Identifying the connector on a micro planetary gear motor

Question

I have purchased a couple of nifty little planetary gear motors and would like to incorporate them into my next project. could anyone help identify whether the connector is a commonly used one an whether i could purchase an adapter for to make it easy to engage with other custom parts? i have a 3d printer but it is only an FDM one and not quite precise enough to print the part myself. Thanks.

Answer 1

I don't think this is a standard connector. So you would need to produce your own adapter or whatever you want to drive using your motors. These parts do not need to be totally accurate. Usually you need to add 0.2 mm for each dimension, if it is the outside part of a connector, so that it fits inside.

You should avoid printing gears, which would need to be precise. I would either print a pulley, that can be connected or something that is put directly onto an axle. Here is some OpenSCAD example:

$fn = 64;  // higher accuracy for round shapes
ar = 0.01; // anti-residual

depth_adapter = 5;

diam_adapter = 6;
diam_axle = 1.5;

fit = 0.2;
shape_w = 2 + fit;
shape_h = 4 + fit;
shape_d = 3 + fit;


difference() {
    // outside shape of the adapter
    cylinder(h=depth_adapter, d=diam_adapter);

    // a hole for the axle
    translate([0,0,-ar])
    cylinder(h=depth_adapter+2*ar, d=diam_axle);

    // shape of the motor-connector
    translate([0,0,shape_d/2-ar])
      cube([shape_w, shape_h, shape_d], center=true);
    rotate([0,0,90])
    translate([0,0,shape_d/2-ar])
      cube([shape_w, shape_h, shape_d], center=true);
}

which would look like this:

Of course you should print this part rotated bottom-up, so you wont need any support material. And you should probably make the hole for the axle smaller than the axle actually is and then use a electric drill to drill in the hole with an accurate diameter. Also you need something that would need to keep your axle in place relative to your motor. This is where the mounting holes at the side of the motors come in handy. You should think about using bearings for holding the axle, but in some cases (slow speed) a hole that is just big enough for the axle should work.

Without knowing what you want to build, it is hard to suggest any special shapes. But, I hope you got the Idea how this could look like.

If you have any more questions, just ask...