Guide

1/22/2018 micro:bot Kit Experiment Guide - learn.sparkfun.com
https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/microbot-kit-experiment-guide/all#about-the-motobit-board 41/75
Motors take electrical energy and turn it into mechanical energy through putting a current through a coil of wire that
creates a magnetic field. This then interacts with magnets in the motor, causing a push / pull effect. If you do that in a
proper spacing and timing then you can spin a shaft.
These motors operate in a similar was as mentioned above, but they have a bit of help; a gear box. The ratio of the
gearbox is 120:1, which means that for every 120 rotations of the motor shaft you get one rotation at the end of the
gear box. This is a good thing because it gives our robot enough strength (torque) to turn wheels. In this case our
gearbox also changes the axis of the shaft so that we can easily use them to drive our robot.
Hardware Hookup
You should have already hooked up the motors during the assembly process of putting the robot together. But, we
have a couple of things that we would like you to double check!