Blitz Lite 1604 - Peak Power Density Brushless Gearmotors

Smallest and Lightest with No Compromises! 

Blitz Lite motors are short, so let's keep this description short too. Blitz Lite is shorter and lighter than any other 6mm shaft beetleweight drive gearmotor on the market. To accomplish this, rather than modifying an existing gearbox, we designed a fully custom one from the ground up and invested thousands in tooling to bring it to life! 

Highlights include:

• D-Shaped motor shaft for no pinion slip, ever
• Durable one-part steel ring gear and faceplate, 20mm diameter
• Dual ball bearing shaft support (no soft bronze bushings!)
• Billet 6mm diameter hardened 4140 steel output shaft
• 3X M3 face mounting threads
• All metal gears, 2-stage 29:1 ratio
• High-performance brushless motor for 3S-6S operation
• Custom motor base to minimize length and maximize reliability
• <44.5 grams each with full-length color-coded wires
• Mod 0.35 gears (17% bigger than 22mm gearboxes)
• DartBox Dragon output torque while 37% shorter and 24% lighter!
• Perfect for Beetleweights, beetle multibots, and overpowered 1lb ants
• 2850kV can run up to 6S, 3800kV up to 4S

We Love Performance Data And You Should Too!

Measuring brushless motor torque is hard, but we made a custom motor testing rig to get this data so you can know exactly what you are paying for! This is something no other combat robot parts manufacturer has done for brushless drive motors to date! Comprehensive test data is available below or click this link for a data table.

But the motor is only half the equation; you need an ESC made to match, and you can now buy our 35A AM32 drive ESCs! You just need to cut the power and motor wires to length and solder on connectors if you wish, or just solder the 3 motor wires one to each ESC phase pad. Use your radio transmitter to set the correct directions and controls by following our handy video guide. You can also use this AM32 Bin file to get the perfect settings for your ESCs. 

Built for 3lb “Beetleweight” combat robots, 1.5 or 2lb multibots, and plenty of other applications. The price shown is for one motor + gearbox, assembled. 
Replacement shafts are available at launch, while spare motors should be available around September 2025. 

Click Here for a great comparison chart showing the differences between all available drive motors and gearboxes from Just 'Cuz Robotics!

For wheel mounting, pair with our, 12mm hex hubs or lightweight 6mm bore Flange Hubs. Spare shafts will be available soon.

Download the CAD Assembly Here!

Below is a comparison of our brushless options for beetles:

Usage Info and Specs

Usage Info

AM32 USERS: Flashing your ESCs to V2.18 or later and enabling RPM by PWM can solve desync issues.

2X Blitz Lite drive motors can be used to spin the wheels for any 3-pound bot, and probably for most shufflers with a weight bonus. That said, they are small and light enough to fit 1.5-2lb bots with ease, perfect for multibots! The hardened 4140 output shafts and bigger gears on Blitz Lites should handle direct-drive applications much better than our DartBox 22mm gearboxes.

Blitz Pro still has the edge for exposed wheel direct-drive durability, and Blitz Pro motors will work at higher voltages in demanding use cases with little risk of overheating. The Blitz Lite 1604 motor has about 1/3rd the stator volume of the massive Blitz Pro 2306 motor.

If you mount a wheel directly to the shaft of these motors, make sure to cut the shaft so it doesn’t stick out! Direct hits to a shaft are the easiest way to break a motor!

WARNING: Sensorless brushless motors have wildly different performance based on the ESC and settings used. If you aren't happy with the performance, there is a good chance you have your ESC settings wrong! 

Specs:

• Weight: 44.4 grams with full-length wires
• Speed 2850 kV:
  • 1180 RPM on 12V/3S
  • 1570 RPM on 16V/4S
  • 1970 RPM on 20V/5S
  • 2360 RPM on 24V/6S
• Speed 3800 kV:
  • 1050 RPM on 8V/2S
  • 1570 RPM on 12V/3S
  • 2100 RPM on 16V/4S
• Dimensions: CAD Assembly Here
  • Gearbox Diameter: 20mm
  • Length: just 29.3 mm from the mount to rear of motor
  • Shaft: 24mm long, 6mm diameter billet alloy steel D shaft
  • 3X M3 Screw face mount, 15mm bolt circle, 4mm thread depth
• Phase Resistance:
  • 0.314 ohms (314 mOhms) for 2850kV
  • 0.216 ohms (216 mOhms) for 3800 kV

TEST DATA: Click the table to get sent to the Google Sheet.

Drawings:

ESC Settings

The AM32 ESCs we sell should give you the best performance - as long as the settings are correct! We recommend using settings like those shown below.

For AM32 V2.18 and later, PWM by RPM really helps make driving consistent and smooth.

Max timing and startup power, motor poles 14, enable Stall Protection but disable Stuck Rotor Protection. Motor Poles 14, disable Sinusoidal Startup. If your ESC properly supports temperature and current limits, set these as you desire; 10 amps is a good baseline peak current. If not, leave them disabled. Same for braking, you likely want complementary PWM enabled, but can adjust Running Brake and Break on Stop to suit your preferred driving style. 

As of 5/30/2025 our 35A AM32 ESCs come with V2.16. The latest stable version is 2.18.

Note about kV setting - for such a high kV motor, especially with the 3800kv variant, this setting is super important! Your ideal KV setting will change based on the input voltage. If you are running 6S, the kV on the ESC should match the motor as close as possible. If you run 3S, the AM32 KV setting should be half as much as the motor. If you set this too high or low you may experience limited peak motor performance. 

The other settings we recommend leaving as shown below, except braking which you can play with to get the 'feel' or responsiveness you desire. 

FAQ

Q: "Why a 1604 motor? Isn't that too small?"

A: Actually, every other beetle drive motor is way "too big". Building a custom motor testing rig helped to verify this. Brushless motor technology has advanced a lot in the past 10 years. 1806 motors or 2006 motors are massively overkill. Silent Spring, one of the most decorated 4.5-5lb shuffer bots in history, now uses 1606 motors for its drive, and that robot is both 50% heavier and less efficient at movement than a wheeled 3lb robot. Why would a 33% smaller motor be a problem? Coupled to an appropriate gear reduction, a small motor can move big things with ease. 

Q: "Will you make other gear ratios?"

A: Maybe, but no plans for a 3-stage high reduction version. The first batch of gearboxes took more than 120 days to manufacture and cost thousands of dollars in custom tooling. Making a different size isn't practical, though if demand is high enough, each gear stage could be a lower reduction as long as it's still a 2 stage design. 

Q: "Will you make other KV options?"

A: Only if many customers ask for it! 3800kV is very high already, but lower than 2850 should be possible. 

Q: Will Tariffs impact the price of these in the future?

A: We hope not, but nobody can say for sure. This initial batch of Blitz Lite motors was already subject to tariffs totalling 55%. Current pricing reflects this, and we are making smaller margins than would be ideal in order to keep the price reasonable for our customers. 

Q: "Can I swap my DartBox Brushed motors for these?"

A: Probably! Just be mindful about the motor wire placement, and the fact that the motor can spins. If you have 3D printed motor mounts or face plate-based motor mounting, you should have no issues fitting Blitz Lites as they are smaller in every dimension. you will need new mounts of course. Unfortunately, if you have a V1 SSP kit with machined slots for the square DartBox gearbox these will not fit, as the mount geometry would interfere with the spinning motor can. You will also need to purchase brushless ESCs in order to use any brushless motor.