OT - Wakeboarding System

RickMcNeely
RickMcNeely Junior Member
in AMX General Discussion
Over the last couple of months, I've been working on a system I thought might be interesting to my fellow AMX programmers. My uncle Charlie built a wakeboarding system in his back yard, and I wrote the software to control it. All parameters (like # laps, speed, distances, etc) can be set on the fly. A quadrature encoder tracks position to avoid slamming the wakeboarder into the bank, etc. The entire system, including the pond, cost quite a bit less than a decent new ski boat.

Charlie Wakeboarding:
http://youtu.be/hEoASC7qC28

Overview:
http://youtu.be/mmRLNRK6cMU

View of Motor and USB components:
http://youtu.be/_2sSfGgBgIs
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Comments

  • annuello
    annuello Junior Member
    Awesome! I learnt to water ski in our dam behind an old Holden HG Kingwood station wagon. We had about 30m of water to practice in, so we had to learn quick. We only broke one engine mount in the process.

    Roger.
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  • RickMcNeely
    RickMcNeely Junior Member
    Sweet! Now, that's a video I'd love to see!
    annuello wrote: »
    Awesome! I learnt to water ski in our dam behind an old Holden HG Kingwood station wagon. We had about 30m of water to practice in, so we had to learn quick. We only broke one engine mount in the process.

    Roger.
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  • shr00m-dew
    shr00m-dew Junior Member
    OK... I want one... Awesome job.

    Kevin D.
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  • mush
    mush I programme in the dark!
    Very cool!
    Can it pull a skier/barefooter?
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  • RickMcNeely
    RickMcNeely Junior Member
    I doubt if it could pull a barefoot skier. That _would_ be awesome, tho! It would just take a bigger motor, and I'm sure you'd want a much greater distance. The video shows him running at 18mph. It can do up to 26mph. He will be putting in some ramps, etc. The videos should be more interesting then!
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  • jimmyw
    jimmyw Junior Member
    RickMcNeely wrote: »
    Over the last couple of months, I've been working on a system I thought might be interesting to my fellow AMX programmers. My uncle Charlie built a wakeboarding system in his back yard, and I wrote the software to control it. All parameters (like # laps, speed, distances, etc) can be set on the fly. A quadrature encoder tracks position to avoid slamming the wakeboarder into the bank, etc. The entire system, including the pond, cost quite a bit less than a decent new ski boat.

    Do us a favor, take LOTS of pics, make a little writeup, and then lets get you on hackaday :)
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  • RickMcNeely
    RickMcNeely Junior Member
    I love that site. I might just do that. I'll be down there Sunday. I'll definitely be getting more pics/video.
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  • jtalley
    jtalley AMX Engineering
    That's so cool to see a home-brew system in a 'back yard'.

    Here's where a couple of us go when our lake is empty...

    http://hydrouswakeparks.info/

    It is a lot of fun, but its much different than behind a boat. Its really fund to watch the people that know how to ride.

    Now if I can only find a way to dig a pond that big in my back yard!
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