Fail Of The Week: How Not To Build Your Own Motorcycle

July 12, 2016 by Jenny List 100 Comments

There’s a saying among writers that goes something like “Everyone has a novel in them, but in most cases that’s where it should stay”. Its source is the subject of some dispute, but it remains sage advice that wannabe authors should remember on dark and stormy nights.

It is possible that a similar saying could be constructed among hackers and makers: that every one of us has at least one motor vehicle within, held back only by the lack of available time, budget, and workshop space. And like the writers, within is probably where most of them should stay.

[TheFrostyman] might have had cause to heed such advice. For blessed with a workshop, a hundred dollars, and the free time of a 15-year-old, he’s built his first motorcycle. It’s a machine of which he seems inordinately proud, a hardtail with a stance somewhere closer to a café racer and powered by what looks like a clone of the ubiquitous Honda 50 engine.

Unfortunately for him, though the machine looks about as cool a ride as any 15-year-old could hope to own it could also serve as a textbook example of how not to build a safe motorcycle. In fact, we’d go further than that, it’s a deathtrap that we hope he takes a second look at and never ever rides. It’s worth running through some of its deficiencies not for a laugh at his expense but to gain some understanding of motorcycle design.

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Mechanical Horse-Bike

July 2, 2016 by Elliot Williams 18 Comments

Oh [Rodger Cleye]! You had us at “unicycle, duct tape, styrofoam, and tie wraps”. But watching the horse-bike in action (video below) is just about enough for us to go out and make one ourselves. (For our child, naturally. We’re far too dignified.)

If you trawl around [Rodger]’s YouTube channel, you’ll see no end of odd motorized vehicles. Like last year’s motorized horse project, or this stormtrooper speeder. But there’s just something about the way that the horse’s legs move along with the rider that is slightly more enchanting. (That’s the “unicycle” part of the build.) And, we assume, the rider gets a little bit more exercise to boot.

We’ve featured a few builds of [Rodger]’s before, including his motorized couch build that’s obviously controlled from the seat-mounted coconut, and of course a pneumatic Boba Fett rocket.

A Strandbeest Bicycle

June 30, 2016 by Jenny List 20 Comments

“If you’re asking ‘why,’ you don’t get it.” So said [JP] when he told us about his strandbeest bicycle build. After all, who in their right mind would graft a complex multi-leg mechanical walking mechanism to the rear end of a perfectly good bicycle? But to expand on his sentiment, to not understand his creation is to miss the whole essence of our movement. Sometimes you just have to make something, because you can.

3D printed strandbeest bike proof of concept

If you aren’t familiar with the strandbeest, it is the creation of Dutch artist [Theo Jansen]. Complex skeletal walking machines powered by the wind, that in the case of [Jansen]’s machines autonomously roam the beaches of the Netherlands. Hence the name, from Dutch: “Beach beast”.

[JP]’s strandbeest bike came together over 8 months of hard work. It started with a conceptual CAD design and 3D print, and progressed through many iterations of fine-tuning the over 400 parts required to put four legs on the back of a bicycle frame. It’s an impressive achievement and it is fully rideable, though we suspect we won’t be seeing it at the Tour de France any time soon.

He’s posted several videos of the bike in action, you can see one of them below the break.

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Skateboard Hackers Trick On 3D Printed Wheels

June 22, 2016 by Adam Fabio 18 Comments

The team over at [Braille Skateboarding] is willing to ride just about anything. This week they’re testing out 3D printed skateboard wheels. We’re not just talking rolling around here, the [Braille] team takes their experiments out to the skate park and gives them to the locals to test out. Tail whips, jumps, ollies, and grinds were on the agenda. The skaters were a bit apprehensive, as this is the third time they’ve tested 3D printed wheels.

The first set shattered upon landing a jump. That set appears to have been made from PLA with about 10% infill. The second set were made from NinjaFlex, which had no shattering problems, but was so squishy that the wheels simply flattened under the weight of the riders. The third set, printed by [Nick Lindenmuth] work great. They have a bit of give, but don’t shatter. We’re guessing this set is either ABS or one of the more exotic filaments. It’s pretty amazing that 3D printers are capable of spitting out wheels that not only handle the load of rider, but the shock load of coming down from jumps and tricks.

Check out the video after the break. If you want to see more skateboard projects, check out this skateboarding themed Hacklet!

