M
M. G. Devour
Guest
Hello,
My wife's treadmill has died. It started popping the house circuit breaker
occasionally, then finally let go in a massive stinkbomb as an inductor in
series with one of the motor leads got hot enough to fry. Now it'll blow the
15A breaker within a half a minute under load, though it'll run the belt
alone just fine. The rest of the the controls are still working normally.
It's an old Roadmaster Vitamaster from the early to mid-90's. I've browsed
every thread on "treadmills" in this newsgroup, so I see a few of the things
I need to check to see why it's drawing too much, like motor brushes,
circuit board solder joints, bearings and bushings, belt lube, belt wear and
so on... If I'm going to repair this thing, though, I'm going to have to
replace this choke. Roadmaster is defunct, of course, so I doubt there's a
handy 800 number to call. <sigh>
The motor is a 90V, 15A, 4800rpm, permanent magnet DC motor. It's driven
from a small control board which boasts a bank of 5 SCR's and a handful of
other components. This coil connects in series with the red wire to the
motor, while the black wire connects directly to the control board.
The inductor looks like a standard small filament transformer, about 3" w x
2 1/2" h x 2 1/4 d, and weighs less than a pound after all the smoke leaked
out! <grin>
The only label on the stupid thing is a little white sticker with some faint
dot-matrix print on it:
755C1
E1A-17-9242
327 B3 Mexico
If somebody can point me to a direct replacement, fine, though I doubt it's
anything so critical that I can't use a substitute. In fact, a slightly
higher rated unit might be more robust, once I make sure the rest of the
machine is okay.
My guess is that the coil is serving as a choke to smooth the spikes from
the chopper circuit? Correct?
It's clearly carrying the entire current load of the motor, so I'd need
something rated for at least 15 A, but what sort of inductance value would
be appropriate?
Who makes and sells such devices? What do you call them? I haven't found
anything obvious at Newark, RS Electronics, or Grainger, though I'm not
completely sure of what I'm looking for...
Suggestions?
Little repair jobs like this is one way I earn my dear bride's gratitude.
Since the treadmill is the first piece of exercise equipment either of us
has ever *really* used, I need to make sure we have one that works. If I can
save us from having to drop $700 to $1500 (or more) on a new one -- even for
a few months -- it'd be *really* popular with you-know-who.
Thanks, all.
Mike D.
My wife's treadmill has died. It started popping the house circuit breaker
occasionally, then finally let go in a massive stinkbomb as an inductor in
series with one of the motor leads got hot enough to fry. Now it'll blow the
15A breaker within a half a minute under load, though it'll run the belt
alone just fine. The rest of the the controls are still working normally.
It's an old Roadmaster Vitamaster from the early to mid-90's. I've browsed
every thread on "treadmills" in this newsgroup, so I see a few of the things
I need to check to see why it's drawing too much, like motor brushes,
circuit board solder joints, bearings and bushings, belt lube, belt wear and
so on... If I'm going to repair this thing, though, I'm going to have to
replace this choke. Roadmaster is defunct, of course, so I doubt there's a
handy 800 number to call. <sigh>
The motor is a 90V, 15A, 4800rpm, permanent magnet DC motor. It's driven
from a small control board which boasts a bank of 5 SCR's and a handful of
other components. This coil connects in series with the red wire to the
motor, while the black wire connects directly to the control board.
The inductor looks like a standard small filament transformer, about 3" w x
2 1/2" h x 2 1/4 d, and weighs less than a pound after all the smoke leaked
out! <grin>
The only label on the stupid thing is a little white sticker with some faint
dot-matrix print on it:
755C1
E1A-17-9242
327 B3 Mexico
If somebody can point me to a direct replacement, fine, though I doubt it's
anything so critical that I can't use a substitute. In fact, a slightly
higher rated unit might be more robust, once I make sure the rest of the
machine is okay.
My guess is that the coil is serving as a choke to smooth the spikes from
the chopper circuit? Correct?
It's clearly carrying the entire current load of the motor, so I'd need
something rated for at least 15 A, but what sort of inductance value would
be appropriate?
Who makes and sells such devices? What do you call them? I haven't found
anything obvious at Newark, RS Electronics, or Grainger, though I'm not
completely sure of what I'm looking for...
Suggestions?
Little repair jobs like this is one way I earn my dear bride's gratitude.
Since the treadmill is the first piece of exercise equipment either of us
has ever *really* used, I need to make sure we have one that works. If I can
save us from having to drop $700 to $1500 (or more) on a new one -- even for
a few months -- it'd be *really* popular with you-know-who.
Thanks, all.
Mike D.
