Anyone use a gyroscopic cup holder?

S

Sancho's Horse

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I was considering adding this gyroscopic cup holder to my wish list: http://www.lfsmarineoutdoor.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=cup+holder&order=relevance&dir=desc&x=0&y=0

They are manufactured for boating, but the rod mount one looks like it would mount up pretty easy. I have faced down fears of lipo fire, blunt force brain trauma, but if a cause of death were something like coffee induced electrical discharge, I would at least have that to my name.

So...any bike gyroscopic cup holding pioneers out there?
 
No, but I recall years back someone riding away from a convenience store with a steaming cup of coffee on his handlebar cupholder (repurposed waterbottle holder, I think), then he hit a bump in the sidewalk and it splashed the top off his cup and most of the contents across his hand, causing him to let go and then crash. :(
 
Drink your coffee before you leave or when you reach your destination. While riding you need to focus 100% at all times on the road and your surroundings. Any distraction is just asking for trouble, so while on 2 wheels forget multi-tasking.
 
I tried to balance a four-cup cardboard carrier on the end of the handlebars once on a coffee house run. By the time I got home they were all nearly empty despite having sippy lids. Those cups are just too flimsy for cycling use. See if they'll let you fill your own bottle from the water bottle cage with coffee at the "refill" price, it will cool off quickly and you can squirt it in your mouth keeping your eyes on the road as you do. Might make your water taste like mud so get a black one just dedicated to coffee and a second white one for water only, you could possibly add a third brightly colored one just for sports drinks. I keep a 64oz. insulated plastic cooler cup full of ice and water in my front basket, with giant plastic tube sticking out I can drink directly from it in a speed crouch (tuck) position. :D
 
I have a delta trike, so even though it would seem at first blush more feasible...it really is not. The gyroscope can handle the lateral movements, and a properly lidded cup can handle the percussive splashing, but what you give up in terms of safety is far too great a risk. It may be ok if you select your times carefully, but even then... I am not so sure.

When I was a kid I would ride the dirt trails near a reservoir close to where I live, and I will always remember an unexpected tire slide in some rocks, and me catapulting over the handlebars, and when I landed I was looking at a 1 inch tree sappling remnant which had been cut off with a machete to clear the path. It looked like a thick punji stick maybe six inches from my eye, and it was telling me, you could be dead now.

I am hoping my trike can haul like a car, and I have been working pout a system for protection from the weather, lights, horn, etc. but it will never be a car.
 
i made a simple one by modifying a CPU fan. i cut off the blades and pressed on a machined metal ring to act as the flywheel for the gyroscope. it was mounted to an arm that placed it below the cup. added plasticine all over the thing to get a static balance. i tried it on my wheelchair. powered it using a 24 to 12V dc-dc converter. it stabilizes it a bit but i'm not sure it was worth the effort. need a heavier flywheel than i could power with a small cheap fan motor to be effective.

much more effective is a cup that has a cover with a sliding valve so you can seal it off.

i also though of using an arduino controller, mpu6050 or L3G4200D chip based 3 axis motion detector and a couple of model radio control servos, but then i realized that would be a bit extreme. and expensive.

so if you want to try, just a simple gyro is not enough. need some active control. if you do build one please share your results. who knows i might build one if i know it will work.

rick
 
rkosiorek said:
need a heavier flywheel than i could power with a small cheap fan motor to be effective.
Click to expand...
Harddisk motor? Especislaly from an old 5.25" full-height drive?
 
amberwolf said:
rkosiorek said:
need a heavier flywheel than i could power with a small cheap fan motor to be effective.
Click to expand...
Harddisk motor? Especislaly from an old 5.25" full-height drive?
Click to expand...

i sort of thought about my old 5mega-Byte Micropolis 8" drive. that sucker must have weighed a good 15 to 20Kg. sounded like a jet engine running up when i would first turn it on and take about 30 seconds to rev up to speed. we used to joke that we could see the house lights dim waiting for it to spin up. when i first brought it home everyone wondered how i would ever use up all of that space. 5mB should be good for decades worth of data. and i could fit the whole thing into something the size of a largish microwave oven.

i was trying to think of a motor/flywheel/gyro combo that would not be much larger than the bottom of a coffee mug. it can't be too large. no room for something the size of a toaster just to keep my coffee stable.

i also thought of using individual gyro's for the roll and pitch axis. but then we get into the same issues with space. so i think that the only practical use is the controller with a gyro sensor chip with software to level some servos.

i'm hoping someone will prove me wrong and come up with some brilliantly simple gadget that i can copy for myself.

rick
 
Well, if you have any of those old CHeetah seagate scsi drives around, they were 10,000 RPM. Gyros don't have to have big flywheels to be stable--they can also just spin rreally fast. :)
 
I hadn't thought of that. I do have the baby carrier. One of the front ones. Maybe a gallon jug, some duct tape, and a straw. Represent.

My build is pretty much an suv anyways. I may just put a tray on it and ride around town eating a cheeseburger, fries and a coke. Do a little texting...people will just think of me like any other car.
 
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