I don’t suppose there may be anybody on this planet that loves omni wheels fairly as a lot as James Bruton does. He makes use of them in every kind of tasks and has a specific fascination with constructing autos that incorporate omni wheels. In the event you had been to maintain issues conservative, you’d find yourself with one thing like an omni wheel-equipped forklift — a sensible software that folks really make the most of in warehouses all over the world. However practicality isn’t Bruton’s concern, which is why he can construct an e-bike with one omni wheel dealing with the incorrect means.
This isn’t even Bruton’s first omni wheel e-bike — it’s a minimum of the third that we’ve lined. However it’s the first to have this explicit wheel association, with one omni wheel in entrance dealing with the conventional route and one other omni wheel in again dealing with sideways.
These additionally aren’t regular omni wheels, which normally have free-spinning rollers. That is one thing else that we haven’t seen made by anybody however Bruton. As an alternative of free-spinning rollers, its rollers are pushed by way of an revolutionary hub and belt system. Driving one belt turns all the meeting, like a traditional wheel. However driving the opposite belt rotates the rollers perpendicular to that. So, the only “wheel” can produce motion in any route beneath energy.
In the event you ignore the wheels, the e-bike resembles a small chopper and that’s the results of the aggressive rake angle of the entrance forks. As is typical for Bruton, all the car is generally aluminum extrusion and 3D-printed plastic components. Although this additionally has aluminum plates to affix and strengthen the aluminum extrusion of the body.
The electronics additionally match what we’ve come to count on from Bruton. The motors are beefy ODrive M8325s items with ODrive S1 controllers, which embody encoders. They obtain instructions from a Teensy 4.0 growth board that Bruton paired with a SparkFun BNO086 IMU (inertial measurement unit) to watch tilting. Bruton added an LED strip to the electronics enclosure and that acts like a spirit degree, offering a visible indicator of tilt. As an alternative of a conventional throttle, Bruton put two massive joysticks on the handlebars and people let him management energy to all the motors.
This unusual e-bike appears to carry out fairly effectively. It’s secure and may stay upright whereas maneuvering round. And that maneuvering is as bizarre as you’d guess from the distinctive wheel association. However Bruton discovered that it was really extra intuitive to drive in reverse, which made leaning for steering really feel extra prefer it ought to. Even that wasn’t precisely nice, but it surely labored and now Bruton has yet one more weird car in his storage.