DC MOTOR SPEED CONTROLLER

Speed control means intentional change of the drive speed to a value required for
performing the specific work process.

APPLICATION OF MOTOR SPEED CONTROLLER:

Good application is a train running on DC Series motor. If there is no control mechanism,

how desired speed can be achieved and Suppose you are traveling by a train and you have
to get down from it on a platform, and think what will happen, if train speed will not
decrease? will you allow your self to get down? Absolutely not. Thats why speed control is
very essential.

Schematic diagram of a dc motor speed controller

This is a variable DC MOTOR SPEED CONTROLLER using a UJT, AND SCR and other passive components.

How does this circuit works?

The source voltage will provide as a current sufficient enough to charge the capacitor. Once the
capacitor reaches the peak voltage, the UJT will “fire” or will turn on and the firing of UJT will cause the
SCR to trigger on. The SCR then starts connecting and acts as a fast switch.

Notice also R1(base1) and R2 (base2) has a low resistance value, why? So that they can get a smaller
voltage drop. If this resistors have a large value it can cause a surge voltage that can reduce the lives of
passive and active components of the circuit by as much as 50%.

By varying the potentiometer, the charging and discharging period of capacitor changes. With that, the
input in the UJT also changes and the pulses given by the UJT to SCR will also change finally, the speed of
the motor can be varied.

In the above circuit,

Unijunction Transistor (UJT) – is used to generate gate pulses to the SCR.

Silicon Controlled Rectifier (SCR)-is used to drive the external motor.