Electric Motor Nomenclature.

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23 July 2014 at 00:07 #5314
Len Morris 2
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@lenmorris2
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23 July 2014 at 00:07 #50585
Len Morris 2
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@lenmorris2
Hi Everybody,

Please can someone help and tell me what all the modern motor references mean? Can not find the detail anywhere. I'm afraid I'm from a time of KaKo's Decaperm's Orbit's and Taycol's. At that time I had a good grip on the subject but now I'm completely lost. What is the difference between a '540' and a '545' for example? Whats a 300? Whats a 700 or 800? What do the numbers mean?

Len
23 July 2014 at 09:09 #50591
ashley needham
Participant
@ashleyneedham69188
Len. My understanding of this confusing state is the figures refer to the can size…ie the physical size of the tin can that is the motor.

Thus a 540 describes a can size of (without checking up you understand) 36mm diameter by 54mm long.

This does not unfortunately describe the electrical attributes of the motor…there ar 3-pole 540`s, and 5-pole 540`s that are the same size but of very different power characteristics.

It does enable you to do a bit of swapping about in a boat, for example…any mount that had a 540 motor in it will take any 500 can sized motor (as a generalisation) and 600 can sized motors generally have the same diameter but are a bit longer..

I have a chart somewhere at home of all the old motors, Orbits and so on, giving sizes and power outputs..handy when looking at old plans!

Ashley
23 July 2014 at 10:31 #50592
Malcolm Frary
Participant
@malcolmfrary95515
In the scheme that was common a while back, the first two numbers indicated can length, a "0" was the minimum number of poles, i.e. 3, a "5" indicated a 5 pole motor. No actual clues as to the wind or magnet strength apart from the price and the claimed performance figures.

Then someone decided to "simplify" matters by rounding the numbers off, so 38x motors became "400 series" and 54x motors became "600 series" and so on. Matters are not helped by some modelers who insist on a particular "type" of motor by name, e.g. "Buehler" or "Johnson" without realizing that these are manufacturers who not only make a wide range of motor sizes, but also, within each size, a wide range of internals, each with its own performance profile.

Oh for the days when RipMax used to say "suitable for boats such and such a length". And it usually was.
23 July 2014 at 12:08 #50596
Dave Milbourn
Participant
@davemilbourn48782
I have put together a table of motors which might be of some use as a place to start. It's too big to publish on the Forum but if anyone would like a copy then please send me a Private Message and include your regular E-Mail address – it's in Word 2003.doc format but I can also send it as Excel 2003.xls if required.

Dave M
23 July 2014 at 17:43 #50602
Len Morris 2
Participant
@lenmorris2
Dear Ashley, Malcolm and Dave,

Thanks for all that. I have gone from clueless to clued! I shall certainly send you a PM Dave and I suspect a lot of others will as well.

Very helpful information.

Len
25 July 2014 at 12:18 #50651
Dave Milbourn
Participant
@davemilbourn48782
I've put the table in one of my albums on here, pending it being added to the Features board as a permanent item;

Note that it takes no account of different prop types/sizes, weight of model etc, and the performance figures are from manufacturers or suppliers published data (and not independently verified). That said, it's a reasonable place to start from.
If you move the cursor over the table above then it should turn into a hand; left click once and the image will open full-page, from which you can print at A4 landscape directly (I'm using Firefox as my browser).

Dave M

Edited By Dave Milbourn on 25/07/2014 12:23:00
31 July 2014 at 20:29 #50883
Len Morris 2
Participant
@lenmorris2
Well Done Dave,

I am sure a lot of people will appreciate that listing. All the cursoring (new word for the Oxford Dictionary) bits work (very clever). Do not feel you have to qualify your excellent effort. It's better to be only to be a mile off target rather than somewhere around the South Pole (or should that be 2 Poles, 3 Poles and 5 Poles)!

Len
7 August 2014 at 21:06 #51075
Colin Bishop
Moderator
@colinbishop34627
Dave's useful table has now been added to his other article on model boat electrics which is accessible from a permanent link on the website home page.

Colin
8 August 2014 at 16:43 #51095
Tony Hadley
Participant
@tonyhadley
Came across this old list from the 1963 Model Maker Annual which may still be of use.

Dave, note the Bongo unit information near the bottom. Didn't you build a model which was originally powered by one of these?
8 August 2014 at 18:35 #51099
Dave Milbourn
Participant
@davemilbourn48782
I did, but it went out of production years ago (as did most of the motors on this list). The model was Vic Smeed's Moonsong.

DM
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