General Educate Me On Brushed Motor Escs

[PAUL E FOX]

I have a box full of brushed motors taken out of scrap printers. They are of various sizes and voltage requirements.

Given the proper input voltage and sized appropriately for current draw, will a brushed motor ESC work with ANY brushed DC motor?

 

[Tony]

As long as the esc can handle more current than the motor will draw, yes. All a brushed esc is is just a voltage limiter that you can adjust. The more voltage you let through, the faster the motor spins. Unlike brushless where it is controlled by mosfets turning on and off. You could run a brushed motor on a rheostat if you wanted to and it could handle the current.

 

[PAUL E FOX]

Okay. So motor speed is controlled by voltage. Seeing as motor resistance remains pretty much constant, that'll mean reduced power at lower RPMS as well. Probably not an issue with the little stuff I'll be dealing with.

I see some cheapo units out there, I may grab one just to experiment with.

Thanks!

 

[Tony]

At lower voltages, it will be pulling more amps (ohms law) to keep up with any kind of torque you have on the motor. but again, the motor should have a wattage rating or even, if you are lucky, an amperage rating letting you know what that number is. Motors out of a printer, probably not lol. But you can feel them with your fingers to see if they are heating up.