Posts by Ben (Page 8)

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New Pololu 60×8mm wheels for FEETECH FS90R micro servos

Posted by Ben on 16 September 2015
Tags: new products

Continuous rotation servos like FEETECH’s FS90R are popular actuators for beginner robots because of their low cost and ease of use—since the motor controller is built right into the actuator, it can be controlled directly from a microcontroller or RC receiver. However, to complete the drive system, you need wheels, and that is something that we have not been able to offer for the FS90R until today. I am excited to introduce the new 60×8mm wheels for FS90R micro servos, which should make it much easier to get your FS90R-based miniature robot rolling.

All that said, we still generally recommend creating custom drive systems out of individual motor drivers, DC motors, and wheels over continuous rotations servos, since that gives you much more control over performance. Continuous rotation servos are more appropriate for projects where cost and simplicity are more important than performance, and with these wheels and the FS90R, this approach is simpler and more affordable than ever.

Pololu Labor Day weekend sale

Posted by Ben on 4 September 2015



We are having a big Labor Day sale throughout the weekend, with 15% discounts on over 700 products when you use the coupon code LABORDAY15. Note that we will be closed on Monday, so orders placed after 2 PM Pacific Time on Friday, September 4 will be shipped on Tuesday, September 8.

For more information, including all of the sale items, see the sale page.

New products: Assembled Zumo 32U4 robots

Posted by Ben on 28 August 2015
Tags: new products

Customers have been requesting an assembled version of our Zumo 32U4 robot kit ever since we released it in March, so it makes me very happy to be able to announce that we now have three pre-assembled Zumo 32U4 robots to choose from:

The three options differ only in their motors, and while the speed and torque vary across the three gear ratios, the peak output power is the same for all of them. You could maximize speed (i.e. 50:1 motors) or torque (100:1 motors), or perhaps you are looking for something in the middle (75:1 motors). The following table compares the gear ratio in more detail, with the first four columns showing specifications of the gearmotors by themselves and the last showing the measured top speed of a Zumo chassis loaded to a weight of 500 g:

Micro Metal
Gearmotor
Free-Run Speed
@ 6V
Stall Torque
@ 6V
Stall Current
@ 6V
Top Zumo Speed
@ 6V and 500g
50:1 HP 625 RPM 15 oz·in 1600 mA 40 in/s (100 cm/s)
75:1 HP 400 RPM 22 oz·in 1600 mA 25 in/s (65 cm/s)
100:1 HP 320 RPM 30 oz·in 1600 mA 20 in/s (50 cm/s)

These three gearmotors are the ones we consider best suited for typical Zumo 32U4 applications (and many of our example programs are tuned to work with 75:1 HP motors), but we have many other gear ratios available that you can use when assembling the kit version of the Zumo 32U4 robot.

At this point, you might be wondering why it took so long for us to make an assembled Zumo 32U4 robot. Well, we have been working on several improvements to the Zumo 32U4 ever since releasing the kit, and we wanted to have them all in place before coming out with these more finished assembled products. The first improvement was to the sprockets, which changed from white with solid hubs to black with spokes. These new sprockets fit better on the motor shafts and make assembly and disassembly easier, and we think they just look cooler! They might also help you hide from your opponent’s IR sensors, but the color is of course no use against other sensing technologies like sonar.

Assembled Zumo 32U4 robot with older white sprockets (side view).

Assembled Zumo 32U4 robot with new black sprockets (side view).

The second improvement was to make a new component to hold and shield the IR LEDs used by the proximity sensor system. Without this, the LEDs are just supported by their leads and shielded by a piece of heat shrink (see the pictures above), and we wanted something better. Now the kit and assembled versions include a plastic LED holder that mounts directly to the front blade:

Finally, we have improved the blade. They are now stamped rather than laser-cut, and we have added cutouts around the general-purpose mounting holes so that they can be hand-bent to new angles as desired, independent of the blade angle. This new blade also has the chassis mounting tabs pre-bent to the appropriate angle, so that’s one less step required during assembly of the kit.

