This is the motor and encoder portion of our high-power (HP), 12V 25D mm metal gearmotors with 48 CPR encoders.
25D mm motor with 48 CPR encoder (no gearbox) (1)
This motor with integrated 48 CPR (counts per revolution) quadrature encoder is intended as a replacement high-power (HP) 12 V motor with encoder for our 25D mm metal gearmotors. It is intended for use at 12 V, but in general, these kinds of motors can run at voltages above and below this nominal voltage. Lower voltages might not be practical, and higher voltages could start negatively affecting the life of the motor.
The output shaft has a non-removable pinion gear that works with all of our 25D mm gearmotor gearboxes. Note that we do not sell the 25D mm gearboxes separately, but if you have a gearmotor with a damaged motor or encoder (or if you want to effectively add an encoder to a version without an encoder), you can transfer the gearbox to this replacement motor.
The motor has a diameter of 24.2 mm (0.95 in) and a length of approximately 43 mm (1.7 in) from the top of the motor can to the bottom of the encoder. The top of the motor has two mounting holes threaded for M3 screws. These mounting holes are 17 mm apart and form a line with the motor shaft at the centre. The mounting holes have a depth of approximately 6.5 mm.
Other motor windings with identical dimensions and pinion gears are also available, resulting in five total options:
You will typically want to combine this motor with a gearbox to give it a more appropriate combination of torque and speed (without a gearbox, it offers very high speed with very low torque). The HP 12V versions of our 25D mm metal gearmotors consist of this motor combined with different gearboxes. We do not carry the gearboxes by themselves, so unless you are looking at this as a replacement motor for a compatible gearbox you already have, we strongly recommend you consider getting a preassembled gearmotor with the gear ratio that best suits your project requirements.
Note: Stalling or overloading gearmotors can greatly decrease their lifetimes and even result in immediate damage. For these gearboxes, the recommended upper limit for instantaneous torque is 200 oz-in (15 kg-cm); we strongly advise keeping applied loads well under this limit. Stalls can also result in rapid (potentially on the order of seconds) thermal damage to the motor windings and brushes, especially for the versions that use high-power (HP) motors; a general recommendation for brushed DC motor operation is 25% or less of the stall current.
25D mm metal gearmotor with 48 CPR encoder: close-up view of encoder
A two-channel Hall effect encoder is used to sense the rotation of a magnetic disk on a rear protrusion of the motor shaft. The quadrature encoder provides a resolution of 48 counts per revolution of the motor shaft when counting both edges of both channels. To compute the counts per revolution of the gearbox output, multiply the gear ratio by 48. The motor/encoder has six colour-coded, 11" (28 cm) leads terminated by a 1×6 female header with a 0.1″ pitch, as shown in the main product picture. This header works with standard 0.1″ male headers and our male jumper and precrimped wires. If this header is not convenient for your application, you can pull the crimped wires out of the header or cut the header off. The following table describes the wire functions:
| Colour | Function |
|---|---|
| Red | motor power (connects to one motor terminal) |
| Black | motor power (connects to the other motor terminal) |
| Green | encoder GND |
| Blue | encoder Vcc (3.5 – 20 V) |
| Yellow | encoder A output |
| White | encoder B output |
The Hall sensor requires an input voltage, Vcc, between 3.5 and 20 V and draws a maximum of 10 mA. The A and B outputs are square waves from 0 V to Vcc approximately 90° out of phase. The frequency of the transitions tells you the speed of the motor, and the order of the transitions tells you the direction. The following oscilloscope capture shows the A and B (yellow and white) encoder outputs using a motor voltage of 6 V and a Hall sensor Vcc of 5 V:
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| Encoder A and B outputs for 25D mm HP 6V metal gearmotor with 48 CPR encoder (motor running at 6 V). |
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By counting both the rising and falling edges of both the A and B outputs, it is possible to get 48 counts per revolution of the motor shaft. Using just a single edge of one channel results in 12 counts per revolution of the motor shaft, so the frequency of the A output in the above oscilloscope capture is 12 times the motor rotation frequency.
We offer a wide selection of metal gearmotors that offer different combinations of speed and torque. Our metal gearmotor comparison table can help you find the motor that best meets your project’s requirements.
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| Some of the Pololu metal gearmotors. |
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| Size: | 24.2D x 43L mm1 |
|---|---|
| Weight: | 60 g |
| Gear ratio: | 1:12 |
|---|---|
| Free-run speed @ 6V: | 5100 rpm |
| Stall current @ 6V: | 2800 mA |
| Stall torque @ 6V: | 2.7 oz·in |
| Free-run speed @ 12V: | 10200 rpm |
| Free-run current @ 12V: | 150 mA |
| Stall current @ 12V: | 5600 mA |
| Stall torque @ 12V: | 5.5 oz·in |
| Lead length: | 8 in3 |
| Motor type: | 5.6A stall @ 12V (HP 12V) |
| Encoders?: | Y |
Customer Richard Nguyen has documented his work modifying the Wild Thumper chassis to use 25D motors with encoders in place of the chassis’s included motors.
Note: This is not an easy modification, and the chassis can be damaged if it is not done properly, so we generally recommend against it, and we can only provide very limited support for those who want to attempt it. The manufacturer did not intend for the chassis to be modified in this way, and we do not know how well such a modification will work out.
No; the information we have available for this motor can be found on its product page. However, you can approximate various additional motor parameters from the information found in the “Specs” tab.
The electrical resistance of the motor can be approximated by dividing the rated voltage by the stall current (at the rated voltage). The electromotive force constant (Ke) can be approximated by dividing the rated voltage by the free-run speed (at the rated voltage). To approximate the motor torque constant (Kt), you can divide the stall torque by the stall current.
For pretty much any DC motor, the current, speed, power, and efficiency curves as a function of torque will look like those in the graph below (assuming motor voltage and temperature are constant):
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The current and speed curves are approximately linear, and the product pages for our motors provide the approximate end points for these lines: (0 torque, no-load current) and (stall torque, stall current) for the red line, and (0 torque, no-load speed) and (stall torque, 0 speed) for the blue line.
The orange output power curve is the product of the speed and the torque, which results in an inverted parabola with its peak at 50% of the stall torque.
The green efficiency curve is the output power divided by the input power, where the input power is current times voltage. The voltage is constant, so you can divide the output power curve by the current line to get the general shape of the efficiency curve, which in turn lets you identify the torque, speed, and current that correspond to max efficiency.
There are many programs out there that you can use to generate these curves. For example, if you have access to MATLAB, you can use this customer-created MATLAB script to generate these motor plots for you from the specifications we provide for each gearmotor.
Note: A good general rule of thumb is to keep the continuous load on a DC motor from exceeding approximately 20% to 30% of the stall torque. Stalling gearmotors can greatly decrease their lifetimes, occasionally resulting in immediate damage to the gearbox or thermal damage to the motor windings or brushes. Do not expect to be able to safely operate a brushed DC gearmotor all the way to stall. The safe operating range will depend on the specifics of the gearmotor itself.
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