We are excited to introduce new versions of our high-power micro metal gearmotors with long-life carbon brushes in place of the standard precious metal brushes:

Micro Metal Gearmotor HPCB long-life carbon brushes (left) next to Micro Metal Gearmotor HP precious metal brushes (right).

So far, we only offer these on motors with HP windings, so the brushes being a lot more robust can just move the failure point if you try to push the motors too hard. However, if you use them at around 6 V and keep the continuous load under around 20% of the stall torque, the carbon brushes allow the HPCB motors to last several times longer than HP versions with precious metal brushes.

With the addition of this new HPCB motor variant in ten different gear ratios (10:1 through 1000:1), our selection of popular micro metal gearmotors now spans more than fifty options, giving you control over the motor winding, gearbox, and shaft arrangement:

Motor Type	Stall Current @ 6 V	No-Load Speed @ 6 V	Approximate Stall Torque @ 6 V	Single-Shaft (Gearbox Only)	Dual-Shaft (Gearbox & Motor)
high-power, carbon brushes (HPCB)	1600 mA	3000 RPM	4 oz-in	10:1 HPCB
		1000 RPM	9 oz-in	30:1 HPCB
		625 RPM	15 oz-in	50:1 HPCB
		400 RPM	22 oz-in	75:1 HPCB
		320 RPM	30 oz-in	100:1 HPCB
		200 RPM	40 oz-in	150:1 HPCB
		140 RPM	50 oz-in	210:1 HPCB
		120 RPM	60 oz-in	250:1 HPCB
		100 RPM	70 oz-in	298:1 HPCB
		32 RPM	125 oz-in	1000:1 HPCB
high-power (HP) (same specs as HPCB above)	1600 mA	6000 RPM	2 oz-in	5:1 HP
		3000 RPM	4 oz-in	10:1 HP	10:1 HP dual-shaft
		1000 RPM	9 oz-in	30:1 HP	30:1 HP dual-shaft
		625 RPM	15 oz-in	50:1 HP	50:1 HP dual-shaft
		400 RPM	22 oz-in	75:1 HP	75:1 HP dual-shaft
		320 RPM	30 oz-in	100:1 HP	100:1 HP dual-shaft
		200 RPM	40 oz-in	150:1 HP	150:1 HP dual-shaft
		140 RPM	50 oz-in	210:1 HP
		120 RPM	60 oz-in	250:1 HP
		100 RPM	70 oz-in	298:1 HP	298:1 HP dual-shaft
		32 RPM	125 oz-in	1000:1 HP	1000:1 HP dual-shaft
medium-power (MP)	700 mA	2200 RPM	3 oz-in	10:1 MP	10:1 MP dual-shaft
		730 RPM	8 oz-in	30:1 MP
		420 RPM	13 oz-in	50:1 MP
		290 RPM	17 oz-in	75:1 MP	75:1 MP dual-shaft
		220 RPM	19 oz-in	100:1 MP	100:1 MP dual-shaft
		150 RPM	24 oz-in	150:1 MP
		75 RPM	46 oz-in	298:1 MP
		25 RPM	80 oz-in	1000:1 MP	1000:1 MP dual-shaft
low-power	360 mA	2500 RPM	1 oz-in	5:1
		1300 RPM	2 oz-in	10:1
		440 RPM	4 oz-in	30:1	30:1 dual-shaft
		250 RPM	7 oz-in	50:1	50:1 dual-shaft
		170 RPM	9 oz-in	75:1
		120 RPM	12 oz-in	100:1	100:1 dual-shaft
		85 RPM	17 oz-in	150:1
		60 RPM	27 oz-in	210:1
		50 RPM	32 oz-in	250:1
		45 RPM	40 oz-in	298:1	298:1 dual-shaft
		14 RPM	70 oz-in	1000:1	1000:1 dual-shaft

In March, I wrote a blog post about the Bohlebots robotics team winning the West German Robocup Soccer 1v1. Since then, the Bohlebots team has gone on to win first and third in the German Open Robocup Soccer 1v1 with their two robotics teams.

Bohlebots’ soccer robot.

Good job Bohlebots!

We are now selling the low-profile 2×7 male LCD header included with the Zumo 32U4 robot kit.

Many of the engineers and robot enthusiasts here at Pololu competed in the LVBots 2015 line following competition. (For house rules and details about how the competition was judged, see the LVBots line following rules page.) Unlike most of my peers this was my first competition at LVBots, so I thought it was fitting to name my robot “Newbie”. Newbie uses a servo to steer the front wheels, creating fluid movements in and out of turns. At least that was the plan; unfortunately, Newbie had complications. Continued…

Continuing to catch up on our new distributor introductions, we are excited to welcome these new European distributors:

Transfer Multisort Electronik (TME) is an electronics distributor based in Łódź, Poland, with local offices in six countries around Europe and a catalog of 145,000 products. Their robotics category is now full of Pololu products. Scroll down to the end of this post for a video of their warehouse, including an impressive 23-meter-high automated storage rack.

