A stepper motor to satisfy all your robotics needs! This 4-wire bipolar stepper has 1.8° per step for smooth motion and a nice holding torque. The motor was specified to have a max current of 350mA so that it could be driven easily with an Adafruit motor shield for Arduino (or other motor driver) and a wall adapter or lead-acid battery.

Some nice details include a ready-to-go cable and a machined drive shaft (so you can easily attach stuff). We drove it with an Adafruit motor shield for Arduino and it hummed along nicely at 50 RPM. To connect to our shield, put the wires in this order: Red, Yellow, skip ground, Green, Brown (or Gray)

Add even more power to your robot with this metal-geared servo. The tiny little servo can rotate approximately 180 degrees (~90 in each direction), and works just like the standard kinds you're used to but smaller. You can use any servo code, hardware or library to control these servos. Good for beginners who want to make stuff move without building a motor controller with feedback & gear box, especially since it will fit in small places. Despite its size, this micro-servo is as strong as many 'standard' size servos! Works great with the Motor Shield for Arduino, our 16-channel Servo Driver, or by just wiring up with the Servo library. Comes with a few horns and hardware.

This micro servo packs a big punch for its little size.  it's just a little bit bigger than our High Torque Metal Gear Micro Servo but runs with almost double the stall torque.

To control with an Arduino, we suggest connecting the orange control wire to pin 9 or 10 and using the Servo library included with the Arduino IDE (see here for an example sketch). Position "0" (1.5ms pulse) is middle, "90" (~2ms pulse) is all the way to the right, "-90" (~1ms pulse) is all the way to the left. Note that unlike most servos you may be familiar with, this one does not have mechanical stops!

This servo rotates fully forward or backwards instead of moving to a position. You can use any servo code, hardware or library to control these servos. Good for making simple moving robots. Comes with four different horns, as shown.

To control with an Arduino, we suggest connecting the control wire to pin 9 or 10 and using the Servo library included with the Arduino IDE (see here for an example sketch). Position "90" (1.5ms pulse) is stop, "180" (2ms pulse) is full speed forward, "0" (1ms pulse) is full speed backwards. They may require some simple calibration, simply tell the servo to 'stop' and then gently adjust the potentiometer in the recessed hole with a small screwdriver until the servo stops moving.

Note: This product no longer includes the hole to adjust the Zero point.

This high-torque standard servo can rotate approximately 180 degrees (90 in each direction). You can use any servo code, hardware or library to control these servos. Good for beginners who want to make stuff move without building a motor controller with feedback & gear box. Comes with 3 horns, as shown. They aren't the highest quality servo (which is why they are less expensive) and so are not suggested for hobby planes. We now carry the Tower-Pro SG-5010.

To control with an Arduino, we suggest connecting the orange control wire to pin 9 or 10 and using the Servo library included with the Arduino IDE (see here for an example sketch). Position "0" (1.5ms pulse) is middle, "90" (~2ms pulse) is all the way to the right, "-90" (~1ms pulse) is all the way to the left.

Need to make a tiny robot? This little micro servo rotates 360 degrees fully forward or backwards, instead of moving to a single position. You can use any servo code, hardware or library to control these servos. Good for making simple moving robots. Comes with five horns and attachment screws, as shown.

Good for beginners who want to make stuff move without building a motor controller with feedback & gear box, especially since it will fit in small places. Of course, its not nearly as strong as a standard servo. Works great with the Motor Shield for Arduino, our 16-channel Servo Driver, or by just wiring up with the Servo library.

To control with an Arduino, we suggest connecting the orange control wire to pin 9 or 10 and using the Servo library included with the Arduino IDE (see here for an example sketch). Position "90" (1.5ms pulse) is stop, "180" (2ms pulse) is full speed forward, "0" (1ms pulse) is full speed backwards. They may require some simple calibration, simply tell the servo to 'stop' and then gently adjust the potentiometer in the recessed hole with a small screwdriver until the servo stops moving.

