Video: Build your own Self-Balancing Segway

This DIY Segway-like scooter is� an exceptional guide to building your own self balancing transportation machine. Although Dean Kamen was first with his patented Segway scooter, they are actually surprisingly simple to build.�� We had covered some simila rprojects with our previous post on Build your own DIY Segway and the very similar – Enicycle: A Self Balancing Electric UniCycle.

In this latest project, Daniel Fukuba restates that a Segway-like personal scooter is very ‘Do-It-Yourself’. Though, it helps if you can get yourself the right tools and hardware. Putting together the custom circuit boards and writing the code is where most of the work goes in.� But then it’s the part that does the balancing and controlling the motion. Under the hood, the scooter has four packs of high discharge lithium ion batteries for powering the motors. The batteries last approx 10 miles on a single charge. Switching power supply to the NPC motors is through the electronic circuit boards. A couple of gyros matted on the base control the pitch and the torque with feedback from the software.

The scooter in the video is completely aluminum and uses expensive batteries. It can be made a lot cheaper with less costly batteries, any other material (even wood) and any motor. Yes, even with leftovers lying around. Side by side, the aluminum scooter cost $4000 to the $1000 for the wooden version (The real thing retails for $5000). Most of the stuff can be found online and also on eBay as tipped in the video.

The best thing about this DIY electric machine is that you can juice it up any way you’d like. Zipping around town in one of these is sure to grab some eyeballs.� Go over some of our popular ‘self balancing’ projects which show the principles behind the Segway scooter:

• Build an Electric Segway Skateboard
• Create a Self Balancing Segway-like Robot
• Make a Mini Segway Using the Arduino

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