What is your favorite motor....

[David Brinza]

The Globe motors are great, but if you damage one, finding a spare can be a challenge (they're not for sale from the manufacturer or distributors):
FIRST Q&A: Spare Globe Motors

In another FIRST Q&A response, FIRST suggests using Globe motors from prior year KOP or contacting other FIRST teams that do not use Globe motors in their robot.

You are limited by rule to two Globe motors on your robot, if you're careless or unlucky, you might find the practical limit to be less than two!

[Rob]

Hi Guys,

Since I like this thread alot, I am going to expand by ranking the motors:

1) Small CIM motor. This is a real winner as it replaced the old drill motors as the primary drivetrain motor. You can say what you want about the kit transmissions, but those of us who recall the dark days of drill motors know how much this motor means to the competition. Working drive systems are the backbone of this competition.

2) Fisher Price motor. This is very versatile and the plastic gearbox is much better than alot of people give it credit for. Can be used in many applications from drive to arms to conveyors, just don't plan to use it at stall!

3) Globe motor. This one narrowly slips behind the FP because it is lower power, but it is easy to mount and interface with and is great in many applications.

4) Denso window motor. This thing is great. It is very lightweight, packs some punch for it's size and is easy to mount. It is a bit hard to interface with even with the plastic adapter in the kit. I wish we had 2 of these in the kit this year.

5) Keyang window motor. Great little motor, good performance, easy to mount but also hard to interface with. Falls behind the Denso because it is much heavier.

6) Big CIM motor. This motor is an anomaly to me. It is gigantic and heavy and has about 2/3 the power of the big CIM. It is also very hard to interface with due to the goofy front face and advesive attached pulley.

7) Banebots & Mabuchi motors. these are only good for light duty applications like conveyors. You have to baby these as they are not very robust, especially if you use the planetary gearboxes with them. Advantage is they are very lightweight.

I think I covered them all here. I also have to give honorable mention to 2 motors included in past kits: Favorbale mention goes to the Van Door motor. Great motor for arm applications even if a bit heavy. The dishonorbale mention goes to the orange toruqe motor that was included in the 2002 KOP. I think 1 team used it. We still have ours hanging around somewhere.

Have fun everyone!

RAZ

[MrForbes]

The small CIMs definitely win for drivetrains.

We have very little experience with the other motors, but did spend quite a bit of time analyzing them while deciding which to use to run the arm.....and ended up using the Banebots motor with a 36mm 125:1 gearbox. The fact that it appears to have been designed and built to be used in robotics applications is a BIG plus, the shaft is designed to put a sprocket on, and the gearbox has several sets of mounting holes. The problem is that you need to have a good appreciation of the fact that it is relatively fragile inside. You can't expect to get a lot of torque out if it (10% of rated stall torque is about the practical limit), nor have it survive repeated full power back-and-forth motion. If you use the banebots transmissions, you must take extra effort to design whatever it is that it actuates so that the transmission is protected. Also the motor will quickly smoke if you put power to it when it is up against an immovable load, so you have to make sure the system is designed with some failsafes.

(thanks to the kind folks here at CD for informing us of all these limitations, so we learned the "easy way" instead of the "hard way"!)

[David Brinza]

Originally Posted by squirrel

The small CIMs definitely win for drivetrains.

We have very little experience with the other motors, but did spend quite a bit of time analyzing them while deciding which to use to run the arm.....and ended up using the Banebots motor with a 36mm 125:1 gearbox. The fact that it appears to have been designed and built to be used in robotics applications is a BIG plus, the shaft is designed to put a sprocket on, and the gearbox has several sets of mounting holes. The problem is that you need to have a good appreciation of the fact that it is relatively fragile inside. You can't expect to get a lot of torque out if it (10% of rated stall torque is about the practical limit), nor have it survive repeated full power back-and-forth motion. If you use the banebots transmissions, you must take extra effort to design whatever it is that it actuates so that the transmission is protected. Also the motor will quickly smoke if you put power to it when it is up against an immovable load, so you have to make sure the system is designed with some failsafes.

