Janglamember
155 posts
Location: Oxford, UK


Posted:
I just got a new toy! It's basically a gyroscope inside a plastic casing with a digital RPM readout on top. The idea is to move your wrist in such a way that the gyro speeds up and you get a higher score.The thing got me thinking - would it be possible to make gyroscopic poi? Now I know that the gyro effect would make some twirling rather strange but with the right materials, the rapid change in direction caused when you try and move the gyro would make some wicked moves. The only sticking piont is power - the game I have is powered by your wrist but the poi would need another source.Any thoughts or previous experience would be appreciated.Thanks------------------"The tincture of night began to suffuse the soup of the afternoon. He considered the sentence, and found it good. He liked 'tincture' particularly. Tincture. Tincture. It was a distinguished word, and pleasantly countered by the flatness of 'soup'. The soup of the afternoon. Yes. In which may be found the croutons of teatime."

---------------------With a bit of luck, his life was ruined; always thinking that just behind some narrow door, in his favourite bars, men in red woolen suits are getting incredible kicks from things he'll never know.


Anubismember
11 posts
Location: Birmingham UK, or, Kuruman RSA


Posted:
Stick a small motor in a ball with a small battery. You would need to be careful not to break it, as it wouldn't take shock so well.I doubt if spinning would be very possible. During WWII the Germans built a 'plane which had the prop shaft bolted to the fuselage and the engine bolted to the prop. This saved a huge amount of energy (won't bore you with the reasons why) and the 'plane had a huge range. The problem was the bloody thing would hardly turn. The gyroscopic effect of the whole engine spinning made it impossible.

__ __ __ __ __You're depriving some poor village of it's idiot


Bendymember
750 posts
Location: Adelaide, SA, Australia


Posted:
I think it would make changes in direction virtually impossible. You can feel the power required to control a fast gyroscope when you hold it in your hand. With even less control on the end of a chain, I don't think you'd have a hope. In fact isn't a gyroscope often used to prevent unwanted movement and to maintain balance?Bummer - keep thinking though!

Courage is the man who can stop after only one peanut


ScRuBBSILVER Member
member
9 posts
Location: Seattle, WA, USA


Posted:
Maybe gyroscopes wouldn't work on poi, but you might be able to get creative with smaller distances. Ever seen a toy gyroscope precess around a point? That's where you set one side on a post and the gyroscope rotates around it without falling. There's some cool physics at work here. Namely, the angular momentum generated by the spinning gyroscope. It points according to the right hand rule. Curl the fingers of your right hand in the direction of spin, the angular momentum goes the direction your thumb points. Angular momentum is a strange phenomenon. Momentum is easy enough for linear velocity: An object that's moving in one direction wants to keep moving in the same direction. That's why your poi flies off at a right angle to the string when you let it go. At that instant, it's moving that direction. Furthermore, the more mass an object has, the more it resists change to its velocity. It always seemed weird to me that a rotating object could have momentum in any direction, but it does. The angular momentum is what causes the gyroscope to precess. The angular momentum resists gravitational force (torque about the point of rotation) by forcing the gyroscope in its direction. Since it can't keep moving in a straight line, it moves in a circle. When the gyroscope slows down, angular momentum decreases. But while it's going, it generates enough angular momentum (enough spin on the gyroscope) that it basically make the thing defy gravity.If you, say, attached a short string to each end of the gyroscope and holding one in each hand, by pulling on the strings you might be able to make it precess in a figure 8 or some other interesting patterns. Unfortunately, I doubt it would be possible to have a FLAMING gyroscope, but you might put some UV tape on it or something and have an interesting new thing to play with. Who knows, you might invent some entirely new art form with it! :-)

Ouch, dammit! Frickin poi, stop hitting me!


foobaaspinning for ages
125 posts
Location: Christchurch


Posted:
Used to have a gyroscope training device. Basically a plastic case about the size of a tennis ball, with a heavy ball inside, you started the heavy ball with a piece of string to get it spinning and then with the ball in your hand, you could move your wrist in circles and you were working against the gyroscopic effect, and able to speed the inside ball up...of course this required a bit of muscle power and grip...which is what it was designed to train...grip for rockclimbing. Sounds just like your toy!!------------------fe fi foo fun[This message has been edited by foobaa (edited 20 December 2001).]

fe fi foo fun


Knagimember
397 posts
Location: Brunswick, Ohio


Posted:
a diablo is based on the same idea's at work here. A spinning top placed and played with at the middle of a string connected to two sticks. It an incredably addicting toy more so then poi. I just ordered one of the net the other day.------------------We are all in the cosmic movie. That means the day you die you watch your whole life repeating for eternity. So you'd better have some good things happen in there and have a fitting climax. --Jim MorrisonMost Memerable crowd saying "Hey look that dude's gonna set himself on fire again!"

We are all in the cosmic movie. That means the day you die you watch your whole life repeating for eternity. So you'd better have some good things happen in there and have a fitting climax. --Jim MorrisonIt's going to come from a direction you didn't predict at a moment of chaos which you didn't see coming. -- NYC


foobaaspinning for ages
125 posts
Location: Christchurch


Posted:
Well yes, and so is a yo-yo...and you can do some poi tricks with yo-yo...Diablo is fun!! Should get me one too!!------------------fe fi foo fun

fe fi foo fun


foobaaspinning for ages
125 posts
Location: Christchurch


Posted:
OOooh other ideas pinging round my brain...spinning discs with an axle...string attached either side...will want to stay in the same plane as disc is spinning...could make for some interesting moves...hmm might have me a little play...------------------fe fi foo fun

fe fi foo fun


Bendymember
750 posts
Location: Adelaide, SA, Australia


Posted:
How about hooking the gyro up as a poi handle. The throws that could result may be unusual. The nature of the gyro might reduce movement of the handle, causing the poi head to fly around in a large circle - Dunno.

Courage is the man who can stop after only one peanut


Fire Princessmember
130 posts
Location: London/Brighton, UK


Posted:
Wow! Two concurrent threads on the same weird and wonderful item...I started a thread too a couple of weeks ago:https://www.homeofpoi.com/ubb/Forum7/HTML/000393.htmlWith a link to a picture of the gyroscope device.Just in case nobody has a clue what you were talking about.Princess xxx

Friendly Firestranger
15 posts
Location: Toronto, ON


Posted:
We created a fire toy out of a gyroscop.
I call it The Firo.
https://www.thefriendlyfirestore.com/The-Firo.html
This is a Gyroscope made from a bike wheel with Kevlar secured around the outter rim. Designed with custom machined juggling handles that thread onto to each side of the wheel. This gives you the ability to do rolls, contact, stalls, spins and tosses. It behaves in a beautiful, but uncommon way. "PRECESSION" — The axis of rotation has a tendency to turn at a right angle to the direction of an applied force. It is easy to move the gyro as long as you keep the axis pointing in the same direction. The gyro resists only those forces that tend to change the direction of its axis.
Let us know what you think.
Cheers

Jeff

*The Friendly Fire Store*



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