Tons of motors and gear motors on eBay of all sizes.  Amazon has a lot of stuff as well.  Pololu is another place that has tons of servo stuff.

A great piece for some of this stuff is model airplane servos. Cheap, easy to control.

Wow!

Thanks Gunnrunner.

Pololu has the following offset motor listed, which comes in both 3v and 6v:

Solarbotics GM8 143:1 Gear Motor Offset Output

The ad includes a set of blueprint/diagrams for this offset motor.  But, I don't see anything in those diagrams that show where to connect the positive and negative DC wires to the motor.

Any ideas?

Mannyrock

This is a simple DC can motor, so obviously the brush connections are on the brush plate right here.

If you look closely at the pictures, you can see one of the connection tabs.  The other would be the same position on the other side facing down in the shadow.

Here's another view:

Mike

There's also a 224:1 version of the same product if you want slower action.

I still prefer the model airplane servos for controllable action.

Excellent info!

Thanks again.

Mannyrock

How's the noise level on the airplane servos?

Great suggestions for this. Thanks for the topic! Terry

Add xUmp to the list. I have use them and Pololu a lot.

Pete

@EastonO posted:

How's the noise level on the airplane servos?

Nonexistent, they're not noisy at all.

Terminal One would normally be the Positive connection and Terminal Two would normally be the Common Terminal. You can reverse motor direction by switching connections or by using a DPDT (Double Pole Double Throw, having a Center Off position on the switch is best) Switch and reversing the connections on one side of the switch from the motor.

As indicated previously, servomechanisms are an excellent choice for programmed controlled action in animated accessories.  An important element with servo based accessory designs is the servo controller which is available in single, dual and quad configurations.

You can use servos or simple geared DC motors. This is a geared motor with an approximate 800:1 gear reduction. 6mm diameter or about the size of a pencil.

The #2 screws next to it give you some perspective. I use them to move swinging bells when electromagnet drive isn't applicable.

Long before Lionel offered its TMCC gantry crane I powered track movement with a gearmotor and leadscrew setup.

Pete

Here's a nice example of a servo based animated accessory.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8NJN1vCfCU