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Build Your Own Solar-Powered Scooter
An anonymous reader writes "CBC is reporting that the Biomod company in Montreal has released plans for building your own solar scooter for only $1600 (in Canadian funds, no less!) Hopefully the engineering community will take an interest, and add brakes to the blueprints..."
That's almost enough reason to go outside sometime.
Solar scooter? It'll never go fast enough to need brakes ;)
I'll stick with the 1979 Ironhead Harley, it conveys me from place to place in style, and re-seals the driveway when I get home!
(That means it leaks oil)
Trying to use sarcasm in text-based forums does not work.
Agile Artisans
Everything is better with hot chicks, but somethings are just cool on their own.
R(k)
I will buy one when it runs on my cynicism and comes with an ipod holder.
solar-powered headlights?
why are there linux penguins on an msn page?
there are two solar cell recipes in Simon Field's book (Electronic Gizmos). They only produce power in the milliamperes range. Are the cells are homemade or ordered from somewhere?
I'm laughing at clouds.
Hopefully the engineering community will take an interest, and add brakes to the blueprints..."
If it's solar powered, maybe your feet will be enough to stop.
from their message board:
Well BioModers' - Yesterday we did it! - For the first time on Earth (as far as we know), a SOLAR ELECTRONIC VEHICLE traveled over 100 kilometers in one day - on the streets and roads of this planet!
... A Black family took offense at our efforts to hook up with a neighbors' socket after a deserted factories outlet had suspiciously failed. Earlier, an African electrician cab driver had examined the vehicle during a brief stop, and rushed away vibrating with revealed inspiration, a Chinese family as well. After a short hop, we got permission from a factory gardener to use his outlet, with a good sun exposure - and then the cops showed up! They claimed that someone had hopped over a nearby fence! But the rattled OIL OCCUPATION ARMY was no match for the assembled prayers of native circles meeting yesterday around the world!
...So there we were, in the gathering darkness, BLINDED by the oncoming lights of S.U.V.s', going the WRONG WAY down a one-way highway - right through the RED LIGHTS of major urban cross-highways, wiggling through and between oncoming traffic of the acursed MOTOR CARS and TRUCKS - to their complete SHOCK! ....I wouldn't have had it any other way! (emphasis mine)
link to the post quoted
also, it looks like you have to log in to access the "files" part of their site.
Instead of a huge rickshaw-like contraption, perhaps a standard bicycle might be the answer? There are many available for less than $1600. This looks like a solution looking for a problem to solve. :)
Show what you know about lesdyxics.
Always going forward, 'cause we can't find reverse.
...spreading their message. It's a poor quality build, can be made by anyone, even without those poorly-drawn plans. Highly impractical and only suited for pot-smoking hippies, like the guy who made that scooter. Why is this Slashdot material?
A blog like any other.
If you really want to change the world, devise an efficient hydrogen-powered fuel cell. That would be practical and would change the automotive industrial and the dynamics of geopolitics. In one fell sweep, the hydogren cell would (1) clean the environment, (2) end American dependence on the Middle East, and (3) spark a renaissance in automotive engineering.
The Arabs could kill each other, and we could sit idly by, feeling smug in the fact that our economy is no longer based on oil.
What is that, like $12.89 USD?
I would like to have a little power module that attaches to my regular mountain bike. It would store energy when I'm pedalling, and when I tell it to it would release energy to help me get up a hill. I live in a hilly area, and most of the time I can ride without assistance. When I hit a hill, I could use some help.
As an alternative, the device could be charged at home all night. It wouldn't need too much capacity, since it would be just used to assist me on hills. I can pedal normally on flat road.
Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
"Hopefully the engineering community will take an interest, and add brakes to the blueprints..."
:D But seriously, who designs a scooter without brakes? i know we might be dealing with regenerative braking stuff, but why do we need an engineering community to go "Oh shit! Brakes!"
Brakes? Ah, we'll just leave that function to the clouds
Braniac.
You need a FREE iPod Nano
Am I the only one that thoroughly laughed at the "Cool site for girls" link at the bottom of their MSN Groups page?!
It would not be "nuf".
It would be "unj".
Deal.
so that's like what, $100 usd?
