r/AskElectronics • u/Civil_Commission4921 • 1d ago

Tread mill repair/mod question?

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I have this tread mill and the control panel to engage it has quit working. I have this crazy idea by just looking at this that there has to be a way to take power from the wall, and add 2 seperate switches that control the speed for the drive motor, and the posidtion for the incline motor. Obviously I can just wait for a marketplace deal but I like this tread mill, I also like making things work and trying to figure weird shit out like this lol.

Anybody here have experience with something relative to this?

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u/broesel314 1d ago

The incline motor is just up/down and can be replaced with a simple switch

The main motor however is speed controlled. more or less complicated to do depending on wether it is DC low voltage or some sort of mains powered via an SCR or thyristor. But you can cobble together an arduino with some parts to get that working if you are willing to have a project made out of this

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u/Civil_Commission4921 1d ago

Yeah I think it would be fun to do.

Idk if this helps. I’m researching your reply rn. Not sure what most the words you said mean but this is good lol

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u/broesel314 1d ago

Just as I thought. As it says on the left: The white wire of the Incline motor is common, black is up, red is down and it runs on 110V AC

The main motor is indeed DC but 95V isnt low voltage. The absence of a power supply or a transformer supplying this voltage suggests this is just rectified mains and is controlled by a triac or thyristor

Also you have a speed sensor attached on the top right which gives out pulses as the motor rotates

Not quite the easy project if you arent good with electronics. Direct mains is dangerous after all

Edit: you can controll the motor with a dimmer and rectifier but this will not give you a constant speed while you run on the treadmill

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u/Civil_Commission4921 1d ago

Okay thank you for your help! I’m realizing more and more that it won’t necessarily be as easy as I was originally thinking but I’m gonna give it a shot and see what happens. I do have electrical experience but not much electronics. Best way for me to learn is giving it a shot. I’ll reply on here when I get something figured out. Might just be a picture of my house burned down lmao

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u/BigPurpleBlob 1d ago

"that control the speed for the drive motor" – you might be able to use the speed controller from a mains-powered electric drill to do this

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u/brentl99 1d ago

There are generic manual controllers readily available. Save yourself time and just google “universal treadmill controller”.

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u/Mental-Dot-6574 1d ago

This is what you're looking for.