• You're not eating my legs!

    Nick Thatcher • 03/11/2026 at 21:48 • 0 comments

    The omni-wheel covers for the TALON are done! Hopefully my legs should now be safe from being ingested by the spinning wheels.

    This is a job that has been in the back of my mind since 2018, perhaps I can now use that bit of my brain to do something else.

    Making a bit of an aesthetic choice I designed the covers to show off some of the wheel, however if that turns out to be a disaster I have also designed a set that fully enclose everything.

    The black PETG-CF filament is also getting used to make a set of new side covers for the TALON. 

    Over the years I have printed countless versions of these, getting them to print warp free back in 2018 on my worn out 3D printer was almost impossible, in hindsight should have switched from ABS to PETG sooner.

  • Playing Tetris with Electronics & First parts from new 3D Printer

    Nick Thatcher • 03/08/2026 at 14:34 • 0 comments

    Playing Tetris with Electronics

    I'm almost ready to start putting the TALON's electronics back together. Over the years quite a few of the original components have been stolen to make other things, to get things working I might now have to salvage some parts from another one of my self-balancers, one likely sacrifice is sitting in the background of the picture.

    Getting everything to fit inside always was a bit of a squeeze, haven't played Tetris in a while so I am expecting a bit of a challenge.

    3D Printer on a boat

    It's been a while since I last owned a 3D printer, a few year ago I decided to move onto a boat, with the boat not being the most spacious of homes my bulky Zortrax M200 had to find a new owner. At the time I worked as a researcher in the 3D printing lab of a local university so not having my own 3D printer didn't seem like such a big deal.

    Fast forward to 2026, having been recently made redundant from the university sector, seemingly a common occurrence nowadays, it became time to once again own my own printer. 

    My choice of printer? A Bambu Lab A1 Mini.

    Living on a boat you sometimes have to get a bit creative as to where you stuff all your stuff, it gets even more interesting when that stuff is a 3D printer. Still, at least we have finally found a use for the bunk nobody wants to sleep in, haven’t tested it a sea yet though.

    I know there are a lot of people currently extolling the virtues of owning a Bambu Lab 3D printer however this little £140 printer really is the best one I have ever owned.

    One thing I never got around to back in 2018 was a cover for the omni-wheels on the TALON, it’s useful to have access to the wheels whilst testing but not the sort of thing you want rubbing against your legs.

    When designing the TALON I tried to avoid 3D printing end use components as much as possible, instead using the CNC to make most parts, however considering how good the little Bambu printer is, I think for these we will make an exception.

    Below is a fusion 360 snapshot of the TALON with its new omni-wheel covers, it has been a while since I last worked on this model and there were a lot a small details I had forgotten. It took me a couple of attempts to come up with something that fitted the aesthetic of the original design.

    As the omni-wheel covers are probably going to end up receiving some pretty big knocks, another big consideration is part strength. With this type of printing, getting the layers to run in the correct direction is a major component of final part durability, print orientation can also have a big impact on the finish.

    I have been trying the carbon fibre infused PETG filament made by Bambu Lab (PETG-CF), the matt finish has done a really good job at hiding the layer lines and aesthetically looks very much like the Onyx material that was fed to the Markforged printer I used to operate at the university. 

    The PETG-CF material is rather abrasive and so the printer needs to be fitted with a hardened steel hot-end, swapping this over on the A1 Mini is one of the easiest jobs I have ever done on a 3D printer. The material can also be a bit sensitive to moisture absorption so I will need to get myself a filament drier at some point.

    I am really happy with the results, I think I will be buying more.

    Now that's all done, the next job for the printer will be new foot pegs and handle bars.

  • Online 3D viewer

    Nick Thatcher • 03/08/2026 at 11:15 • 0 comments

    While in the process of reactivating my long forgotten website I rediscovered a 3D model of the TALON uploaded to Sketchfab. 

    Have toyed with adjusting the colour scheme a few times over the years, the Sketchfab 3D model represents an all black version of the design.

    Link - TALON Omnidirectional Ball Bike - Sketchfab

  • Time to get the ball rolling again...

    Nick Thatcher • 03/05/2026 at 18:16 • 0 comments

    2026 Update - The "TALON" pictured here in 2018 was my major project for a BSc in product design.

    It's not just a mockup, the omnidirectional ball bike was designed to be fully functional.

    Unfortunately I spent my very last penny getting to the show and with life getting in the way, never again found myself in a position where I had both the time and money to finish the thing.

    So after a long hiatus I am hoping in the coming weeks that will change!

  • Hardware Prototype - Ball Test 1

    Nick Thatcher • 04/21/2019 at 23:32 • 0 comments

    Testing the drive mechanism for the first time, the ball bounces around quite a lot in this video, a few reasons for this;

    - The ball is not a perfect sphere, it has a number of indents that result in temporary loss of contact with the drive wheels.

    - Transfer bearings intended to guide the ball have not yet been fitted - see holes in end of legs.

    - Everything is upside down, gravity does a better job of holding everything together when the heavy bit is on top.

    - Got a bit carried away...

  • Genesis

    Nick Thatcher • 04/21/2019 at 20:59 • 0 comments

    The original idea for an omnidirectional bike was planted a number of years ago in a late night conversation with my brother, I had just started dabbling with self balancing devices & my brother was eager to contribute. 

    At the time the idea of making a bike that balanced on a ball seemed a bit to much of a challenge, for starters where would I find such a large ball?

    In the habit of keeping a sketchbook for our weird ideas (squirty cake anybody?) I did a couple of quick sketches. 

    BTW - Still haven't found a way to make squirty cake, any ideas?

    Skipping ahead a few years and with a good number of crazy contraptions under my belt I finally decided to go to university. (I was 25 at this point, my school grades hadn't been that great and I didn't think I would ever go, ultimately it was a self balancing unicycle that helped me get in).

    At uni the projects in the first two years were set, however in the third year you get to choose your own projects, I instantly knew what I was going to work on. 

    As mentioned in the project introduction I have been slowly chipping away at this project for a while now, the initial design work for the bike plus a whole load of research was done by myself during the degree, since graduating I have been attempting to pull it further into reality.

    As it stands I have almost completed a hardware prototype, the intention is to use this as a development platform for the electronics & software, then use everything we learn to come up with an improved design. (Already have a few things on the list) 

    In the next couple of project logs I will go over the design/prototyping work that led me to this stage and explain how I made the prototype.