First big wipe out

28 March 2016, 04:13 UTC

@poopmonkey Exactly.

28 March 2016, 05:49 UTC

Can you brake quickly and smoothly like a unicycle without scraping?

28 March 2016, 09:24 UTC

@poopmonkey watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Plnt3Lw7Grc at about 1:14 or so you can see how fast you can brake

28 March 2016, 17:27 UTC

@poopmonkey Yeah, like @chabis's video link demonstrates (among various other great examples of what the OW can do), the regenerative braking lets you pretty much stop on a dime, even at top speed. And it's really smooth, because since you're already leaning opposite of your momentum to make the braking work, you don't have to worry about flying off the front of the board, as you might when you brake on other electric skateboards.

It's actually one of my favorite things to do, to go full speed towards an immovable object, then start braking just a few feet before hitting it. Kinda freaks people out, because they're expecting me to wreck.

28 March 2016, 19:08 UTC

@BrianInMN said:
So I've wiped a few times but not at full speed until today. Got going too fast and got a death wobble. Tried to run it out but wasn't gonna happen at 50 years old. Landed on my side rolling which was good, but this is the important part. The back of my head slapped the pavement pretty hard, thankfully I had a helmet on. If I hadn't had it I'm thinking it could've been ugly.
Moral of the story, please wear your helmet you just never know, especially you young guys who think you're still invincible. As someone who works in an ER I can tell you it can and it does. That's it for the dad speech today.

had to quote you just to read it, please format normal next time.

and ride safely, check out the beginners thread.

31 March 2016, 06:25 UTC

@thegreck said:

@poopmonkey My Wikipedia link is fairly comprehensive in explaining that all self-balancing unicycles use inverse-pendulum theory to accomplish what they do, and I don't really see how magnets would have any effect on keeping a 200-lb person upright on a single-wheel device, so I'm not sure how to have a discussion about it, but if you have any links explaining it I'd like to read what they have to say.

I'm not clear on the likely varying technology among the 'self-balancing' devices but here's what I'm referring to in regards to the Onewheel being considered NOT self-balancing in the way the others are (hoverboards, unicycles, segway type devices, etc) https://youtu.be/m1wr3MnztJc (notice the guys note underneath "1) It is NOT self-balancing (the counter-weight mechanism like Segway)."

31 March 2016, 06:41 UTC

@poopmonkey Naw. Segway, OneWheel, and "hoverboard" do the same basic thing. They use solid-state accelerometers that feed data to the chips that control the acceleration of the wheel(s) to drive the vehicle forward, backward, or stationary while keeping the rider upright. A manually controlled unicycle does the same thing using nerves, brain, and muscle piloted by a skilled rider.

I'm pretty sure that guy is wrong, other than that segway stays upright after dismount.

31 March 2016, 06:44 UTC

@bmtka said:

@poopmonkey Naw. Segway, OneWheel, and "hoverboard" do the same basic thing. They use solid-state accelerometers that feed data to the chips that control the acceleration of the wheel(s) to drive the vehicle forward, backward, or stationary while keeping the rider upright. A manually controlled unicycle does the same thing using nerves, brain, and muscle piloted by a skilled rider.

I'm pretty sure that guy is wrong, other than that segway stays upright after dismount.

Hopefully someone with knowledge on the subject can comment. I'd be hard pressed to discount the guy's information without having my own. He speaks about it using a single gyro and being 'user balanced' not 'self balancing' https://youtu.be/m1wr3MnztJc

31 March 2016, 07:03 UTC

@poopmonkey There are no physical "gyros" in any of them. That's just a word Segway used for marketing purposes before everyone had accelerometers in their phones.

Find another source that says they don't work off of the same concept: rider leans, vehicle accelerates accordingly.

The difference is the two wheeled devices use the accelerometer data for steering, OneWheel steers by direct user movement. That's what makes it feel like snowboarding.

