S
Spehro Pefhany
- Jan 1, 1970
- 0
Spehro said:
Spehro Pefhany said:
I keep wondering about a powered unicycle or pogo-stick.
Control problems are interesting, to keep it working for a non-expert
rider.
In principle, the pogo-stick could be relatively simple, and quite
fuel-efficiant, as well as simpler than a walker.
Ian said:I keep wondering about a powered unicycle or pogo-stick.
Control problems are interesting, to keep it working for a non-expert
rider.
In principle, the pogo-stick could be relatively simple, and quite
fuel-efficiant, as well as simpler than a walker.
Can't you just have a shotgun shell or something at the bottom ofBrad said:Oooo! Oooo! That reminds me of this wacky idea a college buddy and I had about 30
years ago:
You could make a gasoline (or fuel of your choice -- propane, alcohol, etc.) powered
pogo stick. But you don't need a conventional rotary engine (piston + crankshaft).
Just couple the piston to the pogo pin and the cylinder is integral to the foot
plate + handle assembly. It still needs a booster or return spring, of course. The
engine can be simple a 2-stroke (sorry Ian -- can't make it a Stirling engine).
Turn on the fuel, enable the magneto ignition, give it a "jump" start, and away you
go. No company will ever build these, of course -- think of the liability
insurance....
Brad Albing said:Oooo! Oooo! That reminds me of this wacky idea a college buddy and I had about 30
years ago:
You could make a gasoline (or fuel of your choice -- propane, alcohol, etc.) powered
pogo stick. But you don't need a conventional rotary engine (piston + crankshaft).
Just couple the piston to the pogo pin and the cylinder is integral to the foot
plate + handle assembly. It still needs a booster or return spring, of course. The
engine can be simple a 2-stroke (sorry Ian -- can't make it a Stirling engine).
Turn on the fuel, enable the magneto ignition, give it a "jump" start, and away you
go. No company will ever build these, of course -- think of the liability
insurance....
Ian said:I was thinking of something a little different, though similar.
First take a piston+cylinder.
Now place a spring in the cylinder, so that at (nominal) TDC it just touches
the piston.
The spring can take the maximum loaded weight while compressing around a
half.
Add electric valves and a small blower.
To start, a propane/air mixture is blown into the cylinder, and ignited.
This then excites the spring, and on the bounce you get a little bit of
compression.
As the bounces get bigger, the gas-spring effect takes over from the
spring, slowing to stop at TDC just as the piston touches the spring and
the spark happens.
Brad said:You could make a gasoline (or fuel of your choice -- propane, alcohol, etc.) powered
pogo stick.
Oooo! Oooo! That reminds me of this wacky idea a college buddy and I had about 30
years ago:
You could make a gasoline (or fuel of your choice -- propane, alcohol, etc.) powered
pogo stick. But you don't need a conventional rotary engine (piston + crankshaft).
Just couple the piston to the pogo pin and the cylinder is integral to the foot
plate + handle assembly. It still needs a booster or return spring, of course. The
engine can be simple a 2-stroke (sorry Ian -- can't make it a Stirling engine).
Turn on the fuel, enable the magneto ignition, give it a "jump" start, and away you
go. No company will ever build these, of course -- think of the liability
insurance....
ddwyer said:Segway has 1 degree of freedom ... forward and back; a spherical wheel
or rotatable single drive wheel as per unicycle could create a
SuperSegway ; would need even more processing and motors and inertial
sensors , should keep me in business for years.
Mike said:Cool! A coworker of mine just might be convinced to build one... I am
forwarding this link as soon as I finish this post.
I remember seeing, many years ago, a very brief one paragraph article in a
magazine (probably Popular Mechanics or similar) of someone who had built a
replica of Smokey Stover's FooMobile, a two wheeled fire engine with the
wheels side by side like the Segway (scroll down to the bottom on this
page):
http://www.lambiek.net/holman_bill.htm
Does anyone else remember reading about someone who actually built one of
these things? My recollection is that this would have been in the 80's some
time.
-- Mike --