not all SCR controllers are designed to handle inductive loads like a DC motor. A snubber circuit across the SCRs or the motor (or both) may be needed. Also, when the voltage to the motor is turned off, it will generate back EMF. The FWB will act as freewheeling diodes, but they may not be fast enough to switch efficiently. Also, you have wired the ferrite core as a common mode choke, and if the current in both motor wires is equal and opposite, it won't have any effect.

[@AffordBindEquipment]

so how would you wire the choke? individual wires, reverse winding?

[@AffordBindEquipment]

can I use the large choke that came with the treadmill?

[@k9taxi]

You SHOULD use the choke that came with the treadmill

[@helicrashpro]

I got the 400 watt SCR and the 20A glass fuse blew almost instantly running a 1.5hp motor. It's also very difficult to find replacement fuses because the size of the fuse being 20A is not allowed in the US. Basically this is not very convenient of a motor controller because unless you turn up the speed very slowly, it surges way to many amps to reliably start the motor without blowing the fuse or frying something. So setting the pot to the speed you want and turing the power on is not going to work because of the high amp draw. I'm going to get one of the 10000watt units to see if that will be reliable. Also, a thing he forgot to mention in the video is that the bridge rectifier (even being "over sized") is going to need a heat sink. Even a 50A rectifier running 5A will need a heat sink.

[@petertyrrell6690]

Interesting video. Although you recognize that your controller is a triac unit, you keep referring to it as an scr controller which may be confusing to those new to this topic. An SCR controller already puts out phase controlled DC so it wouldn't require a bridge rectifier between it and the dc motor. A triac controller must have a bridge rectifier between it and the dc motor. You tried to control your bandsaw with your triac controller. Your bandsaw motor is probably a regular induction motor and these absolutely should not be controlled by just varying the voltage, the motor will soon burn out. The band saws induction motor may be speed controlled by varying the supply frequency, although you have to also control the current as well, as it will overy heat and probably burn out if you don't. The simply controller that you demonstrate would be great to control any tool that can run on ac or dc. Corded drills, grinders and saws, all fall into this group, as there field and armature windings are connected in serious. Series connected windings provide great torque but thier speed control sucks. Thanks for sharing.

[@BisonWorkshop]

very good info. ive been converting my tools to dc treadmill motors and your setup is axactlly the combonation i have been searching for. forget those damn treadmill controllers. now i know how ill be doing my band saw, drill press. i never knew that changing ac to dc was as simple as that $5 Rectifier. you just made my project go much smoother. thanks man. you earned my sub

[@gunnarblomquist5108]

For reference, this setup now costs about 25$ just for components and before tax. When I bought through Amazon with free shipping, total cost was just over 40$. (Potentiometer and rectifier come in packs of two)

[@86tatoski]

If anyone is interested there's a way to eliminate the soft start feature by sniping some electric components on the OG treadmill boards, I've done it on my beltsander projects.

[@charliebrady3751]

Adding an inline fuse and a choke would be good recommendations.

[@MinorScalesMajorFuckups]

THank you! I am planning on building pottery wheel from a treadmill motor and this is hugely helpful.

[@chancetolbert4852]

That will be a fast pottery wheel

[@rustybrowneye]

i bought all the shit in the decription and did just what you said and it worked! alto not very long. i dident have anything held down and the motor vibrated over and touched sometin id dident like cause there was a small flash and the fuse blew. but that was my fault. tanks again. it works!

[@rustybrowneye]

mike mabie u can help me. i took my old fuse to the store to buy another one but i lost it some where. do you know what size fuse it has. i bought the 4000w model with the 4 wires like you said. im pretty sure i seen a 20 on the fuse somewhere but im not sure if that was amps. that seems like alot of amps for a fuse that small

[@plankshield]

Mine was f20l250v which are 3/16 by 3/4 tiny fuses. I had to order online to find more. 20amp 250v

[@flippingnation3482]

@@rustybrowneye hey I think my fuse blew too.

