RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

So why run motors in?

The basic components of a dc motor is shown below



Electricity from the motor terminals comes down the brushes and are transferred to the commutator which is connected to the armature. The armature is a coil of wire which creates a electromagnetic force which propels off the magnetic force of the magnet and turns the motor shaft.

The reason for running motors in is to bed in the brushes against the commutator so get best electrical connection and therefore transfer as much electrical energy to the armature to improve efficiency.

So this is the process I used to bed in my motors. The motors are rated at 7.2v but since we want to take it steady I used a 3v power source.



As I had two motors I connected them in parallel.



Now to make sure each motor gets same energy I connected the positive supply to one motor and the negative supply to the other



I then left them running for eight hours. Then switched supply polarity and ran for a further two hours in reverse.

An alternative method if you don't have a 3v power source is using a regular 7.2v battery pack.

First up, is connect the motors in series. i.e. battery positive to motor +, motor – to second motor +, motor – back to battery negative.




This method spreads the battery voltage across the motors so 3.6v per motor.

Brilliant stuff Ian It will have to be Useing the 7.2 battery for me but that will do !! Great info

I've not done the battery method so not certain how long the battery will last. So might need to regular check to make sure you don't over discharge the battery and damage it.

If you've a voltmeter you should take battery below 6v

You rite there not got a volt meter and realy I should get one!! But I can plug the battery into my charger and findout what is left in it I think a 7.2 will last about an hour running two motors together! I'll just bring them round to yours to do lol

One other thing you can do TB .
Which also helps the running in (brushed only) . Is immerse them in a bowl of water during this process. This helps the carbon bushes seat as well. Also helps to keep the temp lower.

Forgot to say. Let them dry out before fitting in your model again.

caddyshack wrote:One other thing you can do TB .
Which also helps the running in (brushed only) . Is immerse them in a bowl of water during this process. This helps the carbon bushes seat as well. Also helps to keep the temp lower.

I had heard of this method, but not tried it. From what I read it's immerse in water and run motors for a few minutes, dry out and oil.

As a guide minimum battery voltages
6 cell NiCd = 5.1v (0.85v per cell)
6 cell NiMH = 6v (1v per cell)
2 cell LiPo = 6v (3v per cell)

Yes you are right Tb ..run for a few mins and oil up. It helps to remove the caron build up that starts heavy on the initianal run in period. You don't want that carbon build up on your armature.

Used the water method a lot in electric powerboat racing it really seems to work