Scooter Drives are GO!

The feet need some reinforcement so they don't snowplow when going in reverse, but I could not be more pleased with their performance! And this is at 12V of power - half the rated voltage for these motors!

A higher rez video can be found on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IK6d5Pp4qlg

Scooter Motor Foot Build

I finally threw in the towel on my Jaycar motor foot drives. I just cannot make the drive hubs stay securely on the motor shafts. So, on to bigger and better feet!

After browsing the forums I came across the plans for the Razor scooter foot drive setup. I ordered the 130W 24V motors, the scooter wheels and belts from monsterscooterparts.com.

I cut out the plans from Sintra and tried to figure out its assembly. After some noodling around with the plans I decided to modify it to make the frame beefier, and to provide more support for the motor.

Three rounds of prototypes later, I have created a simplified scooter mount frame that I am making out of 1/2" plywood. The motor will be secured with the three bolts on the face, and I will eventually have extra support and brackets on the back end to keep the motor from torquing during operation.

I will use the adjustable threaded eyebolt assemblies that came with the scooter wheels to pull back on them to keep the belt taut. Tests with a 12V battery on the final prototype seemed very speedy and I am quite excited!

I am going to order some omnitrack casters for the rear of the feet, but until they come I will get some temporary ones from Home Depot.

I plan on building new foot shells that will drop over the frames and secure to the wood frame with screws that will be hidden behind the battery boxes.

Excitement levels are high I tell you! High!

Kenosha Public Museum Maker Fair

I had a great time Saturday, May 2nd at the Maker Fair at the Kenosha Public Museum. There were about 8 or so other maker organizations there, including the Lance Middle School Robotics Club to the Milwaukee Makerspace group. About 350 to 400 showed up and everyone seemed glad to see R2!

Milwaukee MakerFaire

I represented the R2 Builders Club at the Milwaukee MakerFaire on September 27 and 28 at the Wisconsin State Fairgrounds. It was a great time, showing off R2 and Austin's mouse droid and spreading the word of the builder's club. I also made some great contacts including Jesse Ransom from Sector67 in Madison (sector67.org) who are making some amazing projects!

Battery Box Cables

I got the connectors of for the battery cables from my good friend Don Jarr on Ebay. He has a wide variety of high-quality resin R2 parts. I did not feel like scratch building these.

I got the "cables" from the miscellaneous bin of plumbing parts at our local Habitat Restore. A few cuts with the Dremel tool to remove the ends and few coats of paint and they are ready to go!

2014 Progress

Well, needless to say it has been a busy year and my blog has languished. But, fear not! Some progress has been made no my droid since last winter.

Here are some new pics of the battery box build. I found some cool bolts that may bot be club spec, but I really wanted to use them since they belonged to my Father-in-law. If he was still around I am sure he would be helping out with this build!

Battery Box Priming

Battery Box Bolts

L.E.D Belt Buckle

Here is a video of the lights and L.E.D. belt buckles going. I have to reprogram the front light characters, but you get the idea.