101–110 of 149 posts
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> Jerry's Rig His name is Zach...
Thanks, I'm not a subscriber to their channel, so I went off the channel's name.
Can anyone point me in a good direction to start making something like this myself? I've dabbled with arduinos but never really large electric motors and battery packs. I think it would be a lot of fun to make myself an ebike or whatever this thing is.
Here's a couple similar components I used to build an e-bike. Get at least a 1500W hub motor [i] and a high capacity battery pack [ii]. [i] https://www.amazon.com/JJBOOM-1000W-Electric-Bicycle-Convers... [ii] https://calibike.com/product/lithium-ion-72v18ah-ultra-light...
I think e-bike technology is going to get adapted to all sorts of new uses like this. I think there's a lot of opportunity to create great vehicles for people that will offer a good accessibility. https://rootedinrights.org/video/disabled-bikers/ This video shows bikers of many different abilities using many different kinds of bikes and it shows how versatile bikes can be for different people. I'm kinda curious why i…
Also, lets be real, this assumes side walks and bike lanes are even available.
I wonder how those rear wheels handle corners. I'm a little surprised they didn't use two independent drive motors, versus a single motor and solid axle, which could be extended to implement an electronic differential.
Most of the comments have criticized the price point for what you are getting; however, I would say this looks like a great quality of life tool for disabled individuals. If you are wheelchair bound, there are a number of terrains that a traditional wheelchair will not operate on. They even point this out with their rig on beach sand. There are designs that handle sandy terrain [1], but they would not work well on ot…
I've thought about what a cool wheelchair would be like since the 'regular' stuff that exists seems disappointing. I wonder if e-bikes and more accessible battery packs are what make this possible now.
I think there's a lot of opportunity in this space for making something that you'd actually want to use if you were disabled.
A lot of the stuff that exists in the current market seems overpriced (though I'd guess there are regulatory reasons for this and it's not a simple fix).
I'm glad they made this, hopefully more people will hack on things like this too.
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I like how the Swincar has a roll-cage. Even if the "Not a wheelchair" has a lower speed, and less off-road capabilities than the Swincar, it still seems like roll protection could be a useful safety system. I guess they're relying on the light[er] weight?
Your comment reminded me of a motorcycle racer I knew who was paralyzed from the waist down. He had a few funny stories about coming off his bike and having his legs broken and bent like a pretzel. The track martials would come over and just about faint at the sight of it, he often had to calm them down. He'd get looked over by the medics and drive himself to the hospital to get a cast put on.
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Driving the front wheels is more complicated because the front axis is used for steering (it might be easier to go for two motors there, and, if you go there, 4 identical motors might be the better choice for maintenance/repairability). I think you also would need to guarantee that both engines are aiming for (about) the same speed, even in corners or when tire pressure changes. That might require something technical…
> I think you also would need to guarantee that both engines are aiming for (about) the same speed, even in corners or when tire pressure changes. That might require something technically similar to ABS. Equal torque is good enough. They'll settle to speeds consistent with turning, etc. Since they're independent motors, you don't need to worry about the case where a wheel is spinning stealing all of the torque. > Als…
Eh, you'll still want to redistribute torque if you're planning to accelerate hard. After all, accelerating shifts weight onto the rear wheels, giving them more traction and the front less.
Front wheel skids aren't acceptable as you use them to steer. And limiting your rear wheels to the amount of torque that would make the front wheels slip means you're leaving a fair bit of performance on the table. And presumably getting more performance is the whole point of going 4wd!
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It's because it's not a wheelchair, so it doesn't need to meet the regulatory standards, nor does the insurance middleman pricing kick in.
And one might argue, it isn't a usable product without assistance. Per the video, she couldn't even lower the handle without him to exit, and it certainly isn't getting in/out of even wheelchair converted vehicles by itself. Not to mention electrical power (Vs. gas in the competition) definitely could result in the user being stranded, even if it has a power-usage monitor (given how environmental factors can impact n…
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There's cheaper power chairs out there.. the Air Hawk is like $2k, though obviously not for everyone. These aren't going to be fitted or customized for your injury/ability, so they'll be worse but cheaper.
Yeah but if I'm going to sit on something for 14 hours of the day for every day of my life it better be comfortable and not give me pressure sores. Also my level of injury necessitates lots of additions.
There's a lot of people that use wheelchairs for part-time use. When I was considering getting one, I could walk a couple minutes but couldn't go farther without injuring myself further. Having something cheap that could get me some freedom back would have been worth it, even if it's not perfect.