This is just about the cutest, tiniest little micro servo we could find, even smaller than the 9 gram micro servos we love so much.  It can rotate approximately 180 degrees (90 in each direction) and works just like the standard kind you're used to but much smaller.  You can use any servo code, hardware or library to control these servos. Good for beginners who want to make stuff move without building a motor controller with feedback & gear box, especially since it will fit in small places. Of course, its not nearly as strong as a standard servo. Works great with the Motor Shield for Arduino or by just wiring up with the Servo library. Comes with a few horns and hardware.

To control with an Arduino, we suggest connecting the orange control wire to pin 9 or 10 and using the Servo library included with the Arduino IDE (see here for an example sketch). Position "0" (1.5ms pulse) is middle, "90" (~2ms pulse) is all the way to the right, "-90" (~1ms pulse) is all the way to the left.

With a slip ring assembly, your electronics can now twist and turn safely. Add wheel encoders, 360 degree sensors, rotating LEDs, rotors and more! We've seen a lot of people DIY slip ring's out of desperation but no longer, simply pick up one of these to solve any rotation needs you have.Inside the miniature plastic tube is a gold plated slip ring for 12 wires. There are twelve color coded wire sets made of 28 AWG and no matter how you twist the assembly, they will remain in continuity. Each of the wire sets can carry up to 2A at up to 240VAC or 240VDC. This model is the tiniest slip ring you can get, a mere 20mm long, 12mm diameter. Rated to rotate up to 300 RPM (but you can probably go faster if you don't mind a reduced life and/or noise).

12-wire slip rings (3:42)

These are very thin variable potentiometers. By pressing down on various parts of the strip, the resistance linearly changes from 100Ohms to 10,000Ohms allowing the user to very accurately calculate the relative position on the strip. Can be used as an accurate positional indicator for CNC head positioning, variable user input (volume level input for example), straight user input (multiple button areas translate to given resistance levels), and many other applications.

Unit comes with adhesive backing. Connector is 0.1" spaced and bread board friendly.

Note: These potentiometers work great with a finger, or stylus.

These are very thin variable potentiometers. By pressing down on various parts of the strip, the resistance linearly changes from 100Ohms to 10,000Ohms allowing the user to very accurately calculate the relative position on the strip. Can be used as an accurate positional indicator for CNC head positioning, variable user input (volume level input for example), straight user input (multiple button areas translate to given resistance levels), and many other applications.

Unit comes with adhesive backing. Connector is 0.1" spaced and bread board friendly.

Note: These potentiometers work great with a finger, or stylus. For premium repeatability, the wiper listed below is perfect for machine and object positioning.

These are very thin variable potentiometers. By pressing down on various parts of the strip, the resistance linearly changes from 100Ohms to 10,000Ohms allowing the user to very accurately calculate the relative position on the strip. Can be used as an accurate positional indicator for CNC head positioning, variable user input (volume level input for example), straight user input (multiple button areas translate to given resistance levels), and many other applications.

Unit comes with adhesive backing. Connector is 0.1" spaced and bread board friendly. However the connector does not fit nicely into standard female headers because the pins are too small.

Note: These potentiometers work great with a finger, or stylus.

You want to make a cool robot, maybe a hexapod walker, or maybe just a piece of art with a lot of moving parts. Or maybe you want to drive a lot of LEDs with precise PWM output. Then you realize that your microcontroller has a limited number of PWM outputs! What now? You could give up OR you could just get this handy PWM and Servo driver breakout.When we saw this chip, we quickly realized what an excellent add-on this would be. Using only two pins, control 16 free-running PWM outputs! You can even chain up 62 breakouts to control up to 992 PWM outputs (which we would really like to see since it would be glorious)

It's an i2c-controlled PWM driver with a built in clock. That means that, unlike the TLC5940 family, you do not need to continuously send it signal tying up your microcontroller, its completely free running!

