Sep 24, 2016

Ripstik Episode 2

More things I've been working on but hadn't gotten around to documenting: Ripstik is still under construction!

Last time I had gotten to the test-riding phase of Ripstik build and had realized it was just too tall to be ride-able. So began a long series of modifications to the casters.


The original casters needed to became ~0.5" shorter, so I removed the intermediary sections of the caster. This, however, made the casters no longer clear the chassis when rotating further than 45deg. This was a problem solved by a combination of milling/sanding the aluminum wheel-arms slightly narrower and rounding-over the axle bolts.


Similarly, the chassis also needed to become shorter, but the locations of the holes for the screwblocks force me to either cut very little or cut a lot. I'm still deciding whether I would have enough space for batteries if I shortened the chassis a full inch.


Finally on the mechanical side, because I shortened the casters, I ended up shifting the locations of the wheels farther back than originally planned. This made the sweeping motion awkward, so I had to drill adjusted axle holes.


Finally, for 6.131 Power Electronics Lab, I started working on a prototype for a 3-phase sensored-brushless motor controller. By the end of the class, I had behaving hardware but not-quite-working software.

 Above: brief calculations for creating specs and designing the motor controller.
Below: circuit diagram
So - still working on it, promise!

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