7. Gears and Gearmotors
If you take an ordinary DC motor from a hobby shop and apply power to its leads, you’ll see that the shaft rotates quickly—hundreds or thousands of rotations per minute. But if you attach a significant load to the shaft, it may not turn at all. This is a frequent problem for makers building motorized systems: The motor rotates at high speed but can’t exert the necessary amount of torque.
A common solution is to buy special motors called gearmotors. A gearmotor is an integrated combination of an electric motor and a gear. The gear increases the torque delivered to the load and reduces the motor’s speed. Now the problem is to select the right gearmotor. Should you buy the 6:1 spur gearmotor or the 26:1 planetary gearmotor? ...
Get Motors for Makers: A Guide to Steppers, Servos, and Other Electrical Machines now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
