Seeking small, >5000rpm, no load, encoded motor

Hi, I need a motor with no torque to speak of - the load will have so much less mass than the shaft that for all intents and purposes there will be no load at all. The motor must run continuously at anywhere from 600rpm to at least 5000 rpm and hopefully as fast as 12000 rpm (‘200hz’) - nothing fancier than steady smooth rotation. The shaft rotation/ angle needs to be predictable/ electronically controlled (a few seconds of ‘catching up’ at the start would be acceptable) and the shaft needs to come to a controllable shaft angle stop. Shaft angle could be sloppy up to 20 degrees or so. So minimal strength and precision and this needs to translate into small and inexpensive.

I cannot find anything that fits the bill in the servo, stepper or synchro categories. Steppers don’t go fast enough, synchro shaft angles aren’t controlled, and as I understand it most (all?) servos that are continuous-rotation are not feedback controlled. Any advice is highly appreciated.

It occurs to me that color wheel motors in DLP projectors probably have the properties I seek. When I can confirm this and when I find sources, I will report back. But in the mean time any other ideas (or suggestions for sources) are appreciated.

Have you looked into BLDC motors? They seem to come out of the box at those 4 and 5k rpms, and there are a number of controllers that would work with an Arduino or similar MCU.
Since BLDC motors have Hall-effect sensors built in, you may be able to use that for other control…

Hello, mkstowegnv.

We have several motors with encoders, like our 37D gearmotors and 25D gearmotoros. Our micro metal gearmotors with extended shafts can also be fitted with optical encoders. Since you do not need a lot of torque and are looking to maximize speed, you might consider using the motor without the gearbox. However, it might require removing the pinion gear from the motor shaft.

- Grant