Robin Pratt Posted April 20, 2009 Posted April 20, 2009 This is a bit of an odd one, but there's always a chance some of you may have been here before.... I have to rig a Westinghouse domestic ceiling fan as a stage practical, it appears to have a 60w brushless ac motor. The question is, will it run from a dimmer channel? Normaly I would only attempt to use "universal" brush type motors with a triac based dimmer, but the original Westinghouse IR remote speed controller thingy is clearly a triac (BT137-600) based device, with a simple two wire connection to the motor. Based on this I'm thinking that the original controller can't be that much unlike a dimmer but I'm not equipped to examine the output waveform it generates.... I really dont want this thing to run at full speed! Usung the original controller and simply supplying switched mains to the thing is a problem too as the controller defaults to full speed after power failure! Does anyone have any pearls of wisdom on this, before I go ahed and try it? I guess the worst that can happen is I blow up a £6 Zero88 triac, of which I have spares, or I blow up a secondhand ceiling fan from a junk shop. Thanks for any thoughts you guys have on this.....
Jivemaster Posted April 20, 2009 Posted April 20, 2009 With small motors trying to run slowly there may not be enough torque to start the fan on a low power setting. A dimmer channel may suffice esp if you can manage a dummy load for PFC and satisfying the minimum load requirements. The cue may have to be a low setting with a blip on the flash buton to start the fan.
KevinE Posted April 20, 2009 Posted April 20, 2009 It will be an AC induction motor, these are fine on dimmers meant for inductive loads but you may find the motor buzzes quite alot at low speed, most domestic fan controllers use switched-capacitor speed control as it's near silent, the cheaper ones as you mention use a triac but are only suitable for commercial use due to the buzzing as well. You'll have to try it!
Robin Pratt Posted April 21, 2009 Author Posted April 21, 2009 Thanks guys, I'll give it a try with a dummy load in parallel and see how it goes
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