Treadmill Incline motor - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / beginners

author: synthetic
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: August 24, 2014, 03:03:10 am
content: Hello again,I am salvaging a mid 90s treadmill and am trying to figure out the wiring on the lift motor. There are 4 wires, red black white and striped. White and black tested continuous, striped was earth and red is seemingly not connected to anything.I thoroughly googled the model number to no avail but it is MC42-1009l by hubbell.I am not sure if the motor is AC or DC and how to make it spin. any help would be appreciated.

author: synthetic
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: August 24, 2014, 03:23:54 am
content: So after plugging in white and black to 115ac, the motor extends, but I cant figure out how to make it retract.

author: edy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 24, 2014, 04:36:03 am
content: Could it be that you run the motor with reversing the voltage to turn it the other way? Perhaps the extra wires are incline sensors wires that go back to the control board to tell it what incline level it is at. I found some treadmill repair manuals on the net which suggest that. See here:http://sportsartamerica.com/SAF/support/technicalsupport/repair_manuals/TR22F_ELECT_REPAIR_MANUAL.pdf

author: synthetic
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: August 24, 2014, 08:04:01 am
content: Quote from: edy on August 24, 2014, 04:36:03 amI don't think you can reverse AC =D There is a separate 5v sensor attached to the axle of the motor for rotation. thanks for the link though.

author: German_EE
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 24, 2014, 08:29:39 am
content: This is a guess, it may not be correct:The red wire may be connected to a capacitor that alters the phase of the current applied to the motor winding. Apply power to the black and white wires then briefly touch the red wire to either black or white, see if the motor reverses direction.The usual 115V/230V safety precautions apply, please take care here.

author: amyk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 24, 2014, 12:05:11 pm
content: http://www.electrical-contractor.net/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/178506/Single_phase_inductive_motor.htmlIt's a PSC motor, there will be two identical windings and a capacitor. You should open it up and check how the capacitor is wired. It will be similar to this:https://gearmotorblog.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/bodine-psc-switch-connections-01_06-05-20142.jpg

author: German_EE
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 24, 2014, 12:15:13 pm
content: That is what I was thinking of but I have seen one AC motor where the two windings were in series and to set direction you wired the capacitor across one winding. Without the capacitor the motor started in whatever direction it wished. This would be similar to the motor described where the red wire goes to the center tap through a capacitor.

author: edy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 24, 2014, 01:04:06 pm
content: Oops, my bad...I didn't notice you said it was an AC motor.

author: German_EE
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 24, 2014, 03:54:32 pm
content: Fear not my friend as you are not the first to have made that mistake. Some of us have actually ordered DC motors, connected them across an AC line and then wondered why they did not rotate

author: synthetic
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: August 25, 2014, 04:55:58 am
content: Thank you all for your help.I wired it up to a spdt switch as described byhttps://gearmotorblog.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/bodine-psc-switch-connections-01_06-05-20142.jpgas suggested by amyk.all is well in the world now.for anyone else having trouble with a hubbell lift motor that is the simple correct way to wire them.