Vacuum pump: DC or AC

[muffinman]

Hello,

I've got a Weller De-Soldering Station (vp801ec) and I want to check whether the vacuum pump works. Unfortunately I don't have the desoldering iron and I think I need that to activate the pump (I have 4 and none of them work, in addition it would seem quite annoying if the pumps were active all the time). Therefore I want to power the pump and see whether it works. The pump requires 24v. However, I'm not sure whether that's AC or DC. I don't know if I should interpret the (–) as a DC? I suspect that someone with a bit of knowledge of electronics wouldn't have a hard time getting the answer from the two pictures below, therefore:

Can someone tell me on the basis of the two pictures below whether I should give it AC or DC?

Obviously, if better pictures are needed I can dismantle the whole thing to get a better pictures, but perhaps this is informative enough.

Thanks in advance, Maarten

 

[Minder]

That appears to be a DC motor, also the presence of a an electrolytic cap would indicate it, as well as the +- marks.
M.

 

[davenn]

agreed with minder's comment

 

[AnalogKid]

Brown and blue are European colors for Line and Neutral, but the motor is marked 24V, so that's probably not a factor. Can you trace the wires to see if they come from a transformer? Also, what are the markings on the cap?

ak

 

[(*steve*)]

DC is my guess also. Note it says 24V-, not 24V~ (that last one is supposed to be a tilde!) If they both come out as straight lines, the second one is supposed to be wavy!

Ah! that fixed it.

 

[Minder]

Another very simple way to detect if DC is to spin the motor and see if it generates, also short the two leads and see if there is greater resistance than open when spun.
M.

 

[muffinman]

I put 24v DC on it and it didn't blow up or emitted smoke. The pump worked as expected.

Many thanks for the comments and help.

Kind regards, Maarten