30 August 2008 - Handlebar-Mounted Units
Tom has been in contact with a person who wants to adapt a Jones Counter to his moped. He shipped his cable to Tom, and Tom adapted a counter to it. It’s still going to be a back-and-forth process with the moped guy, but it shows promise.
In addition, Tom is in contact with a potential customer who is willing to work with him on a volume buy of handlebar mounted counters for a bicycle. Up until now, development cost for a single unit has been a hurdle, but there may be a handlebar-mounted unit available in future.
Cable-mounted counter for moped
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September 7, 2008 - Prototype Drive
A 90 degree prototype drive has been constructed, and preliminary testing shows promise.
Prototype Drive Mounted to Bicycle
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This is an encouraging first step toward a handlebar-mounted unit. Construction details are shown below:
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Tom writes:
In my first attempt to make a 90-degree drive for the cable rig, I tapered the teeth on the Delrin gear. I met with limited success, but the process of tapering the gear meant many minutes with a Dremel tool. Engagement was poor, and the gears tended to bind somewhat.
My second plan was to bend the teeth on the metal gear 90 degrees. This required putting a z-bend in the chassis to add clearance for the teeth. This done, a new flat gear was fitted, and fiddled with it until I was satisfied it would never spin freely.
After realizing that the effective diameter at the line of action of the gears must be preserved, I bent the teeth to something resembling a 45-degree angle and adjusted the Delrin gear’s position as shown in the pictures below. The resulting assembly does not bind, and spins freely up to 1200 rpm.
Further developments will be reported as progress is made.
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September 24, 2008 - Prototype Drive
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A complete prototype has been built and will be tested this weekend. See photos below.