Original laser-cut Zumo 32U4 blade.

New stamped and pre-bent Zumo 32U4 blade.

And speaking of the kit, we still strongly encourage people to get the Zumo 32U4 kit and build it themselves. We designed the Zumo 32U4 to be a starting point, and building it yourself will make you more comfortable with customizing and enhancing it. Making it yourself will also make it a little more meaningful when your robot triumphs over the competition!

New products: 12V versions of the 25D mm metal gearmotors

Posted by Ben on 7 August 2015
Tags: new products

Our 25D mm metal gearmotors are now available with 12 V motors in three power levels: High-Power (HP 12V) (5.5 A stall), Medium-Power (MP 12V) (2.1 A stall), and Low-Power (LP 12V) (1.1 A stall). The new 12 V LP motor can deliver approximately the same power as its 6 V counterpart, but since the voltage is doubled, it only requires half the current to do so, which means you can control it with lower-current, higher-voltage motor drivers like the DRV8801 or MAX14870 motor driver carriers. At their respective nominal voltages, the 12V HP motor has nearly the same free-run speed as the 6V HP motor, but it produces approximately twice the torque, which in turn means approximately double the output power. The 12V MP motors fall nicely between the 12V LP and HP options, offering a significantly more power than the LPs without the large current draw of the HPs. All five motor variants are the same size, which makes it easy to swap one for another if your design requirements change.

As with our original 6 V options, we have paired these new motors with a variety of gearboxes spanning gear ratios from 4.4:1 through 378:1. The result is 26 new versions, bringing our total selection of 25D mm metal gearmotors to more than 50 options. Unfortunately, we do not have encoder options for the 12 V motors yet, but we should have those later this year.

Rated
Voltage
Motor Type Stall
Current
@ Rated Voltage
No-Load
Speed
@ Rated Voltage
Approximate
Stall Torque
@ Rated Voltage


With Encoder


Without Encoder
6 V high-power
(HP)
6.5 A 9800 RPM 2 oz-in 1:1 HP 6V w/encoder
2200 RPM 8 oz-in 4.4:1 HP 6V w/encoder 4.4:1 HP 6V
1000 RPM 17 oz-in 9.7:1 HP 6V w/encoder 9.7:1 HP 6V
480 RPM 36 oz-in 20.4:1 HP 6V
285 RPM 60 oz-in 34:1 HP 6V w/encoder 34:1 HP 6V
210 RPM 80 oz-in 47:1 HP 6V w/encoder 47:1 HP 6V
130 RPM 130 oz-in 75:1 HP 6V w/encoder 75:1 HP 6V
100 RPM 160 oz-in 99:1 HP 6V w/encoder 99:1 HP 6V
57 RPM 260 oz-in 172:1 HP 6V
6 V low-power
(LP)
2.4 A 6100 RPM 1 oz-in 1:1 LP 6V w/encoder
1400 RPM 5 oz-in 4.4:1 LP 6V
630 RPM 11 oz-in 9.7:1 LP 6V w/encoder 9.7:1 LP 6V
300 RPM 24 oz-in 20.4:1 LP 6V
180 RPM 40 oz-in 34:1 LP 6V w/encoder 34:1 LP 6V
130 RPM 50 oz-in 47:1 LP 6V w/encoder 47:1 LP 6V
82 RPM 85 oz-in 75:1 LP 6V w/encoder 75:1 LP 6V
62 RPM 110 oz-in 99:1 LP 6V
36 RPM 170 oz-in 172:1 LP 6V w/encoder 172:1 LP 6V
27 RPM 220 oz-in 227:1 LP 6V
16 RPM 250 oz-in 378:1 LP 6V
12 RPM 300 oz-in 499:1 LP 6V
12 V high-power
(HP)
5.5 A 2200 RPM 23 oz-in 4.4:1 HP 12V
1000 RPM 44 oz-in 9.7:1 HP 12V
480 RPM 85 oz-in 20.4:1 HP 12V
285 RPM 120 oz-in 34:1 HP 12V
210 RPM 165 oz-in 47:1 HP 12V
130 RPM 240 oz-in 75:1 HP 12V
100 RPM 300 oz-in 99:1 HP 12V
12 V medium-power
(MP)
2.1 A 1750 RPM 11 oz-in 4.4:1 MP 12V
800 RPM 22 oz-in 9.7:1 MP 12V
375 RPM 42 oz-in 20.4:1 MP 12V
225 RPM 63 oz-in 34:1 MP 12V
165 RPM 85 oz-in 47:1 MP 12V
100 RPM 125 oz-in 75:1 MP 12V
77 RPM 165 oz-in 99:1 MP 12V
45 RPM 250 oz-in 172:1 MP 12V
34 RPM 320 oz-in 227:1 MP 12V
12 V low-power
(LP)
1.1 A 1250 RPM 8 oz-in 4.4:1 LP 12V
570 RPM 15 oz-in 9.7:1 LP 12V
270 RPM 29 oz-in 20.4:1 LP 12V
160 RPM 43 oz-in 34:1 LP 12V
115 RPM 60 oz-in 47:1 LP 12V
75 RPM 85 oz-in 75:1 LP 12V
55 RPM 115 oz-in 99:1 LP 12V
32 RPM 180 oz-in 172:1 LP 12V
24 RPM 240 oz-in 227:1 LP 12V
15 RPM 320 oz-in 378:1 LP 12V