31 March 2016, 07:15 UTC

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31 March 2016, 13:54 UTC

@bmtka You can explain it to this guy until you're blue in the face. He's a troll.

31 March 2016, 14:33 UTC

The only time I had a nose dive was when I tried different shoes.
I thought wearing Timberland boots would give better ankle support but felt stiffness. Luckily I was going slow.
Now I wear flat sneakers and it's back to normal riding.
That said, I'm afraid to go fast but still enjoy it.
At the end of the day, pushing the limit is an individual choice.

31 March 2016, 17:20 UTC

@poopmonkey Is it the "airwheel" thing you refer to as unicycle? That makes a lot more sense than the pictures in my head...
Anyway, if that's what we are talking about, I have a friend who owns own of those.
I've tried it, and it works pretty much exactly the same.
I'm not sure what badcheese smoked before he wrote that, but I'm not quite sure he has tried riding one sober.
The only difference in a solo/air/mono/whatever/wheel and the onewheel, is that OW has the sensor for mounting/dismounting.
That wouldn't work very well on a solo, because it can't "stand" on its own like the OW, thus the mounting process is entirely different.
Without the sensors (balancing by itself like a segway) it would be extremely hard to properly mount the onewheel, as you would need to mount and dismount by jumping on top of it.

Once you are on it though, It works pretty much the same.

31 March 2016, 23:26 UTC

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31 March 2016, 23:45 UTC

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1 April 2016, 03:25 UTC

Sorry kind of skim read these comments but I'd also be interested in understanding the balancing differences between Segway and onewheel. Could onewheel self balance like Segway does without anyone on the sensor? I've seen other single wheel prototypes on YouTube that do. Obviously mounting a onewheel while it is self balanced wouldn't work unlike a two wheeled device. Maybe Segway self balances until a rider steps on and then it works like onewheel.

1 April 2016, 03:55 UTC

@Franky said:

I'd also be interested in understanding the balancing differences between Segway and onewheel. Could onewheel self balance like Segway does without anyone on the sensor?

No. All self-balancing wheeled vehicles use the same principal to keep the rider balanced, it's called reverse pendulum theory. Basically, the wheel spins in the direction that the weight on the device is tilting to stay under it, which ultimately keeps it upright.

The reason the OneWheel and hoverboards have to shut off when the rider gets off is because the rider IS the pendulum. It's balancing the rider by using the rider's weight, so when the rider gets off, there's nothing to balance and also no way for it to do so.

The board itself is just a platform that the rider stands on, and it would just spin along with the wheel without a rider on it (see any OneWheel video where someone jumps off of a board that has a faulty sensor and you'll see what I mean... the board won't right itself no matter how fast the wheel spins, so it just keeps going until it smashes into something).

Segways have an upright handlebar that it can use as the pendulum, as do the self-balancing unicycles, which is the only reason these types of devices can self balance without a rider.

1 April 2016, 18:35 UTC

@thegreck I'm not sure you are correct that the only reason segway can self balance is the upright handle. It may be possible for the onewheel to self balance if programmed to but it would be useless since there is no way to mount the board while self balanced unlike segway. Or maybe the distribution of weight would need to be even on both sides of the board to self balance.

Segway also has foot sensors. When weight is off it must be in self balance mode only. After weight is on the foot sensors it goes into reverse pendulum mode.

1 April 2016, 19:18 UTC

@Franky said:

@thegreck I'm not sure you are correct that the only reason segway can self balance is the upright handle. It may be possible for the onewheel to self balance if programmed to but it would be useless since there is no way to mount the board while self balanced unlike segway. Or maybe the distribution of weight would need to be even on both sides of the board to self balance.

Segway also has foot sensors. When weight is off it must be in self balance mode only. After weight is on the foot sensors it goes into reverse pendulum mode.

