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How to turn a servo into a motor

Posted: Mon Dec 27, 2010 8:41 pm
by Rogue Sub
Need a cheap small motor with a esc?
Boy do I have the trick for you guys.

Why not turn a servo into that motor! It is so easy a cave man could do it.

Heres how you do it. Go buy a cheap 10 servo or use an old one, perhaps one with stripped gears.

Next remove the screws from the bottom and pull the thing apart. You should end up with a bunch of little plastic gears and a motor attached to a board with a pot attached to it.

Believe it or not you are almost done. From here you can desolder the motors from the board and add leads or even replace it with a small 6v motor of your choice. Dont go to big or you will melt the little esc for the servo. They are not that big. Next plug the servo into a rx with a radio and make sure all the trims are centered.

Now adjust the pot until the motor stops spinning and glue it in place.

Thats it your done. And they can be used for lots of thing radar masts, drive motors etc. The best part is it comes with gears to make a reduction out of them.

I am using 2 in a little 1/200 tug boat I am building and they work great! All you need a rx battery and it runs great!

Re: How to turn a servo into a motor

Posted: Tue Dec 28, 2010 10:17 am
by wibblywobbly
Pics....???

Re: How to turn a servo into a motor

Posted: Tue Dec 28, 2010 11:51 am
by Rogue Sub
Sure

Re: How to turn a servo into a motor

Posted: Tue Dec 28, 2010 5:43 pm
by wibblywobbly
Aha, now I see what you have done, that's a nice way to control motors. I might try and do this with the radar on my Perkasa when I get a spare moment.

Thanks for posting the pics, much appreciated.

Rob G

Re: How to turn a servo into a motor

Posted: Tue Dec 28, 2010 7:01 pm
by Rogue Sub
They work very good for radars and the such. You can also desolder the motor from the board and add your own leads so you dont have such an odd shaped piece to mount.

Re: How to turn a servo into a motor

Posted: Mon Jan 03, 2011 3:51 am
by Rogue Sub
I have made these available for download for any of you that prefer to have a hard copy
It also includes how to eliminate the pot
http://roguesubworks.com/downloads/servo-mod.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Re: How to turn a servo into a motor

Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2011 3:49 pm
by wibblywobbly
Well Itried two methods.

1. Stripped out the motor and board and plugged it into my Elmod board, bit of a pig to get the potentiometer set to zero revs. Then when I touch the left stick the motor goes flat out, and I can't stop it?

2. Tried the same with an intact servo, and the opposite happens. The servo moves sooooo slowly.

Then

I plugged the stripped servo straight into the rx.
This was a little better, as it was running on an on/off switch. But the motor slowed down very slowly, and then glitched.

I have no idea what is going on here...maybe its cheap servo's?

I am trying to use the servo to power a recoil...but not having a lot of luck???? :{

Re: How to turn a servo into a motor

Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2011 4:55 pm
by Wizzard033
you can replace the pot with some resistors and adjust it with various ohms. I read a thread on the subject a while back on RC Groups. When I find the link or specs I'll post them.

Re: How to turn a servo into a motor

Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2011 5:20 pm
by Rogue Sub
I already have those specs included in the downloadable file if you like.

Re: How to turn a servo into a motor

Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2011 6:04 pm
by wibblywobbly
So will the 2.2 resistors do the trick, even though adjusting the pot won't? (I am that knowledgable on resistors and the like). If you could post exact specs, or even colour codes, for them it would be a great help. The Elmod board puts a max of 1 amp to power both servo's.

Cheers

Rob G