6. AC Motors
Remote-controlled vehicles and hobbyist devices generally rely on DC motors, but most household/industrial appliances rely on AC motors. The reason is simple—houses and other buildings provide electrical power as alternating current (AC). This is why electric fans and blenders, which have AC motors, can be plugged directly into electrical outlets.
The goal of this chapter is to introduce different types of AC motors and explain their advantages and disadvantages. Because AC motor technology is so old (the first practical AC motors were constructed in the 1880s), a wide range of AC motors is available. They can be categorized in a number of ways, but this chapter classifies motors according to two criteria:
Polyphase/single-phase ...
Get Motors for Makers: A Guide to Steppers, Servos, and Other Electrical Machines now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
