2B VS drop motor voltage

Matt Butler · March 16, 2007

After browsing through previous posts in this particular forum, I think I know the answer to my question.

But....

If I was to power a 2b variable speed 16volt drop motor with a 24 volt battery pack will I cook the motor.. ie burn it out?

I briefly ran it in this configuration with a couple of quick presses of the test button. By turning the rheostat to a lower setting at the base of the motor I could adjust it to run @ 24fps with a dummy load in a 200' mag.

Has any one attempted this, or is it time to reconfigure a battery pack to 18 volts.

Cheers,

Matt Butler

Specialist Cinematographer

Sydney Australia

nathan snyder · March 16, 2007

Funny you should ask this question today. Yesterday I made two calls to techs to ask the very same question.

The silver wire in the reostate will likely burn out quickly and your done. 18V is all the more those motors should be run at, at least that is what my sources tell me. A worse scenerio is that you will burn up a motor winding. That is even more difficult to repair even if you can find someone to repair it.

However, I suspect that if you battery supply is of sufficiently low enough ampreage then you will do no damage, but you will also not drive the motor very fast if at all.

Hal Smith · March 16, 2007

If I was to power a 2b variable speed 16volt drop motor with a 24 volt battery pack will I cook the motor.. ie burn it out?
Matt Butler

Specialist Cinematographer

Sydney Australia

It would be possible to add a fixed power resistor in series with the 24volt battery to drop the battery voltage down to a safe value. US price for a suitable resistor would be about $6.00 or so. If you REALLY need to know what resistor to buy, I'll run some tests on my 2B, I've got a 24VDC mains powered supply I can use for testing (aren't you proud of me for knowing you'd call it a mains supply?).