Gizmodo Australia » motors

Lego Ping Pong Launcher Serves Its Purpose Well

Nick Broughall — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 00:30:17 +0000

Using a single Lego motor and a whole heap of gears and Lego to ramp up the speed, this ping pong launcher will push out ping pong balls fast enough for any would be Forrest Gump to practice their returns. Oh, Lego: Is there anything you can’t do?

[Thanks Daryl!]

Proteus Motor Swims Through Bloodstream, Looks Pretty Much Like a Sperm

Gizmodo US Edition — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 13:30:00 +0000

The tiny Proteus motor, at only 2.5 times the width of a human hair, is small enough to enter the bloodstream and perform duties previously requiring some surgical slice-and-dice.

Researchers at Australia’s Monash University developed the tiny motor to minimalise the risk of certain, more invasive surgeries. After being injected into the bloodstream, it can carry a camera and other sensors to monitor a patient without the danger that cutting and sewing presents. To move, it uses a spinning tail that spirals at 1295 RPM, and uses piezoelectricity (which uses mechanical stress to create electrical potential) for energy.

Oh, and here’s my required Fantastic Voyage reference: This bloodstream sperm motor is named for that movie I never saw! [GizMag]

Smartfish Pro:Motion Keyboard Has Motors To Stop Carpal Tunnel

Jason Chen — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 19:20:00 +0000

The Pro:Motion Keyboard goes one step beyond regular ergonomic keyboards by incorporating motors that shift both angle and separation between keys throughout the day in order to prevent you from getting carpal tunnel syndrome.

There’s a total of seven different “stations” that it cycles through, and only costs $US130—not too horrible for a fancy keyboard. Seeing as regular ergo keyboards are proven to work at lessening the painful effects of typing too much, even if the motors don’t work, you’ll still have an ergo keyboard. [Everything USB via Engadget]

Matchbook-Sized Motor Sets 1 Million RPM Record

Sean Fallon — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 21:30:00 +0000

Researchers from ETH Zurich’s Department of Power Electronics have developed a matchbook-sized motor that can spin faster than any other machine in the world—over 1,000,000 rpm. In order to keep it from falling apart at such high speeds, the researchers employed a titanium shell, ultra-thin copper wire for the windings and a mysterious top-secret iron that is “previously unused for machines.” So does this mean we will all be seeing million rpm engines and hard drives soon? Probably not—but products like faster drills may be feasible in the near future thanks to a Swiss company named Celeroton that has been formed to bring products based on the technology to market. [LiveScience]

Motor Home With Motorised Balcony as American as Apple Pie

Brian Lam — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 19:26:22 +0000

Country Coach’s Veranda motor home has a motorised balcony that deploys in 20 seconds with optional BBQ and 37-inch TV. The marketing material insists you’ll be reducing your “footprint on the environment” and suggests that it would be great to fish or play catch from without ever leaving the comfort of your abomination. [Country Coach via Gizmag]

Electrobike Pi Gives You 3.14 Reasons to Get Rid of Your Car

Charlie White — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 14:14:53 +0000

Hop on the Electrobike Pi, and through the courtesy of your two feet and its 1hp motor, no one will ever be able to blame you for global warming again. Three reasons? It’s efficient, it’s fun, it’s socially responsible and it looks cool. Okay, maybe the cool look is the “.14″ reason. It still has a carbon footprint (a minuscule 210 pounds a year if you ride it 100 miles a week), but reduce that number to zero (for $1800 extra) by attaching its giant arch-shaped solar charger, and after an eight-hour day in the sun (or 2.5 hours plugged in) that battery is good for another 25 miles, even if you don’t pedal at all.

Let’s get this straight: In its stock form, this is not exactly a racing bike—its top speed using just its nickel hydride batteries powering its 750-watt electric motor is only 20 mph, and it weighs about the same as an anvil, a hefty 58 pounds without your butt gracing its seat. But it’s efficient, working like a hybrid car with its flywheel that charges up the battery when you apply the bike’s brakes. We’re also hearing you can hop up the thing with some aftermarket modifications, goosing its top speed up to 46 mph. No word on how long the batteries will last at that hasty clip.

Now the bad news: You’ll drop $7,500 for the Electrobike Pi, and extra batteries, each good for 200 charge cycles, are $750. To be available at Design Within Reach studios in the United States, there will be just 500 of these electric bikes sold. Could be the first batch of many. Sure beats a Segway. [LA Times, via Born Rich]

Electric Motor for Sonex Sports Aircraft Cleared for Take-Off

jenneth — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 20:00:04 +0000

Sonex, purveyor of banana-yellow kit airplanes at around the $25,000 mark, has just unveiled a prototype electric motor. Company founder John Monnett showed off an electric motor powerplant, controller, battery pack and charging systems earlier this week—although he kept quiet about who had supplied the battery. Something tells me it wasn’t Sony…
The researchers behind the electric motor, known as the E-Flight Team, used 80 Lithium Polymer batteries and packed them into 10 safe boxes, each with a blowhole to safely direct fire or explosion out via an exhaust.

Current flying time is around 45 minutes, but Sonex, which declined to talk about prices and potential launch dates, is hoping to get this up to about an hour. [Sonex via Aero-News Network]