2010-03-10 » Very tiny motors!

I got the first 2 motors for my robot!

I ordered two GM20 motors from Solarbotics on Saturday and they came in the mail today. Though I’ve not tested these or any of the parts I ordered, I’m pretty happy with the pricing and ordering experience so far with Solarbotics. I’ve ordered electronics parts from a few places now: Sparkfun, Robotshop and now Sparkfun. These parts were shipped quickly and because I ordered enough stuff I got free shipping! I imagine the fact that Solarbotics is in Calgary helped with the shipping time. Their prices are pretty comparable and they also own HVW Technologies they’ve got a pretty good selection of parts. Overall, assuming that these parts all work I’ll definitely consider ordering from these guys again, even if only for the shipping.

I knew before I ordered them that these motors were small (the specs say 14mm) but when I opened the box they looked even smaller than I expected. These motors are tiny! Here’s an image showing a comparison to a nickel:

this motor is supposed to have a fair amount of torque though (37.70 in*oz), so we’ll have to see if it can drive my robot or not. My plan is to test with these two motors and get some wheels and see how things go. If tests show that these are powerful enough for my purposes I’ll be ordering 4 more and 4 more wheels.

P.S. I’ve updated my book list and rearranged it somewhat. I decided to try to add a list of books I’ve read in the past slowly. I figure this will help out for those who are either looking for a book to read, or trying to figure out which books not to get for me.