Pitching Machine/Help driving&regulating two 90vdc motors

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Hi everyone. Before I continue, let me just point out that I’ve never worked with motors before, and I’m not exactly the most informed guy out there when it comes to EE. Programming is my trade, so please excuse any obscenely stupid things I might say in relation to electronics :oops:

Anyways, a friend of mine was throwing an old JUGs pitching machine which he had for some reason and gave it to me since I said I could fix it. It has two giant 90v DC motors. These are the specs on the labels:

Model Number: SR3616-681-7

VOLTS: 90 DC

AMP: 3.0

HP: 1/4

RPM: 1900

DUTY: Spec

Field: PM

After some short Googling I found [this forum post someone made with pictures that look exactly like my model, in case that’s relevant.

I’ve tested the two motors and they both appear to work fine, however the circuit board whose job it is to regulate their speed doesn’t. Connecting it results in only one of the two motors actually spinning, and it spins at extremely high speeds.

What I’m trying to do is find out a way to regulate the speed on these things, because as it is the damn thing only pitches at 120+ mph(also those high speeds probably aren’t too good for the motor(s)). Ideally, I’d be able to hook it up to an arduino or something and have fun programming it to do whatever I want. Although I’d be fine with using what it already has for now: two big potentiometer thingys.

[Here is a pic of the front of the board, and [one of the back. The two gold cylinder things are potentiometers meant to regulate the speed of each motor, and the thing in the middle is a simple on/off switch.

There are some weird components there I’ve never seen before, such as that long brown rectangular thing, those two yellow rectangles on the top corners, and that clear plastic thing on the power cable.

I could attempt to repair the existing board, but coming up with my own solution is more fun and would let me do things like preset pitching styles, and maybe even laser targeting :D.

Here’s what I (think) I understand so far:

  1. I need to have a voltage regulator of some sort to control the speed of the motors. This thing’s circuit board has two LM723CN chips, which I assume fulfill that purpose.

  2. If I wanted to control it with an arduino, I’d need transistors or relays to control the supply of power (from an external source) to the motors.

What would you do in this situation? How could I control/regulate those two enormous motors with an itsy bitsy arduino?

Any help, advice, tutorials, or fingers pointing the right direction would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance!](Imgur: The magic of the Internet)](Imgur: The magic of the Internet)](http://forum.gon.com/showthread.php?t=449958)

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Did you ever fix your machine. My control panel broke, as well. One side works and controls the speed, the other side does not.

I did make the fatal mistake of plugging it into my power converter connected to a deep cycle battery. Apparently that is bad for the electronics.

A new board is $250. I just wish I knew an electronics wizard who could figure out what component on the control panel went bad and replace it.

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Just discovered this forum and this topic. I am repairing a Jugs Super twin wheel pitching machine control board and it has a similar problem you described. What model is your board assembly? should have a barcode label on the inside portion of faceplate. I’ve identified bad components on two boards I have and have ordered the parts to repair them both.

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I have successfully repaired two of the jugs controllers by testing and replacing failed components. I’m wanting to buy a used twin wheel machine motor. Please contact me if you have a failed twin wheel unit for scrap.

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Can you tell me how you repaired your board? I have the exact same one and would like to repair it as well. Thanks!

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Jugs Pitching machine fix

I recently bought a used jugs curveball machine (2 wheel type) and am having issues with the board. I believe it has something to do with the voltage rectifier? One motor output of the board is sending 70ish Volts DC out and the other is pushing 119VAC out.

Does anyone have any recommendations as to what I should do to fix this? I’d hate to have to shell out 225.00 to JUGS for a new controller board.

Thanks in advance!

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I have just had a jugs combo pitching machine worked on. Had both 90V motors repaired and bought a new control box. I found out that the bad motors were blowing the fuse on the control box. it is working great now. I have the old control box that I think can still be used. It needs a 10V fuse. Let me know if anyone wants to try it.

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bernard14:
I have just had a jugs combo pitching machine worked on. Had both 90V motors repaired and bought a new control box. I found out that the bad motors were blowing the fuse on the control box. it is working great now. I have the old control box that I think can still be used. It needs a 10V fuse. Let me know if anyone wants to try it.

if you still have it I would like to try it, our league pitching machine (Jugs JR) keeps cutting out, might be a rectifier, but would like to try different contoler.