It's a bit of a slow week for new products, but that's how it goes sometimes. We definitely have a few cool things that just quite didn't make it in time, so be sure to check back next week. But for now, here's your products and video.
Last week we released the hobby motor kit and this week we have the individual components for sale. Hobby motors are great for small projects. The motors themselves spin too fast and don't have enough torque, so gearboxes are pretty mandatory to really do anything with them. These 65 RPM gearmotors come in a pair and are a great inexpensive choice for getting started with robotics.
Need some wheels to go with those motors? These 65mm wheels are the same ones that you find in the Magician chassis (used with the RedBot Kit) and are a great economical wheel. They press-fit onto the shaft of the gearmotors and have a rubber tire. They are sold in pairs as well.
Lastly, we have a revision of the Big Easy Driver. This is a bigger and more powerful version of the EasyDriver. This new version fixes a couple silk issues and changes some resistor values. It should work as a drop-in replacement for the old one.
The Big Easy is an easy way to drive stepper motors. Stepper motors require very specific drivers to work. If you want to know all about different types of motors, I made a REALLY old video that gives a brief overview of the different types and how to drive them.
That's all for this week. Be sure to check back next week with more new stuff. Thanks for watching and reading.
I know this week's offerings may appear insignificant, but I am very glad to see SparkFun carrying these affordable gearmotors, wheels, encoders, etc. Thanks, SparkFun!
Hey Sparkfun!
So Sadly Radio Shack is going out of business. How about you guys grab a couple of stores (particularly one near Seattle), and have some retail/learning locations. It'll be fun, really :).
Robert, is that a Geiger–Müller counter readout over your right shoulder? :-)
The motor in the ROB-13260 has a tail shaft, and these don't :( That's a total bummer. Why-oh-why can't we get motors with a tail shaft suitable for mounting encoders? That is one of my biggest frustrations in sourcing parts for robots. Really, it makes me want to fly out to Boulder just so that I can slap somebody.... sooooooo close to having an interesting product. How about doing the ROB-13260 without the wheels but with the encoder? Or just the motor from the ROB-13260 that includes a tail shaft?
BTW -- seems like you finally got the audio acoustics right in the new studio. Much much better.