Linear Labs of Texas has put its novel high-torque low-speed ‘HET’ electric motor on Kickstarter, promoting it as a direct-drive vehicle hub motor.

“We’ve received hundreds of emails from individuals and smaller companies asking how they can get their hands on one of our electric motors,” said Linear Labs CEO and co-founder Brad Hunstable. “Up until now, large-scale manufacturing has made our HET motors available only to large companies ordering significant quantities. However, seeing demand from entrepreneurs as well as maker hobbyists looking to experiment with home projects, we’ve decided to support these communities and encourage their innovation by offering a version of our HET motor to anyone who wants one, whether they order a single motor for a hobby project or twenty motors for a new startup working on e-scooter prototypes.”

Linear-Labs motor magnetic-tunnelThe structure of the motor is said to remove end-winding waste by surrounding the windings with magnetic material. Stator slot fill-factor is claimed to be ~90%. Either ferrite or rare-earth magnets can be used with the structure. The controller sits in the middle (pale grey cylinder in above diagram). “Our unique stator design allows the motor to operate as a 12, 6, or 3 phase motor,” said Linear Labs.

Linear-Labs-motor-performanceThe version offered is the MM17555 motor, which weighs under 6kg and is rated at 1.4 kW continuously (900rpm 15Nm) and >3.4kW peak (650rpm 50Nm) from 48 – 72Vdc. Current rating is 22Arms continuous and 100Arms peak. Dimensions are 175mm dia x 55mm long.

“It’s the perfect means of propulsion for projects ranging from electric small-last-mile mobility vehicles [e-scooters, for example] to robotics, with applications fitting everyone from high school and college students to up-and-coming inventors,” according to the company.

Price set at around $700 each, reducing with quantity, with delivery planned for December (caveat emptor: with Kickstarter, delivery is not guaranteed ever).