Team Psyclone: The Uprising (Of Build Diaries)

[overkill]

The G43-500 is a re-badged scooter motor. For about $40 less you get 1/3 the power and a much weaker output shaft & bearing. If you were planning to use chain or belt drive to the wheels, then this motor could be interesting - as long as 500W is enough to get the bot moving. I would use a simulator like the Tentacle Torque Calculator to check it. The calculator doesn't have all the exact motors you are considering, but there are some similar ones to give you an idea. Without knowing much about your design or crunching the numbers on the G43-500, I think its rather underpowered for a heavyweight.

[maddox10]

You can use the scooter motor. If you gear down a lot, resulting in a slow machine but steady machine. You could think about using 4 off'm

The build quality ain't so bad, but for RW, we need tougher stuff than what a cheap chinese electric scooter offers.

[TeamPsyclone]

After another quick scour of eBay, I have come across the same motors Krissy Knee on Facebook Robot Wars was talking about. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/24V-ELECTR...item2ece44cb47
Would these be suitable, or would they be too big etc...

[maddox10]

Big problem with this motor is the hardened gear for output shaft. Mounting anything else on it will involve very creative thinking.

Bigger problem, finding a replacement when it fails.

Biggest problem, weight. This motor is ment to be used the whole day, under constant, meaning everything is oversized and underpowered.

[overkill]

They are very large and heavy compared to the E30-400 and adapting that 22mm output gear to hold a chain sprocket would be a PITA. I would still go for the E30-400 or the GPA motors.

[overkill]

The golf buggy motor might actually be an OK choice for a Sewer Snake style weapon motor; it would have huge torque and it's relatively low RPM means less gearing. There is still that 16Kg to deal with though.

[TeamPsyclone]

So, in basic terms, either that american motor, or a decent scooter motor with ruggedization. Or beg on here for some wheelchair motors, since I have no local places to buy any, and ebay's not being friendly.

Actually, are mobility scooters too slow for this? If not, I may have a plan.

[overkill]

Are mobility scooters and wheelchair motors the same thing to you? All the wheelchair motors I have seen are around 200 rpm at their rated voltage, which seems slow to me. Unless you over-volt them and use large diameter wheels, they will probably be too slow. As Maddox already said, the other problem with eBay motors is finding replacements.

I looked at US heavyweights (which I am more familiar with) and they all seem to use at least 1HP motors. Using that as a baseline, you need at least a 750 watt motor and that G43-500 isn't up to it. When I started looking for larger scooter motors on eBay they were nearly all close to the price of the E30-400 Motor. As the scooter motors were all lower power and weaker construction than the E30-400, it seems quite a bargain to me.

What controllers are you planing to use for the drive motors? I seem to recall you saying that 24V was the highest you can go.

[TeamPsyclone]

As I said, the real killer on the Ampflow motors is the postage, and the time it takes to post them. It's £150 odd to get them posted, for a pair, whereas it's only >£100 for some pairs on Ebay, although as you and maddox say, replacements are are painful to source.
As for the controllers, I'm using some 4QD NCC70s, supplied by another forum member. IIRC they handle 24v, max.

On an interesting note, a 36v 1000w scooter motor is rather cheap, and on 24v still seems to be pretty quick for what it is, and to survive people going over allsorts on those types, I think it may be suitable for chain drive on a heavy... Although they are £90 each, so quite painful on the wallet.

[overkill]

Are you just looking at the postage from the Robot Marketplace? Its very steep so you might buy direct from Ampflow.

If you can get the 1000W scooter motors cheaper than the Ampflows + postage, then they will probably be fine. Buying two motors direct from Ampflow is $305 USD or about £182.