Hello Community, Do you want to add a few pounds of batteries or maybe a cool arm to Roli, but still want that power to tackle uneven terrain? Yea me too!
I am bringing you great news on upgrades for the coming Roli Robot kit and this also applies to the Rover 5 Dagu chassis sold separately in the store.
The chassis uses two right angle gearboxes , there are 4 "legs" on the chassis. I found the part sold separately from Jameco.com
part DG01D 4.5v Gearhead Motor Pair , manufacturer: Dagu


These are the same gearboxes already found in the "legs" of the rover. Two legs are empty.



Removing the legs is simple , there is a metal bracket st the connection point and you will need to remove two screws. This releases the leg from the chassis. Pull it out and you have a empty leg by itself. There are 3 to 4 screws to remove so that the two halves come apart. This is where you can insert your new gearbox. Repeat this for the other side and reassemble. This will double your torque and reduces the possibility of track derailment if you weight it down.

Turn this.....


Into a little payload monster!





You have other options too , you could get the full chassis like I did when testing and swap out the two legs with motors already in them and also have encoders as well if that's something you want. You would have spares if you ever have a oops moment too. Point is you can make your Roli have more torque and even swap to the dagu off-road wheels if you would like.

Awesome... Dagu does make a 4 wheeled version... So I assume these are the same motors then? Curious though, why are the motors in Roli's (Dagu) base rated at 7.5V... The motors from you link are 4.5V.... I assume they have a wide voltage rating?

Yes they do have a 4wd version , but it's also harder to find and if you bought a Roli kit then you already have a chassis to play with. As seen in the pic you can swap to off-road style tires as well . Just fun things you can do with your Roli.

I have a Roli kit on order so I will pick up a couple of these motors (nice find by the way)... Curious on the voltage diff... Dagu rates their Rover 5 at 7.5V motors... The ones in your link are 4.5V... Shall I assume that they have a wide voltage rating and just go ahead and order?

That's usually the case , voltage recommendations are based on the highest efficiency volts versus torque. Your best buy is to get another rover chassis because then you have spare parts for modding. You can get a chassis from ez robot or jameco has them for 59.99 and has coupons and free shipping offers all the time too. It would even be cool to glue the extra wheels to the edges of the current ones and have double tracks on each side and double the power !

I have a Dagu Wild Thumper, so now you got me thinking about 4 wheeled drive and some all terrain wheels from the wild thumper ... I might just grab a cheap Rover 5 chassis just to play with until I get Roli and the couple of EB4s I have on order...


Cheers

I'm going to grab one or maybe two soon , I thought about modding the rover so a servo can turn and adjust the height as well. So it can go from low profile to tall quickly.

If you accomplish that... You really need to show us.... I can absolutely see how useful that would be when traversing from one type of terrain to another.... Excellent idea.

http://www.dagurobot.com/products.php?105&sid=8chggd1m4rh77sh201tdji8oq1

Link to buy the 4 off-road wheel conversion kit , 4 wheels , shaft adapter and tool.

http://www.dagurobot.com/products.php?106&cPath=88&sid=80aelanrsgg90l1luhflsf4sk6
Yellow/green indoor wheel kit dagu 64mm wheels and brass hub