cordless power tool motors for robot drive trains ?

You could try this for starters:

http://www.wa4dsy.net/robot/drillmaster/index.html

I tried with a drill I got at a garage sale, but I was unable to get the
chuck removed.

ttyl,

--buddy

Ditto. I tried taking one apart, and the whole thing is designed to be
hacker-proof. (This was a Ryobi, I think.) Not only is the case really
hard to open, but the clutch and chuck all seemed to be inseparable. I
did manage to pull out the planetary gears, but thats not really useful
for anything, just kind of fun to look at.

--
|\/|  /|  |2  |<
mehaase(at)gmail(dot)com

The cheaper ones tend to be more difficult to hack.

Where the more expensive ones have proper bearings, fasteners and
metal gears, the cheap stuff tends to come with NO bearings, plastic gears
and riveted fasteners.


Most of the chuck assemblies I have seen have a left hand threaded screw
inside the
chuck that helps secure the chuck to the shaft. You need to remove this
screw first
before you can unscrew the chuck from the shaft.


I've done a bit of work with some of these and generally pulled them from a
Black & Decker
cordless drills.

In one case I made several changes to the gearbox:

- replaced the shaft with a custom made piece that was better adapted to the
sprocket
  I was using.

- reinforced the plastic housing with epoxy.

- turned the housing on a lathe to get it a bit more concentric.


The motors are mostly Johnsons' and they seem to easily tolerate overvoltage
of 50% or more.


DOC




...

Cordless screwdrivers are used to tune Amateur radio mobile antennas.
Commonly
called "Screwdriver Antennas"

Bill K7NOM

    --This group has a class that describes how to do it:
http://www.csmrobotics.com

--
        "Steamboat Ed" Haas         :  Bummed to be living in the  
        Hacking the Trailing Edge!  :  Golden Age of Bullshit...
                   http://www.nmpproducts.com/intro.htm
                   ---Decks a-wash in a sea of words---

    --Oh, forgot to mention; screw $50.- you should be able to get
them from H-F for less than ten bucks when they have a sale on..

--
        "Steamboat Ed" Haas         :  Bummed to be living in the  
        Hacking the Trailing Edge!  :  Golden Age of Bullshit...
                   http://www.nmpproducts.com/intro.htm
                   ---Decks a-wash in a sea of words---

The page is a bit older (circa 1997), but this guy built a sumo using
the motors from cordless screwdrivers:
http://www.ece.concordia.ca/~dave/project/project.html .

Happy building!
Don

They work great.  I have a 4WD, 4 motor test vehichle using screwdriver
motors.  They ony cost $AU 9.00 which is probably $US 6.00. These have
no chucks to remove.  Here in Aus we have some robowars events where you
can only use 12V drill motors and mechanical speed controllers to keep
costs down.  The website is http://robowars.org

I thought they had an article on removing chucks and mounting wheels but
I could't find it.  Didn't look to hard though.

Did you get those from Tricky Dickie's (Dick Smith).

Where are you? I am near Wollongong NSW

| -]


Cheers

Dale

I'm in the Canberra.



Yeah they are the ones from Dickies.  I tried the ones from Reject
shop/Clints but they cost $2.00 more, they did have metal output were
the dickies is plastic but I don't think it makes much difference.

It was a little tricky to mount the motors and wheels.  In fact my
wheels are a little off square.

At the moment my vehicle doesn't have a brain.  I just drive it on RC to
check different designs.  It is in peices at the moment, adding rear
suspension.

bye

    I have used electric screwdrivers for robot motors, but not for the main
drive train.  However, they certainly have the power and the life span for
such a thing.

Cheers!

Sir Charles W. Shults III, K. B. B.
Xenotech Research
321-206-1840