Hello,
I took apart an Epson Printer and found two 24 V brushed DC motors. Atleast that is what little information I could find when googling the name plate.
My question is: Can I use the 42 V power supply from the printer with an L298N motor controller (rated for 46 V) if I just simply avoid duty cycles above 60ish %? Or can the pulse magnitudes of 42 V destroy the motor if it is only rated for 24.
Kind Regards
The motor will be fine if you keep the speed and power restricted to around the 24V level, and
it will handle brief overdrive OK. There are two issues to motor life here, wear and over-heating.
Overfast operation will wear the bearings and commutator more, and may cause more arcing between
brushes and commutator. All of this reduces lifetime.
Grossly overfast risks armature explosion (or more likely windings coming adrift and jamming the
gap). 42V compared to 24V is unlikely to be unsafe in this regard, and small motors are not likely
to be dangerous if this happens (large industrial electric machines are another matter).
And with higher currents (exacerbated by high supply voltage, if the motor is heavily loaded) there
is the risk of cooking the windings. However faster spinning may mean better cooling due to the
fan (it has a cooling fan?). You can still cook windings by holding a motor at stall for too long at
its rated voltage, note.