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FC-130: pimping the Tamiya gearbox?

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Hank Fletcher

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Instead of burning out the FA-130 motors that come with the Tamiya gearbox sets by running them with a greater voltage than the 1.5V nominal the datasheet recommends, I thought I'd look around to see if there are any motors that are drop-in compatible but rated for a greater voltage.

The hardest thing is finding one that has the same physical dimensions as the FA-130, so that the replacement fits well into the pre-fab Tamiya gearboxes. It looks like there might be some out there, though, possibly even available on surplus. F(x) -130 seems to indicate motors with identical dimensions, with the (x) being some sort of indicator of voltage rating.

A test done at Pololu appears to prove that running the motor a bit over-voltage does result in considerably wear. If I'm going to increase the stress in the Tamiya gearboxes over specs, I want to try with a higher voltage motor, and cross my fingers that the gears will be up to the task of the extra torque.

But I'm still on the hunt. Can you help me find a motor with identical specs to the ones that come with the Tamiya gearboxes, with the exception of a higher voltage rating? The dimension details of the FA-130 can also be found at Pololu. Thanks!
 
I'm not sure you'll be lucky, but I'm interested all the same, as my gearbox should arrive this week. I expect all small motors will be similarly rated. I expect it wouldn't be too hard though to adapt the gearbox to take larger motors though.
 
Hey! I'd thought the Mabuchi website would be harder to navigate, but I found this pretty quick.
**broken link removed**
Looks like I was right about the motor number/motor dimensions thing, at least at a glance.

Still, I need somewhere I can buy them (the FA-130 alternative, I mean), if anyone has any leads! I'm looking forward to finding out what effect this will have on the Tamiya gearboxes!
 
Comparing the FA and FC datasheets side-by-side, they're identical with the exception of one dimension on the right-hand side image. I've never been able to figure out exactly what that dimension refers to. Any ideas?
 
A greater voltage won't give you more power if the current consumption is halved, in which case you'll have exactly the same amount of power.
 
The FA-130 motors from the gearbox set show a torque table for the different gear ratios. As a footnote they specify...Torque of type RA-130 motor (3V). So you may have the 3V nomimal voltage model already.

So how do you tell which model of FA-130 you have?
 
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A while back I was looking into motors for the gearbox too. Here is what I wrote.

I stumbled onto these which may or may not work with the Tamyia Double Gearbox. They come from the same family of motors. They are the same physical size as the original.
1.5-3VDCMiniature Motors 6600-8800 RPM 15x20mm x 25mm long 230-710mADC 3-pole Permanent Magnet 2mm dia shaft SPEC=FA-130RA typically used in razors tools instruments & toys 2/$1.00 Sppec's avail. "Call for Sale Price 1K@$0.333 Each."
**broken link removed**
At the bottom of the page

Alternate Part Number:9-032 R&D0967 FA-130RA sold in sets of 2

The original Tamyia motors are FA-130RA 18100's.
https://www.pololu.com/file/download/fa_130ra.pdf?file_id=0J11
 
EDIT: Maybe not... They only show 5 units in stock and I can only find the motor when I am not signed into their site. Keep looking.

These guys have the original motor .


The link in my previous post did not work try this for the motor specs.
https://www.pololu.com/file/download/fa_130ra.pdf?file_id=0J11

EDIT:
It looks like of the 3 motors listed the one provided is the better to use.
The above link wants less then $2 for them but I have not looked at where they are or shipping.
At about $3 or $4 a set on could afford to replace them?

Keep in mind that you may loose some voltage going through the H-Bridge or transistors that control the motor. With a simple h-bridge created with cheap transistors it can be quite a bit.
 
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Yeah, I think I'd planned on 5V for the recorder. I know I spurred on a rather lengthy thread awhile back re PWM to use the SN754410 within its >5V limit, but if there's a product swap (via the FC-130) that's more compatible, I'd rather do that. How do you manage on the mongoose with the SN754410 and the FA-130, just run them at 5V? Given the Pololu test, and what you could read into the results, there's arguably little difference in how long the product will last (particularly with respect to total revs) at the various voltages.
 
Hmm... I had thought I had checked the outputs of the SN754410, and I don't remember noticing that. Do you mean that with the motor, there's a voltage drop due to the resistance of the motor? Would there be the same drop if using a regulated supply for motor power?
 
I would just like to thank whoever negative repped me for the above post. Yes, perhaps it wasn't wonderfully helpful, but I did make a suggestion, and it wasn't "can Haz help plz?"

Perhaps whoever it was would like to justify it?
 
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I would just like to thank whoever negative repped me for the above post. Yes, perhaps it wasn't wonderfully helpful, but I did make a suggestion, and it wasn't "can Haz help plz?"

Perhaps whoever it was would like to justify it?
For the record, it wasn't me!

You came to the same conclusion I had: that it might be easy enough to modify the gearboxes to accommodate motors of slightly different shapes. Ideally, I thought I'd see if I could find any other motors that were as close to exact as possible. I still say the 4.5V nominal rated FC-130 would be a better product for Tamiya to use, but maybe it wasn't in production when they first developed their various gearboxes?

Let me know how easy you think some modification will be once you get your gearbox. Making sure the shaft is where it ought to be seems like the biggest challenge. I can see some leeway with gearbox models with plastic frames, but the one I'm most interested in modding now is the universal gearbox, which has a metal frame.
 
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Hank Fletcher said:
Let me know how easy you think some modification will be once you get your gearbox. Making sure the shaft is where it ought to be seems like the biggest challenge. I can see some leeway with gearbox models with plastic frames, but the one I'm most interested in modding now is the universal gearbox, which has a metal frame.

Ah! I thought you meant the plastic ones, I'm getting the double gearbox. Looking at photos of the universal one, I think it would be possible to modify it as well, a motor bracket would need to be made though. Is it more power you're after, or higher voltage tolerance?
 
Is it more power you're after, or higher voltage tolerance?
I thought it'd be fun to see if I could put a bit more power through the gearboxes, but now knowing what I know about the FC-130, and it being essentially dimension-perfect to the FA-130, I just wish the FC-130 came stock with the Tamiya gearboxes instead. I guess my main criteria for that desire is that the FC-130 seems better suited to the specs for the above mentioned h-bridge IC (more appropriate voltage and current ranges with the FC-130), so it's mainly a convenience-of-compatibility issue.
 
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