Rocket Power

thingiverse

This week, I've been collaborating with the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and Bloodhound SSC on balloon-powered cars at a Tomorrow's Engineer's event, which has sparked my idea to incorporate "rocket," or more precisely, Balloon Power into the ThinkFun kit. The upgrade involves simply adding a pipe to the small connector - getting familiar with the sizes of ThinkFun parts likely means revising this to provide ground clearance when attaching medium wheels directly. The shape of the original part doesn't lend itself to edge printing, so you'll notice a defect in the print; that's just a simple tweak required for the update (coming soon). The Balloon can be inflated by blowing through the pipe and pinching the neck between puffs. If mounting this inside a box chassis, use the pipe extension to direct your "jet" nozzle outside the box. Update #1: New pictures are added, with reduced nozzle dimensions to give ground clearance with medium wheels - STLs will follow; minor tweaking is necessary to resolve a model glitch. I'm still considering improvements for balloon-to-nozzle transition as well. Update #2: New files and picture posted; slight issue on print lifting/deformation but otherwise satisfactory - now thinking about assembling the Balloon Car. Update #3 - Mk2 extension temporarily removed pending update to fix wall thickness, noting original extension isn't compatible with Mk2 Pipe. I'm still experimenting with boxes; wheels need to be free-running for optimal performance. The larger bore of the original pipe is better in this case but doubling up balloons (one inside the other) can increase air pressure for greater thrust too! Update #4 - a simple test: https://vimeo.com/145046225 Print Settings: Rafts: Doesn't Matter Supports: Doesn't Matter Resolution: 0.2 Infill: 15% Notes: Printed with balloon rim facing the bed.