Please see Forum/Community/General Discussion "Handicapper Assistive Devices in Search of a New Home" for background to this posting.
There, Grumpy-Mike suggested that posting details of the devices to the showcase would Handicapper Assistive Devices in Search of a New Home. As a first step, here's further information about the powered wheelchair. Please note: until my retirement I was a geneticist and university prof both in the U.S. and in Italy. I have no formal training in programming nor in electrical or mechanical engineering. I am sure that what I've done can be improved on or at least cleaned up.
Electronics and Programming
Manual 1.0.8.pdf (8.8 MB)
(also available on Google Drive at https://drive.google.com/file/d/1puHkNJuvgqNl64lk9IQNpDuV69QYOSFV/view?usp=drive_link
ASSEMBLING AND TESTING CIRCUIT BOARDS 2023.pdf (9.2 MB)
(also on Google Drive at https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MLtllqca_M-voE4I2D8pgaGHYWI8s9NU/view?usp=sharing
Mechanical Design
I do not have a manual for this, but I do have some pictures and (rough) design drawings:
Structure is aluminum alloy, but what I think is truly innovative is the design of the lift/tilt mechanism. It has a single pantograph linkage with sliding central joint; this makes it quite light (about 12 kg., compared to commercial systems weight 80 or even 100 kg). This does mean that, unless corrected in software, tilt is not constant as lift changes. Hence, the inclusion of the Aux2 node in the software that uses a rate gyro to keep tilt constant as lift changes.
Arduino Scripts:
and here is a link for the current versions of the Arduino scripts:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aU-P6iMvpapZ-qA22XTLUsdjtXpZ8dda/view?usp=drive_link
4 Likes
Thanks for posting this. Good to see.
That's very well done. I know how much work went into it. I really hope it catches on and gets used by many people. It's so much better than anything you can buy. Literally life changing.
I have built chairs mechanically different for my needs that are using the same motor controller family as Lenny did on this one for his daughter along with the ingenious code he wrote.
Without the software Lenny has written, they are nearly hopeless for real use by those who need it. There's nothing available for purchase even remotely close to being as capable, especially when combined with large capacity LiFePo4 battery packs. Again, literally life changing.
I sincerely hope what Lenny has built here will catch on and end up making it to more of those people like me who have had drastic quality of life improvements from his hard work with zero compensation asked for in return.
Thanks Will for the vote of confidence.
Beyond the immediate wish to find new homes for her equipment after our daughter's death, I have posted these details here in the hopes that someone will pick up the challenge of wheelchair programming. Although there are many participants at the WheelchairDriver.com forum with various skills: deep understanding of the dynamics of wheelchair behavior, mechanical, electrical and electronic design and construction etc., at the moment I am the only one there who is keeping up with software (even though I am a self-taught amateur who's working career was as a geneticist and U. professor). I am unlikely to be able to continue this long term - my 80th birthday is only 5 days away.
If you are at all curious about this, by all means spend some time at https://www.wheelchairdriver.com/board/ and its parent page to see what has been done and what still needs doing.
Lenny
