Wheelchair Motors

Maybe they wire the brakes in series?

Jeff.
--
Jeff Shirley
spamhappy@mindspring.com
"Bill Gates is filthy rich, but that doesn't mean I want to be married to him."

Well that's what I thought but surely you would want to ensure that both
brakes have the correct voltages dropped across them?

Michael

Can you give an example or link we can look at? Others on here probably
already know the answer but I for one would like to see exactly what you are
talking about - to satisfy my own curiosity.

Thanks !
JCD

Well I'd rather not since I saw it in a currently active eBay listing and I
don't think it would be fair on any prospective bidders. That said every set
of motors that come up on eBay I find have the exact same thing - and even
the pair I have are the same.

I was wondering if it was something to do with power consumption...lower
voltage = lower heat dissipation and thus longer running life.....

Michael

The brakes on the electric wheelchair motors I took apart were deadman
brakes. Applying power dis-engaged them. When the drive is turned off,
the brake power gets turned off too, so an un-energised chair doen't
roll. The poster that suggested that the brakes were in series got it.
There is no fine control to balance, so exact voltage drop doesn't matter.

If you remove the brakes from the motors, it's a great place to put
optical encoders for odometry or closed loop motion control. there is
even a nice little cover!

Bob