12V motor

[Good old Lego builder]

Hi all. In my collection I still have an old 12V technic motor. I didn't use it much back in the days, and wondered does it have any use today in a technic creation? Im thinking about making some sort of street sweeper. Could I use the thing for it?

(I vagely remember buying the motor,then building an elevator with it. When I used it, the elevator cage was kind of launched into space and the whole thing collapsed. I guess it wasn't geared down properly :-). I was a kid, had no clue.) So now,years later, I wonder if it can actually be used.... Usefull.... If that makes sense.

[piterx]

is the one 4x5 studs?

i've done a cool fan once with that motor lol

[JopieK]

12V motor? I only remember 9V and 4.5V motors for technic. 12V was for my first trains however.

[DLuders]

@ Good old Lego builder: Could you look through Philo's LEGO 9V Technic Motors Compared Characteristics webpage, and tell us which motor you are talking about? Although most DO run at 12V, they are really rated for 9V.

[kieran]

I guess its this one

http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemPic.asp?P=bb22

[DLuders]

That bb22 "Electric, Motor 12V" has an unusual electrical connector:

[Doc_Brown]

WOW, cool motor, it seems not to be on Philo's webpage. I remember the 4.5v version as a young kid. I wonder how powerfull it is? Being 12 v, I can imagine that it would spin fast!

[Good old Lego builder]

Indeed, it is the black one as shown byDluders. I used to run it with the controller, transformator in dutch, of my 12v traintrack. I have not found much info about it.

[DLuders]

According to Brickset, that Lego 12V Motor came with the Lego 880 Supplementary Set (released in 1979):

[Good old Lego builder]

He,yeah,that is it. With those tchnic plates and rubber bands. That is the set i have. I think that when my elevator cage was launched, the point of the rotating technic pin broke off. :-( Richt at the point where you could attach the rubber band to it. So, is there anything to tell about it? If i remember correctly, and i am not technical at all, it has high revs, but low torque? Could be wrong, but i didnt use it much.

[DLuders]

Here is a ToysPeriod.com inventory of the Lego 880 Supplementary Set; Rebrickable has one too. BrickPicker.com says that the Lego 12V motor is worth USD $26. Maybe you can take the motor down to your local auto repair shop, where they could mark the shaft with a white mark and shine a Timing Strobe Light onto the rotating shaft to see how fast it turns....

[Doc_Brown]

He,yeah,that is it. With those tchnic plates and rubber bands. That is the set i have. I think that when my elevator cage was launched, the point of the rotating technic pin broke off. :-( Richt at the point where you could attach the rubber band to it. So, is there anything to tell about it? If i remember correctly, and i am not technical at all, it has high revs, but low torque? Could be wrong, but i didnt use it much.

That sounds about right, but high revs could be geared down to equal high torque!!! Do you know what battery box u would have had? thanks.

Here is a ToysPeriod.com inventory of the Lego 880 Supplementary Set; Rebrickable has one too. BrickPicker.com says that the Lego 12V motor is worth USD $26. Maybe you can take the motor down to your local auto repair shop, where they could mark the shaft with a white mark and shine a Timing Strobe Light onto the rotating shaft to see how fast it turns....

Interesting how the supp kit doesn't give you a battery box! :)

[clarkdef]

That sounds about right, but high revs could be geared down to equal high torque!!! Do you know what battery box u would have had? thanks.

Interesting how the supp kit doesn't give you a battery box! :)

The thing I found with gearing down very fast motors is a lot of drive train bounce and a good percentage of power gets absorbed by cogs and axles.

I had this motor when I was young, the battery packs were quite long from memory, at the time I had no idea what it was for lol... brothers collection.

[Good old Lego builder]

It didn't come with a batterybox. I dont know if that was possible. The 4,5v (grey) did have a batterybox, shaped as the motor and pretty long indeed. My friend had one. I think three of those big batteries went in it. I used to run mine with the train transformator, i thought that was the only option for this motor.

And DLuders , i use that trick to tune my vw van, hahaha. I think the guys at the garage would be quite surprised.

[kieran]

You could also use the Lego speed computer

[Good old Lego builder]

What the... What is that? Never seen it before.

[EyesOnly]

What the... What is that? Never seen it before.

http://www.bricklink...em.asp?S=5206-1 I have it but haven't used it much lately. With sariels gear calculator and philos work i don't have to.

[JopieK]

@Good old Lego builder: if you need the speed computer, I have a bunch lying around (MISB), very nice find that 12V motor! I did not know that it existed. Same age as myself, that might be one of the reasons ;).

In case you live nearby, I also have an arduino solution that should help you time it ;)

[Good old Lego builder]

Thanks for the offer JopieK. When I get home from my vacation, i will see what im going to do with it. Right now im thinking about a model team scale unimog, a small one. With my classic technic bricks. Maybe i can somehow use it there...

[Blakbird]

I've got that motor. It is the same form factor and uses the same connector as the old 4.5V motor. It did not come with a battery box. You could technically use the 4.5V battery box, but obviously the motor would be useless at that voltage. It was intended to be used with the old 12V train transformer which uses the same plug.

http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=bb293

http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=bb92

These old motors have no gearing at all, so they rotate VERY fast and need a lot of external gearing, which I think is fun. Take a look at the 8888 Idea Book to see just much you can actually do with 4.5V motor, including driving an entire crane. I've built it, and it works! The 12V motor has more power. You could certainly work it into a MOC.

[Good old Lego builder]

I might have that ideabook somewhere. I will take a look.

[DLuders]

@ Good old Lego builder: You can download all four Lego Technic Idea Books in PDF format via the SkyDrive hyperlinks below:

8888 Lego Technic Idea Book (Expert Builder) from 1980 (100 pages, 9.5 MB PDF document)

8889 Lego Technic Idea Book (116 pages, 23.8 MB PDF document)

8890 Lego Technic Idea Book (52 pages, 4 MB PDF document)

8891 Lego Technic Idea Book (100 pages, 14 MB PDF document)

[Good old Lego builder]

Wow, thanks!

[1974]

I've got several of these. They're cool for trains if you like them exposed. It's not much different from the 4,5V old grey ones ... lotsa rpm, little torque. The 880 set was kind of an oddball and was meant to be connected to the 7864 _train_ transformer .. which would then give you speed control, something all the earlier motors lacked

[Carrera124]

This ist THE motor I dreamed of when I was a child. Unfortunately, I only had two grey 4.5v motors, which don't have much power.

Our family kept the older catalogs, so I knew that the black beast existed, but even back in the 80ies it had been out of production quite for a while.

Thanks to ebay, I got a 880 set some years ago.

As you need a train tpower supply to get it working properly, it is best used for non-mobile models. In contrast to that, the grey 4.5v motor could be used to motorize cars and other vehicles, because the battery box offers more flexibility in handling.

Maybe that was a reason to drop the black motor from the line-up after a rather short period of selling, while the grey one has been sold for more than one decade (1977-1989).