Motors

[Scooperman]

I am planning to build a new robot and went to the Gimpson site to buy a couple of GR02s. Imagine my shock when I found that they are discontinued. I have found the Gimpson geared motors to be very good but now have to think about what to use instead. I don't want to use cheap Argos drills as they blow up much to easily but also don't want to spend loads (The Gimpson price was about right for me). Any ideas as to what a good alternative might be?

[plargen]

some of the ryobi drill are good quality ive had some running for 2 years with no problems and the only maintenance ive had to do was tighten up the 2 screws holding the motor in place

[Danny B]

What have you been doing with the motors? I've been running Mecha Sombra on Argos drill motors just fine for 4 events now, they've barely even gotten warm.

[Eventorizon]

I have heard that depending where you go the Argos drills can have either plastic or metal gears. This makes a massive difference to reliability & longevity.
It may be possible to buy drills from Argos, check if they are plastic and then some metal gears from Gimson Roboics and swap them out if they are indeed plastic. It might also be a mix, ie stage 1 is plastic and stages 2 & 3 might be metal so if you can, go all metal.
Other tips are to support the other end of the motor shaft to reduce strain on the gearboxes which will help them last longer and after every event dismantle, clean and re lubricate the gearboxes so any swarf and bits from the arena cant ruin the teeth and have the gearbox eat itself.
Ellis at Team Expat knows a lot about how to keep drills running. If you really need some help he may be able to answer any difficult questions.

[Danjr1]

Argos drills now seem to be all metal gears with a D shaft on the motor so i think there's been some improvements but don't take this as gospel truth as some stores might have old stock. Personally i'd try to minimise taking the gearboxes apart unless you have to. That way the threads in the plastic will keep for longer and you can easily block the bearing holes with the way you mount them or grub screws.

[adz600]

whats the verdict for how good 750banebots motor gearbox units are as i also use gimson drives , so for the extra cost the 755 looks a powerful well made unit

[Eventorizon]

I have 16:1 Gearboxes with 775's in Conker 3 on 73mm wheels. Provided you support them correctly at the back, which I didn't so in my 3rd fight the motor disengaged from the gearbox, they are epic.
722 also uses the same on 124mm wheels and gets wheel spin so yeah, they are powerful.

[suvv]

sorry to chip in on this but i was planning to get a pair of these:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Bosch-PSR1...item27ea944f55
for my first build and they look diffrent to the ones that argos have am i getting smaller motors or just being really daft

[Danny B]

If the Argos ones are metal nowadays, does anyone know if these are likely to be the same? They seem to be about the best value 18-volters I can find.
http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Produc...uctInformation

[Mega Masher]

I've got the 12v versions and they run fine