This guy built his own balancing scooter, "in about a week, using off the shelf parts". The cost of everything was less than half the price of a new Segway. He lists some of the pluses and minuses about riding his new scooter. On the down side...
I get stopped on almost every block by someone asking questions. I don't mind telling people about it, but it does take an awfully long time to get to the coffee shop and back in the morning. And I can't quite drink a cup of coffee on it while moving at any speed, so the net result is that I arrive back at the office, 30 minutes later than if I'd just walked, with a cold coffee. All in the name of science, though.
There's a part-by-part comparison with the Segway, and a warning that his version lacks certain safety features available on the Segway (emphasis in original):
With a scooter like this, if it stops working for any reason (software crash, hardware failure, low battery) you will fall, hard, and probably on your face. Imagine zipping along at 10 MPH, and suddenly the platform you're standing on stops dead. Oh, and there's a T-bar in front of you to trip you up if you start to run. So you really shouldn't try to replicate this experiment, and I can't be responsible for what happens if you read this and try to build something.
Not to worry.
(via Curmudgeonly and Skeptical)
Posted by dan at January 17, 2004 10:40 PM