Good motor practices

[mman1506]

Originally Posted by s_forbes

I am not a motor expert, but I know there are posters on this forum that are acquainted with the inner workings of these things. I have a few questions to add on this topic:

Suppose I've run an AM/Banebots/Fisher Price motor in a near stall application and I saw a small bit of smoke and that characteristic smell of a melting motor. The motor still runs afterwards. What was physically damaged when the smoke was released, and how much was the performance of the motor affected? (It is noted that the plastic fan is partially blackened/melted and some of the windings are blackened after this stall period)

Is performance affected if I stall a CIM? No magic smoke is released in that case. What is physically damaged?

Often the smoke you see will be the insulative coating on the copper wire of the windings inside the motor when they heat up and burn. Sometimes the windings will short out afterwards depending on how hot it got and it may or may not affect performance but it is always a good idea to be cautious when it is part of a vital function.

The cims have a larger diameter wire than the Banebot/FP motors and a cooling jacket so it can dissipate much heat better than the smaller motors. If the CIM got seriously hot it may have been damaged but they tend to pretty hearty and reliable motors