Treadmill motor / voltage, controller board issue

OlPhart said:

Sure looks like Bad arcing. I think I see some surface copper melt. I'd clean it up with a little 600 then 1000 grit paper. Blow the dust out afterward.

I wonder if this isn't insufficient brush pressure. Badly worn brushes put the springs at their lowest pressure. Light pressure can cause extreme heat, distempering the springs. I've seen springs turned into soft wire. I can't describe how to check this other than just replace them. <<<)))

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Thank you for your reply. The brushes have been replaced already and there seems to be plenty of pressure from the springs. As for cleaning with the grit paper, as I mentioned, the commutator was rectified with a lathe already and supposedly the gaps between segments were cleaned. The pictures you see are after this was done and having ran the motor for about 3 hours with the new brushes. Still, would you say that I should clean with the grit paper? Thanks.

Yes, I'd clean it up. Regular notebook paper is about 1500 grit, you can't hurt the commutator with that. Starting clean makes it easier to see troubles. The smoothed copper areas look surface melted, but I can't call it with it not in my hand and a Big magnifier.

I'd be tempted to significantly increase brush pressure, if only briefly. It does wear brushes faster, but if it behaves better, you've got a direction to follow. Higher pressure/wear are minimized by a smooth commutator and a Slight bevel on each leafs' edge. Just spin the commutator around in your fingers until there's nothing rough or snagging.

Looks and sounds to me that the armature (rotor) is faulty. This would explain the excessive arcing and burning of the commutator. New motor required I'm afraid.

OlPhart said:

Yes, I'd clean it up. Regular notebook paper is about 1500 grit, you can't hurt the commutator with that. Starting clean makes it easier to see troubles. The smoothed copper areas look surface melted, but I can't call it with it not in my hand and a Big magnifier.

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To confirm, if everything is clean in between segments I should not get any continuity between adjacent ones, only those that are opposite at 180°, correct? What about the mica segment separators that are missing? Should those be there or not necessarily? Thanks.

sparkman001 said:

Looks and sounds to me that the armature (rotor) is faulty. This would explain the excessive arcing and burning of the commutator. New motor required I'm afraid.

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Thanks for your diagnosis. May I ask why you are assuming this? Is there a way to confirm that the armature is faulty? What could I check to verify this? Thank you.

Winding layout depends on the motor build, mostly # of armature poles. Look for consistency, log the resistance of direct opposites and those adjacent. Check wherever you find resistance.

That the armature is consistent, I'll repeat: try higher brush pressure. Not to be flippant, but this problem has been going on far too long, it's just a DC motor. <<<)))

I agree with Olphart, it has been goin on a bit long now.
Commutator arcing, brush burning , lack of power and overheating are all classic signs of motor failure, normally with shorting turns in the windings. Try and obtain another motor of the same type to confirm/reject diagnosis. Sometimes you just have to make a decision! The motor is far easier to fault find than the control board. At worst if the motor proves ok just put the old one on eBay and recoup your loss.

Well, I am just going to assume that it is the motor that needs replacing. I really wanted to know if the motor could be fixed or if could be the control board that needed replacing, before investing into this treadmill. These parts, motor and control board, go for about $500 to replace. It just might not be worth it for an equipment that costs about $1,200 new and is already about 8 years old. Anyway, besides trying to save a few $ by maybe fixing the motor, I also had the intention of learning from all the feedback and this certainly was accomplished.

Sorry if this has carried out for so long. It has been very informative from me and I have learned a lot from all your comments. Hopefully someone else will also benefit from this thread being in the forum archives.

Thank you all.

Treadmill problems

Having had many treadmill motor and Pulse width motor controller faults I have recently found an extremely common fault which will cause all kind of problems on the most common treadmills.
Check the ground connection between the plug and the frame,and motor to frame I have found that a lot have very high resistance due to the corrosion protective coating on the metal not being cleaned off properly where the earth (ground) wire connection is connected to the frame which will affect any surge (spike) Metal Oxide Varistors suppressors from operating correctly in a PWM or SMPS driven circuit, but also could be a extremely dangerous shock hazard.

for replacement controllers check here:
https://www.partsfortreadmill.com/parts-for-treadmill/treadmill-controllers/

and you can check here for treadmill help in general
https://www.treadmillsrepair.co.uk/
https://www.partsfortreadmill.com/repair/repair.htm