Alt-BEAM Archive
Message #09056
To: beam@sgiblab.sgi.com
From: Bob Shannon bshannon@tiac.net
Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2000 20:03:51 -0500
Subject: [alt-beam] Re: more on motors
Jonathan D Rogers wrote:
> OK, so how critical is the current consumption of a particular motor in a
> solarengine?
> I guess pager motors must be pretty low current, otherwise they'd kill
> the batteries in pagers rather quick.
> Is there a theoroetical limit to how much current you can draw from, say,
> a 1381-based solarengine? Would the storage cap affect that limit much?
The 1381 engine still has all the motor selectivity issues of the classic
solar
engine. The storage cap is a rather critical component for a number of
reasons.
> It's just that I have quite a few small Mabuchi motors from various
> things, like a printing calculator, tape recorder, and a couple of tape
> rewinders...
Mabucci makes more motors than all other makers combined. Some are very
efficienct, and work well with the 1381 engine.
> And I thought they might be suitable for a photopopper or solaroller.
Mabucci motors from CD Rom players are almost always an excellent bet.
Most motors from pocket tape recorders will also work.
What I do, is to have a 'standard' 1381-J SE circuit dedicated to motor
testing. I've
got terminals to connect different sized caps, and bitty alligator clips to
test
different motors.
I've spent some time experimenting with changing cap sizes, motor types,
wheel
arangements, and even tiny suspension systems in an effort to see how to get
the
most distance traveled per time under a given light level.
Very often the 'highest performance' bots don't use pager motors, but
something
more like the pancake motors Dave mentioned. (similar to the CD ROM drive
motors)
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