K'nex Brushless Motor Mount and Adapter

Welcome to my instructable on how to make a brushless motor mount and adapter for k'nex! Using this, we can use brushless motors to drive our k'nex creations!

I built this because I was looking for alternative methods of motorizing k'nex. I had an extra motor lying around and decided to experiment and see how I could incorporate it with k'nex.

This mount and adapter work well with the Tacon Bigfoot 60 brushless motor. I do not know how well this will work with other motors, but it should work with motors of similar size. This motor is designed for use in RC airplanes, but using this mount and adapter we can use it with k'nex.

Benefits of using this over traditional k'nex motors include:

• Higher torque capacity
• Higher RPM
• And variable speed. Speed is controlled through an electronic speed controller which can be controlled with an Arduino or other microcontroller or a RC radio receiver.

1 Tacon Bigfoot 60 Brushless DC Motor

1 red rod

4 yellow rods

12 white rods

16 green rods

2 grey clips

4 orange clips

4 white circle connectors

12 red connectors

4 purple sliding connectors

4 blue sliding connectors

Build parts shown in the photo. These parts will make up the motor mount.

To assemble the motor mount. place orange connectors so that the pegs lock in the mounting holes of the motor and slide the square part of the mount on the white sticks.

Then clip the last part onto the ends of the white sticks. The motor is now secured to the k'nex mount! now the motor can be mounted on a k'nex structure.

Build the parts for the k'nex adapter.

UPDATE: I found that adding two white connector to the very end of the red rod greatly helps keep the rod straight and reduces vibrations.

Clip the yellow rods inside the red connectors on both parts and slide to one side.

Slide the assembled unit over the shaft of the motor ensuring that the yellow rods fit inside the groves of the prop adapter mount. Then screw the washer and nose cap on the motor shaft to secure the knex on the motor.

Once the k'nex is secured to the motor clip the white connectors of the final part to the ends of the yellow rods.

Update: I found that the nose cap had a tenancy to unscrew, my solution for this was to use zip-ties to prevent it from unscrewing.

And thats it! You can now control k'nex contraptions using a brushless DC motor! Be sure to check out my other Instructables!

If you post an instructable which uses something from one of my instructables, let me know, I'll post a link to your 'ible in my applicable 'ible.