Where To Find Maxon Motors After Motor Man's Passing?

[Bill H]

Micromo is just a major USA reseller of Faulhaber.  Those are the same motors.
And you'll notice... buying that thing direct will cost you $180+ !!! 
That's why we have to scour the Earth for surplus sales on these.

Hi Max:
https://www.micromo.com/company/news-events/news-recent-events/memoriam-remembering-dr-fritz-faulhaber

According to that page, Micromo was a Faulhaber company... Interesting read about him on that link.
Kind regards,
Bill

[mmagliaro]

This thread has more of the company and family history.

https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=35397.0

Fritz Faulhaber, senior, developed the original coreless technology and earned the original patents in the 1958 and 1965.
And now it seems, according to your other link, his son had followed in his footsteps, but has also passed away.

[mike_lawyer]

Just as an FYI - buyer beware with regard to motors on Ebay.  There is a guy selling what he claims is a Faulhaber 1016 with 15/5 gearheads.  I finally was able to get the gearhead off the motor, and discovered that the motor is actually a Faulhaber 1331 using my caliper. 

[daniel_leavitt2000]

OK... I got several motor samples from China over the last week. Here are some findings.

1. They are genuine OEM motors from an atlas contractor. Same tool marks, "steps" in the skew armature. Even the same conductive tabs on the show speed motor.

2. They are not lubed. Use a healthy dosing of oil before break-in.

3. They say for a while. Some surface rust was visible on some of the motors. Most likely they were stored in a humid environment. This was easily cleaned and did not imped operation.

4. They appear balanced. There is a small amount of epoxy on the armature, same color atlas used to balance their motors. Of course adding flywheels is another story. But so far so good.

5. Check for metal debris. I found ceramic shavings in one motor which probably means they're stored in a single box and debris from broken motors can work it's way into another. Running a piece of paper towel around the armature usually knocks it lose. I suffer rolling the shaft in your fingers to feel any cogging. If there is,then debris is probably the issue.

6 Machima  10X15 clones with 1mm shaft are also available. These are great little motors.

I think I'm going to start replacing my high speed motors with these when upgrading to DCC.

[mmagliaro]

They are so precisely matched to Atlas motors that they just have to be.  Somebody got their hands on a stash in China and they are selling them off at bargain basement prices.

In the interest of full disclosure, when I first discovered these, I sent a note to Atlas alerting them about it, in case they were stolen goods, or in case a supplier of theirs in China was pulling a fast one, dumping surplus on the open market.  I like a bargain as much as the next guy, but I have no wish to cut an American manufacturer's throat if they have been robbed.  Apparently nobody, even Atlas, knows where these motors actually came from.

My impression is similar to yours.  They run fine and they run with similar speed and current draw to motors I bought from Atlas.   I did not do any sort of exhaustive test in an engine, just running them on the workbench.  Of the three I bought, one is a bit of a bum motor - the speed randomly varies.  But that could be a bad brush spring, or just a brush that is getting hung up in its cavity - something that could go wrong on any motor.

[peteski]

For the price (especially if buying larger quantity, and utilizing the "best offer" feature), and buying few dozen, fee bad ones in the lot will be an acceptable reject rate.

[reinhardtjh]

6 Machi a 10X15 clones with 1mm shaft are also available. These are great little engines.

Do you have a listing URL for these?

[daniel_leavitt2000]

Do you have a listing URL for these?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/312305573503

[reinhardtjh]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/312305573503

Thank you Daniel.  I missed those looking though the listings.  I ended up buying these Mashimas from Germany for significantly more.

[Lemosteam]

Thank you Daniel.  I missed those looking though the listings.  I ended up buying these Mashimas from Germany for significantly more.

Being such a steam guy but i have older Atlas and Kato transition era locomotives, which models having the high speed motors do these fit (if someone who has already researched is willing to put a list together)?

[daniel_leavitt2000]

John, pretty much anything with a black motor can be swapped. I don't remember when atlas started using the gray show speed motors - 2008 maybe? Certainly any pre-DCC used the fast motor. The MP15 used a different motor (the Machima previously mentioned) and I'm not sure if the VO1000 used the same motor or not. If it did, the Chinese version should have the slow motor. I'm not sure about the Ajin version.

These may also fit Kato and Life-Like models as well. Since all split frame LL models used double great reduction, their speed was never really a problem. I wonder what a slow motor and that double gear reduction would do.

Do you have any LL steam? These might fit as well.

[peteski]

John, pretty much anything with a black motor can be swapped. I don't remember when atlas started using the gray show speed motors - 2008 maybe? Certainly any pre-DCC used the fast motor. The MP15 used a different motor (the Machima previously mentioned) and I'm not sure if the VO1000 used the same motor or not. If it did, the Chinese version should have the slow motor. I'm not sure about the Ajin version.

While gray plastic is pretty reliable indication of the standard (Kato clone) Atlas "scale speed" motor, I recall either Cory or Paul (from Atlas) mentioning that the newer "scale speed" motors can also have black plastic brush holder end.

[Steveruger45]

The motors seems all to be sans flywheels.   Is there a good method of fitting flywheels and avoiding bent motor shafts?

[peteski]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/312305573503

I just sent them best offer of $2.80/ea (for 15) and they accepted it.

[Lemosteam]

This one look familiar?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/DC-12V-24-46000RPM-High-Speed-5-Pole-Rotor-Motor-6mm-Dual-Shaft-DIY-RC-Car-Boat/123356124760?hash=item1cb8991658:g:vAQAAOSwVH5bkktR:rk:55:pf:0