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Old 04-01-2013, 03:10 AM   #17
tw
Read? I only know how to write.
 
Join Date: Jan 2001
Posts: 11,933
Quote:
Originally Posted by footfootfoot View Post
It's got a 300° rotation, in practice if I pot it down more than 1/10 of a turn the fan stops spinning.
Reread those previously posted numbers. Your resistor must vary by maybe 30 ohms. You are using a resistor that is 10,000 ohms. You cannot possibly adjust a 10K resistor between 1, 5, 10, and 30 ohms. And if you did, the 10K resistor must burn.

Trying to do this stuff without a layman tool is frustration. A multimeter that any layman should have for anything electrical (even a car battery) sells even in WalMart for maybe $12. So required for simple problems that a meter sells in almost every store that also sells something more expensive - hammers. Using that meter would have made that problem obvious. Also make numbers in my previous post just as obvious. Even explain 6 volt and 12 volt behavior.

You also have another complication to consider. Electric motors require a high startup torque. Just another reason why the 555 solution can be so useful. And again, another reason why that digital multimeter is needed.

Last edited by tw; 04-01-2013 at 03:16 AM.
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