IQ Motion Control
Robotics & Motors
IQ Motor Module
The first drone motor with position sensing
Funding ended on May 10, 2018 at 04:59 PM PDT.
IQ Motion Control
Robotics & Motors
Funding ended on May 10, 2018 at 04:59 PM PDT.
NOTE: The names of the motor modules sold during the campaign have been changed, see table below. The products are exactly the same, despite new naming structure.
| Campaign pledge | New product name |
|---|---|
| IQ Speed Module | IQ Vertiq 2306 2200KV |
| IQ Position Module | IQ Vertiq 2306 220KV |
Updated October 1, 2020.
The IQ Motor Module is an integrated motor and controller with an embedded position sensor. With position-sensing and advanced calibration and control algorithms, IQ is able to optimize motor performance and give users unprecedented control over their vehicles and machines. The drone industry has relied on hobby-grade motors and controllers for too long. Now, IQ is bringing advanced motor control to the drone industry and other robotics fields at an affordable price.
IQ motors support serial communication as well as standard hobby protocols, so you can easily integrate them into your vehicle. Whether you’re an engineer testing our motors for commercial use or a maker/pilot using them in a personal drone, IQ motors will deliver high-end, professional performance.
The IQ Drone Module is ideal for FPV pilots who want faster throttle response, greater maneuverability, and higher peak RPM. Check out some demos.
High efficiency motors are even more important in VTOL applications. The IQ module is much more efficient relative to standard motor/ESC combinations at lower speeds.
Freed from the limitation of spinning in a single direction, IQ motors enable entirely new drone technology. We’re excited to see what our backers come up with.
Although our high speed motors and controllers are designed for multicopters, they’re great for anything from RC planes to cars to battlebots.
An IQ motor can be used to actuate movement at every joint, giving a robot arm smooth, precise motion.
Our tech is great for linear motion machines. IQ motors are smoother, quieter, and more efficient than stepper motors, and they will never skip a step or get lost.
Closed-loop position control and anti-cogged motion can make gimbal systems extremely smooth and stable.
High speed, precision motors and controllers can cost thousands of dollars. Try our motors in your prototype to save money without sacrificing performance. We’re planning to make industrial and medical-grade motors soon.
Since our motors are easily programmable and versatile, they can be used in so many different applications we can’t possibly imagine them all. We can’t wait to see what our backers dream up.
| Microcontroller | 32-bit ARM Cortex MCU @ 64 MHz |
| Motor Dimensions | 28.4 mm diameter, 22 mm height |
| Stator Dimensions | 23 mm diameter, 6 mm height |
| Shaft Diameter | 2 mm ID, 5 mm OD, 5 mm prop |
| Weight (motor w/o wires) | 35.2 g |
| Weight (motor w/ wires+connectors) | 43.1 g |
| Weight (prop adapter+nut) | 2.6 g |
| Motor KV Options | 2200 RPM/V, 220 RPM/V |
| 2200 KV Max Continuous Motor Current (10 s) | 30 A |
| 2200 KV Max Instant Motor Current (50 ms) | 60 A |
| 220 KV Max Continuous Motor Current (10 s) | 3 A |
| 220 KV Max Instant Motor Current (50 ms) | 6 A |
| Voltage (Max # of Lipo Cells) | 17 V (4S) |
The preliminary Speed Module datasheet is available here.
The speed firmware is specially designed to drive propellers or any application with target velocities. This firmware speaks all of the common communication protocols, including 1-2 ms PWM, Oneshot (125, 42), Multishot, and DShot(150, 300, 600, 1200), as well as IQ’s UART protocol.
The position firmware has a position controller capable of single turn positioning and multi turn positioning. The built in minimum jerk trajectory generator creates smooth motion with minimal user effort. It speaks step/direction and IQ’s UART protocol.
