I keep mine. They are good for something. We just have to find out what.

There are quite a lot of complaints about unknown motors for model boats around - because, with the huge boom in power tools and power everything, there are quite a lot of these unknown industrial motors around.

I don't know what kind of boat you want to drive, but I would look at the motors to see if they look to be good quality - 5 or 7 poles would be more expensive - and then test them out for revs, heating and power drain to see if they would suit the job you have...

Hi DodgyGeezer,
Thank you for the information.
I think I will follow the instructions on the video .
Thanks again.

Martin.

Oh dear - they look like some Johnson can motors. Johnson is a company which specialises in industrial DC motors for power tools, car windows, etc. It does a bewildering variety of them - as do many other companies, but I tend to think of them as generically 'Johnson'. See https://www.johnsonelectric.com/en/product-technology/motion/dc-motors/automotive-dc-motors/low-voltage-dc-motors

They are often hard to identify, and will be good for the thing they are designed for, which may be nothing like a model boat engine. In particular they may be designed for intermittent use, low or high torque, high drain...or anything else. They may be good for a boat - they may be useless. And it depends on the boat - if they are ex-drill motors they may rev quite fast...

Check the number of poles - more than three and the motor may be a better quality one. Do the revs on your battery match what you want (between 5000 and 10,000, usually)? Is the no-load drain below 1A? Then the motor might be useful. Otherwise, see the video below:


I recall that Mayhem were very scathing of unknown can motors a little while ago - spool down to the bottom of this page https://www.modelboatmayhem.co.uk/Common/Electrics/How%20Fast.htm

P.S - does the one on the left look like a turntable motor?

Hi Doug,
I have just asked the wife to photograph some and she said there is absolutely nothing on them.

Hi martin,
If nothing is printed / engraved on the can start by taking a close look at the end caps.
Often at least the manufacturer's name, maybe also a type number may be embossed or engraved (plastic/metal) on the terminal end.
Doug
PS post some pics!

Sorry senior moment again.
My question was for electric motors.
I have a few lying around with no markings on them and was wondering if there was an easy way to find out what type they are.

Martin.

Wow - that's a bit of a wide requirement! I assume you are having difficulty finding some data?

Are we talking I/C motors or electric here? Brushed or brushless? ....

If the item has ANY markings you can usually look it up on the Web - though you may need to translate from Chinese. The big companies are easy enough to get English data from, but smaller ones may pose a problem. Recently I had to photograph the characters on a box of hydrometers, get that automatically translated from, I assume, Simplified Chinese, look up the company name in Latin characters, download instruction sheets with likely pictures attached and then translate those....

A lot of things, including electric motors, are now made in China as 'clones' - that is, as copies of an original design, often sourced from the West, perhaps with a few modifications. Such items often come with very little info from the manufacturer, and may be made as a short run with a 'one-off' badge on them.

Under these circumstances the only way you will get information is to have enough experience in the field to be able to recognise the item as being a copy of a known item and work from there. Often specialist forums have people who can help you here...

A good way to start is looking at manufacturers websites.
Such as this from Mabuchi
https://www.mabuchi-motor.com/product/knowledge/
They may want you to buy minimum 1000 🤔 but at least you can find out what to look for at their distributors / model shops / Ebay etc.
Cheers, Doug