It is 5V compliant, which means you can control it from a 3.3V microcontroller and still safely drive up to 6V outputs (this is good for when you want to control white or blue LEDs with 3.4+ forward voltages)

6 address select pins so you can wire up to 62 of these on a single i2c bus, a total of 992 outputs - that's a lot of servos or LEDs

Adjustable frequency PWM up to about 1.6 KHz

12-bit resolution for each output - for servos, that means about 4us resolution at 60Hz update rate

Configurable push-pull or open-drain output

Output enable pin to quickly disable all the outputs

We wrapped up this lovely chip into a breakout board with a couple nice extras

Terminal block for power input (or you can use the 0.1" breakouts on the side)

Reverse polarity protection on the terminal block input. The terminal block included with your product may be blue or black.

Green power-good LED

3 pin connectors in groups of 4 so you can plug in 16 servos at once (Servo plugs are slightly wider than 0.1" so you can only stack 4 next to each other on 0.1" header

"Chain-able" design

A spot to place a big capacitor on the V+ line (in case you need it)

220 ohm series resistors on all the output lines to protect them, and to make driving LEDs trivial

Solder jumpers for the 6 address select pins

This product comes with a fully tested and assembled breakout as well as 4 pieces of 3x4 male straight header (for servo/LED plugs), a 2-pin terminal block (for power) and a piece of 6-pin 0.1" header (to plug into a breadboard). A little light soldering will be required to assemble and customize the board by attaching the desired headers but it is a 15 minute task that even a beginner can do. If you want to use right-angle 3x4 headers, we also carry a 4 pack in the shop.Check out our tutorial with CircuitPython & Arduino libraries/examples, wiring diagrams, schematics, Fritzing and more!

*BZZZZZZZZZZ* Feel that? That's your little buzzing motor, and for any haptic feedback project you'll want to pick up a few of them. These vibe motors are tiny discs, completely sealed up so they're easy to use and embed.Two wires are used to control/power the vibe. Simply provide power from a battery or microcontroller pin (red is positive, blue is negative) and it will buzz away. Works from 2V up to 5V, higher voltages result in more current draw but also a stronger vibration.If you want to reduce the current draw/strength (for example, to control it directly from an Arduino pin) try putting a resistor (100 to 1000 ohms) in series. For full power control, a small PN2222 transistor can control a motor easily, some experimentation may be required!

Vibrating Mini Motor Disc (6:47)

Solenoids are basically electromagnets: they are made of a big coil of copper wire with an armature (a slug of metal) in the middle. When the coil is energized, the slug is pulled into the center of the coil. This makes the solenoid able to pull (from one end) or push (from the other)This solenoid in particular is fairly small, with a 30mm long body and a 'captive' armature with a return spring. This means that when activated with up to 12VDC, the solenoid moves and then the voltage is removed it springs back to the original position, which is quite handy. Many lower cost solenoids are only push type or only pull type and may not have a captive armature (it'll fall out!) or don't have a return spring. This one even has nice mounting tabs, its a great all-purpose solenoid.To drive a solenoid you will need a power transistor and a diode, check this diagram for how to wire it to an Arduino or other microcontroller. You will need a fairly good power supply to drive a solenoid, as a lot of current will rush into the solenoid to charge up the electro-magnet, about 250mA, so don't try to power it with a 9V battery!

Solenoids are basically electromagnets: they are made of a coil of copper wire with an armature (a slug of metal) in the middle. When the coil is energized, the slug is pulled into the center of the coil. This makes the solenoid able to pull (from one end) or push (from the other).

This solenoid in particular is very small, with a 20mm long body and a 'captive' armature with a return spring. This means that when activated with ~5VDC, the solenoid moves and then the voltage is removed it springs back to the original position, which is quite handy. Many lower cost solenoids are only push type or only pull type and may not have a captive armature (it'll fall out!) or don't have a return spring. This one even has nice mounting tabs, its a great all-purpose solenoid.

We also have a slightly bigger small push-pull solenoid and a huge large push-pull solenoid in the store!

To drive a solenoid you will need a power transistor and a protection diode, check this diagram for how to wire it to an Arduino or other microcontroller. You will need a fairly good power supply to drive a solenoid, as a lot of current will rush into the solenoid to charge up the electro-magnet, about 1 Amp, so be careful of trying to power/activate from a computer's USB.