Note: We will make both the position and speed firmware available, so users will be able to flash the controllers with the other firmware if they choose. We will do an update explaining how to switch firmwares if you’d like the position firmware on an IQ Speed Module or vice versa.
| Specifications | IQ Motor Modules | Drone Setup #1 | Drone Setup #2 | Drone Setup #3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Motor | Integrated | Tiger Motor F40III - 2400KV | Turnigy D2206-2300KV 31g Brushless Motor CW | ZTW Black Widow 2206 2200KV With Built-In ESC CW |
| Electronic Speed Control (ESC) | Integrated | 32A Kiss ESC | Turnigy MultiStar 30A BLHeli-S Rev16 V3 ESC 2~4S (Opto) | Integrated |
| Motor Dimensions (Dia/Height) (LxWxD) (mm) | 28.4/22 | 28.4/17 | 28/19.5 | 27.5/21.4 |
| ESC Dimensions (Lenth/Width) (mm) | Integrated | 27/19 | 28/13 | Integrated |
| Weight RTF¹ / RTU (g) | 45.7 | 46.6 | 41.2 | 41.6 |
| Motor KV (final drive) (RPM/V) | 2200 & 220 | 2400 | 2300 | 2200 |
| Shaft Diameter (ID/OD/prop) (mm) | 2/5/2005 | 1.6/4/5 | -/3/5 | -/3/5 |
| Voltage (V) / No. of Lipo Cells (S) | 16.8/4 | 30/6 | 16.8/4 | 12.6/3 |
| Max Speed (no load) (RPM) | 37000 & 3700 | 71000 | 39000 | 28000 |
| Min Speed (RPM) | 0 | ~1000 | ~1000 | ~1000 |
| Gearbox | No | No | No | No |
| Torque (stalled, continuous) (Nm) | 0.04 | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Max Current Continuous (A) | 30 & 3 | 32 | 30 | 18 |
| Max Current Burst (A) | 60 & 6 | 45 | 35 | 28 |
| Reversibility (3D mode) | Yes | Yes² | No | No |
| Open-loop velocity control | Yes (Voltage/PWM) | Yes (PWM) | Yes (PWM) | Yes (PWM) |
| Closed-loop velocity control | Yes (PID+FF) | No | No | No |
| Backdrivable | Yes | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Regenerative and active braking | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Active freewheeling | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Over-current protection | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Built-in Controller/ESC | Yes | No | No | Yes |
| Sinusoidal (vibrationless) | Yes | Yes (<90% throttle) | No | No |
| Price (qty. 1) (USD) | 80 | 54.89 | 18.05 | 28.63 |
¹ With 150 mm wires, XT-30 power connector, servo connector
² Startup jitter on direction change
| Specifications | IQ Motor Modules | Position Setup #1 | Position Setup #2 | Position Setup #3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Motor | Integrated | Nema 11 11HS12-0956D | Power HD 3001HB | Dynamixel AX-18A |
| Driver | Integrated | TB6612 Stepper Motor Driver Breakout | Integrated | Integrated |
| Controller | Integrated | Arduino Pro Mini 328 | Integrated | Integrated |
| Motor Dimensions (Dia/Height) (LxWxD) (mm) | 28.4/22 | 28.2x28.2x31.5 | 20.5x54.5x39.5 | 32x50x40 |
| ESC Dimensions (Lenth/Width) (mm) | Integrated | 27/19 + 33/18 | Integrated | Integrated |
| Weight RTF¹ / RTU (g) | 45.7 | >110 | 43 | 54.5 |
| Motor KV (final drive) (RPM/V) | 2200 & 220 | 211 | 14 | 8 |
| Shaft Diameter (ID/OD/prop) (mm) | 2/5/2005 | -/5/- | N/A | N/A |
| Voltage (V) / No. of Lipo Cells (S) | 16.8/4 | 13.5/3 | 6/- | 12.6/3 |
| Max Speed (no load) (RPM) | 37000 & 3700 | 2800 | 83 | 97 |
| Min Speed (RPM) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Gearbox | No | No | 240:1 | 254:1 |
| Torque (stalled, continuous) (Nm) | 0.04 | 0.04 | 0.43 | 1.8 |
| Max Current Continuous (A) | 30 & 3 | 1 | 0.9 | 2.2 |
| Max Current Burst (A) | 60 & 6 | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Reversibility (3D mode) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Open-loop position control | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Closed-loop position control | Yes | No | Yes (165°) | Yes (300°) |
| Closed-loop multi-turn position control | Yes | No | No | No |
| Trajectory generation | Yes | No | No | No |
| Backdrivable | Yes | Yes² | No | No |
| Regenerative and active braking | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Active freewheeling | Yes | No | N/A | N/A |
| Over-current protection | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Built-in Controller/ESC | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Sinusoidal (vibrationless) | Yes | No | N/A | N/A |
| Price (qty. 1) (USD) | 80 | 29.53 | 9.95 | 94.9 |
¹ With 150 mm wires, XT-30 power connector, servo connector
² Position information will be lost
We completed a small production run of motors and controllers in January 2018 for testing and demos. This initial production run took approximately three months, beginning in early November 2017. We worked with our manufacturer’s engineers to refine the design, a process that took several weeks. We received samples of the motors in mid-December and once we tested and confirmed the design, it took a few weeks more to fulfill the rest of the order. It took about two weeks to procure the parts for the PCBs and another two weeks for PCB fabrication and assembly (we did this in parallel with the motor manufacturing). We needed to iterate on the boards once before we were satisfied. We assembled, programmed, and calibrated the integrated motors and PCBs for the initial batch, a process that took a few days, spread out over the course of several weeks.