Jokes about how much $1600 CDN is in US dollars in 3...2...1
(it's about $1255 according to xe.com's currency converter)
Why do I have the feeling that the speeds obtained by this solar scooter will rival those of the Slowmobile from the Bureaucracy ("How Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back") episode of Futurama?
Bureaucrat: "Oh no, now you've got my slowmobile off course and I'm going to crash!"
Slowmobile moves very, very slowly into a pile of boxes over the next five seconds.
Bureaucrat (in mock fear): "Ahhhhhh."
Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)
http://www.lawrenceperson.com/
At least with a gas powered scooter, you might be able to move fast enough to avoid getting beaten up.
But I think he was talking about the pictures of the penguins.
I will buy one when it runs on my cynicism and comes with an ipod holder.
CBG: A cynicism powered scooter? I really doubt that will ever-
[KA-BOOM!]
Highly impractical and only suited for pot-smoking hippies,
I'll have you know some of us pot-smokers proactively trash the environment, you insentive clod!
You may be able to replace oil with hydrogen for energy (a big maybe), but it's still used extensively in various manufactured products. That's a seriously overlooked part of the "peakoil" controversy.
With that said, and as a solar proponent and owner, and in the alpha design stages (that means I'm committed in me pea brane to do it) of my own little solar powered buggy*, this thing is ridiculous looking, and I agree, a normal human pedaled bike is a better idea. But... I'm not one to rain on any hardware geeks parade either, I hope they develop it further and make it more practical. There's a niche market for everything. Does anyone here remember the Armys "Land train"?
Niche markets
If anyone wants just an electric motor add on gizmo that fits most bikes, there's several on the market now, google is your friend there, much cheaper than 1600 clams, too. The one I saw a buddy had used a triangular flat battery pack that mounted in the frame of the bike, hung from the top tube really, it cleared your pedaling legs just fine being so slim, and the motor mounted over the real wheel and used a rubber wheel for a friction assist, and had a push button on switch on the handle bars. 15 minute or so installation, charge it, go. Had around a 5-10 mile range, but you still pedaled with it, it was more for hill climbing assist, hauling your groceries back, laundry, etc. If I could remember the name of the company I'd post it, but I know there's a variety out there, I looked before.
*nothing all that ambitious, merely an electric cart made from an old riding lawn mower frame I can use around the ole homestead here to haul a small work wagon with. Planning on using one of my panels as the vehicles roof so the majority of the time when it's just sitting it can keep the batts trickle charged. The goal is to do it with all scrounged parts, not spend anything except what I already have in my spare panel and some gear to go with it. Probably use a large truck starter motor as the main motive part as soon as I find one. This is the "no dollars" approach method.
Ya, I know, they make electric golf carts, the point is to recycle junk and make something practical out of it that I would actually use.
And It totally inspired me to build a fly-wheel powered scooter.
I are winner
I don't need brakes you insensitive clod!
Unfortunately it's sure wasn't Montreal by-night
and if a big wind comes up, it doubles as a hang-glider
Table-ized A.I.
I don't know if I've seen anything that stores energy from pedaling (b/c when you're riding you really don't want something dragging on the wheel & slowing you up). There were some kits that, I think recharged during breaking, but from what I remember because of the light weight of bikes (?), the amount of energy gained from this wasn't too great.
Do check out electric-bikes.com, it's an interesting website. I actually purchased plans to make a Slipstream Electric Bicycle, but it's a bit too much for me in both the money and being-able-to-put-it-together dpts.
Your methods of insulting are about as useful as a anal cyst.
Seriously. Where are you going to get all of that Hydrogen? The only thing that this will change is to make auto accidents more dangerous.
Gives you more time to point and laught at the people at the gas station as they hand over their first born to pay for a full tank.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Since the conversations about this scooter are going nowhere, I'd like to change the subject.
I was looking into electric cars not long ago, and all I found were vehicles that could go maybe 30 miles on a charge. I wonder if anyone can explain why this is.
Fully electric cars like the EV1 can get over 100 miles per charge, and it's a quite large and heavy vehicle. But most importantly, it wasn't very high voltage... That small change would easily have increased it's range tremendously.
