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Washing Machine Motors - What a Difference From Mom's Old Washing Machine

Just for the heck of it I decided to tear down our old washing machine to see what might be salvageable. For parts.

Not much really. There is a little tiny servo for the detergent dispenser. Doesn't look to have an encoder so there must be a position sensor. I might tear into it someday, but I don't have much use for a servo with power in the milliwatts.

There are a couple modestly heavy springs that the basket and tub assembly hung from. Those I'll save for sure. Four shock absorbers tied to the bottom of the tub. Those I'll probably save for a while, but probably not forever. Lots of hoses. Lots of heavy spring wire hose clamps.

A stainless steel laundry basket with out a dynamic balancing ring, so maybe a short term burning basket that I don't have to depressurize first. Looks like they counted on the shock absorbers and the springs to take up for out of balance loads. Well that, and there are several heavy cast concrete (resin-crete of some kind maybe) that act as inertial dampers.

I can probably save the drain pump if I determine what voltage it takes. Not sure what use I would have for it though. It?s a pretty application specific shaped pump.

The main motor though got my attention. Looks like 3 wires going into an open frame motor. Lots of other stuff. Some sort of sensor on the back shaft, etc. When I looked at the motor to see if it was labeled I noted something that really got my attention.

It says 195V 310hz 17500 RPM.

Isn't about 195V volts about what a 110-220 VFD puts out? Did I just find a high speed 3 phase spindle motor for a future project?

Oh, yeah, there was two quarters behind the drain pump trash collection basket.

Reply to
Bob La Londe
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Shouldn't that be 1750 instead of 17500?

Garrett

Reply to
Garrett Fulton

I was curious about those numbers/values so just did a simple search:

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There was a lot of info on DIY stuff for those motors. Some youtube videos too. Not sure if its detailed enough for what you want but worth a look...

Reply to
Leon Fisk

Shouldn't that be 1750 instead of 17500?

Garrett

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No. It clearly says 17500. There is a huge pulley reduction between the basket and the motor. I seem to recall that the baskets spins around 1200 RPM. Yeah, that fast.

I've located and identified the motor controller. I don't know if I can use it yet. It appears to use 5VDC signal voltage. Hook up looks pretty straight forward. But there does not appear to be a forward reverse input in a form I am used to. There is a neat cover safety switch and ground safety.

I'm going to see if the controller is a sourced part or an oem only part. If it?s a sourced part I might be able to get more information on it.

Reply to
Bob La Londe

I was curious about those numbers/values so just did a simple search:

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There was a lot of info on DIY stuff for those motors. Some youtube videos too. Not sure if its detailed enough for what you want but worth a look...

Reply to
Bob La Londe

In the first couple resources I checked guys on forums were further behind the information curve than I am regarding this motor and controller, but its nice to see I am not the only one who likes to junk stuff out to find out what's re-useable. I was surprised at how many people wanted to say it was just a paperweight though.

I'd like to get an idea what kind of horsepower it is. Can't be much. Probably has to be spinning pretty fast to develop much too.

Reply to
Bob La Londe

This guy has several youtube videos. This is the second one for washing machine motors:

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I watched some of it but he's moving along too slow for me. I just wanted to see if he had any useful info...

Have you tried finding the repair manual? See if it has a schematic or better yet circuit description?

Post the make and model number and I'll do some looking when I get a minute or two.

Reply to
Leon Fisk

You might want to check this site out:

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Suppose to have a kit to drive old washing machine motors.

Reply to
Leon Fisk

No. It clearly says 17500. There is a huge pulley reduction between the basket and the motor. I seem to recall that the baskets spins around 1200 RPM. Yeah, that fast.

I've located and identified the motor controller. I don't know if I can use it yet. It appears to use 5VDC signal voltage. Hook up looks pretty straight forward. But there does not appear to be a forward reverse input in a form I am used to. There is a neat cover safety switch and ground safety.

I'm going to see if the controller is a sourced part or an oem only part. If it's a sourced part I might be able to get more information on it. ============================================================

If you can get any numbers or logo off of the chip you could try posting in either sci.electronics.design or sci.electronics.repair. Maybe someone there could point to a data sheet or other info.

Reply to
Carl Ijames

I pulled a couple part numbers off of it, and they all come up with the same result. Whirlpool Washer Motor Control Board.

Looks like I'm going to have to try the smoke method to figure it out. Power it up and see if all the magic smoke leaks out. LOL.

No loss if it does. I can still use the motor on a VFD with known pins and configuration.

Reply to
Bob La Londe

It's not impossible that the motor controller uses some digital communications protocol like serial, I2C or something proprietary between the main control board and the motor control. My washer runs the drum forward, backward, and a variety of speeds. That could be done via direction and speed, but also could be done with digital commands.

BobH

Reply to
BobH

Have you tried finding the repair manual? See if it has a schematic or better yet circuit description?

Post the make and model number and I'll do some looking when I get a minute or two.

Reply to
Bob La Londe

Try downloading this manual, looks to be close to what you've got:

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Nothing detailed on the controller but might be helpful to look at :)

If you can't get that to work give me a good email address and I'll send it. It's only ~1.5mb.

Reply to
Leon Fisk

Got it. No problem there. Yeah, not much help. I still don't know for sure what the data format is. One picture says serial data connector. Pretty much every diagram I've found shows 5V in/out GND for the three wires. Pretty much as much as I learned looking at the board itself.

Reply to
Bob La Londe

As near as I can tell it?s a half duplex RS232 interface. Now as to what to send to it, and how, or what its likely to send back...

Reply to
Bob La Londe

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