Has any one use, or have expeirence with a PEPE tool foot controller for a univeral motor as is used on a standard power wrapper?

If so, please drop me an e-mail for a further question that I have about this foot pedal.

hflier@comcast.net

Thanks much
Roger

I have a linemaster 980-sc3. Probably close enough. What is your question? Maybe others here would like to hear.

Russ in Hollywood, FL.

Russ,
Thanks for the update.
I also have several linemaster 980-sc3 and they work very well.

I need another foot pedal for a unique motor controller.
In order to get the motor controller to work properly, I need to be able to use a variable resistor with a full range fro 0 to the maximum.

So, when looking at the Pepe Tool foot controller, it appeared that it might have the shape to contain a slide and gear to drive a roatary potentiometer to be able to achieve the motor control that I need for this DC motor control that I am using.

Basically, I need to know what the inside of a Pepe tool foot controller looks liks.

Since I have several 980-sc3 controllers and well know the interior of these controllers. They use a very simple, but clever design to achieve an excellent speed control for universal ac/dc motors. As a matter of fact, I just had one of the Linemaster controllers apart to see if I could use the case and mechanism to achieve what I wanted. But, I don't believe that it will work for my needs.


Thanks for any further help.

Roger

IMHO the very best for what you want are the old singer sewing machine ones. Seems everything is triac based these days. For huge money you can get true resistor based ones intended for welders.

Wish I had better news and if you find an affordable resistor based one capable of at least a couple of amps please let me know. I'm not that happy with the linemaster. I could use something that is either AC or DC only. I have no need to convert the AC to DC....I have a DC power supply for that

Russ in Hollywood, FL.

Russell,
Actually - have used the carbon pile resistor foot pedals and they work - Just.

I do enjoy using the resistor ones besed on welders. Those are the style that I am using on my current wrappers. Excellent action with very smooth control.


That is why I was exactly inquiring about the PEPE controller to see if the inner workings were similar to the gear drive mechanisms that are used in the welder controllers.

Take care
Roger

Roger, we both seem to like the same type of motors. Perhaps you can save me from making a mistake. I'm using a transformer to step the 120 down to 70 volt center tapped (70-0-70 volts) into a full wave rectifier into a cap input filter (95 VDC out). So my speed control could be placed before or after the transformer.

I'm looking for sub $100 solution that is smooth from zero rpms to a few rpms.....so I won't have to roll the belt off for inlays and starting wraps. Motor is rated 1.4 amps @ 115 VDC, 1150 RPM. Too lazy to go measure but call the pulley package about a 1.5:1 step down. Motor is rugged and will run at a stall all day long so no concerns there. All the ones I've seen for welders are too many $$ but I haven't looked at the used market.

Give me details on your needs and I'll see if anything turns up. I work at a hospital and can find some unique stuff when they scrap out things. If you could make do with something hand controlled that would make it much easier.

Russ in Hollywood, FL.

Russell,
If you are using the Line master speed control, it is essentially a triac speed control. The internals of the Line master speed control is essentially the trigger assembly from an electric drill that is actuated by a paddle on the injection molded nylon.

With a dc motor, there are several different kinds of controls that you can use. A common way is to simply vary the DC voltage to the motor. i.e. drop the motor all of the way down to 0 and then increase the voltage to the rated 90 volts for the full rpm.
The output speed of the motor will be proportional to the input voltage applied to the motor. But, the output torque is also proportional to the applied voltage, so at low voltages, the speed will be slow but the torque of the motor will also be low.

Another option is to use a chopper style supply as is commonly used on most of todays mow mounted electric trolling motor.
In this case, the DC applied voltage to the motor remains at a full 90 volts. But then the voltage is chopped into pulses, to star with a very skinny pule to give a low operating rpm. Then, as the pulse widths get wider, the speed increases. The torque of the motor tends to remain constant since the applied voltage to the motor remains at its normal high levels.

After going through all of these same questions myself, I have come to a solution that is small compact and relatively inexpensive.

Rather than using the larger 90 volt motors, I use 24 volt DC gear motors. The advantage of using the 24 volt motors is that the voltage is easier to obtain and regulate, and the built in gear set on the motor eliminates all of the pulleys that are normally necessary on lesser motors.
It is interesting - that after using several different speed motors ranging in speed from 300,500, 750 and 1000 rpm - at rated voltages, my motor of preference, using a 1:1 pulley arrangement is the 1000 rpm motor.
I find that it can be slowed nicely to a speed for starting and low speed wrapping but, still has appropriate speed, so that when I need to do a long butt wrap it is almost at the maximum speed that I am comfortable with. I suspect that I could go up to about a 1200 rpm and still have it be all right but likely not much higher.


