Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Belt buckle pinhole camera

Belt buckle pinhole camera for Pipo Nguyen-Duy:
sanded mint tin, black walnut, copper plate and wire, aluminum plate, brass screws, aluminum rivets.   
Shutter assembly detail
Buckle detail

Experiments in personal electric transportation

This three wheeled skateboard built at Oberlin came to be known as the Electroped and was constructed using the propulsion system from a broken electric scooter I found and spare parts from other projects.  Acceleration and breaking are accomplished through the levers mounted on the control cable, and steering, as in a normal skateboard, is controlled by leaning. While the vehicles rate of acceleration is lack luster due to its low wattage motor, it can never the less reach a respectable top speed of 14mph.   

Steering was originally a problem with this vehicle. I attempted to use a large skate board truck to allow the front wheels to turn around the center of the axle, as a result a 90 degree turn could only be accomplished over about a half block.  In an effort to improve this uselessly large turning radius I built another truck which functioned much more like a car's: tie rods attached to a plate plate below the board move the wheels in parallel allowing for a much tighter turning radius.      

Drive train and battery detail