Newsgroups: comp.robotics
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From: fredm@media.mit.edu (Fred G Martin)
Subject: Re: Robotic vehicles and 9-volt LEGO motors
Message-ID: <1994Jan20.015211.23358@news.media.mit.edu>
Sender: news@news.media.mit.edu (USENET News System)
Organization: MIT Media Laboratory
References: <2hjqab$9ol@cat.cis.Brown.EDU> <2hkj9c$imf@iris.mbvlab.wpafb.af.mil>
Date: Thu, 20 Jan 1994 01:52:11 GMT
Lines: 29

In article <2hkj9c$imf@iris.mbvlab.wpafb.af.mil>
carol@edfua0.ctis.af.mil (Andy Carol) writes: 

>I belive that LEGO is trying to shift everything to 9v.
>
>I just bought their LEGO Control Lab which interfaces to the
>Macintosh via RS232 (Love it!) and it uses 9v motors.  All new kits are
>also 9v.  They can do about the same thing and would probably
>be easier to get.

Yup this is true.  It seems like the 4.5v motors are no longer for
sale.

The 9v motors are better in that they draw significantly less current
than the 4.5's (so they're easier to drive) and also they run with
more torque (so it's easier to get a useful torque out of them).

However I find them slightly more difficult to build with, since you
must connect to them electrically from underneath.  With the 4.5v
motors, you could plug in from the top or the back.  With the 9's, you
have to lay down the connector first, otherwise you'll build the motor
in place and then remember that it's not connected.

Kind of like soldering a mini plug and then realizing you forgot to
slide the cap onto the wires first :-)

	-Fred