[@georgedennison3338]

What is the voltage of the motor? If it you out more voltage than thr motor is rated for, it will demagnetize the permanent magnet motor, and slowly kill the motor. Rectifying AC increases the voltage, about 170%, (if my memory is correct). These treadmill motors can be anying from 80VDC to 180VDC. Check your max voltage! Also, just a rectifier doesn't make DC, it makes chopped AC, negating the negative side of the AC. To get closer, and clean up the rectifier output, you need capacitors on the rectifier output, and a voltage regulator. The caps help smooth out the chopped AC, to make it closer to DC, (but STILL not DC). DC power supplies will have an additional device after the caps, an induction coil, (again, if memory serves me; dbl chk what this). The thing he called an inductor is a choke, for cleaning up radiant voltage. The device I'm talking about goes in line. (I could have choke and induction coil terms swapped). The point is, you need to determine how close you need to get to DC. If you buy a DC power supply adequate amp rating and add a pulse width modulation unit, (the "piece of junk" he called it), you will have a solid, reliable variable speed motor. What I have learned, (the hard way), is the inexpensive Chinese DC power supplies likely won't have overload protection, so if you stall the motor, it will kill the power supply after a few times. If you will never stall the motor, not a worry. It you might, look out.

[@chopped67]

got same parts and it worked but no torque except at close to full speed wont work for my application

[@williamlangley2044]

Add a electrolytic capacitor to the motor in parallel, it will smooth the motor running and increase speed, lengthen brush life their may be higher voltage

[@abuzertanirgan1159]

Koşu bantları neden 180wolt üretilir

[@JoshWeaverRC]

awesome. But back to the potentiometer. good info. Just started using some of my recent China parts and potentiometer is on my short list. nice to know that rectifier is over sized in that small package.

[@1bmwrider]

I hooked mine up today with the parts you suggested and it works GREAT, Super easy to do. Thank You

[@germanovalle802]

Ok, so we can say that's kind of VARIAC ?? I'm really looking forward for a voltage regulator like a transformer or a VARIAC. You are saving my life dude.

[@germanovalle802]

I'm using a 90VDC motor like that one and it's 1.5 HP it's possible to make it run?

[@germanovalle802]

and i wanna ask you about the peak current of the motor

[@ronniegilbert7692]

How did you wire the potentiometer, it has 3 prongs and only 2 wires, I’ve tried several configurations and soon as I give it power it goes to full speed with no speed control

[@ixamraxi]

In most cases, connecting one wire to the middle terminal and the second wire to either of the outside terminals will provide the same functionality, the only difference is that it will reverse which ends of the potentiometer's dial represent minimum/maximum ohms, connecting the wires to the two outside terminals will use only the maximum resistance value of the potentiometer, rendering it useless in most applications. If it jumps to full speed the moment you turn the dial from both ends of the potentiometer, I would try a different value of potentiometer, start with maybe 100k, then 500k then 1m. Might have to trial and error between these values to find a the ideal pot if none of those provide a useful amount of variability along the length of the dial.

[@em21701]

If more resistance on the pot equals more speed then a fixed series resistor with a value close to the pot resistance where the motor finally turns on would be a better fix than a higher value pot. It sounds like the higher value pot gave you a smaller dead band but didn't eliminate it. This also works if the potentiometer is being used as a voltage divider.

[@mikemanmade3087]

Less resistance = more speed. So, no.

[@shaunskixoom1979]

Mike, would you mind please answering all the questions about which Pot you ended up using?

[@bobf12]

Just found this video and its exactly what i have been looking for. its the best and simplest instructions i have found yet. thank you very much...now, to order some parts.

[@imysteryman]

I see two problems with this control, 1. the rpm of motor can be over it's rated speed and damage the motor or the flywheel could simply explode, 2 if you have a variable load the motor it will not maintain a set speed and slow down with more load. I am using one of these controls to control the speed of a foundry blower for my furnace with a treadmill motor and since the load is constant it works fine but with a lathe or a belt sander the load with be a variable load and the rpm with go up and down as different loads are applied.

[@matthandy7039]

Thank you, just tested this all out, 20 minutes and it’s perfect. I’ll make it look nice later. Good video!

[@hayyyak]

Thank you for your knowledgeable and understandable information even for non-technical persons like myself. I would be grateful if you could let me know how to determine whether the problem is in the motor controller or in the motor itself. Best regards. Salah

[@KRA2008]

(spoiler warning) that awkward silence when the flywheel came off was hilarious.

