Mixing lego's and robotics - Battery requirement?

Robotics and electronics discussion Miscellaneous
1

Technic lego’s are really fun, but the NXT controller is pretty expensive, and it’s just not what I want.

I am currently trying to build some robots with lego’s and cheap servos/motors. Thing is, I’m not much experienced with that.

pololu.com/catalog/product/182
pololu.com/catalog/product/183

Those two motors looks good, and looks like they could do a nice replacement for lego motors, if combined with one of these:
pololu.com/catalog/product/67/pictures

Now, I will be using a microcontroller to controls those. (Arduino + Xbee for communication). Assuming I have the motor driver built, what kind of batteries would be suitable for this project? I though about going cheap, and just use 4x Rechargeable AA batteries. Those batteries are rated at about 2500mah per 1.2v cells, would that be able to run 3-5 motors/servos, and the microcontroller for at least an hour on a charge? Or should I start looking into stronger batteries?
Any suggestions about the idea of combining lego’s, microcontrollers, xbees, servos and motors?

2

Hello.

I’m not sure what you mean about combining the gearmotors. For the GM6 and GM7 style motors (including our parallel shaft and right-angle versions), we’ll have new molded versions of the lego wheel adapters in the next few days. For the batteries, you might need a few more cells to get a more usable voltage, but other than that, AA NiMH rechargeable cells are a good way to go.

- Jan