Whoa, slow down! (How to slow down a shaker motor!)

Nerbflong

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Whoa, slow down! (How to slow down a shaker motor!)

Help! I just replaced the shaker motor on my Gladiators and wow, does it really, really shake! (the old one had spun a bearing and was disconnected) It shakes so hard and fast you can actually hear the tokens jingling in the coin box! (Oh man, get your grove on while playing the game!)


I know there are no settings in the menus to slow it down (unlike my Road Show, thats a nice feature) Is there a way to slow it down? A big ass resistor? A variable control would be awesome! I love the shake, but prefer more of a rumble really.
 
Not knowing the set up, can you put rubber isolator bushings somewhere on it to dampen the vibrations? Under its feet or screws, whatever secures it to the machine?

It won't slow it down, but you would feel it less.
 
I'm guessing it runs on 120vac. try a ceiling fan speed controller

I see it going to a transformer and bridge rectifier, so don't think so. I'll have to meter it tonight and check. I had thought of using a fan controller. That would be cool and easy.

Not knowing the set up, can you put rubber isolator bushings somewhere on it to dampen the vibrations? Under its feet or screws, whatever secures it to the machine?

It won't slow it down, but you would feel it less.

Yeah, I might do that tonight. I have some firmer rubber washers/grommets I can try.
 
Okay, no luck with the rubber grommets/washers. Still shakes like crazy.

Measuring the voltage it seems to start at 32 and drop to 10 or so.

Finding the specs on that motor is stupid. I think the specs are:

Nominal Voltage 12-18 vdc
Weight 16.45 oz or 1.06 lbs
Diameter 51.3mm
Length 68.8mm
Shaft 5mm dia, 15mm long
Peak HP @ 12v 0.313
Kv 1500
Kt 0.8
Armature Resistance 0.1426 ohms
No Load Current 3.2a
No Load Speed 18000rpm
Stall Current 84a
Stall Torque 64.64 oz/in

So.. Will putting in a 5amp adjustable voltage regulator module let me slow it down safely? :)
 
id cut one of the ac power wires to the rectifier for the shaker, then put a dimmer switch on that to limit the ac voltage to it...

thats only is it has its own rectifier....
 
Okay, the shaker motor finally bothered me enough to do something about it. I bought one of these on ebay:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/160604802392

A 5amp variable voltage regulator. It handles like 32+ volts in and is probably overkill but thats how I like to do things. ;)

A few minutes with adding some connectors and I'm ready to test it out! I put the game into test mode and started up the shaker test. Nothing. Doh! Turned the trim pot the other way and the motor springs to life! Woot!! Now I can turn the motor to just the right low rumble shake!

I've had it up and running this way for a good couple days and several (hah! I love testing!) games later and its still going strong. The shake is sooooo much better. You no longer hear the shaking of the motor, but rather feel the machine shake now. So much better!
 
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