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Everything you always wanted to know about the MIMUL motor* (*but were afraid to ask)


Duncan Brown

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I never saw any lamps inside the ACL motor, but I didn't get into the actual motor housing...as it looked hideously complicated to get in there.  Lots of wires with no slack.  But maybe it's time to dive in!  (Since I seem to have somehow wrecked the circuitry anyway ? )  I have a lot of respect for that design... I'm sure Aapo has a lot of respect for how they packed it all in that space with decades-ago technology!  I would have less respect for the design if it depended on two unreachable incandescent bulbs.  Do keep us posted on the status of your repair!

I did have a Perfectone NPR motor once that had two light bulbs where one normally is, and couldn't figure out what the second one was for... but those were just outside indicator lamps, nothing to do with the motor itself?

Duncan

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  • 6 months later...
On 1/10/2023 at 6:30 PM, steven jackson said:

I have the latest version heavy duty motor that will only go slow and too fast with the amber light staying lit all the while.  I was in contact with an Eclair tech in France and he told me the motor speed control is aided by two very small incandescent lamps which act as a tachometer, that, like normal light bulbs, burn out, and my motor displays the symptoms of that being the issue.  The bulbs are still available but are covered in epoxy somewhere within the motor...I don't know much more than that.  I'm sending him my motor for repair and hopefully that will fix it up.  I'm wondering if your motor had this issue and if, when dismantling the motor, you noticed these small lamps??  According to the tech, the verification is simple, the repair less so.

Further to this post, the tech, Christophe Goulard, has passed away and he did not get around to repairing my motor, so it's very kindly being sent back to me and I'm hoping someone else may be interested in exploring this type of repair, which on the surface, sounds kind of basic.

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  • 3 months later...
On 1/11/2023 at 12:50 AM, Duncan Brown said:

I never saw any lamps inside the ACL motor, but I didn't get into the actual motor housing...as it looked hideously complicated to get in there.  Lots of wires with no slack.  But maybe it's time to dive in!  (Since I seem to have somehow wrecked the circuitry anyway ? )  I have a lot of respect for that design... I'm sure Aapo has a lot of respect for how they packed it all in that space with decades-ago technology!  I would have less respect for the design if it depended on two unreachable incandescent bulbs.  Do keep us posted on the status of your repair!

I did have a Perfectone NPR motor once that had two light bulbs where one normally is, and couldn't figure out what the second one was for... but those were just outside indicator lamps, nothing to do with the motor itself?

Duncan

To finally get back to this:  I just had several ACL HD motors repaired at AZ Spectrum (since my original contact in France for the repairs passed away) and the motor that I discussed earlier that possibly had burned out motor speed control lamps did indeed have this issue.  AZ Spectrum replaced both incandescent bulbs with led lamps.  I had three motors repaired, and I must say, at a reasonable cost, and all three showing different symptoms.  The one mentioned above with erratic speeds, one that had a sync light turning on, but otherwise no movement, and a third that showed no signs of life at all and would blow fuses.  All three were repairable.  Obviously, this makes me re-think the notion that once an acl motor goes out, it's finished and it would seem that the issues are electronic component related rather the motor being burned out.

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