FingerTech "Silver Spark" 16mm Gearmotor

Reviews for the product - FingerTech "Silver Spark" 16mm Gearmotor (Back to product)

19 Product Reviews - Average rating 4.6 / 5 (Best Rated | Worst Rated | Most Recent | Oldest)

These are good motors, but not for a vert

Alek F - 08th December 2019

These are the motors I have used since my first combat robot and they were great. However, I recently built a pretty powerful vert (ant weight) that shreds the gearboxes with almost every hit it gives out. However, if you are building pretty much any other type of bot these should work fine.

Excellent if you treat them right!

Black Lightning Robotics - 29th August 2018

We use 4 of these in our beetleweight horizontal spinner Phantom II. The trick is to support the shaft with a bearing. We do this with a bearing pressed into the frame rail for each wheel but the Fingertech Bearing Block achieves the same thing. It's also a good idea to support the motor can itself. With this setup we've been through 28 fights across 6 events with only one gearbox failure, and that was because of a direct impact on the wheel hub. If you armor your wheels and support everything properly, these motors are well worth the investment.

Great service for not the most suitable motors

Chris - 06th November 2017

Bought a set of Gold Sparks and mistakenly used them with a set of Fingertech Mecanum Wheels in a beetleweight. Gears stripped within minutes of testing (too much weight on the shafts by the heavy mecanums).
Contacted Fingertech and they explained that I didn't choose the correct motors for the application but still gave me a 50% discount on a replacement set of Silver Sparks!
Once the replacements were installed I didn't use the mecanums again (didn't want to risk a second set of motors) and opted for some lightweight r/c 1/16 scale on-road tyres, using a 3mm d-shaft to 12mm hex adapter to mount them.
The Silver Sparks went well in the robot's first event yesterday, however after an outstanding event with next to no damage on my bot, the gears on three of the four motors stripped again during the third fight.

To summarize; excellent customer service by Fingertech but I don't recommend these motors for a beetleweight. Just too risky to spend this kind of money on motors that strip after little use. I will be searching for better or bigger motors for my application.

the standard for insect class combat robots

Ryan - 21st November 2016

I have 3 antweight and 2 beetleweight battlebots and all five of them use these motors. You've come to the right place for the best insect class drive motors in the game.

Best motor in the business.

Ravi B. - 21st November 2016

Best motor in the business. I'd be confident in saying 90% of ants using brushed motors uses these. The silvers are more robust .

Yes they can be damaged, but they're the best.

Andrew B. - 21st November 2016

Yes they can be damaged, but they're the best. Loctite the screws and mount the wheel as close as you can to the gearbox and you're golden. They're pretty durable for what they are. FingerTech has many must have products especially for 1lb bots, I bet 98% of 1lb has something from them in it.

Loctite to keep the gearbox from getting loose.

Lester N - 21st November 2016

I always remove the gearbox and loctite it back on. Also the shafts bend a little.... but then again I'm using it in a beetle.

22-1

Atom from Sacbots - 16th September 2016

I run the 22-1 silver spark
1.5" wheels
3 cell lipo

Speed in turns is very fast. Strait boxrush speed leaves a little to be desired if you are used to maxon 17-1. It's fast but not very fast. I don't think I'd want any slower. I turned down the rates to 50% on the turning and it's very manageable.

Great motors

Stuart Greer - 08th August 2016

I used these with the thin motor mount, the bearing block, and tinyESC's. I had a basic robot driving in 2 hours and they work great! DHL shipping worked great too. Thanks

Great product

Chuck Butler - 24th February 2015

I have used the 33-1 for the past few years. They take lots of abuse without many failures. Last weekend I took a direct hit to the wheel early in the fight that bent the shaft about 45 degrees. The motor and gearbox kept working for the rest of the fight. I bent the shaft back and ran it for another 5 minutes in the Rumble without failure.

Works Well

Ian McMahon - 19th December 2014

In about 9 fights, I only broke 1 gear tooth using the 22:1 gearmotors in the Physiques. That seems pretty good to me.

Stolen from the energizer bunny

Lester Nickolopoulos Q-Branch Robotics - 02nd February 2014

I have had the same set of 50:1 silver sparks (at 3s) in my beetleweight The Fighting 84th for 4 competitions with no problems, with the exception of the 3mm shaft bending ever so slightly from back in the first competition when I was thrown to the ceiling repeatedly by one of my competitors (one fierce lawnboy) , and I don't think the bent shaft is that big of a deal... It just looks funny.

One thing I would recommend if you use it in the 3lb class is that you carefully (you can cut yourself really bad if you slip) drill out a piece of 1/2" PVC pipe with a 16mm drill bit and press fit the entire motor and gearbox in, flood shoe goo in the back to support the motor and your ready to rock and roll

In short these are the best motors for the insect class available period.

Lester Nickolopoulos

Best Motor Option for Antweights

Troy Mock - 09th September 2013

I used the 11:1 Silver Sparks in my spinner antweight coupled with 1.5" lite flites. Incredible speed! The motors are very well designed and after 2 events are still going strong. My only caveat is the small 2-56 screws used to attach the face plate of the motor to a mount. The screws loosened up after a few fights, but since I've put some threadlocker on the screws, I haven't had any other issues. Definitely recommended!

These are amazing!

Jacob Greenisen, Team Omega - 07th May 2013

I have just finished installing your 83:1 Silver Sparks as my drive
train on my beetle weight robot. I just wanted to say that they are
amazing! Its torque is good enough so if my weapon breaks I can just start pushing. Thank you for your awesome products! I plan on using FingerTech for more robots in the future.

I won the Robot Riot in Miami won two fingertech silver sparks.

Hugh Savoldelli - 05th April 2013

These motors are relentless. They never let you down. So far, I have done nine fights and have gone 7-2 with one pair of motors. There is a reason everyone is using them now. It is because they are manufactured incredibly well, and are second to none in insect weight classes.

They are Truly a fantastic product for combat robotics.

Very Good

Alex Udanis - 25th September 2011

I used this motors at a recent event in my ant-weight robot and the robot took direct hits to the wheels the gearboxes held up fine. No stripped gears! The only issue I did have is with the 3mm shaft bending slightly in both the silver and gold sparks.

Great 1lb drive

Michael Jeffries - 04th September 2011

I'm using 11:1 and 22:1 silver sparks in my antweights. When properly supported, these gearboxes are very reliable and have plenty of power for the 1lb weight class. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8siYPHTmZoM shows my antweight Kobalos fighting DDT in the first of 4 matches it had against DDT. Even with the wheels being ripped off, the gearboxes lasted all four of those fights and the rumble with no apparent damage.

Much improvement over the Golds

Seth - 03rd June 2011

I used these in an application in which the Gold series was not enough, and they performed flawlessly. Good speed and torque and very robust.

Better Just became BEST

Evan Steeves - 21st May 2011

I have seen some proto versions of these in ridiculous applications ranging from two wheel drive 3 pound robots to 1 pound drums just when I thought the gold motors were amazing these come out. Not only are they stronger but come in some GREAT ratios especially the 11:1 for antweight speed!

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