Ivan Miranda needed to re-imagine the OneWheel, a single-wheeled electrical skateboard that’s each enjoyable and harmful. He needed to enhance the OneWheel’s lean-to-steer mechanism by including a second wheel. Miranda’s journey to make this two-wheeled contraption utilizing a 3D printer, aluminum extrusions and a deadline ,is a narrative of creativity, chaos in addition to a number of close to misses.
Miranda acquired the thought after speaking to Wren from Hall Digital, a OneWheel professional, at OpenSauce 2024. The OneWheel is alluring: lean ahead to go sooner, backward to decelerate, all powered by a motor and sensors that detect your actions. However Miranda observed an issue. Push the board too far and the motor will wrestle to maintain up and also you’ll tumble when it hits the bottom. His answer was a two-wheeled board that maintains the lean-to-steer interface and provides stability with a second wheel.
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Miranda selected 3030 aluminum extrusions for the body as a result of they’re sturdy, straightforward to chop and fast to construct. He created a sq. base by connecting the extrusions with 3D printed brackets, an indicator of his design. The purpose was to design a platform that tilted to manage the board whereas maintaining the rider’s heart of gravity low. His first try was a fancy four-bar linkage that was time consuming and failed. Miranda, sleepless and pissed off, awoke round 2:30am with a greater concept: a platform that slid on curved rails, like a seesaw however with out the peak. He couldn’t afford a pipe bender so he used an MDF jig and heavy responsibility clamps to bend the extrusions. The tip end result was a pair of curved rails hooked up with 3D printed items and screws to create the spine of his tilting mechanism.
Miranda constructed the wheels in components to max out his 3D printers and distribute the workload throughout a number of machines. Every wheel was two halves with a pulley for a toothed belt and a brushless DC motor on one aspect for propulsion. Nylon wheels printed on a Prusa XL slid over the curved rails so the platform would tilt simply. Miranda added aluminum finish stops to stop the platform from falling off after which upgraded to PCBWay stainless-steel springs for sturdiness underneath a rider’s weight. The entire thing was powered by three 18v energy device batteries wired in collection for over 60v with a security cutoff swap.
Electronics introduced all of it collectively, an Arduino Due with an MPU6050 IMU that sensed the board’s tilt and despatched instructions to a velocity controller that drove the motor to steadiness the rider. Springs underneath the platform would detect when somebody stepped off, in idea stopping the board from working away. However idea and actuality diverged. At OpenSauce, Miranda referred to as it a “loss of life lure”. The motor made horrible noises, the board would transfer as quickly as somebody stepped on it and it wouldn’t all the time cease once they stepped off. A group of creators stepped in, modified code and beneficial fixes like altering PID values however the board was nonetheless wonky. Wren examined it, nearly crashed, however gave it a thumbs up.
Miranda went again to his store and recognized the issues, which included motor noises from the batteries’ MOSFETs reducing present too aggressively and interfering with the controller. Utilizing one battery or connecting them in parallel fastened the problem and made the facility smoother. He additionally changed the MPU6050 with a BMI160 IMU, mounted it on to the board and ran a reflow package deal to enhance steadiness management. After hours of tweaking the board was rideable, however gradual and tense.
Regardless of the accidents, Miranda calls it a proof of idea success. The board strikes, responds to leans and even carries a rider – form of. Wren and others have recognized areas for enchancment together with higher motor management, extra sensors and a much less harsh Confirm.
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