Monthly Archives: January 2011

Kid DIY snowmobile (snow scooter)

I’ve made a snow-scooter for my kids, using motors from Allelectronics.com. It’s running on a 12V battery, though the motor is rated to 24V. It doesn’t go very fast, but I guess that might be a good thing. With a higher voltage lipo battery, I guess it’d be faster. Maybe I’ll make an electric car this summer, using a better battery.

I’m planning to add a h-bridge based motor controller, controlled by an Arduino. I’ve got the motor controller made, but I’m wondering how to do the mechanical speed adjustment (the throttle or pedal). The video shows the first run. The design is a bit ugly, but it’s just a prototype at this stage. I wanted to know whether the motor was actually strong enough. It is, but it struggles up hill or in loose snow, so I’ll check out some better batteries.

The steering wheel is attached to a ski that’s for a kid’s sledge.

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What to do with motors?

Some months ago I went wild buying motors from allelectronics.com. Some of them I’ve used for some toy projects for my kids. But most of them I haven’t used yet.

I bought some really tiny motors (I didn’t know they were so small). I’m planning to make some really tiny remote controlled cars.

Lots of stepper motors (for the CNC, but I ended up buying proper ones from another source).

Some big ones. The plan was to build a car for the kids that they could sit in and drive around in.  Or build a segway… Could I build an electric toy snow scooter? Would it work? I haven’t gotten around to making the motor controllers as I haven’t had enough time.

The motors are just lying around, and I need to do something with them. I’ll do some projects when I get the 3d printer, and I really want to get started on the ‘soap box car with a motor’ for the kids. Those motors are really cool.

Right now I’m working on making a GSM enabled watch, and a watch for kids. I’ve been quiet for a while, but it’s because I’ve been setting up my company and have been a consultant at customer premises doing some embedded projects. That gives me less time for the fun ‘home projects’.

Any suggestions to projects are welcome.

3d Printer

I went ahead and bought a 3D printer, the Makerbot Thing-O-Matic 3d Printer. For higher quality prints, this thing probably won’t do the trick. Then it’s better to use someone like Shapeways or Ponoko. They can even print in other materials, like metal and glass. But for quick prototypes, this is hopefully enough. If anyone nearby want to come see it in action, please feel free to come around. It takes 7 weeks for them to deliver it though. I guess they’re going to make it first… well the parts. I have to assemble it. If I had time right now, I’d build one from scratch, for example with my CNC machine.