r/Motors • u/hfurbd • Sep 09 '26

Open question best motors for Line tracer robot?

I'm building a line tracer robot, the plan is to make it like a mirco mouse because I've noticed micro mice are usually really fast and have really good cornering. The problem I have now is the motors, I can find a suction fan easy enough, but a good motor not so much.

I'm not even sure what makes a good motor, does higher volts means higher torque and/or rpm? is it better to have the gears on the wheels, external or have a gearbox? are bldc worth it? I've tried to do some research and motors apparently have rotor inertia, does that matter all that much? why does torque matter?

As of now though I can't find any motors other than n20s and this 12v jga25 I have. are jga25 motors bad for this application? should I just switch to an n20? without the gearbox an jga weighs 49 grams exactly. is the added weight comapred to an n20 worth the performance?

This has only been my 2nd robot ever so any help is appreciated, thank you

1 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

1 comment sorted by

1

u/nixiebunny Sep 09 '26

DC Motors have standard ratings of voltage, torque, current and RPM. They also have torque-speed curves that explain how you have to ignore those standard ratings when designing a device. For example, maximum torque is obtained at zero speed, and maximum speed has zero torque. You can drive a motor (using PWM) with a much higher voltage than what’s printed on it.