mini motors and gearing...

i thought i d ad this thread to help out all of us scratchbuilders,,maybe it will. finding mini motors at a good price can be very daunting!! there s lots out there to choose from,, whats your favorite? mine,, i love the tiny pager motors. i ve used old watch parts with them, and have geared them as low as about 50 rpm, but finding old worn out watches is a job in itself. garage sales, ebay once in a blue moon, watch stores, but the stores can get expensive. the mini max, or geared mini motors are great, like the ones i pictured, but they run up to 20 buks a motor,, not for using hundreds of. my buddy works at a produce place, and keeps all the temperature regulaters from the trucks. their very slow, marking the temperature hourly on a graph paper. i take them apart for their tiny gears, they have many! i ve got boxes of these things laying around, as he brings me over a hundred units each month. if anyone would like a few, just email me, love to get rid of some, you just pay the shipping, ok.

does any of you guys have a favorite? has anyone found a good place to buy cheap motors? or have any connections to any good gears worth using? canada mike

MIke,
Joe D told me our hobby shop here in Medford has lots of neat plastic gears that are used for RC cars.
I haven't checked them out yet, but will do so soon. We'll be needing slow turning DC motors and likely gears this coming year so I'm on the prowl too.
Loren

Mike,
Found some good gear motors.....but as you said, kind of spendy.
Here's a 2 PRM version for $22.00 with a 4.5-12 volt range.

www.jameco.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10001&catalogId=10001&productId=155012

Loren

heres a good link,, lots of cool motors and things for us builders www.hobbyengineering.com even takes paypal. great wire prices, but again,, pricey on those geared motors, except the white units they carry. and the pager motors are a good price as well. canada mike

I just spent the last twenty minutes building a list of links a mile long, and my session timed out. Then the forum freaked out, kept giving me error messages that I had cookies turned off (I don't), followed by incorrect password errors (my password is automatically filled in). It took me almost as long to log back in as I spent on the link list. I guess Z Central Station doesn't want my links...

David K. Smith wrote:Then the forum freaked out, kept giving me error messages that I had cookies turned off (I don't), followed by incorrect password errors (my password is automatically filled in). It took me almost as long to log back in as I spent on the link list.[/quote]



Mr. Smith, I've had these same issues often with ZCS. I'm automatically log-on when I visit the site. But, I still much click on the "HOME" tab when I first visit, just to make sure that I'm "really" log-on. There have been numerous times were I have written a long and detailed question or reply, click "submit"... only for the next page to tell me I need to log-on!

Alex

Tokyo, Japan

The same thing has happened to me many times.I noticed that if i dont go from the home page to the post i want to add to, i get the "you are not logged in" message

Steve aka "Slugger"

Seems like this thread is hi-jacked. Brad was doing some work today with Chat and is now gone for the weekend and probably not going to address these issues until next weekend. I don't seem to have your exact issues, but I have to Login almost every visit now. That means about 25 times a day. Big Bummer. I will have him read this thread and see what he could do. Actually there are existing Forum titles already for these kind of issues. We should use them. Cheers, Jim CCRR PS More Photos on the Home Page now.

Your problem guys is not necessarily universal - I remain logged on with no problems and posting is fine as well ...


and:

...Seems like this thread is hi-jacked...

hmm, interesting ...

Socalz44 wrote:

Seems like this thread is hi-jacked... Actually there are existing Forum titles already for these kind of issues. We should use them. Cheers, Jim CCRR

My apologies. I have posed my message in the appropriate place.

bambuko wrote:

Your problem guys is not necessarily universal...

Didn't say it was. But it has done this to me using two different browsers on two different internet connections, so it does not appear to be an isolated issue, or one that's entirely client-oriented.

well,, im sorry i picked a most boring topic. i ll try harder next time. canada mike

Mike, It is not a boring topic. Possibly the fact that so few of you fellows know about this stuff that it is over the heads of the rest of us. Most members are still trying to get a small layout up and running and thinking about mini-motor conversions are light years away for them. m2cw. Cheers, Jim CCRR:unsure:

I agree with Jim. this is not a boring topic.i find this kind of post a great learning tool. I'm still young to this hobby( less then 5 years) and where else would i find such valuable infomation from such talented peoople that have been where i'm at right now. animation of the projects i'm working on was a thought of mine for the future but i didnt know where to look for direction on how to do it. then to my surprise, the topic of micro motors came up and i see the future getting closer with this new knowledge.Keep the great post coming everyone. And remember
"It's A Great Time To Be In Z"

Steve aka "Slugger"

I was looking at Conrad catalog in germany where they have some small motors and gears. Unfortunately I couldnt match the gears with the smallest motors as the motor axels were too small (or the holes in the gears were too big.)
I was thinking..is there any way one could run those tiny tiny motors that work on 3 volts,on small batteries or capacitors? Use some kind of IR contoller,? Somthing totally insulated from the DCC power but maybe be able to tap into the signal? I am thinking ..somthing that would fit into the speeder, or a VW railbus? Even if it is not controlled, you just clear the track, put it on the track by hand (well the prototype is put on the track by hand)and just let it rip down the track untill you catch it at the end of the line? Would a watch motor have enough power to propel a lightweight vehicle?

Using small motors with limited current draw just requires a ballast resistor just like an LED lamp does. Knowing the current limit of the motor and the max voltage from your power supply you can then figure the resistance required. As you are not likely to hit on a standard value of resistor just use the next higher value in standard values or use two in parallel or series to get close to the value calculated. IF you find your project running too fast then recalculate your resistor with a reduced amperage.

This gives you control over a bit wider range and protects you damaging your motor if you go above its voltage rating with your controller

cheerz Garth.

It's much safer to use diodes to control voltage for pager and other tiny motors than resistors. Motors in combination with resistors can produce unexpected behavior and risks damage to the motor. Using diodes guarantees the motor Vmax is never exceeded, regardless of the source voltage or current, and at the same time allows you to use the full range of a conventional throttle (or even DCC) to control the motor. More information on this technique is here:

whiteriverandnorthern.net/clinic_35.htm

NOW THAT WAS VERY INTERESTING!!! you know, i ve never thought of that, i ve just dropped the voltages til they worked best,, but yes, this link was very informative! good one!!

i have tons of problems trying to find the right gear inside sizes,, so i just fill in the hole with round solid styrene n glue it in place. then i made a jig to center any round object to perfect square,,,im a furniture designer,, and redrill the hole. i ve had some of my redrilled units still running from 5 years ago, no problems. go to any woodworking center and buy a small dowel centering tool, they run about 2 bucks. and stock up on number 60 to 80 drillbits.

sorry about the boring remark, i understand what you mean. canada mike

Hello Kelley,
Kelley wrote:

..somthing that would fit into the speeder, or a VW railbus?

I don't know how the progress currently is, but Axel Hempelmann is working on the VW railbus in Z since a few years. He had some other things to deal with but he wrote that he aims to get it done in 2009...
...well that's not that long anymore...

If you search in the ZFE forum for "KLV20" you will find more details. And I'm sure that Axel can help with more information about the motor and the gears he uses.