Sorry, I keep calling it reverse pendulum, but it's actually called inverted pendulum (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_pendulum). Meaning, a pendulum that has its center of mass above its pivot point rather than below it. It's the issue that any self-balancing vehicle has to contend with in order to stay upright. The only way for it to do this is by constantly checking to see where the weight is located, then moving the vehicle directly below that weight. It's basically the same way you balance yourself, only by using your feet.

This is from the Wikipedia entry for the Segway PT:

The dynamics of the Segway PT are similar to a classic control problem, the inverted pendulum. It balances with the help of dual computers that run proprietary software, two tilt sensors, and five gyroscopic sensors. The servo drive motors rotate the wheels forwards or backwards as needed for balance or propulsion. The rider controls forward and backward movement by leaning the Segway relative to the combined center of mass of the rider and Segway, which is done by holding the control bar closer to or farther from their body. The Segway detects the change in the balance point, and adjusts the speed at which it is balancing the rider accordingly.

Without the handle (or in the case of the Onewheel, the person), there's no way for the devices to even know that they're off balance.

1 April 2016, 23:20 UTC

@Franky I was thinking about this and I'm wondering if because the Segway has such a big base and giant wheels, if the base is just bottom weighted so that when the unit is off that the weight keeps it balanced? That way when the person gets off, the self-balancing mechanism could just turn off.

I don't imagine people keep those things running all the time, so it seems you're right that they must be made to stay upright somehow. But it seems that would only work with a setup like that, with two wheels and a base that can sit between them, and not with a flat deck across a single wheel. Unless the wheel was hollow and a weight could hang inside it.

2 April 2016, 00:50 UTC

@Franky he's not correct in the previous message as you stated because unicycles don't have a handle that balances them. They balance on their own without any rider on it. I'm a bit confused by what's seems like an obvious difference in the way the front of the board can tip forward during riding (the sole cause of nearly every crash) where's this isn't possible on all the other self balancing devices.

2 April 2016, 03:07 UTC

@poopmonkey said:

where's this isn't possible on all the other self balancing devices.

You sure 'bout that, shitflinger?

2 April 2016, 03:19 UTC

@poopmonkey It's like trying to explain space travel to a chimpanzee with you.

2 April 2016, 06:51 UTC

@poopmonkey said:

the front of the board can tip forward during riding (the sole cause of nearly every crash) where's this isn't possible on all the other self balancing devices.

All these vehicles tip. The difference isn't that, but it's things sticking out. If you put a big handle on a solo like on a segway, or boards front and back like a OW, you'd see more clearly how much it does tip. Which is probably a lot less than the OW, but not 'nothing'.
Because of the way you stand on one of those, you can't put as much weight in front of the vehicle, as you are standing on top of it. You can only lean. On a OW you can push it down with your legs, and that's just not possible on a vehicle where you are standing next to the tires. Because of this you can overpower the vehicle. It's up to you not to do that. With great power, comes great responsibility.

We can of course argue whether this is better or worse, but that would be mostly personal opinion. The different designs offer different solutions to a problem, with different results.
While all the electric self-balancing vehicles do the "same thing", they all ride completely different.
If you compare the solo/air, a segway, a 'hoverboard' and a OneWheel, they all handle differently. And people like different things.
OW is obviously the odd one out, since you are standing parallel to the direction of the wheel, making for a entirely different feeling.
This has its set of pros' and cons, that is directly tied to the design.

2 April 2016, 06:54 UTC

@poopmonkey said:

(the sole cause of nearly every crash)

Oh, and this. No.
The cause of most crashes is going faster than the vehicle (or you) can handle. And that you can do on all of these.
It's probably easier to be stupid on the OW, because you apply more force, but when you do, at least you stand in a position where you can outrun your own stupidity, so to say.

2 April 2016, 15:15 UTC

@germx Looks like that jerk finally got himself kicked off the forum. We tried explaining the facts to him as clearly as possible, but all he wanted to do is go from thread to thread posting ignorant, negative comments about the Onewheel and telling everyone that they didn't know what they were talking about. Good riddance!