Patent ID: 8035325

Claim:
A single-phase brushless motor, comprising: at least one magnetic coil; at least one permanent magnet; a magnetic sensor for detecting a relative position of the permanent magnet and the magnetic coil; and a drive control circuit configured to, utilizing an output signal of the magnetic sensor, generate an application voltage for use in a single-phase drive signal of the magnetic coil; wherein the magnetic coil comprises a magnetic member, and the magnetic member is constituted such that, with the single-phase brushless motor at a stop, a center of the permanent magnet comes to a stop at a location offset from a center of the magnetic coil, due to attraction of the magnetic member by the permanent magnet, wherein if a rotor of the single-phase brushless motor is to be rotated in a first rotational direction after startup, the drive control circuit causes the rotor to rotate in a second rotational direction by a predetermined amount after the startup, and then reverses the rotation of the rotor to initiate the rotation in the first rotational direction, and if the rotor of the single-phase brushless motor is to be rotated in the second rotational direction after startup, the drive control circuit causes the rotor to initiate the rotation in the second rotational direction without causing the rotor to rotate in the first rotational direction.