Build a Balancing Scooter
Everyone’s heard of the Segway; that scooter that’s supposed to somehow “revolutionize” the way we all travel. And all for the low, low price of $5000…
Trevor Blackwell decided to try making his own “balancing scooter” similar to the Segway for his own amusement. $2000 of OTS parts later, he had his very own balancing scooter. One of the things he says he doesn’t like about it (and the reason I know the Segway will never catch on):
I feel like a total techno-dweeb riding it around. It just screams “silicon valley nerd,” even more than having 3 cellphones and a PDA strapped to your belt. OK, I am in fact a silicon valley nerd, but I don’t want everyone to know it.
When he goes into a list comparing his scooter to the Segway, I particularly like his comparison to Segway’s “dual redundancy” on everything. Regarding his scooter:
There is no redundancy or backup system. It is not even robustly made. Loose wires literally dangle out the bottom. In the fairly likely event of the software crashing, a wire coming loose, a component failing, or the batteries running low, the wheels will lock and the entire kinetic energy of the system will be used to accelerate my head toward the ground.
Posted Monday September 29, 2003 in Interesting by Chris Curtis
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