Canadian
ChaseWheel Wheelchair Power Assist
Rochester, NY
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115
Published: 2024-05-14
My friend Matt and I built this power assist attachment for my manual wheelchair using Grin parts: Baserunner, Cycle Analyst with switch, and an 8" scooter motor. The rest of the parts were taken from a used electric scooter. The Cycle Analyst was crucial in helping us pinpoint the sweet spots for the throttle ramping, and the switch allows me to set a soft-limited speed limit for when I'm rolling around busy areas.
My DIY "ChaseWheel" has been a huge improvement over the SmartDrive, which is what is currently on the market for motorized wheelchair attachments. I haven't used my SmartDrive since September! The controls are more intuitive, it's more maneuverable, and the battery lasts me 5 days.
This project and its multiple prototypes served as my senior capstone project for my degree in Industrial Design, which I graduated from this week! Going forward, I plan to continue developing the battery mount and attachment mechanism for the device, incorporate LiGo batteries once Grin rereleases them, and eventually my goal is to release the plans for it open-source so people can build themselves affordable power assists.
This project was my senior capstone project for my degree in industrial design at Rochester Institute of Technology, in collaboration with Matt Meleski from E-Bikes East.