We anticipate making several minor changes to the motor design in order to optimize the manufacturing process for large scale production. Once we reach our funding goal, our manufacturer in China will make samples. We will test the new design, iterate if necessary, and then begin full scale manufacturing. We believe it will take about one month to manufacture the motors once we confirm the final design.
We have used a variety of PCB manufacturers over the past year. In China, we could get inexpensive PCBs made very quickly, but we found that the yield rate was quite poor. This was acceptable for testing, but not for full scale manufacturing. We plan to go with one of our trusted PCB manufacturers. While they may be slightly more expensive, they are actually far more cost effective at large quantities because of the high yield rate. Given the extensive lead times of certain components, we anticipate that it will take eight weeks to procure parts for the final iteration of our board and then three to four weeks to get the boards in for assembly and calibration.
We plan to have our PCB manufacturer assemble and calibrate the motor modules as well. This process consists of testing the PCBs, applying thermal pads, soldering power and communication wires, calibrating the motor, applying RTV to balance the motor, and then one final recalibration. We are working to optimize the calibration and assembly process now with the remaining motors and controllers from our initial production run.
Crowd Supply will be handling all fulfillment and logistics. As such, all orders will be shipping from Portland, Oregon in the US. See The Crowd Supply Guide for more information on their ordering and shipping policies.
We were in China for our initial production run, giving us easy access to our motor manufacturer. We will likely be in the US for the majority of the large production run following the campaign, so our biggest challenge will be quick communication with our manufacturer. We plan to travel to China to oversee the first units coming off the line and do initial testing. Fortunately, we went through this process recently and are confident that our design is easily manufacturable. As with most hardware, we face the risk of part shortages and unexpectedly long lead times. We will make sure to be open and honest about our manufacturing progress. Be sure to subscribe to the project updates to get the latest news.
Produced by IQ Motion Control in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Sold and shipped by Crowd Supply.
An IQ Motor Module pre-loaded with our speed control firmware (2200 KV). (Formerly named IQ Speed Module.)
Want to buy this item? Check the current project page for the latest information.
An IQ Motor Module pre-loaded with our position control firmware (220 KV). (Formerly named IQ Position Module)
Want to buy this item? Check the current project page for the latest information.
4x IQ Vertiq 2306 2200KV modules pre-loaded with our speed control firmware (2200 KV).
Want to buy this item? Check the current project page for the latest information.
4x IQ Vertiq 2306 220KV modules pre-loaded with our position control firmware (220 KV).
Want to buy this item? Check the current project page for the latest information.
4 IQ Motor Modules pre-loaded with our speed control firmware (2200 KV) plus 4 APC 6x4E / EP propellers.
Want to buy this item? Check the current project page for the latest information.
4 IQ Motor Modules pre-loaded with our speed control firmware (2200 KV) plus 4 APC 6x3R propellers.
Want to buy this item? Check the current project page for the latest information.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania · iq-control.com
Born out of the University of Pennsylvania’s robotics lab, IQ Motion Control is a tech startup that delivers the ultimate drone motor module for versatility and performance.
