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View Full Version : Drive by wire on a bent?



pengyou
10-24-07, 11:44 AM
has anyone ever hooked servos up to the steering wheel of a tadpole and then connected a joy stick so that steering could be done with the joy stick? Sounds really cool...but am not sure how safe it would be.
geebee
10-24-07, 04:21 PM
Fun, but would be deadly on roads, a touch of servo shudder, a wire vibrating loose, the control potentiometer wiper getting dirty, battery pack failure, road pot hole causing stripping of the output gears.... you get the picture.
Digital feed back servo same issues different causes.
Then you have possible interference issues if you fit a power assist.

And no doubt someone will mention planes use it, it only took decades and billions to do.
Car companies are still currently trying to perfect it.
Abneycat
10-24-07, 04:55 PM
It would be neat, but I don't see the benefit of it besides well, being neat. On a bike, what design could you cook up that you'd need remote steering for?
pengyou
10-24-07, 07:40 PM
Just being neat :)
BlazingPedals
10-24-07, 08:36 PM
Try it and report back.
GreenGrasshoppr
10-25-07, 09:37 AM
how much would servos weight?
jeff-o
10-25-07, 11:02 AM
You can get close to joystick control with a trike like the Windcheetah. It has a central control arm that rotates around a U-joint.
Artkansas
10-25-07, 02:10 PM
has anyone ever hooked servos up to the steering wheel of a tadpole and then connected a joy stick so that steering could be done with the joy stick? Sounds really cool...but am not sure how safe it would be.


It's a very tempting idea with computer-aided control. At last I could take my hands off the handlebars and pedal hands-free! :D
Wheelchairman
10-25-07, 07:23 PM
Sounds awfully unnessacery and heavy. Plus, you can't beat "feeling" the road beneath your tyres. The loss of a direct link from your hands to the road surface would make steering more of a guessing game then it ever should be.
StephenH
10-26-07, 09:30 PM
Seems to me that servos big enough to control a bicycle would suck up a fair bit of power, which means a sizable battery to lug along.
vik
10-26-07, 09:34 PM
Sounds like a great idea for a shaft drive vertical tandem trike....:eek::eek::p:p:D:D
BlazingPedals
10-27-07, 09:06 AM
No need for shaft drive - put the servos on the bb and the front axle. Front wheel drive with no chain!
vik
10-28-07, 11:11 AM
No need for shaft drive - put the servos on the bb and the front axle. Front wheel drive with no chain!

Sure - perhaps one of those 30hp gas powered servos and you'd really move!...:eek::p
jccaclimber
01-26-08, 09:22 PM
Why not just cable steer?