Skip to main content

DC Motor Speed Controller


DC Motor Speed Controller Circuit Diagram. This circuit takes advantage of the voltage drop across bridge rectifier diodes to produce a 5-position variable voltage supply to a DC fan or other small DC motor. It is not as efficient as a switch-mode circuit but it has the virtues of simplicity and no switching hash. The four full-wave bridges are connected so that each has two pairs of series diodes in parallel, giving a voltage drop of about 1.4V, depending on the load current.


dc-motor-speed-controller-circuit diagram
DC Motor Speed Controller Circuit Diagram

The rotary switch should have "make before break" contacts which should be rated to take currents up to about an amp or so. For higher currents, higher rated bridge rectifiers and a suitably rugged rotary switch (or solenoids) will be required. If you want smaller voltage steps, you could use the commoned AC inputs on the bridge rectifiers to give intermediate steps on the speed switch.

Author: Stephen Butcher,

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

A basic Arduino Solar PV Monitor

I have just recently had solar pv installed, mainly to future proof my energy costs, I do not expect it to be like drilling for oil in my back garden, however the return looks to be encouraging. The install gives you another single unit meter, from this you will see the total amount the panels produce, but that is about it. I wanted to know how much the production was as it was happening, I discovered the light blinks on the front of the meter will flash 1000 times for each kWh of electricity which passes through. The rate of the flashing of the LED tells you how much power is currently passing through the meter. [ ]

Build a Key Operated Gate Locking System Circuit

This simple key-operated gate locking system allows only those persons who know the preset code to open the gate. The code is to be entered from the keypad within the preset time to operate the motor fitted in the gate. If anyone trying to open the gate presses a wrong key in the keypad, the system is disabled and, at the same time, sounds an alarm to alert you of an unauthorized entry. Figs 1 and 2 show the block and circuit diagrams of the key-operated code locking system, respectively. Connect points A, B, C, D, E, F and ground of the circuit to the respective points of the keypad. Keys S7, S16, S14 and S3 are used here for code entry, and the remaining keys are used for disabling the system. It is very important to press the keys in that order to form the code. To start the motor of the gate, press switches S7, S16, S14 and S3 sequentially. If the keys are pressed in a different order from the preset order, the system will lock automatically and the motor will not start. Fig. 1: Bl...

Apple releases TV spot for new iPods

Apple has just released a fun commercial to showcase its new line of iPod players and the various colours they come in. The TV spot titled ‘Bounce’, has a bunch of colourful iPod touch, iPod nano and iPod shuffles er…bouncing to music. With all that colour and dancing and bouncing, you may forget that Apple’s latest gen line of iPods has some other awesome features. For instance, the fifth gen iPod touch comes with Siri, 4-inch retina display and an A5 chipset. Maybe the next ad will showcase some of these features with less bouncing.link