Motor Upgrade

[Doc_Brown]

Wow that is really interesting, keep up the good research! I don't have a rpm reader so can't try these things.

Don't worry man, I have a LOT of experience with pinion gears and such.

[Boxerlego]

Thanks Doc_Brown! I plan on doing this magnetic effect on the L-motor and see how much the rpm is but first I need to do some more research. I've successfully increased the total rpm on the motor(420rpm) in both direction to 460 rpm, and some how the motor that had the JB weld epoxy that was 260 rpm @9V is now 480 rpm @9V.

That is great to know that you have experience with pinion gears and such. Here is a link to a pinion gear that maybe a match to the one found in the XL motor. The pinion gear is said to be for a S280 Gearbox.

[Boxerlego]

Now that I've done additional testing on this magnetic effect. I concluded that the faster spinning motor was caused by the reducing the strength on the motor magnets. This was a result of stronger neodymium magnetic field coming in contact with the magnet filed of the same polarity in the motor and thus demagnetizing the motor magnet causing it to go faster and with less torque as well.

[DLuders]

Interesting -- are you going to put your upgraded motor into a Power Functions vehicle, so that we can see its torque and ground speed? Can you insert it into the old PF XL motor casing anymore? It may be helpful if you SPOKE in your videos so that others can tell what you're doing, and what conclusions you are drawing. We can't really see the multimeter's units of measure, so the display numerals are a bit confusing.

[Boxerlego]

Interesting -- are you going to put your upgraded motor into a Power Functions vehicle, so that we can see its torque and ground speed?

Yes, I already have done some test with the motors connected up to both version of the Power Function IR receiver. However both my motor that have the pinion gear have been demagnetized and both motors drive shaft turn around 440Rpm. Now one demagnetized motor works nicely off one battery box and V2 IR receiver but when you use servo motor it makes the vehicle come to a on and off and on and off ... situation.

Can you insert it into the old PF XL motor casing anymore? It may be helpful if you SPOKE in your videos so that others can tell what you're doing, and what conclusions you are drawing. We can't really see the multimeter's units of measure, so the display numerals are a bit confusing.

Yes the XL motor case still fits. I will say this. I thought that I had somehow strengthen the permanent magnetic filed in the motor by leaving it on a powerful neodymium magnet for over a long period. This is what got my attention because it was something that with out intention. Now it was a mystery to me why one off my motors was able to spin faster than the same motors. At first I thought I had two different version of the same design running at two different speeds. But when I recognized the fact that some how the neodymium magnet made the motor turn faster. I was very interested in this because it was something about magnets. Now when I was trying to figure out how to strengthen the permanent magnet I was very cautious on not to demagnetize it. Now I did not relies that you could demagnetize a motor magnet thus making it turn faster. During the time I thought that demagnetizing the permanent magnet would make the motor run slower so strengthening the permanent magnet field was the way to think.

I have added some notes in the video. I hope this helps better understanding with the video.

[Boxerlego]

Update: Neodymium Motor magnets

I was searching around on the internet on motor magnets and I came across these N45 neodymium motor magnets on eBay... There is a picture of them next to a dime to establish there size . I thought this was a good find for the motors cause their around dime size...

Another Update: Strengthen the Permanent Magnets

I've been doing some test on the demagnetize motor magnets to restore their strength as the How to recommend. The "How to" works and the demagnetize motor magnets strength has been restored. Now I've not tested the RPM to see if the motor spins around the same rpm as before. The freezer definitely improved the strength in the already strong neodymium magnet.

-BL

[Junpei]

@chorlton Are you talking about buckyballs? I actually have one of the cubes of 216 at home, they are very powerful. I broke my DS lite with them. They are round, so might not fit well in an xl motor casing, but you can buy them on that site, even though the legitimate site has been shut down.

Edit: Sorry I didn't see that there were 4 pages, chorlton's comment is on page 2, and I can see now that BoxerLego is already using buckyballs. Those magnets in the plastic tub are buckyballs, right?

Edited June 21, 2013 by TwentyLeggedHen

[Boxerlego]

Those are just some regular steel balls in the plastic tub I used to test the strength of the motor magnets.

Edited June 24, 2013 by Boxerlego

[Junpei]

Oh well have you ever heard of buckyballs? They seem like they might be good for motor magnets, but I guess you already have the actual motor-shaped ones.

[Boxerlego]

Yes, I've heard of buckyballs. Neat product.

[Kwon]

Hello, I have just took apart the XL motor to look at some things and see if it was possible to put the XL planetary gear reduction on another motor. The goal is to get more Rpm (@9v) out of the planetary gear reduction by attaching it to another motor. I have setup this tread to document this attempt.

I did not want to break the clips off the case so dismantling the XL motor was tough. Currently the motor shaft is a little bigger than the XL motor shaft size.

Is there any technical information on the motor that is in the XL.

I just opened my L motor, Servo motor, And M motor, but I have NO idea to Modifying it, You should make something Custom things. Lighter gear etc...

[Fluwoeb]

Hey guys, 

If any of you guys are interested about making your XL motors go faster, you should know some things before you modify them.

First, they loose about half of their torque.

They spin about 2x faster.

And, taking them apart damages the motor casing connections.

I have personally taken apart 4 of my XL motors, took out 3 of the gears closest to the motor, and glued the two orange pieces together. 

The motor output is not perfectly straight as a result of my horrible job but they can be used for faster Lego models:) 

I will have to take some of them apart again so I can use them for their torque:)

They do not go as fast as the RC buggy motors if you are wondering...

I have not tried a different motor but that sounds like a good idea! That is if you want to go rebel:)

Hope this helps a little bit.

[allanp]

6 hours ago, Evan-Eleven the Engineer said:

Hey guys, 

If any of you guys are interested about making your XL motors go faster, you should know some things before you modify them.

First, they loose about half of their torque.

They spin about 2x faster.

And, taking them apart damages the motor casing connections.

I have personally taken apart 4 of my XL motors, took out 3 of the gears closest to the motor, and glued the two orange pieces together. 

The motor output is not perfectly straight as a result of my horrible job but they can be used for faster Lego models:) 

I will have to take some of them apart again so I can use them for their torque:)

They do not go as fast as the RC buggy motors if you are wondering...

I have not tried a different motor but that sounds like a good idea! That is if you want to go rebel:)

Hope this helps a little bit.

I did a similar thing to one of my XL motors, by removing the outer ring gear entirely and gluing the rest of the internal gears into one solid mass of plastic, thereby removing all the internal gearing. Got everything lined up nicely so there's no friction or binding and the output now spins as fast as the internal motor at a few thousand rpm but obviously with less torque. I'd say it's slightly faster and more powerful that the old 9V ungeared 5x4 motor.

[Fluwoeb]

19 hours ago, allanp said:

I did a similar thing to one of my XL motors, by removing the outer ring gear entirely and gluing the rest of the internal gears into one solid mass of plastic, thereby removing all the internal gearing. Got everything lined up nicely so there's no friction or binding and the output now spins as fast as the internal motor at a few thousand rpm but obviously with less torque. I'd say it's slightly faster and more powerful that the old 9V ungeared 5x4 motor.

That is another way to do it. I bet that is really fast!

I might do that to one of my motors so I can make faster Lego cars!