[@WaveDudeTX]

Is there a way to limit the max output DC voltage to 90 Volt...because I have a couple of 90 volt motors and don't want to burn them up.

[@ethanpellowe9774]

honestly your such a legend mate, cant even tell you how much this helped me.

[@burleydad]

How do we rectify this problem?! We literally rectify it!

[@KielsOffroad]

Great vid, had no idea how to go about using a tredmill motor. Thanks

[@kren1101]

Went through all the comments and didn't see my questions exactly. My motor has 4 wires, black, red, and two blues. If I understand from the other comments, I do not need to use these two blue wires, correct? And do I need to buy additional wire to go from power cable to rectifier to SCR controller? If so, what kind?

[@houseoquinnizyodaddy]

Two blues just get capped off

[@stevehansen5389]

So, you have had this setup running for a couple of years now. Any feedback? Also, how do you run 220V when you need a neutral for the DC circuit?

[@JosephLorentzen]

Instead of changing out the pot, parallel a resistor of the same or larger wattage which will lower rhe total resistance. Rt= R1+R2/R1 *R2

[@eCitizen1]

Umm... Rt = (R1 * R2) / (R1 + R2) makes more sense to me. So soldering a 2 Watt resistor across the 470k pot changes the values as follows; 680k changes the pot 278k 560k changes the pot 255k 400k changes the pot 216k 390k changes the pot 213k 330k changes the pot 193k 270k changes the pot 171k etc.

[@philswarbrick9311]

Brilliant video! Very clear and easy to follow. My only question is : "will this method work with a permanent magnet motor?"

[@frankmartin6126]

Treadmill motor is a pm motor, a wound field motor has multiple leads

[@darkorkodi3582]

mikemanmade, seems there's a few of us confused about the supply being 240 and the motor using 110, do we need to step the 240 down for the 110 motor ?

[@BillChurchFl]

I think he just said that the controller was sized for 220, not that he was using it at 220.

[@PRR5406]

I need a controller for a pair of 24v, 400-watt, DC wheelchair motors to drive a 1/8th Scale model locomotive. This will be powered with two 12v deep cycle batteries in series. Of course, direction will be a factor. Got a controller for this purpose?

[@Supercoco5]

I did the same, but finally I modified the system a little adding a Slide Potentiometer. Is easier for the treadmill's user

[@mamamay4686]

I am new for this kind of technic. Please advice me. My treadmill control board was fail. Can I use this technic for my treadmill?

[@NemecJesse]

Awesome! Would there be any benefit to running this setup with 220V instead of 110V? I have it available in my garage, I'm running the 1hp AC motor for my belt grinder on it with a VFD before I knew better, and I'm going to use a treadmill motor for the mini-lathe I'm building. Also, it might be worth mentioning, I think that GFI circuits have a really hard time with the soft starts. I have a relatively new home, and all the 110 outlets in my garage are connected to a GFI outlet, which is a pain...

[@aros007z]

You are one sharp cookie, thanks for the knowledge!

[@mrmidnight32]

My treadmill motor has 3 phase wires and 1 for thermo. Then 2 other wires that aren’t labeled. Is this a DC/AC motor I have? The label doesn’t say

[@Scratchthejeepguy]

It looks like I'm using the exact same SCR and BR as you are. My treadmill motor has 4 wires coming out of it. 2 blues, a black and a red. When I plug my red and black into the BR, the motor doesn't spin at all. The motor works fine with the factory treadmill control board though and I'm getting 110VDC out of the BR. When I remove the BR and just use a light bulb, the SCR will dim the light so I know the SCR is working. Any ideas why I can't get it to control my motor?

[@chancetolbert4852]

Hey i noticed the treadmill motor in the beginning had 4 wires. Red, black and 2 blues. While the motor in the end had only 2 wires and ground. What is difference? How would the 4 wires be hooked up on this setup?

[@pappaclutch3266]

What’s the voltage on the DC side of the wires that connect to the motor? My motor can only handle 90V.. don’t want to smoke my motor

[@charlesaanonson3954]

The output voltage from the controller will be higher than 120 volts if the pot is turned up all the way, but it can be adjusted to almost any output value you want by turning down the pot.