Return-Path: robot-board@oberon.com Received: by media.mit.edu (5.57/DA1.0.4.amt) id AA07128; Mon, 16 Aug 93 21:08:19 -0400 Received: from ([127.0.0.1]) by oberon.com (4.1/SMI-4.1_Armado.MX) id AA23529; Mon, 16 Aug 93 21:07:43 EDT Date: Mon, 16 Aug 93 21:07:41 EDT Message-Id: <199308170106.AA11571@vela.acs.oakland.edu> Comment: Discussions of Robot controller boards Originator: robot-board@oberon.com Errors-To: gkulosa@oberon.com Reply-To: William Young Sender: robot-board@oberon.com Version: 5.5 -- Copyright (c) 1991/92, Anastasios Kotsikonas From: William Young To: Multiple recipients of list Subject: Re: Cheap Lego Motors! > I bought a pacakge of "Hobby Motors" sold by Radio Shack, 3 for 2 dollars. > They come with a small plastic press-fit gear already on the shaft. What I > did was remove the gear with a pair of wire strippers, leaving a bare shaft. > Then I used a 5mm-long piece of rubber tubing (actually insulation from some > walkman headphone cord) as an adaptor for lego gears. I pushed the tubing > into the 8-pin lego gear, then pushed the whole assembly onto the shaft. SInce > the shaft seems to be textured, the gear _really_ does not slip, and thus no > adhesive was needed. I glued the motor, flat base down, to a 2x4 flat lego with > hot glue, and I have been using it happily ever since. Cost was about $.86 > total, each motor. I've done the same thing, using *exactly* the same motors. However, instead of putting a gear directly to the motor, I drilled a hole in the end of a short Lego axle, just the right size to fit snugly over the motor shaft. This way, I'm not stuck with just one size gear on the shaft. (although since the motor's kind of high-speed, small is probably best). Also, one may be able to drive more than one gear on the shaft, etc. One note: With my motors, I needed to cut the studs off the Lego block (I used a 1/3 height block) to make the gear align properly with other Lego gears in a Lego jig I made. Bill ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Seasons will change; | William Young You must move on. | wjyoung@vela.acs.oakland.edu Follow your dream." | GTR | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Return-Path: robot-board@oberon.com Received: by media.mit.edu (5.57/DA1.0.4.amt) id AA17560; Tue, 17 Aug 93 12:09:55 -0400 Received: from ([127.0.0.1]) by oberon.com (4.1/SMI-4.1_Armado.MX) id AA08909; Tue, 17 Aug 93 12:09:23 EDT Date: Tue, 17 Aug 93 12:09:21 EDT Message-Id: <9308171611.AA22373@joker.mil.ufl.edu> Comment: Discussions of Robot controller boards Originator: robot-board@oberon.com Errors-To: gkulosa@oberon.com Reply-To: Reid R. Harrison Sender: robot-board@oberon.com Version: 5.5 -- Copyright (c) 1991/92, Anastasios Kotsikonas From: Reid R. Harrison To: Multiple recipients of list Subject: makeshift LEGO motors How to make a $4.00 LEGO motor: Buy a Mabuchi FM-170 motor. (I found it in a hobby store for $3.99; it was used to power electric props.) File the studs off a 2x4 LEGO plate and superglue it to the bottom of the motor (almost a perfect fit). Glue a 2x4 plate to the top of the motor. Cut off a short length of tubing from the end of the ink cartridge in a ball-point pen (you know, the end part with no ink). Glue this to the motor shaft. Glue a gear or pulley to this. The motor seems to have the same torque as a LEGO motor and slightly greater speed. -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Reid Harrison 580 Weil Hall Machine Intelligence Lab University of Florida University of Florida Gainesville, FL 32611 reid@mil.ufl.edu (904) 392-6605 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Return-Path: robot-board@oberon.com Received: by media.mit.edu (5.57/DA1.0.4.amt) id AA25028; Thu, 7 Oct 93 02:42:13 -0400 Received: from ([127.0.0.1]) by oberon.com (4.1/SMI-4.1_Armado.MX) id AA01266; Thu, 7 Oct 93 02:41:17 EDT Date: Thu, 7 Oct 93 02:41:17 EDT Message-Id: <93Oct6.233946pdt.2445@spoggles.parc.xerox.com> Errors-To: gkulosa@oberon.com Reply-To: putz@parc.xerox.com Originator: robot-board@oberon.com Sender: gkulosa@oberon.com Precedence: bulk From: Steve Putz To: Multiple recipients of list Subject: Re: lego motors X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0b -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas I recently followed the advice I saw on robot-board (or was it alt.toys.lego?) and purchased Radio Shack No. 273-237, which for a few dollars gives you three small DC motors that can be easily LEGOized. As someone else suggested, it can be fitted to a small LEGO gear by removing the original gear and fitting a short piece of tubing over the shaft (I used two layers of small shrink tubing). I found that by shaving the knobs off (ouch!) of a 2x8 LEGO plate and hot gluing it to the base of the motor, the shaft aligns the same as a 9V LEGO motor (actually one 1/3 brick lower, but that's easily fixed). Note that this is a 1.5 to 4.5 VDC motor. It tends to run too fast if run off of a 9V LEGO battery box, but it works great with a Miniboard robot controller and 4.5V supply. It should also work well with the old 4.5V Technic stuff. I'd like to find a compatible (non-LEGO) reduction gearbox though, since I don't like using up so much space (and LEGO gears) just to get the rotation slow enough. Also the LEGO gears do not seem precise enough to run well at high speed. Steve Putz Santa Clara, California