(thanks to the kind folks here at CD for informing us of all these limitations, so we learned the "easy way" instead of the "hard way"!)

Yes, the Banebot motors do smoke quite readily. The good news is replacement motors are quite inexpensive ($3.55/ea). We ordered 10!

[RyanN]

1. Small CIM Motor
2. Van Door Motor
3. Globe Motor
4. Window Motor
5. Mabuchi/Banebots
6. Fisher Price Motor

I placed the Fisher Price motor very last for a very obvious reason, they burn out very very easily. The Mabuchi/Banebots is at 5 because of the Banebots part... The banebots transmission on our arm is getting a lot of slack, and I'm afraid that it's starting to bow. I would place the window motor higher up if they had not changed them from the '05 window motors. The new one's seem so cheap. I like the globe motor a lot... Quiet, strong, durable... it's one of FIRST's old great motors that has been around for a long time. I like and miss the van door motor a lot... strong durable and such an easy motor to adapt to a design, only drawback is that it's not worm gear driven (or at least it doesn't act this way). Now my favorite, the CIM motor. The powerhouse of FIRST robotics is the CIM motor. This motor is used in almost every drive train I've seen. These motors are strong and durable. We've been using them for the past 3 years without any of them burning out and they always have enough torque for our applications.

[BRosser314]

MAke this a poll to find out a little better

[Jeff Waegelin]

I vote for the CIM, hands down. I've used them on drivetrains for 5 of the last 6 years, and never once have I had a single problem. Those of us who remember the old Bosch drill motors, and how they had a tendency to overheat and trip breakers in the middle of a match have a great appreciation for this tank of a motor. If it weren't for their weight, I would use these motors (and their larger cousins) for every motor on my robot this year.

[Rich Ross]

I don't assemble much by way of drivetrains, and if i did, i would immidiately vote for the small CIM motor. Being more of a small scale robot applications guy, i've grown extremely fond of the Globe motor. It has problems, but all those problems are obvious. If you treat it nice, it will treat you better. Just make sure to support the other end of the shaft. Banebots, once i get used to them, can possibly take its place, but they dont seem to have as much overall power, and they dont give too much of a weight benefit either.

[Scott Morgan]

my favorites are the fisher price motors, for providing lots of power in a small/lightweight package
and the globe motors for being very rugged

[Lil' Lavery]

I cannot decide between the Small CIM and the Globe motors (the only two motors featured on 116 this year).
The CIMs are much more reliable and easier to work with than the old Bosch motors, have very little bias, and deliver one heck of a punch. The ability to use up to 4 of them certainly helps as well. While some people complain about the KoP transmissions this year, at least the primary drive-train motors are reliable!
The globes are lightweight, have a built in planetary reduction, and are great for manipulators. They are relatively easy to work with, and are very compact. They may burn-out if abused, but if you treat them properly they get the job done well. 116 used them in tandem on our shoulder this year, and they have been doing really well. They almost deliver too much power!

[sporno]

personally its not the motor im patrial to its the gear box... its all about the gearing .. i guess its part of being a car guy

[Drewsterrules11]

My favorite motor for our drives is no question the small cim. It was a great change from the old drill motors we had to use back in the day.

My other favorite motor is the Fisher Price. We use this motor to lift our platforms 12 inches this year. I was surprised when i found out they had enough power but they did.

[AdamHeard]

Hands down, small CIM.

[Billfred]

If the question is drive, the answer is small CIM. A keen eye may note two large CIMs on our drivetrain this year. That's only because we're using one small CIM on the arm, since the BaneBots setup was far easier to work with than trying to figure out how to interface with the large CIM. If we were to switch out the arm CIM for some other motors for whatever reason, I'd definitely make the switch back as time allowed.

For arms, I much enjoyed the van door motor (it was on both of 1293's lifts during my tenure), and have been quite satisfied with the Denso motor thus far on 1618's arm (those black hubs are lovely). Looking at 1902's method of adapting the Globe motor down at UCF, however, has made me realize that perhaps I haven't given it a fair shake.

[kevin.li.rit]

That 400hp electric motor they use on the Epcot test track ride.