Keep in mind that stalling or overloading gearmotors can greatly decrease their lifetimes and even result in immediate damage. For these gearboxes, the recommended upper limit for instantaneous torque is 200 oz-in (15 kg-cm), and we strongly advise keeping applied loads well under this limit. Stalls can also result in rapid (potentially on the order of seconds) thermal damage to the motor windings and brushes, especially for the versions that use high-power (HP) motors; a general recommendation for brushed DC motor operation is 25% or less of the stall current.

Brushed DC motor performance curves.

We list stall torques and currents for our gearmotors because these are end points of approximately linear DC motor performance curves shown above, and with them you can determine how the motor will behave as the voltage or load changes. For more information about how to generate specific performance curves for our gearmotors from the specifications we provide, see the first frequently asked question on any of the motor product pages.

Single-color packs of 3″ jumper wires

Posted by Ben on 5 August 2015
Tags: new products

We have had a lot of requests for single-color packs of our 3″ Premium Jumper Wires and Wires with Pre-crimped Terminals, which until now have only been available in 50-piece rainbow packs like this. I am happy to announce that we have now added monochromatic 3″ packs in six colors: black, red, yellow, green, blue, and white. Multiply that by three different gender combinations (i.e. female-female, male-female, and male-male) and two styles (i.e. with or without housings), and that’s 36 new products in all!

New 1000:1 Micro Metal Gearmotors

Posted by Ben on 4 August 2015
Tags: new products

We have two new versions of our Micro Metal Gearmotors with 1000:1 gearboxes: low-power with an extended motor shaft, which is useful if you want a very slow gearmotor with an option for encoder feedback, and medium power (MP). The main applications in which these motors shine are ones where slow, smooth motion is required. The high gear ratio also allows these gearmotors to generate high torque without drawing as much current or stressing the motor as much as if you tried to get comparable torque from versions with lower gear ratios, but at typical voltages you might not actually achieve a higher torque before the gears fail. (The stall torques we list are theoretical because these 1000:1 gearboxes can generate enough torque to destroy themselves before they get close to stalling!)

These new additions bring our Micro Metal Gearmotor selection to 57 (I have an idea for a Heinz joke to put here, but it’s not coming out very well), all of which can be found in our Micro Metal Gearmotor category.

New product: Pololu Ball Caster with 1″ Plastic Ball

Posted by Ben on 17 July 2015
Tags: new products

This new ball caster is an improved version of our original ball caster with 1″ plastic ball, with better rollers for reduced friction and a two-part ABS housing that securely encloses the plastic ball. The ball can rotate freely in any direction, making this caster suitable for use as a third contact point for wheeled, differential-drive robots weighing up to around ten pounds (the smaller ball caster on our 3pi robot is an example of this kind of application).