Why is it that all the conversion kits, and home-built electric cars have terrible range? It doesn't take a genius to design a good setup. Are the parts just not available? Are good motors hard/impossible to find? Are high voltage, high current DC converters available?
Why aren't there any good designs out there yet?
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
Build your own Solar Powered Hover Scooter! It only require 3 vaccum cleaner motors, a lawn chair, and some good old fashioned elbow grease! Call now for plans, only $5.99!!!
or else!
Excellent! It only means the masses will rise up against the human shit that governs us that much sooner.
And I'm thinking, the guilty won't get to spend their time at no club fed either. I'm thinking guiltotine baby!
By far the coolest-looking solar bike I've seen is the XR2-solar that won the 2001 Australian Solar Challenge. It's just a slight modification of the standard Ground Hugger XR2 plans that are available online.
The Web is like Usenet, but
the elephants are untrained.
There was some discussion on the news, last year, saying it was possible to extract organic chemicals such as alcohols from agricultural processes like crops. And practically all (if not all) organic chem's are based around hydro-carbons.
Whether that has been further researched or not is unknown to me. But it sounded feasible.
Also alcohol was going to be used for generating power in miniature turbine/generators within laptops too.
From "Homer to the Max"
Marge: Aren't you coming, Ed?
Ed Begley Jr: I prefer a vehicle that doesn't hurt Mother Earth. It's a go-cart, powered by my own sense of self-satisfaction.
[Begley attaches a wired-helmet to his head and quickly drives off]
Whats that, like $2 American?
So do you say that the little yellow running man on AOL, as seen here, is named Oscar after AIM's protocol? Have a source?
30 mile range vehicles usually use Lead Acid battery technology.
Good electric cars have had 200+ mile ranges for a few years now. The car called the Solectria Sunrise did 373 miles on a single charge using NiMH batteries in 1997, well batteries have improved substantially since then and existing LiON batteries should be able to approximately double that, and coming Li-S batteries promise to double that again.
Home builds and conversions often use obsolete lead acid batteries and heavy steel shelled vehicles.
There are good designs but they'll never happen. The question you have to ask is... In the future, how are the existing oil companies going to make you pay them thousands of dollars per year for fuel? They can't do that if your vehicle is purely battery powered, you can charge it at home or work. They can if it's hydrogen fuel cell powered.
This guy is fairly on the ball with the various solar and battery technologies around for cars:
http://www.benerridge.freeserve.co.uk/ecot.htm
Government of the people, by corporate executives, for corporate profits.
So it is only $1600 if you use surplus parts.
Surplus parts are priced low due to the seller wanting to get something instead of have to pay to have the junk hauled off. Furthermore, once the supply runs out, there won't be anymore since people tend to get smarter the second time around. Not to take anything away from the guy (who is not an entrepeneur as the article suggest, but is an awesome geek), but saying that you can throw something together for cheap from junk parts does not mean you have an economically viable product. What would the real cost be if all the parts have to be purchased new?
He does DESERVE an honored position on the next Junkyard Wars episode, however.
Aah, change is good. -- Rafiki
Yeah, but it ain't easy. -- Simba
OK, I signed up, are you offering gmail invites for signing up? I am sstill looking to get a gmail account.
-- The morphemes of your disquisition are ascertainable, but they have eschewed an ambit of transpicuous exposition.
I'll go outside as long as I don't have to get any exercise... this thing seems perfect. Ladies, here I come!
I know you're just joking (ha ha); but seriously, exersizing your body is every bit as important to your happiness as exersizing your mind.
Title says it all.
---
Programming is like sex... Make one mistake and support it the rest of your life.
This WPI student made a spreadsheet that lets you tweak params to see how good of a solar vehicle you can design. It'll tell you weight, cost, etc. solar vehicle spreadsheet
http://www.pepboys.com/transportation/novelty_scoo ters/9264939_06025-scooter.html
Brakes not needed, it'll stop automatically at sunset, I guess.
There you are, staring at me again.
If you want to get laid, stop using the word nigger. That only works if you're black. If you're black then you can go ahead. But if you really are 14 i think you're a bit too young for sex anyway.