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3.6 volt motor usb
hey there. need some help on this one. i have a motor that runs using 3.6 volts DC. if i plug that into 5 volts dc will it fry? i would like to hook this up to usb but it only outputs 5v. alternitively there is a 3.3 volt line from the power supply. would it work if i spliced into that to get my voltage ?
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Re: 3.6 volt motor usb
how many amps does the dc motor take?
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Re: 3.6 volt motor usb
Connecting a couple of rectifier diodes (1N4001 would be an ideal one to use) in series with the motor will drop the 5V down to about 3.8. That should be near enough, although you will only be able to get 500mA, so billygoat's question is important.
The 3.3V line would also work, but there's an awful lot of current available there. Could be fireworks if things go wrong. :dead:
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Re: 3.6 volt motor usb
hey there. its a very small device. i have looked all over but i dont see a voltage rating or a rating for milliamps on it at all unfortunately. if i give something not enough miliamps will the device just not turn on or will it get damaged ?
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Re: 3.6 volt motor usb
If it needs higher current than your supply can provide, it won't get damaged but the supply will be dragged down to a lower voltage. This shouldn't affect the supply if it's well protected.
Are you sure it's 3.6V? Where did it come from?
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Re: 3.6 volt motor usb
well i know the battery pack measured out to 3.6 volts on the multi meter so im assuming thats the correct input voltage as there isnt really any other major electronics between the battery contacts and the motor itself. not really sure what it was from. found it in my pile of spare electronics parts with 3 button cell batterys taped to it and figured i would see if i could make it run from my computer some how.
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Re: 3.6 volt motor usb
If it runs off three button cells, then a USB port will have enough power to drive it.
If you can find a couple of suitable diodes in that stack of electronic parts, they should be ok to drop the voltage. Each one will drop it by 0.6V so two in series will drop 1.2V, leaving 3.8V for the motor.
They look like this:
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Re: 3.6 volt motor usb
thanks for your help guys! 1 more quick question. if i hooked up a potentiometer to this thing could i in theory speed up and slow down the motor like a fan controler does or is a diffrent device used for that?
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Re: 3.6 volt motor usb
It would, but you'd need to get the right value. Get it running and measure the current first to see what kind of resistance you need to introduce.
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Re: 3.6 volt motor usb
tried the motor on 3.3 volts as i dont have any of those diodes available to me at the moment. i also tried it hooked up to the batteries. the motor worked on both. although it seemed to run alot faster when i had it connected to the 3.3 volt line on a computer power supply then when i had 3 1.3 volt button cells connected. is this from the diffrence in current from my power supply and whats available from the batteries ? i even ran it off of one battery at 1.3 volts and it still turned on but alot slower rpm.