We designed the rollers to be replaceable by ball bearings for even better performance, and we expect to release a version that includes them by the end of summer. If you’re impatient, you can make this upgrade yourself by getting some standard 3×7×3mm ball bearings (3 mm inner diameter, 7 mm outer diameter, 3 mm width) along with 3 mm diameter dowel pins to hold them. The left picture below shows dowel pins we crudely cut ourselves in 8 mm segments from a longer rod.

Standard 3×7×3mm ball bearings with 8mm-long dowel pins crudely cut from a 3mm-diameter metal rod.

Pololu Ball Caster (item #2691) assembled with ball bearings and a metal ball (not included) .

You can also replace the included plastic ball with a metal one (not included) if a harder ball would better suit your application, but please note that a metal ball is much heavier and will not necessarily increase the load-bearing capacity of the ball caster.

Check out the product page for more information, or visit the ball caster category for more options, including ball sizes down to 3/8″.

Independence Day weekend sale

Posted by Ben on 2 July 2015


In celebration of Independence Day (July 4th), we are putting our entire catalog on sale at 10% to 25% off through the end of Monday, July 6. Note that we will be closed tomorrow, so orders will not ship until Monday, July 6.

For more information, including all the discount coupon codes, see the sale page.

Happy 4th of July!

New products: 0.1″ (2.54 mm) screw terminal blocks

Posted by Ben on 29 June 2015
Tags: new products

We are excited about our new 0.1″ terminal blocks because they can typically be soldered to PCBs in place of standard 0.1″ male and female headers, offering alternative board-to-wire connection options that can be especially convenient in cases where you know you will be dealing with stripped, unterminated wires. For example, the following picture shows an 8-pin terminal block spanning the control connections of a VNH5019 motor driver carrier:

There are some low components (e.g. resistors and capacitors) near the motor driver’s 0.1″ holes, but the terminal block is able to comfortably sit on top of them. In cases where there is not sufficient clearance from tall, nearby components, it might be possible to use the terminal blocks on the bottom side of the PCB. The following picture is an example of this, with a 4-pin terminal block used for the motor and motor power connections of a DRV8801 motor driver carrier:

And in case these pictures are giving the illusion of large PCBs rather than tiny terminal blocks, we have for your viewing pleasure a picture of these terminal blocks in a 0.1″ prototyping board (Adafruit’s Perma-Proto prototyping PCB) next to some standard 0.1″ male header pins:

These terminal blocks cannot be combined into longer strips or placed side-by-side on a 0.1″ grid, so you will need to get the exact lengths required by your application. Fortunately, we have nine lengths to choose from, from two pins through ten pins!

New product: shorter 12 mm hex wheel adapter for 6mm shafts

Posted by Ben on 26 June 2015
Tags: new products

We now have a shorter (20 mm) 12 mm Hex Wheel Adapter for 6 mm Shaft as an alternative to our original 35 mm extended version. These adapters work well with our 37D mm metal gearmotors, allowing you to use them with many common hobby RC wheels.

12mm Hex Wheel Adapter for 6mm Shaft connecting a Wild Thumper Wheel to a 37D mm Metal Gearmotor.

For our full selection of these adapters, see our hex wheel adapter category.

New Products

VL53L8CX Time-of-Flight 8×8-Zone Distance Sensor Carrier with Voltage Regulators, 400cm Max
3.3V, 3.7A Step-Down Voltage Regulator D30V30F3
7.5V, 2.5A Step-Up/Step-Down Voltage Regulator S13V25F7
Ribbon Cable Premium Jumper Wires 10-Color F-F 36" (90 cm)
Motoron M3H550 Triple Motor Controller for Raspberry Pi (Connectors Soldered)
Zumo 2040 Main Board
Free Circuit Cellar magazine March 2023
Graphical OLED Display: 128x64, 1.3", White Pixels, SPI, Black PCB
5V, 3.4A Step-Down Voltage Regulator D30V30F5
ACS724 Current Sensor Carrier 0A to 20A
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