that is exceedingly awesome. It amazes me that something that costs several thousand dollars, a high end computer, and who knows what else for a segway can be done with some plywood and some comodity parts. i’d like to see a balancing kids toy come out so we could use it’s brain as a base for a whole slew of homebrew segways.

Posted at 12:48 am on Mar 11th, 2007 by carpespasm

Just a thought, wouldn’t the two plastic skate board wheels restrict turning?

Posted at 1:13 am on Mar 11th, 2007 by brainiac

Why is this a skateboard when the last one was a scooter?

Posted at 7:02 am on Mar 11th, 2007 by Crash

Mmmmm, I love these hacks. No offense HAD.com, but you should have spaced them.

Fortunatly it doesnt take away the coolness of these things!!

Posted at 12:17 pm on Mar 11th, 2007 by Bruno

nuts and volts magazine has an article about builing a balancing robot. Mostly need an accelerameter and gyro from what i understand.

also turning wouldnt be a problem, just have to turn one in the other direction as the other for a sharp turn or one slower than the other for a gradual turn.

Posted at 12:23 pm on Mar 11th, 2007 by Derek

Braniac asks: Just a thought, wouldn’t the two plastic skate board wheels restrict turning?

And the answer is: Nope – when balancing on level ground, rotanova is only a degree or so from level. The wheels contact the ground at about 20 degrees out of level – it’s so steep that you tend to slide off the deck when the skate wheels are touching the ground.

Thanks to all for the great comments!

Posted at 12:29 pm on Mar 11th, 2007 by Tony Ozrelic

Hmm, the pwer is from two drill motors, eh? you think it has enough torque to actually move people fast?

Posted at 2:36 pm on Mar 11th, 2007 by asdf

Nice.

I think I might tackle this project myself. I’m thinking either a single large wheel or two smaller ones like this one has.

Perhaps for steering and speed control I’ll have two hand controls with slide potentiometers for the separate acceleration of each motor.. I’ll make sure to put up pics if I do this one.

Posted at 10:03 pm on Mar 11th, 2007 by treefrog

I agree with asdf. How powerful can this thing really be? I doubt a drill could get you going at a good speed, even without having to handle balancing as well.

Posted at 11:08 pm on Mar 11th, 2007 by atrain

sheesh, what’s with you whiners… dude made a board you stand sides on (much like a skateboard, not like a scooter) and it balances itself automatically on two wheels, no small feat, regardless of if it’ll make you go 30mph. if you don’t like it, improve on it and show us your results.

Posted at 2:45 am on Mar 12th, 2007 by carpespasm

1337. I’m #u22y on teh wh0le “balancing skateboard” +hin9. D0e5 it 84lanc3 on it’s pwn or 5om3thing?

Posted at 2:49 pm on Mar 17th, 2007 by Matt Sumpff