I have two 29:1 Metal Gearmotor 37Dx52L mm with 64 CPR Encoders (Pololu item 1443) I am using for a balancing robot. The robot is balancing but the gears exhibit some backlash and I believe this attributes to some jerkiness or instability in the robot motion profile. I am considering using the same motors/encoders by removing the gearhead and replacing the gears with a belt-driven system to reduce backlash. I have a couple of questions about this:
Is it difficult or impractical to remove the gearhead?
Will the gears be difficult to put back together if taken apart?
How far does the motor shaft protrude from the main motor chassis?
I will try to look into this some for you tomorrow, but, unfortunately, the person who can best answer this question is not easily reachable at the moment, so it might take some time to get you decent answers. Please bump this thread if you haven’t gotten a response in a few days.
By the way, how much backlash are you seeing? If you have the ability to post a video of your balancing bot in action, I’d love to see it!
It is not difficult to remove the gearbox, but it is very difficult to remove the first (pinion) gear that is press-fit onto the motor shaft.
No, there is only one way to put it back together, so it is not very difficult to reassemble. However, please be careful not to lose any parts (some of the spacers are very small).
The motor shaft protrudes approximately 5 mm from the motor can, but about 4.5 mm of that is taken up by the 6mm-diameter pinion gear.
Awesome, thanks for the excellent support Ben! The backlash is not much, probably one or two degrees out of 360. If I remember I’ll bump this thread with a link to my robot when I get it posted at letsmakerobots.com .
