A permanent magnet motor driven hoist system comprising: a cable drum with a cable wrapped thereon; a power source; a PM out-runner motor comprising: a ferromagnetic stator on a fixed central shaft, the stator having a winding consisting of three stator coils (A,B,C) which are 120° apart; an outer rotor assembly coaxial with and disposed to rotate about the stator, the rotor assembly having a rotating housing with an outer surface radially outward of the central shaft and an inner surface radially inward toward the central shaft and plurality of permanent magnets disposed at the inner surface configured to magnetically couple with the stator, the rotating housing operably coupled to the cable drum such that rotation of the rotor assembly causes rotation of the cable drum to reel in/out the cable; wherein excitation signals applied to the plurality of stator coils induce a torque in the outer rotor assembly to cause it to rotate about the stator and central shaft, a plurality of Hall effect sensors configured to detect the position of the rotor assembly of the PM out-runner motor; and a controller operably connected to the power source and the PM out-runner motor, wherein the controller includes an inverter for generating the excitation signals applied to the plurality of stator coils, the inverter having at least six switching devices arranged in three legs; the hoist system being characterized by having the controller configured to apply pulse width modulated braking command signals to the PM out-runner motor to magnetically lock the PM motor such that a magnetic field generated by the plurality stator windings locks with a magnetic field of the plurality of permanent magnets and holds the outer rotor assembly in a current position to hold the PM out-runner motor in a fixed position for a selected duration, remove the braking command signals for a second selected duration; and repeating the generating, applying and removing until the PM outer-runner motor has stopped. a cable drum with a cable wrapped thereon; a power source; a PM out-runner motor comprising: a ferromagnetic stator on a fixed central shaft, the stator having a winding consisting of three stator coils (A,B,C) which are 120° apart; an outer rotor assembly coaxial with and disposed to rotate about the stator, the rotor assembly having a rotating housing with an outer surface radially outward of the central shaft and an inner surface radially inward toward the central shaft and plurality of permanent magnets disposed at the inner surface configured to magnetically couple with the stator, the rotating housing operably coupled to the cable drum such that rotation of the rotor assembly causes rotation of the cable drum to reel in/out the cable; wherein excitation signals applied to the plurality of stator coils induce a torque in the outer rotor assembly to cause it to rotate about the stator and central shaft, a plurality of Hall effect sensors configured to detect the position of the rotor assembly of the PM out-runner motor; and a ferromagnetic stator on a fixed central shaft, the stator having a winding consisting of three stator coils (A,B,C) which are 120° apart; an outer rotor assembly coaxial with and disposed to rotate about the stator, the rotor assembly having a rotating housing with an outer surface radially outward of the central shaft and an inner surface radially inward toward the central shaft and plurality of permanent magnets disposed at the inner surface configured to magnetically couple with the stator, the rotating housing operably coupled to the cable drum such that rotation of the rotor assembly causes rotation of the cable drum to reel in/out the cable; wherein excitation signals applied to the plurality of stator coils induce a torque in the outer rotor assembly to cause it to rotate about the stator and central shaft, a plurality of Hall effect sensors configured to detect the position of the rotor assembly of the PM out-runner motor; and a controller operably connected to the power source and the PM out-runner motor, wherein the controller includes an inverter for generating the excitation signals applied to the plurality of stator coils, the inverter having at least six switching devices arranged in three legs; the hoist system being characterized by having the controller configured to apply pulse width modulated braking command signals to the PM out-runner motor to magnetically lock the PM motor such that a magnetic field generated by the plurality stator windings locks with a magnetic field of the plurality of permanent magnets and holds the outer rotor assembly in a current position to hold the PM out-runner motor in a fixed position for a selected duration, remove the braking command signals for a second selected duration; and repeating the generating, applying and removing until the PM outer-runner motor has stopped. the hoist system being characterized by having the controller configured to apply pulse width modulated braking command signals to the PM out-runner motor to magnetically lock the PM motor such that a magnetic field generated by the plurality stator windings locks with a magnetic field of the plurality of permanent magnets and holds the outer rotor assembly in a current position to hold the PM out-runner motor in a fixed position for a selected duration, remove the braking command signals for a second selected duration; and repeating the generating, applying and removing until the PM outer-runner motor has stopped.