pic: 1156 Off season Fisher-Price gearbox

[Electronica1]

Originally Posted by Nuttyman54

The FP motor is an air-cooled motor (like the AM-9015 and the BaneBots motors). If it stops spinning it loses its cooling and burns up very quickly. This is also the first stage off the motor, and this motor does not generate a lot of torque off the shaft (high speed, low torque). The motor will stall long before the plastic gear strips, and then you let the magic smoke out and that lovely burnt motor smell fills the air.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I seem to recall that FP motors had face mounted vent holes, so an improvement to this gearbox design could be to add openings in the plate to allow air to flow through. (unless you have them and I just didn't notice them in the picture, in which case, props to you)

[Henrique Schmit]

Originally Posted by Electronica1

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I seem to recall that FP motors had face mounted vent holes, so an improvement to this gearbox design could be to add openings in the plate to allow air to flow through. (unless you have them and I just didn't notice them in the picture, in which case, props to you)

Good thinking there. Yes, they have those vent holes and we could have even opened some space for them, yet i don't think that we could do much, since they are close to the holes and with this adjustable design and thin plates it the area around the mounting holes could get a little fragile if we opened too much space for ventilation.

[MrForbes]

Over the years we've made a few of our own FP gearboxes, for use in applications where the motor is not likely to stall. That means, powering a roller, not an arm. They have worked well, and we didn't make them nearly this fancy. The cooling holes are a good idea. The motor location needs to be set by the mounting hole for the motor pilot (the large area around the bearing, on the end plate, just behind the gear), and not by the mounting screws. The screws are just too small to be able to hold things in place on their own.

Good work, and it's a really neat project!