GoTronic runs an online store with a physical storefront in Blagny, France, near the Belgian border. They have been in business since 1990 and sell all kinds of robotics parts and kits and electronics components. Search for “Pololu” to find wheels, motors, the Zumo Robot Kit for Arduino, Maestros, motor drivers, and more.

OM ELECTRONIQUE is an electronics shop and online store located in Grenoble, France, selling all kinds of electronics items from audio/visual equipment to robotics parts. You can check out their two-page Pololu category.

MCHobby – Microcontroleur Hobby is an online electronics store operating out of Waterloo, Belgium. They have put a huge amount of effort into supporting customers in France and Belgium with detailed French-language documentation for the products they carry. For examples, check out their Zumo page or this DRV8825 carrier tutorial.

Flikto Elektronik distributes our products alongside items from places like Adafruit, Arduino, and Sparkfun. Located in Cologne, Germany, they offer same-day, low-cost shipping throughout Europe, including free shipping within Germany for orders over €50.

Floris.cc is a shop run by Pieter Floris in Breda, Netherlands, distributing all kinds of “electronic thingies”. They are carrying a variety of Pololu products including motors, motor drivers, Maestro servo controllers, and the zumo Robot for Arduino. I noticed that they also offer something I have not seen at other places: a €5.00 soldering service to help people without soldering experience.

SPACE d.o.o. is a hobby shop located on the grounds of the Belgrade Fair complex in Serbia, now carrying Pololu parts including the 3pi and Zumo Robot for Arduino.

MechaDroid is a new electronics and robotics shop in Cham, Switzerland, selling Pololu motors, motor drivers. and more.

Now, here is that cool video of TME’s warehouse:

See the full list of over 200 distributors to find one in your area.

We have released a new build of the software for our Wixel Programmable USB Wireless Module that works on ARM Linux systems like the Raspberry Pi. This means that you can now upload apps to a Wixel from a Raspberry Pi, without needing a typical desktop computer. You can find the software download in the Wixel User’s Guide.

We have seen people use Wixels to help monitor blood glucose levels, create wireless quiz buttons, or wirelessly control servos. For a complete list of all the Wixel apps we know about, see the Wixel Apps list on our forum. We hope that the expanded software support for the Wixel will help people create new applications in the future.

Wixel programmable USB wireless module.

In September of last year, we started carrying our Breakout Board for microSD Card, which was the first board that I ever designed and routed here at Pololu. It is a simple breakout board that gives direct access to each contact available on a microSD card socket. However, since microSD cards operate at 3.3 V, it can be tricky interfacing them with a 5 V system. To address this, we made a new version with an integrated 3.3 V regulator and level shifters. Even with the extra components (and mounting holes, which the mechanical engineers at here Pololu are always pushing for), the board is still compact, measuring only 0.94″ × 0.9″, and it breaks out all of the contacts from a microSD card socket necessary to interface with the card through its SPI bus mode interface to a single 1×9 row of 0.1″-spaced pins. This allows easy use with breadboards, perfboards, or 0.1″ connectors.

You might recognize the circuit from our A-Star 32U4 Prime controllers, which use essentially the same level shifters to interface a microSD card with an Arduino-compatible ATmeg32U4 microcontroller running at 5 V.

For more information about this breakout board, see its product page.

My entry for the LVBots line following competition last month was a rehash of my line following robot from last year, Pinto. Unfortunately, my robot from last year robot never made it to the competition: while trying to get it to work last minute, it literally vibrated itself apart. I did not execute my ideas very well, but I still think my overall plan was not a bad one. Since I still had all the parts, I decided I wanted to revive the robot and try to follow through with my plan. Continued…

After branching off into maze solving, pushing into sumo, and finding our way through dead reckoning, we circled back and had another line following competition at LVBots. I started designing the Suckbot before the previous line following competition over a year before this one, but the design dragged on and there was no urgent push to get it finished without another competition. The robot is designed to suck itself down to the course so it can go faster. I was able to get it following lines and sucking, and I managed to post some middle-of-the-pack lap times, but there was some unexpected behavior when tuning the PID parameters just before the competition, and I think there’s quite a bit of room for improving the robot’s performance in the future. Continued…

We are having a big Memorial Day sale now through Monday, with discounts on over 600 products when you use the coupon code MEMORIALDAY15. Stock up on robot parts now so you can build cool things all summer long! Note that we will be closed on Monday, so orders will not ship until Tuesday, May 26.

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