Electronics > Beginners

AC motor with capacitor: barely any power

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anvoice:
I have a 60rpm, 110V synchronous as motor with start capacitor (provided by motor seller so properly sized) that I've wired according to the instructions, but cannot get to spin with any appreciable force: I can easily stop it with a light touch. The motor is 6W, so it should be capable of more torque than what I'm observing.
The motor has 4 wires coming out of it: one green, one red, and two yellow which I believe are the start winding wires. The instructions call to join the yellow wires together and attach to one of the legs of the capacitor, and to attach the red and green wires to opposite legs of the capacitor. My connection looks like this:
                      red wire
power______ |______________
                                        |     |   
                     green wire    |cap|
power______ |__________|___|
                     |
                      yellow wires
Could this be a bad cap? If not, are there other reasons for the motor to be delivering sub par torque? Thanks in advance.

Andy Watson:
Could you draw a diagram, or even photograph what you have done? Your description suggests that you have connected both motor windings and the capacitor in parallel, and/or you have a strange capacitor with three legs - none of which sounds right!
Do you have an ohm meter to confirm which of the motor wires are common to each other?

Also, 6W ? Even if it's correctly wired it's barely enough to take the skin off a rice pudding.

anvoice:
Thanks for your reply! Sorry about that, I've attached what is hopefully a clearer diagram.

6W is the largest power rating I could find with a can compatible with my current design. Also, I can attest that a 3W motor (albeit at 20 rpm) spun with enough force for my purposes (powering an orbital rotator for mixing chemicals): I couldn't stop it with my hand and it spun a loaded tray of chemicals easily enough.

anvoice:
Appreciate the input, but could you clarify what is incorrect? I'm asking in the beginner section because I'm, well, a beginner. :-//

Andy Watson:
Ah, that concurs with my interpretation of your description, and, unfortunately, it's definitely wrong!

Do you have any means of identifying which motor wire connects to which coil ? With such a small motor the capacitor will most likely go in series with one of the motor windings. It's likely to be permanently in-circuit - i.e. it is a run capacitor too.

Does the motor have a type number or other means of identifying specific information ?

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