James Bruton's Hoverboard-Based Star Wars Speeder

We recently covered James Bruton's attempt to build an omni wheel bike using parts pulled from a hoverboard. Bruton planned for this to act like a hoverboard, but on a much larger scaled and rotated 90 degrees relative to the rider. Like a hoverboard, it would balance itself and rotate in place. And because of the rider's orientation, it could move side-to-side. But this didn't work as well as Bruton had hoped, as it was difficult to control. So Bruton took a new approach, upgraded the bike, gave it jet thrusters, and dressed it up as a Star Wars speeder.

The original plan was to use only the hoverboard electronics and motors, which the rider would control by shifting their body weight side-to-side (equivalent to a normal hoverboard moving forward or backward) or by twisting the front half of the bike relative to the back half (equivalent to a normal hoverboard rotating). But Bruton found that difficult to ride while remaining stable. His solution was to implement more conventional handlebar controls.

The new handlebars can rotate, but also tilt left and right. Each of those movement axes rotates potentiometers monitored by an Arduino Uno R3. The Arduino, in turn, moves servo motors that tilt the hoverboard controller boards. So rotating the handlebars left causes one controller board to tilt forward while the other tilts backwards. That mimics the effect of a hoverboard rider rotating in place. This lets Bruton control the side-to-side motion and the rotation using the handlebars instead of shifting his body weight or twisting unnaturally, which is more intuitive and easier to master.

The right handlebar also has a throttle, which the Arduino monitors to control the speed of the jet thrusters. Those thrusters are serious business — the kind you'd see on a high-end RC jet. They produce thrust by spinning extremely fast and Bruton chose them because this bike rides on omni wheels with free-spinning rollers. Because those thrusters and the "gliding" movement made it a natural choice, Bruton added some decoration to make this look a bit like a speeder bike from Star Wars.

Unfortunately, even the powerful thrusters Bruton chose struggled to propel the bike. To get moving, he needed a push from a friend. But after he started rolling, the thrusters were enough to keep him going.