Self Balancing Scooter Day 36th October 2012
2.5 hours |
|
Well, it's been 2 days & the project has come a long way already, to be honest I guess I've spent more time designing & documenting the progress than actually working but I still never thought I would be this far ahead after 2 days.
Balancing without electronics
The next part is working out where to put the batteries in relation to the motors & handlebar so that the scooter is balanced. I would ideally like the scooter to stand up by itself when it is turned off but still be ok when a person stands on it, I'm not even sure if both these things are possible which is why this next bit will involve a lot of trial & error.
I can't fit the checker plate cover yet because I need to cut out the sides to fit around the motors, & I can't fit the motors because I don't know what the best position is for them.
So I'm going to make a wooden foot plate out of an old desk top for testing with enough space to be able to move the motors into different positions. Plus I can then mount the batteries in different positions under it by drilling holes & using cable ties until I get the balance right.
Some things to think about:
1/ Two or four batteries (my batteries are fairly small for this project so maybe 4)
2/ To be able to balance when the scooter is off as well as when a person is on it then the person would presumably have to stand over the wheels
3/ If the above is true & I have to stand over the wheels then it would be good to have the wheels towards the back for a good riding position. Which means I need most of the weight at the back to keep it balanced.
4/ Will my foot plate be so big that the rider is not forced to put their feet in a specific place but free to move around too much which will ultimately affect the balance.
I'm sure all these questions & more will be answered as the project slowly evolves in the next few hours.
A few hours later....... I ended up meeting some really interesting new customers that visited us, plus I took my son for a driving lesson & fixed a few minor things with his car. But I never actually got chance to do anything on the scooter apart from write this page.
So tomorrow I will change the date at the top of the page to the 6th & start again. I also found out that the electronic bits I'm waiting for haven't even been shipped yet, so a little disappointed with that.
Balancing without electronics
The next part is working out where to put the batteries in relation to the motors & handlebar so that the scooter is balanced. I would ideally like the scooter to stand up by itself when it is turned off but still be ok when a person stands on it, I'm not even sure if both these things are possible which is why this next bit will involve a lot of trial & error.
I can't fit the checker plate cover yet because I need to cut out the sides to fit around the motors, & I can't fit the motors because I don't know what the best position is for them.
So I'm going to make a wooden foot plate out of an old desk top for testing with enough space to be able to move the motors into different positions. Plus I can then mount the batteries in different positions under it by drilling holes & using cable ties until I get the balance right.
Some things to think about:
1/ Two or four batteries (my batteries are fairly small for this project so maybe 4)
2/ To be able to balance when the scooter is off as well as when a person is on it then the person would presumably have to stand over the wheels
3/ If the above is true & I have to stand over the wheels then it would be good to have the wheels towards the back for a good riding position. Which means I need most of the weight at the back to keep it balanced.
4/ Will my foot plate be so big that the rider is not forced to put their feet in a specific place but free to move around too much which will ultimately affect the balance.
I'm sure all these questions & more will be answered as the project slowly evolves in the next few hours.
A few hours later....... I ended up meeting some really interesting new customers that visited us, plus I took my son for a driving lesson & fixed a few minor things with his car. But I never actually got chance to do anything on the scooter apart from write this page.
So tomorrow I will change the date at the top of the page to the 6th & start again. I also found out that the electronic bits I'm waiting for haven't even been shipped yet, so a little disappointed with that.
So I quickly made a wooden foot plate so I could test all the ideas I have & especially to get the balance correct.
With wood it was possible to easily & quickly drill holes & adjust things & use self tapping wood screws, it took an hour to mark it all out & cut it up.
I would thoroughly recommend doing this.
I even added a couple of old springs to hold the handle up, these will definitely be replaced or altered later.
The top & batteries are temporarily held with cable ties.
With wood it was possible to easily & quickly drill holes & adjust things & use self tapping wood screws, it took an hour to mark it all out & cut it up.
I would thoroughly recommend doing this.
I even added a couple of old springs to hold the handle up, these will definitely be replaced or altered later.
The top & batteries are temporarily held with cable ties.
|
|
To be able to get the scooter to balance & offset the weight of the motors I had to mount the batteries at the back. I decided to use 4 of those little batteries, they are only 45W each which is 3.75A so two clearly wouldn't have been enough.
I tried to stand on the scooter & soon learned that it was not possible to do this, or at least not with some degree of safety. It was just too hard to balance on it. I think what I have done is finely balance the scooter by having all the weight towards the ends. What I should have done is balance it by having as much of the weight towards the centre. What I was trying to do was to create some room between the rider & the handlebar.
So tomorrow I will slide the wheels forward & bring the batteries nearer the wheels.
If that doesn't work I will swap the motors so that the long black bit of the motor goes to the back.
I'm really pleased I made this wooden top for testing, I kind of thought this part might be tricky.
I just hope I don't have to make the top & the frame shorter, it would certainly help the balance but I'm going to stick with this size for now.
I tried to stand on the scooter & soon learned that it was not possible to do this, or at least not with some degree of safety. It was just too hard to balance on it. I think what I have done is finely balance the scooter by having all the weight towards the ends. What I should have done is balance it by having as much of the weight towards the centre. What I was trying to do was to create some room between the rider & the handlebar.
So tomorrow I will slide the wheels forward & bring the batteries nearer the wheels.
If that doesn't work I will swap the motors so that the long black bit of the motor goes to the back.
I'm really pleased I made this wooden top for testing, I kind of thought this part might be tricky.
I just hope I don't have to make the top & the frame shorter, it would certainly help the balance but I'm going to stick with this size for now.
If you like our site then please click on the Facebook icon at the top right of this page, thank you.
For more information you can email us via our Contact Us page.