How to Make a Synchro Into a Motor
Synchros are often described as being like transformers, as they have primary and secondary coils. They are also like motors because the primary coil on a rotor-like device that turns inside a chamber is very much like the stator of a motor. The stator of a synchro has three coils, and they are connected with capacitors that make the frequency of the three coils 120 degrees out of phase. The current through the rotor creates changing magnetic fields that react with the changing magnetic fields in the stator coils.
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Instructions
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Use synchros as stepper motors by sending the phase angle instead of a sequence of pulses. If you send a signal to the rotor that is X degrees out or phase to the rotor, it will turn until the relationship between the rotor and stator is balanced -- which will be when the rotor has turned X degrees. Synchros are used this way when there is no digital signal processing such as when controlling the rudders of small boats.
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Wire the stator coils to each other and the rotors to each other between two synchros to use them as synchronizing motors. This technique is used to synchronize video and sound equipment in the movie industry. If you turn the rotor of one synchro X degrees, it causes the rotor of the other synchro to turn X degrees. If the film causes one synchro to advance X degrees, the synchro that controls the sound equipment advances X degrees as well.
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Put a high frequency signal on the rotor and the stator coils at the same time to make a variable speed motor. At any moment, the rotor is being attracted to the stator pole ahead of it and repelled from the stator pole behind it. As it reaches a pole, the polarity of the pole goes to zero and the rotor is being attracted and repelled by the other two poles.
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Tips & Warnings
The good thing about using synchros as variable speed motors is that you can change the speed of the motor by changing the frequency of the input signal. Synchros were originally invented to transmit information about angular movement. The many ways that synchros can be used as motors were discovered later.
There are some difficulties with using synchros as motors, and these problems involve the load on the motor. The load cannot be too heavy, as synchro motors do not have a lot of power. On the other hand, there must be some loads or the synchro motor will start oscillating which can physically damage the motor. If the load is removed from the motor, you will need a dampening device to control the oscillations.
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