by
Daniel J. Dyke
There are quite a few motors on the market that are possible candidates for slot car conversion. Being a scavenger I have been looking high and low to find and test them. There are many questions that arise with this topic. Let me ask and answer them one at a time.
Q&A:
1. Why use these small motors? The main answer is form factor. Basically the larger motors such as the FF-130s, FF-180s, and S cans won't fit. Another answer would be that price wise they are cheap or even free.
2. Where are the available? Many of the discounters such Electronic Goldmine (EG) and All Electronics (AE) carry such motors. Scalextric, Pinkkar, Ninco, and Carrera use them in some of their cars. Often they are also found in dead gadgets around the house and so because of this nothing is thrown away without being dissembled in our house.
3. How much do they cost? Depends on the seller from which you buy them. The may go as little as $1.00-$1.50 from EG or AE, but you have to buy them in quantity and you will end up getting 10-20 of them to meet the minimum order requirement. The big boys will charge more.
4. What is available? About four different styles of motors with usable form factors.
5. What cars would a person need these for? In the 60s and 70s there were cars in an SCCA class that was called H Modified, but now is called DSR. Some of these cars were a little larger than go carts and weighed in at 600-1000 pounds. They are terrors on the track and reach speed over 150 mph. I am currently finishing one of these bodies and since the standard Mabuchi is a bit too tall, I will use one of these motors. Some of the older formula cars are just too narrow for the regular motors. Scalextric has one variety in their latest line of F1 cars. Ninco uses another variety in their Go-Carts
6. How well do they work? I am going to test them and try to be as honest as possible. There is this disclaimer that these motors vary from example to example. Mabuchi makes all sorts of variants that look the same. You will never know for sure until you try it.
TYPES: These are categories based on the Mabuchi designations. Many are made by other people.
1. FF-20: The Silver Dwarf of the Mabuchi Can Factory
The larger motor is the standard Mabuchi motor found in Fly slot cars, but the smaller one is from a CD player. It looks like a Mabuchi that has been starved since birth. If you ever get a dead CD player, be sure to tear it apart to retrieve the motor. I built a popsicle stick frame to test it. It was a bit underpowered, but in a non-magnet car it ran some respectable laps. This is the size of motor that is used in the Carrera GO series cars.
It has the same size of shaft as the Scalextric F1/Motorcycle motors and the Electronic Goldmine motor.
Available at:
Sources:
Electronic Goldmine: $1.00
All Electronics: $1.35
American Science & Surplus: 3 for $3.002. FF-50: Scalectric's new F1 motor.
There are many variants of this motor. It appears as if others are making one of similar size and dimensions as the Mabuchi and that Mabuchi themselves have made many variants over the years. I have found them in old cameras and sometimes in CD rom drives. One drive in particular contained three of them. What is important is that Scalectric is using them in their new line of F1s and their motorcycles and because of this gears will be available for these small motors without having to sleeve the armature shaft. Electronic Goldmine sells a variant for $1.25 with a seven tooth pinion on it that has meshed well with some Carrera gears. If my tachometer is reading correctly this thing pulls about 30K in the rpm department. The down side is that the bearing on the can is larger than the Scalextric. These motors fit the Slot Car Heroes' F1 chassis.
3. SH-030SA: Go Cart Motors
These go for a buck or less from the surplus stores, but carry a healthy price tag from Ninco and the HO slot car people. I am about to test them to see if buying the Ninco one is really worth it. Remember that what we are looking at here is form factor and until they are tested the performance is unknown.
Sources:
Electronic Goldmine: $1.00 each
Electronic Surplus Inc. $.50 each
BG Micro: 3 for $1.004. Pagers/Toothbrushes/Razors: The RC people are digging in the electric toothbrushes and some of the disposable razors that have vibrator motors and getting some success with finding motors. Old pagers are also a source of such things. Of course the electronics surplus people have them as well. There are so many, it is hard to test them all but this article will be updated as I acquire new examples.
7. Where does one find a gear to fit the small shafts of these motors?
a. There are three sources of gears that are the proper size.
1) The Electronic Goldmine motor has a pinion on it that will mesh with some Carrera gears.
2) Scalextric should bring out replacement gear sets for their F1s.
3) The Carrera Go series gears fit, but look very weak. I think this is the worst option.b. The other option is to use standard gears but shim them to fit with tubing. The main problem with this is finding the tubing.
CHASSIS
1. The
Slot Car Heroes
F1chassis will take the FF-50 type motor and probably others.
2. The others will at least fit in a popsicle stick or scratch
built plastic chassis.