office

Office Chairiot™ First Run a Success!

Office Chairiot™ - labor in motion The Office Chairiot™ is a project I've been designing and building since last summer. The Office Chairiot™ is a battery-powered office chair towing device built with custom steel work and motorized scooter parts purchased on-line. With the amazing welding skizillz of the father of one of the owner's of the company where I work, my dream of a modular powered office chair came to fruition recently.

The real first run of the Office Chairiot™ was a week ago or so. There were a few hiccups, but with a little on-site tweaking, it ran well considering it was the first time since the design-on-paper stage that it was fired up for realz. Thanks, Mike(s)!

The steel frame was reworked a little from the first run and arrived last night. It was late and time was short. Sadly, due to a wiring... Due to owner stupidity and some crossed wires, the test drive last night was postponed until this morning. Thankfully, the reversed wiring didn't result in a SECOND lost speed controller. There were no hisses or pops, as we were incredibly careful while testing the connections. Once I actually followed my diagrams, I realized we'd simply hooked it up incorrectly.

So, this morning, I reconnected everything properly, labeled the wire harnesses with my snazzy P-touch labeler, and made the first successful run of the Office Chairiot™ around the mostly empty office. It was clear that having power run to both tires simultaneously is a good thing. It is far better than torque on just one wheel, of course.

I donned my University of Michigan throwback football helmet and some costume old-style motorcycle goggles and piloted the Office Chairiot™ around the office. I was careful at first. I made a couple of runs at high speed (for an office chair, anyway) down the longer corridors of the office space. It was AWESOME! It's not skydiving, but it's not bad for a day at the office.

I'll post photos taken from the inaugural run soon. There were a few photographers on-hand, thankfully. Here is the first clean video from one of the runs with "cling-ons" aboard:

http://www.twitvid.com/DHV2X

Build photos and design stuff forthcoming.