# OLD cutler hammer controller 15HP 440v



## adeyo (Jun 6, 2012)

Can I use this or hack this for another use with any of my following projects....

DC S10 conversion
Electric go cart
Nissan leaf
Electric lawn mower

Any other fun potential uses?


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## PStechPaul (May 1, 2012)

Wow, 1965, and last serviced in 1978! 

I see its output is 0 to 62 CPS (now Hz), and I'm not really sure how it would have been done way back then. I was still in High School and I built some electronic gadgets with power transistors, but they were mostly Germanium and high voltage devices were rare. There were motor controllers using SCRs, but mostly phase-fired lamp dimmer type circuits for universal motors, and it was patented in 1965. The earliest reference I found for an SCR circuit is 1957. Here is a fascinating page of history:
http://www.semiconductormuseum.com/Transistors/GE/OralHistories/Gutzwiller/Gutzwiller_Page12.htm

I found something called a six step variable speed motor controller mentioned in this article:
http://www.powertecmotors.com/avsde4.pdf

A little more here:
http://www.me.ua.edu/me360/spring05/Notes/Topic17-AC_Motor_Speed_and_Other_Motors_sv.pdf

IMHO this thing belongs in a museum. I'd be very curious to see what it looks like on the inside and to try to identify some of the parts and figure out just how it might work. This does not appear to be a simple motor starter which is mostly a power contactor, but more likely some sort of solid state device. Please take some more photos of the guts and we might figure out if it may be useful for your projects. 

I found some more historical information:
http://www.edinformatics.com/inventions_inventors/transistor.htm
http://www.rfcafe.com/references/po...istor-topics-feb-1960-popular-electronics.htm (Popular Electronics 1960)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2N3055 (This popular power transistor rated at 60V and 15A was introduced in the early 1960s)

So maybe there were high voltage transistors that could have been used for a VFD, or possibly they could have been "series stacked" for higher voltage as are modern SCRs that switch AC and DC transmission lines at several hundred kV.


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