I have two 393 motors in front of me (see attached picture). They are different.
On one, its black wire is next to the keying tab on its 2-wire connector.
On the other, its red wire is next to the keying tab on its 2-wire connector.
When plugged into the same Motor 29 Controller (connected to a Cortex), using a red-to-red / black-to-black polarity, the motors spin in opposite directions.
If the connector keying is kept the same when each is plugged into that Motor Controller 29 (resulting in one red-to-red connection, and one red-to-black connection), the motors spin in the same direction.
So…
A) Is one of the motors defective (should wire colors, spin direction and connector keying be identical for all 393 motors?)? Or
B) Should I rely solely on connector keying to manage my motor polarities? Or
C) Should I rely solely on wire color to manage my motor polarities?
Using wire color and getting bad results is what led us to notice this difference and write this question. If wire color is supposed to be consistent across all motors, I have some badly built motors.
Since the 393 motors were first announced and sold, my assumption has always been that the connector polarity, wire color, and motor spin direction would be consistent across all motors.
Was that a bad assumption? or do I have some defective motors?
Hi Blake!
Sorry for the delay in getting back to you…
The motor polarity should be consistent with both the wire color, and the keying on the connector. You’ve got some defective motors.
Our manufacturers functional test involves a visual inspection, plus plugging in the motor to a known power supply, and ensuring it turns the correct direction. So, if the person doing the visual inspection misses it, and both the key AND the motor connection are flipped, it would incorrectly pass.
This is the first instance of this I’ve seen reported. Hopefully it is just a fluke, and not a systemic issue. How many motors have you seen affected?
As a sanity check, I just personally ran down and inspected a case of motors – no problems.
Please contact our support department if you’d like to get things straightened out. 903.453.0802 or [email protected]
We do have more than one of these oddball motors - I’ll handle those instances through direct communication instead of this forum thread.
Now that you have confirmed that there is an expected/spec’ed configuration (I knew there would be), we can adapt.
Based on how the majority of our motors are wired, I think that at their two-wire connector, the 393’s black wire should be on the same side of the connector as the keying tab. Is that correct?
![20131014_162256[1].jpg](https://www.vexforum.com/uploads/default/original/2X/a/ac5b9be05fc0dc589be9a79b7e5dabc2d327d517.jpeg)