If simplicity is the heart of elegance, then this one- Some people are just better prepared for an ’80s wheeled motorized scooter far out-glams its two- revival. Patrick Webb has created a custom juke-wheeled cousins. Trevor Blackwell’s self-built box that screams garish authenticity and blasts Eunicycle weighs in at less than 30 pounds, but can out more than 700 of his favorites — including traverse a variety of surfaces — roads, sidewalks, Poison, Mötley Crüe, and Bon Jovi. and even grassy fields. The 38-year-old database manager started
The Eunicycle self-balances by way of a feedback with the idea of having a digital repository for his
loop between a gyroscope and a motor perched CDs. He fastened together sheets of fiberboard
just above its one wheel. When you tilt forward or and hauled a Pentium 133-Mhz computer and
backward, the wheel does, too, as it attempts to 15-inch monitor from the basement. Getting the
remain under the center of gravity. PC to mimic a jukebox was easy, thanks to the
Build it for about $1,500 in parts, including a well-known MAME software, or Multiple Arcade
microcontroller board, gyroscope, accelerometer, Machine Emulator.
and other components. Perhaps the most important The cabinet runs a free app called Arcade
of these is a kill switch, allowing you to shut off the Jukebox 8, along with a dozen or so classic ’80s
motor at the flick of a button. The maximum recom- games. He saw a photo of an old jukebox with what
mended speed of 12 miles an hour may not sound looked like tail lights, and bought a taxi light from a
like the NASCAR definition of hauling ass, but when commercial fleet supplier, adding a coin-op device.
you’re flailing through space on a single, motor- “There’s something funny about our teenager’s
driven wheel — gravity isn’t necessarily your friend. friends coming over to stick quarters into it, but it
—Xeni Jardin makes that great ‘clink!’ sound.”
>>A complete list of parts, the source code, and mechanical fabrication drawings are offered for free download at lb.org/eunicycle.html. >> Taxicab MAME: webbpage.net/jukebox
—Bob Parks
References:
Archives