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Hacklet 112 – Skateboard Projects

June 18, 2016 by Adam Fabio 5 Comments

Skateboarding is a sport that was born of hacking. The identity of the person who first nailed roller skate wheels to a board with a milk crate box is lost to history. Those crate scooters were a staple of the 1940’s and 1950’s neighborhoods. Everyone built their own scooter, so the designs evolved. Eventually the milk crates disappeared. At some point, surfers realized that they could use these wheeled boards to surf the concrete jungle. Things just took off from there. Skateboarding is now a multi-billion dollar industry, but at its heart there are still hackers trying out new designs. This week’s Hacklet is all about skateboarding projects.

We start with [brian.rundle] and Electric Longboard. [Brian] built his board using trucks and mechanical parts from a DIY skateboard online shop. The motor is a brushless outrunner R/C plane motor from HobbyKing. Batteries are of the LiPo variety. An Arduino Nano provides the PWM signal which drives the Electronic Speed Control (ESC). Throttle control is via RF link using the popular Nordic Semi NRF2401. [Brian] is focusing on building a safe skateboard. He designed it to carry two batteries, though only one is in use at a time. Rather than use a switch, he’s created a fool-proof system with arming plugs and jumpers. Each battery has its own arming plug. There is one jumper, so only one battery can be connected to the board at a time.

Next up is [suiram21] with Longboard Brake. Downhill longboarding can be a dangerous sport. Running downhill at 40MPH or more with no brakes makes for quite an adrenaline rush. [suiram21] loves longboarding but wanted the safety of having a brake if and when he needed it. He started with a Onda board, which is a longboard with large diameter wheels. He 3D printed brackets for a cable actuated braking system. The brake is activated by stepping on a lever at the rear of the board. A lever presses a bicycle brake pad into the inside edge of the tire. This brings the board to a gentle stop. [suiram21] is thinking of adding a second brake to the other wheel to increase braking authority.

Next we have [edbraun] with Skateboard Speedometer by inventED. [edbraun] wanted to know how fast he was going. A GPS would work, but GPS signals are often blocked in cities. A more accurate way to gather speed data is directly from the wheels. Two tiny magnet plugs are placed in holes drilled in the wheel. A hall effect sensor detects the magnets and passes this data on to an Arduino Pro Mini. Once the speed is calculated, it’s sent to a Bluetooth radio. [edbraun’s] Android phone receives the data and displays current speed and total distance traveled. The speedometer and its slick 3D printed case almost hide between the trucks and the board itself. Nice work [edbraun]!

Finally we have Hackaday alum [Josh Marsh] and EV Commuter Longboard. [Josh] uses an electric longboard for his daily commute. His project is an excellent overview and tutorial on building an electric skateboard from scratch. Like many others, [Josh] utilizes R/C Airplane brushless motors and speed controllers. An Arduino or similar microcontroller is all you need to drive these devices. For batteries, [Josh] loves LiPo packs. Long form six cell affairs provide 22.2 Volts with a capacity of 5000 mAh or more. Plenty of power for carving your way to work!

If you want to see more skateboard projects, check out our new skateboard projects list! If I missed your project, don’t be shy, just drop me a message on Hackaday.io. That’s it for this week’s Hacklet. As always, see you next week. Same hack time, same hack channel, bringing you the best of Hackaday.io!

Building A Swarm Of Autonomous Ocean Boats

June 17, 2016 by Mike Szczys 9 Comments

There’s a gritty feel to the Hackerboat project. It doesn’t have slick and polished marketing, people lined up with bags of money to get in on the ground floor, or a flashy name (which I’ll get to in a bit). What it does have is a dedicated team of hackers who are building prototypes to solve some really big challenges. Operating on the ocean is tough on equipment, especially so with electronics. Time and tenacity has carried this team and their project far.

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Ask Hackaday: Where Are The Flying Cars?

June 10, 2016 by Mike Szczys 73 Comments

I could have sworn that we have asked this one before, but perhaps I’m thinking of our discussion of nuclear aircraft. In my mind the two share a similar fate: it just isn’t going to happen. But, that doesn’t mean flying cars can’t happen. Let me make my case, and then we want to know what you think.

[Steve] sent in a link to a Bloomberg article on Larry Page’s suspected investment in personal flying cars. It’s exciting to hear about test flights from a startup called Zee.Aero with 150 people on staff and a seemingly unlimited budget to develop such a fantastic toy. Surely ~~Bruce Wayne~~ Mr. Page is onto something and tiny 2-person vehicles will be whizzing up and down the airspace above your street at any moment now? Realistically though, I don’t believe it. They definitely will build a small fleet of such vehicles and they will work. But you, my friend, will never own one.
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