Build Your Own Segway

bugbear writes "Robot hacker Trevor Blackwell explains how to build your own Segway-style balancing scooter. He says it's not that hard (but he already knows how to build walking robots)."

Comments

Re:Not Likely a Good Idea

[Anonymous Coward]

1)how could something homebuilt get recalled? if its messed up then you fix it. 2)samething applies to bicycles, rollerblades, skateboards, etc... 3)reference too obscure. 4)the amount of people building this will have no serious impact on the ozone. next time think before you post, k?

Oh, come on...

[GuyMannDude]

I know that hindsight is 20-20 but in light of the recent recall a lot of the opinions here seem pretty silly in retrospect.

Despite being able to build my own, I'm still impressed with the Segway(TM) and with the courage it takes to bring such a product to market. Like with cars, it's pretty easy to put together a motor and wheels and make it go. But building a safe, comfortable vehicle requires a huge amount of R&D, and it's very hard to be certain that such a thing is as safe as it can possibly be.

I'm more impressed with the arrogance of Camen, suggesting that entire cities are going to be redesigned because of his yuppie toy, than I am impressed with his courage. And considering that dangers have already been uncovered with batteries are low, I sincerely question how much R&D was sacrificed in order to get this product to market on time. It seems like testing it under low-battery conditions would be one of the first things you oughta test for a vehicle boasting automatic stabilization features.

And when you're the only company doing it, and when the product is cool enough to make good news fodder, you're guaranteed to get massive negative coverage and lawsuits when there are accidents.

Massive negative coverage, huh? If I hadn't been reading slashdot on Friday I would have never heard of this recall. And as far as the product being "cool enough to make good new fodder", let's not kid ourselves. The reason the media went so ape shit about this is because it's easier to report on new trinkets like this than on the growing national debt, even though the latter will likely have a much larger impact on our lives than the former.

This guy oughta edit his page and remove those comments since they look pretty silly nowdays.

GMD

Where's build your own fembot articles?

[screwthemoderators]

I couldn't find the shut-the-hell-up mode of operation for my ex-wife, so I'm hoping some girlfriend deprived /. writer can help me out.