This wheel is propelled only by forced gyroscopic precession. It is not an endorsement of silly reactionless drive aficionados that love the idea of messing with Newton's third law. It's just kind of fun way to inch around the floor. Probably could be done more efficiently and perhaps a little speedier by using my Arduino and a sensor or two but I got better things to be about. I used a slip ring to power the gyro motor because I orginally had a 360 degree servo on there so the gyro could spin completely around but the wheel was basically uncontrollable so had to resort to a 90 degree servo and being tricky on the rc controls.
Thank you - I think gyros are fascinating but I seem to have run out motivation to do any more projects with them so will go back to painting as my principle hobby now. Will stay in touch with LMR though as I like to see robot progress - and their evntual enslavement - of us. Ciao.
I bought this gyroscope in China several years ago. I see one here http://www.gyroscopes.co.uk/d.asp?product=SUPER2 but very expensive (mine was cheap here in China). I have used the rotor in a powerball - that is a cheap alternative. Also I have had one made out of aluminum but also expensive. Not a lot of cheap alternatives.
