5 pole can motor? what is it?

[jschmid]

all my locos have a "5 pole can motor" what are the poles? where are they, what is the armature? why is the 5 pole better than the 3 pole can motor?

and why are fly wheels nessisarily? spelled it wrong, but dont know how to!!

[pdlethbridge]

The poles are simply the windings on the motor armature. If you look at this picture, the fine insulated ( varnish) copper wire is wound around the metal, and the gaps between the metal seperate the poles. count the gaps and you'll know the number of poles in the motor. Remember how you could make a magnet by wrapping wire around a nail and hooking the wires to a battery. each of those poles is like that nail / magnet. In the motor, the wires (2 ) from each pole are attached to the commutator which also is seperated with gaps. The power to the magnet comes from the brushes that rub against the commutator. As the commutator turns, each pole becomes a magnet and is drawn to the magnet in the motors frame

[msowsun]

More poles means better slow speed running because there should be less "cogging" as the poles rotate past the magnets. Another way to reduce "cogging" is the skew the armature.

Here is photo of a regular and skewed armature. They are not model railroad motors but illustrate the difference well.

[chucknlead]

Excellent illustration "msowsun"

[Diesel Man]

Spoken like a true pro.Excellant.

[modlerbob]

About flywheels, they are used to smooth out the motion at low speed and they also provide a little momentum when stopping.

[ben_not_benny]

Wow, that's a lot of poles.

[Hoople]

Spoken like a true pro.Excellant.

Ditto.

[jschmid]

excellent, i like the pictures illistrating where the parts are, the poles, magets, bushing spings. thank you