Where can I find a motor for the TOS Enterprise Engines?

[MillenniumFalsehood]

I need a DC motor that spins slowly enough to rotate a fan for the engines of the Original Starship Enterprise. Is there a place on the 'net where I can find one? Or would a local electronics store have those types of motors?

[naoto]

IIRC, pager motors might fit. I think that the motors you find in the Radio Shack ZipZap and the Tomy Bit CharG micro-RC cars are small enough to fit in the nacelles. You can usually find the motors in the "hop-up" kits. The problem is that they usually spin really, really fast.

[Stubbs]

Use a small trimmer pot on the power supply to slow them down a little. I tried that and it worked well. And it was a ZIP-ZAP car motor.

[Kylwell]

All Electronics or American Scientific Supply.

[MillenniumFalsehood]

Thanks for the tips.Would a regular motor with a trimmer work? I have a few small trimmers for LED circuits, for dimming engines for photography.

[tetsujin]

Thanks for the tips.Would a regular motor with a trimmer work? I have a few small trimmers for LED circuits, for dimming engines for photography.

It depends on the speed you want and the motor you've got. Personally I doubt it. DC motors have to use their spinning inertia to push their brushes across the gap into the next state - and they have a certain amount of friction which the magnets must overcome. If the electromagnets are turned down to the point the motor would be going really slow, it might not overcome the friction, or it could get stuck in one of its dead spots. Plus these motors usually use electromagnets (operating at a constant voltage until the brushes switch polarity) against permanent magnets. That means that if you turn the voltage down, the magnetic force goes down - which means that while the electromagnet is farthest from where you're trying to put it, the magnetic force will be miniscule - but when (if) it moves closer to where it should be again, the magnetic force will still be reasonably powerful. But it's at that "far-point" where you really need the pull, to get the motor to turn around so it can switch polarity again.

I believe the correct speed for that spinner is 1Hz. I doubt you could find a DC motor that could spin that slowly - probably you just need to come up with some kind of gearbox. Or you can try to think of creative alternatives. My favorite of the ones I've come up with so far is to use a solenoid and a spring instead of a motor - make the blades oscillate back and forth rather than spinning in a circle. Probably the difference compared to spinning blades would be easy to spot, but it'd get the basic action of the blades moving in front of the lights, at least.

[MillenniumFalsehood]

Is there a small motor that moves at 1Hz? I would rather use a slow motor than a solenoid, mainly because I would rather just use a plug'n'play method than build an entirely new circuit for the oscillations.

[TREKKRIFFIC]

Is there a small motor that moves at 1Hz? I would rather use a slow motor than a solenoid, mainly because I would rather just use a plug'n'play method than build an entirely new circuit for the oscillations.

Is this the 18" ERTL Enterprise ? I ended up building my own gearboxes. There are motors you can buy at the hobby store with gear reduction but these were too large in diameter for the 18" model; they might work in the 22" version though.

[Chacal]

Common, small DC electric motors usually spin at the 500-3600 RPM range (~10-60 Hz). One thing you can do is to offset the motor, (at an angle, for example) lenghten the shaft and get the tip to spin the "fan" BY THE EDGE (I am assuming you build the "fan" with an integral circular rim around it). Depending on the diameter of the "fan" and of the shaft, you can lower the RPM waaaay down (Example: Shaft diam=2mmØ, "fan" DIAM=20mmØ, motorRPM=600 or 10Hz, fanRPM={[DIAM/diam]*motorRPM}=60RPM or 1Hz). If you need clarification, give a holler and I'll whip up a sketch.

Hope It helps!

[Quintillus]

I have two sources for small gearmotors that are currently out of stock, but they get they'll get them back eventually.

http://www.solarbotics.com/products/ind ... rch_id=882


http://www.hobbyengineering.com/H1646.html

These motors spin at around 60 rpm (the next model up spins at 90 rpm), and "might" be small enough to fit in a PL nacelle, with a little grinding on both it and the nacelle interior.

[Morty Seinfeld]

I need a DC motor that spins slowly enough to rotate a fan for the engines of the Original Starship Enterprise. Is there a place on the 'net where I can find one? Or would a local electronics store have those types of motors?

I'm currently doing the exact thing with the 22' cutaway. My method uses those stupid overpriced novely motorized lollipops that sell at Toys R Us.

What I did was stip away all the excess plastic till you get just the gear box. I stripped away too much though, and may have to buy another one (I bought the chewbacca and darth vader; buy the chewbacca though, i think it will work much better than the darth and its easier to strip the plastic away.)

The only problem I found is trying to fit it in the nacell, which is why I think i stripped away too much. I was going to try slowing that motor down using these "trimmers" but from the looks of it, that won't work either.

hope that helps.

[dekesdragon]

Hmmmm...this has me trying to remember something from the 1960's...
What/how was this issue handled on the original AMT kit?
I have the non-lighted version but the nacelle pylons were
still the lighted version.

Anyone remember?

[TREKKRIFFIC]

I need a DC motor that spins slowly enough to rotate a fan for the engines of the Original Starship Enterprise. Is there a place on the 'net where I can find one? Or would a local electronics store have those types of motors?

I'm currently doing the exact thing with the 22' cutaway. My method uses those stupid overpriced novely motorized lollipops that sell at Toys R Us.

What I did was stip away all the excess plastic till you get just the gear box. I stripped away too much though, and may have to buy another one (I bought the chewbacca and darth vader; buy the chewbacca though, i think it will work much better than the darth and its easier to strip the plastic away.)

The only problem I found is trying to fit it in the nacell, which is why I think i stripped away too much. I was going to try slowing that motor down using these "trimmers" but from the looks of it, that won't work either.

hope that helps.

I did the same thing using the gears from the lollipop toys to built my own motors for the 18" ERTL Enterprise. I had to build 3 layers of gears to get the drive shaft to enter and exit at the center of the front and back bulkheads. You need both regular and worm gears from the toys to accomplish this. The motors were lit with alternating solid and flashing yellow LED's mounted on the face of the front bulkhead under the acrylic spinning turbine umbrella thingy. It spins at about 60 RPM-I lucked out in that regard. Still, I think if you are willing to spend $58.00 for two of the Sanyo NA4S 297.1:1 reduction gear motors Quintillus mentions above that would be easier than what I went thru. At .47" diameter it shoudl fit inside the 18" E nacelle which I measured at about the same diameter as a quarter coin. It also runs on 6 volts which is perfect since the LED's run on 6 volts too.

[TREKKRIFFIC]

Hmmmm...this has me trying to remember something from the 1960's...
What/how was this issue handled on the original AMT kit?
I have the non-lighted version but the nacelle pylons were
still the lighted version.

Anyone remember?

What issue are you referring to ?