What is a brushless motor?
In: Engineering
A regular DC electric motor relies on a device called a “commutator” to allow the regular switches in magnetic field that allow it to spin. This is basically a pair of metal contacts mounted on the motor shaft. Current is transferred across to these contacts via stationary “brushes”, which might be metallic or carbon.
A brushless design, on the other hand, uses electronics rather than mechanical means to switch the magnetic field. This means they don’t need the commutator or the brushes, and more importantly, means they last a lot longer because brushes wear out over time due to the constant rubbing between them and the commutator. It also makes their speed a lot easier to control. This is why PC fans have been using brushless motors for years.
A brushless motor speed control has smart electronics that can figure out in what position the rotor with the magnets is at any time.
It switches the copper coils that surround the rotor on and off hundreds or even thousands of times per second so that the magnetic field that the coils create is always “ahead” of the magnets of the rotor. That way they keep dragging/ turning the rotor magnets in one direction.
brushless motors are vastly more efficient than brushed motors, they can be much more powerful and they dont have any parts that wear out, apart from the bearings. The big disadvantage is that they rely on an electronic speed control to function.
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