Many different motors can be used with the fischertechnik construction material. In addition to the classic mini, XS, S, M and XM motor, encoder and stepper motors are also available.
But additional motors are of course also easily and cheaply available nowadays. With a little effort and a special 3D-printed holder, they turn out to be excellent to use alongside fischertechnik's 'own' motors.
This article was also published in the club magazine (2020-2) of the fischertechnikclub Nederland.
Anyone who regularly wants to build (motorized) models can of course not have enough motors. I have therefore wondered several times about how I used to be able to do everything for such a long time, in my youth and 'first fischertechnik period', with just one gray M motor. In the meantime, about 40+ years later, in my 'second fischertechnik youth' that is of course no longer enough. That is why, since the rediscovery of my old fischertechnik stuff in the attic, a lot of DC motors have been added.
In the 80s of the last century I also did modeling, and from that time I remember several experiments to use RC-model engines in fischertechnik models. That often went quite well. The most difficult part was often to drive the first gear with a sometimes deviating motor shaft diameter. And yes, in those years I didn't have a lathe to run my own adaptor tube of course .... :-)
When I re-entered the world of fischertechnik a few years ago, I quickly lost the overview. In various construction designs, probably deliberately, specific engines (or transmissions such as 8: 1, 20: 1, etc.) were chosen. The only rule of thumb I saw through this was that the torque of an engine increases when the speed decreases.
For my own understanding, I have therefore tried to list the range of fischertechnik motors in a table. The table is certainly not complete. There is a gray version of the S-motor, there is a (fairly rare) 'Micro-Motor' with the dimensions of a normal building block, and there are also 24-volt versions of many motors for the industrial models. In addition, there seem to be various variants of the encoder motors and I have considered the (Nema) stepper motors supplied by fischertechnik as material for another article for now.
|
Name |
Code |
Description |
|
Mini Motor |
31062 |
The classical grey 'Mini Motor' |
|
XS motor |
137096 |
More modern black version of the classic Mini Motor |
|
S motor |
32293 |
More modern, more powerful (black) slightly wider Mini Motor |
|
M motor |
31039 |
Classic gray 'cube' with the red worm shaft |
|
XM motor |
135485 |
Black block 6x3x3 cm, transmission approximately 9:1 |
|
Tractor motor |
151178 |
Silver-colored / gray block 6x3x3 cm |
|
Encoder Classic TX |
135484 |
Encoder motor dark red with (three pole encoder) |
|
Encoder TXT |
153422 |
Encoder motor light red with (three pole encoder) |
|
Powermotor 8:1 |
35481 |
Igarashi motor with black cap |
|
Powermotor 20:1 |
104589 |
IIgarashi motor with grey cap |
|
Powermotor 50:1 |
104574 |
Igarashi TYP 33G-50 engine with red cap |
I picked up many of these motors, and even several of M- and Mini-Motor types. But I still had to do without the 'Power Motor', which I often encountered in construction models. They never came with the items that where available to buy online. And the Fischertechnik 34965 Power Motor set is, as far as I could find out, difficult to deliver. After some research it became clear that the separate motors, with various reduction ratios, are fortunately still reasonably well available through the various fischertechnik web shops that also sell separate parts. Used, but also brand new!
Buying additional original fischertechnik motors is of course always an option, but until then I thought it would be nice to experiment with alternative "power motors" first.