Friday, February 21, 2020

Polarity is Reversed on my new DC Motor - otherwise works great!!

Thanks for your feedback - on the "switching polarity" - I'm talking about your vid here - at 12:20 or so. I'll transcribe it: ...

Wow I wonder if it was reversed somehow? Did we see the polarity when we put it on? We didn't? If it was forward or backwards? Maybe we should test that out first, cuz there's a lot of resistance...It shouldn't be that bad...It's just DC to AC ....Alright well it was Reverse Polarity before, Hence the resistance..." 

So turned out I had the same with the new motor I just put on. So I did like you did - I just switched the wires around so I have the black going into my DC-DC buck convertor as "positive" and the red (from positive of the motor) into the negative. So now I'm getting a 4 amp charge again in the lowest bicycle gear. Thanks for your vid! Yes my vids are "experimental" in quality. haha.

Yes the new motor is very smooth - so the old motor definitely had a rusted out bad bearing. This new motor is very easy to pedal as I get less torque since it's a higher RPM/ higher horse power motor.

I still need to fine tune the position of the motor to get enough tension on the V-belt. So I'm gonna move the motor back an inch - tomorrow - so that the belt stays on even at highest speed (in lowest gear)...

So when I hooked up the motor - the DC-DC buck converter was not lighting up at all - so I thought maybe the Buck Converter is busted? I checked the wiring - seemed to be fine. So then I found my multimeter and when I tested the voltage - I got a negative reading!! So I realized - just as with the above linked video - when I took the motor off and repositioned it to line up with the bicycle wheel - then the polarity got reversed on the motor.

So then I just stuck the positive into negative and vice versa - and Presto! - the Light on the DC-Dc Buck converter light up Green and the generator light went from green to red - meaning before I got NO LIGHT reading on the generator. NOW I was charging. The multimeter showed I got 4 amps at fastest speed in lowest gear and 3 amps in "normal" speed at lowest gear.

But with this new motor - it is a very smooth ride with half of the noise from the previous motor.

yes thank you for clarifying! Since I watched your vid I was able to diagnose that indeed I had to switch around the wires because my previous motor had a vertical mounting bracket, compared to this one having been horizontal mount. So I got the multimeter giving me the amps but the voltage reading isn't working. I'll have to double check - and since this new motor is so much smoother and a quarter horse power more continuous - I'm trying to get a bigger buck converter. So then I can get 5 to 6 amps instead of 3 to 4 amps charging - cuz it's better to pedal slower even if at higher gear. My stand starts to wobble when I'm pedaling fastest in lowest gear. haha. 

My worst problem is the bike seat still hurts to hell - I switched to a more comfy seat. I think it's the wobbling. I used to bicycle 10 miles a day all year long in Minnesota - no problem - for 10 years! Suddenly I get super sore super fast on this generator bicycle seat. haha. 

Well - thanks again. What I was trying to say about the back torque - is when the load hooked up is not sufficient then you get a stronger reverse torque load back into the motor - cause the draw torque isn't strong enough. So I think that's why the multimeter amps reading - I get a much stronger resistance on pedaling the motor - but when I'm hooked up to the generator then much less resistance. I had an electrician over when I first noticed that problem - and she had no idea what it was. So I researched and discovered that back torque load resistance. 

My blog post gives the details. thanks. I'm gonna go to the Restore now - see if I can score me a non-wobbling self-made back stand - like you got. Talk about luck! haha. Oh I will donate the PCM board - someone snatched it up last time I donated that. And if no bike stand then I can get some lumber to reinforce the self-made stand. thanks

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