For doing super creative wraps, the use of the 300 rpm motor with the 1:1 output is nice since it just creeps when I am start ring. But if I happen to use this motor on a long wrap is is a bit tedious.

-------------------
In your particular case, with an 1150 rpm motor - and your control to the motor via the speed control on the AC side, I would suspect that you could almost go with a 1:1 gear output on your pulley set. With a 5:1 or maximum speed of 230 rpm, I can't imagine that you would want to go any slower. I would think that you would have excellent speed control.

For the best speed control, I think you will have the best results if the speed control is plugged directly into the AC plug and then everything else is plugged into the speed control. i.e. do the speed control, before the transformer and diode.
The issue that you might have with your setup is the fact that the speed control that you are using is a phase width speed control. That is great for an ac/dc universal motor, but you will have to see how proportional your speed is, when you convert it to DC.
Effectively, you are asking that the phase narrowing of the AC current will be changed to a DC voltage that is proportional to the applied phase width of the ac current.
You are asking the motor to be the load on the dc supply to keep it regulated down. You might find, that you may have to add a resistive load to the output of the supply to have the voltage better follow the change of the foot pedal input.

Let me know your progress.

--------------------------
If you would like information on the use of the low voltage motors, drop me a line.
In my case, I use a variable DC power supply that varies from 0-30 volts to change the speed of the motor. I control the DC power supply with one of the gear driven style variable resistor foot pedals.

Take care
Roger

hflier@comcast.net

Russel,
I have the exact same thing as you.
Like Roger said, you want to have the pedal BEFORE the transformer.
Also, that bridge rectifier WILL get hot, I found a heat sink off an old computer processer and used CA to glue it to the rectifier.
Did you build your own rectifier or is it the square kind with 4 poles?
The way I did it only works with the square kind. It is in the black base for the headstock. If you want a better pic, let me know.
[www.rodbuilding.org]
Oh ya, I have not put a Cap in but would like to. You just put it between the two motor leads correct????
How many micro farads is your Cap?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/23/2011 02:28PM by Steven Loughery.

Steve,
You can use any style rectifier that you want, as long as the current rating is high enough for your motors use.
In your case, you found that you could use the square bridge rectifiers, because it had a larger curretn rating - compared to the other rectifiers that you were using.

I would think that you would need about a 2-3 amp rectifier if you are driving a motor like your picture shows.

With respect to the capactior. For overall better control and less buzzing and hunting, I would go with a capacitor that is between 500 and 1000 microfards at 150 volt rating. You are only going to 90 volts, but the use of the 150 volt capacitor, will give you a bit of a safety margin to help prolong the life of the capacitor.
Something like this would work very well:
[www.ralphselectronics.com]

If you want even better filtering you could always put two capicators on the supply, but put a .1 ohm resistor between them to form an effective RC filter. Just the addition of the small power resistor between the caps will really help to reduce the ripple on your supply voltage. i.e. voltage wires hooked across one set of leads on the first capacitor. Then, the .1 ohm resistor hooked to the positive lead on the power supply of the first capacitor. Hook the other end of the resistor to the + side of the 2nd capacitor. Then, hook your motor to the - of your voltage supply and the +
of the 2nd capacitor.



Nice looking set up on your rig.

Roger



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/23/2011 03:47PM by roger wilson.

Steven,
This is the type controller that was designed to be used with the motor that is on your wrapper.
It has 100V ac in - and 90Volts DC out, with a stepper pulse style output. This gives a very fine and precise control of your speed, in a small , simple package.

If, however, you want to use this style controller, you need to integrate the variable potentiometer that is currently mounted on the board to a foot pedal.

This is precisely why I was looking at the PEPE foot pedal, to see if the internal mechanics would be suitable for installing a remote variable potentiometer.

Then, one simply runs the three wires from the potentiometer in the foot pedal to the motor controller and you are good to go.

[www.grainger.com]

Take care
Roger

Steven,
By the way, this is the motor and chuck that I use on my power wrapper. The 24 volt DC gear motor is inside the pvc tube that is below the chuck. This motor has a top speed of 1000 rpm. It has plenty of power to do any of the wrapping that I can do.
I also have a 3 inch 3 jaw chuck, which mounts into the keyless machinest chuck. So, whether I am using the keyless chuck with a rod inserted into the opend end butt of a rod, or using the 3-jaw machinest chuck it will wrap just fine.

In this case, I power the motor with a 0-30 volt power supply that is controlled by a potentiometer style foot pedal.

[www.rodbuilding.org]

Take care
Roger