The bad news, it doesn’t eliminate wobbles.
The good news, it makes shitty roads almost bearable.
Either way, here is my experience with first (and the only) of a kind mass damper on an esk8 (I think it's the only one).
Prototyping
After this one showed promise, I made one that's remotely resembles a product, maybe something you might consider putting on a board, this is the one:
It uses a 100mm linear rail guide with top mounted mass (piece of steel). With rubber bands providing the stiffness.
After several successful rides, it was updated:
This one had nicer aluminum block and better secured rubber bands, in a sleek 3d printed case.
Most importantly it gave me more room for the front leg (a rare commodity on this Spud deck).
You can get the idea of operation from this Instagram post. And a short ride video.
In both times, the pyramid mount is a lifesaver. Damn easy to mount and to use.
So, what does it do?
Each time you struck something on the road, the board is excited and begins to sway/wobble.
Of course I'm interested in the lateral movement.
The damper gives something smaller and with "more attractive" natural frequency (closer to the excitation) – so it's wobbling instead.
Lessons learned
Subjective, personal feeling - it does reduce the "time to settle". Meaning the vibrations will die quicker with the damper attached.
Compare the left (without) with the right figure (with):
The above are just qualitative figures, unfortunately I didn't have a logger to do the actual measurements.
Where to next?
At some point I hit one too many bumps and the thing broke.
I suspect the print was not the best. But more importantly, the design wasn't strong enough in the forward bending direction, which is totally my fault 🙂
There's a potential here. The attraction might be in fine tuning a carvy board which is also properly stable.
It was a fun project and somewhat innovative for the community. I hope you liked these series.
I would like to hear from you: what are your thoughts about this and would you like to take it further?
Enjoy,
Dani
Have wonderful holidays and a happy new year!
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