ESCAP 16 Gear Motor With Encoder

Pinout, wiring, scope captures and other info on a cheap Ebay encoder motor with gear head

Introduction

I bough this DC geared servo motor with encoder for an upcoming robotics project on Ebay. It was about 12$ shipped from China. There was little to no information available on the motor so I thought it would be beneficial to share my experience. The listing is for ESCAP 16 Coreless DC 12V 540RPM Gear Motor With Encoder 16MM.

Pinout

Motor + Vcc A B Gnd Motor -
Red Grey Grey Grey Grey Grey


The from the motor is a 6-pos DF13 cable.

Specification

Origin Switzerland
Brand ESCAP
Model 16G 214E MR 19
Rated voltage 12 VDC
Rated Current 300mA
No load current 15mA
No load speed 540rpm
Motor length 50mm
Motor output torque 0.143 NM
Motor Length 27mm
Gearbox Length 17mm
Encoder Length 8mm
Motor diameter 16mm
Gearbox diameter 16mm
Encoder diameter 16mm
Shaft diameter 3mm (keyed)
Shaft length 8mm
Encoder Resolution 128ppr
Gear Ratio 27:1 reduction


The scope capture below shows a nice standard 5V quadrature signal coming out of the motor. Notice that the voltage per div was different for the two channels during the capture. The rise and fall time are very quick (< 100 nano seconds). There appears to be a fair amount of backlash in the gear head. It appears to be something like +/- 10 counts. Also the motor shaft has a little bit of play laterally. Perhaps the bearings could be upgraded or replaced.

 

Wheel Mounting

I plan to use these motors in conjunction with Pololu plastic wheels. Hopefully the slop in the output shaft and gearbox backlash associated with the cheap motor are not detrimental to the project.