Slashdot Mirror
Build Your Own Self-Balancing Unicycle
CaptainKaos[DOH!] writes "Robot hacker Trevor Blackwell is at it again, this time with a self-balancing Eunicycle. Blackwell writes, 'Some time ago I built a self-balancing two-wheeled scooter. Since then I realized that two wheels are redundant, and only a single wheel is needed to make a ridable vehicle. A vehicle with a single wheel is much smaller and lighter. It weighs under 30 lbs and is easily carried with one hand when going up stairs or on public transportation.' Trevor's previous 'Segway' type two-wheeler was mentioned on Slashdot."
Maybe one day people will realize ZERO wheels is the best...and start walking.
First too lazy to walk, then too lazy to hold your arms out? What's next? Too lazy to stand up?
Free of Flash! Free of Flash!
Here's another person with "too much time on their hands." The yuppie sophisticates will no doubt complain that people who invent "have no life" and really should be sitting in their $28,000 bought-on-credit living room watching celebrity bug-eating in high definition surround sound. [/sarcasm]
Then everyone else will bitch and gripe because the new invention didn't live up to the media hype and dismiss it all as the equivalent of a circus act. The fact they made it a circus act will, of course, be forgotten in time for the next "you could have this if you had a job" advertisement for something else to buy on credit.
People who spend their time doing anything except shoveling money into the local yuppie grill or sipping white wine while they watch prime time commercials occasionally interrupted by a screaming carnival barker are routinely criticized by our society because society has nothing but contempt for imagination and vision, unless it involves some dramatic amount of money.
Business isn't willing to pay for products, innovation and careers, so we get brands, mortgage commercials and layoffs.
30 lbs is light? Any decent 2-wheel road bike can be found at under 25lbs while a mountain bike is around 28.
While the 2-wheeled scooter is easy to ride (I've let maybe 100 people ride it with few problems) the Eunicycle takes a good deal of practice. You don't want to be learning how to control such a vehicle at the same time as debugging it, so you really need to learn to ride a regular unicycle first.
Once you've learned to ride a unicyle competently, why not just ride it. It's are a lot cheaper and lighter than the Eunicycle.
This dosen't sound compable to a Segway at all. I thought the point of the Segway was that the lack of a learning curve. Eliminate that and you may as well use simpler machines like skates and unicycle.
Oh, and your feet should not hurt from skating. If they do, either your skates don't fit or your are doing it wrong.
None. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Absolutely Zero.
He built it because he wanted to! This is how you learn: by experimenting, by taking things apart and putting them back together, etc. Doing such hobby projects is a great learning experience.