So i found this old motor in my junk draw and was quite impressed how little voltage is required for it to start moving.
It's a 5-12V DC brushed motor and has no gearing (1:1)
To win respect from your fellow forum users post a guess for the starting voltage.
I'll post a video showing the min voltage in a few days.
Those Escap coreless motors with precious metal brushes aren't a million miles off being moving coil meter movements - I'll go for 75mV.
What are the prizes for the winning guess and runner ups?
Rigol/Siglent DSO,
EEVblog meter,
Audiophool Convention tickets
No gearing? I'm buying in with 50 microvolts to get that motor cranking btw
I'm buying in with 50 microvolts to get that motor cranking btw
0.00005V ? That's a bit crazy, Gyro is pretty close
50mV
Just from a physics perspective, it wouldn't take much energy to get that small shaft moving. It wouldn't move much, but it just needs to break the friction of the stuff around it.
I'll throw up a number: 82mV
No particular reason.
Me too
94.5 mV
Because why not
There will be some hysteresis. It will probably start moving at 40mV and once moving, will continue to work down to 20mV.
67mV.
Here's a 120V brushed AC motor starting at less than 9V:
That one is more surprising since the brushes on those motors have a lot more friction, being designed for many amps.
.... Gyro is pretty close
Hey, no fair!
yeah sorry, that did occur to me, 4 hours after i posted it.
.... Gyro is pretty close
Hey, no fair!
yeah sorry, that did occur to me, 4 hours after i posted it.
If that's the case, then perhaps a second guess is in order: 88 μV.
.... Gyro is pretty close
Hey, no fair!
yeah sorry, that did occur to me, 4 hours after i posted it.
I think, therefore, that Gyro should be given first acknowledgement for a good answer. I will admit I based my guess on his figure.
Reminds me of a guessing competition many years ago at a place I once worked - how many grains of rice were in the jar. I took some measurements of the jar and some grains of rice (of the same type) and did some volume and packing calculations. Yes, I did get a few eye rolls.
I came up with a number that was far higher than any other guesses, so even with some significant error on my part, I felt confident I was in the right ball park for a win. Each person's entry consisted of 5 guesses, so I took my calculation as my middle guess and picked two more higher and two more lower, spaced about 1,000 apart. Someone after me picked numbers halfway between my guesses, so my coverage was now cut in half. That was annoying. Nevertheless, it turned out that my coverage included the number the judges came up with - and I won the tea set.
So because of the confusion Gyro is in the lead to win the DSO ?
Just because you got it horribly wrong.
So there's a DSO up for grabs now? I was just starting to get my hopes up for Brumby's tea set! Worst case, I'll settle for 'frank admiration'*.
I used one of those motors many years ago (think it was a 12-24V one) as a replacement for a synchronous motor on a belt-drive turntable. I mounted it straight to the chassis (no vibration damping) and fed it with an regulated supply from an LM317 and multi-turn pot. I think it took about 1.5V for 33-1/3 RPM and was perfectly speed stable and silent without any additional feedback - just its own inherent back emf/current draw.
* Think that's a Douglas Adams quote,
as in signed "Yours, with frank admiration"."FORD: Yeah. Where’s Zaphod?
ARTHUR: He… well… he’s in his cabin signing photographs of himself: “To myself with frank admiration.” But why are the Vogons following us?"
-65mv
Yes, negative...
The title topic says minimum, and everyone here guessed a positive voltage.
It depends on how much your power supply overshoots on startup.
It depends on how much your power supply overshoots on startup.
I think overshoot counts thus I have a better chance with 1.55v
I've found most 120V universal motors will run on less than 12V. Not very fast, but they will start up and run. The 240V motor in the air blower in my spa will also run on 12V.