Patent Application
20210354026
Snowboards and monoskis use a variety of boots and bindings to accomplish traveling down the snow covered slope for recreation or travel, each trying to tweak turning ability and body orientation on the wide board. They are mounted on the longitudinal axis in line with the with the user's feet lashed in and the user's body orientation is facing sideways to the line of travel or nearly sideways, with the head turned toward one's shoulder or the other to be able to view the direction of travel.
In addition, the in line orientation of the legs and feet on the wide board make for an unstable user's balancing ability. An illustration of this unstable orientation would never work for other sports such as football, golf, tennis, or martial arts as they all require stable balancing, recovery, and strength during their use, much the same as conventional snow skiing. These sports require wider stances, and the need to face directly at the action at hand or line of travel. The in line, traveling down the hill sideways stance feels cumbersome and unnatural.
In addition, the current art makes it more difficult for beginners to learn the sport due to a steep learning curve of this unstable balancing and low view issue of having to travel down the hill in a sideways orientation, limiting the forward view to 180 degrees only to either side of the user instead of 180 degrees directly toward the line of travel if they were in a forward looking orientation. This difficulty also limits the continued interest of beginners in trying to learn the sport.
The weight of the average wide board, including the board, bindings, and boots can exceed 15 pounds partly due to the heavy materials used. As in most sports, the heavier the product, the less responsive and performing the product can be. Light weight is a good trait in athletics. And some users weigh less than 100 pounds so they have a hard time manipulating the board during use and even carrying the board.
All users enjoy the lighter weight to travel down the bill and it's safer in the case of body collision during a fall with the lower mass. It's a pleasant experience to transport the board after using it when it weighs a fraction of conventional boards. At the end of the day the user is often cold and tired and will enjoy the ease of transport.
The operation of the first embodiment is as further described:
Then as the user is gliding down the terrain directly facing his line of travel, the speed and direction is changed either stepping on the right or left foot as desired, to make a left turn or right turn, respectively. His feet are situated on the lever the width of his shoulders and provide lateral stability to the user. Backward and forward stability is attained by simply adjusting the feet forward or backward.
Stepping on the right foot will create a left turn, and now the right foot is the downhill foot. The left edge of the board digs into the surface and carves the left turn. As the user steps down with the right foot on the lever, the control shaft rotates clockwise, turning the sprocket, and the connected potentiometer, communicating with the motor controller and the battery power assisted motor turns the drive shaft counter clockwise from the back of the board view.
Another advantageous feature of this embodiment is to provide lateral balancing stability for the user. Many sports rely on strength and stability to perform at the highest standards, such as martial arts, and this embodiment takes advantage of that characteristic providing the lateral stability.
Another advantage of this embodiment is the ease in making turns. As the user presses down with one foot or another, that foot becomes the downhill foot, the edges automatically digging into the snow are the uphill edges, and the turn is readily accomplished. The user simply needs to provide a balance over the center of gravity of the board. And then to turn the opposite direction, the user eases up like a piston, pushes down on the opposite foot and reverses the turn. That foot becomes the downhill foot and the opposite edges are the uphill edges digging into the snow.
Another advantage of this embodiment is to mount the aforementioned electromechanical device on an ultra light weight board composed of state of the art materials made strong and light in weight such as carbon fiber and foam construction. The present embodiment board weighs 3 pounds, about one fifth the amount of conventional boards making it ideal for performance, transportation, and storage.
The advantages of the present invention as shown and described in the various embodiments make them apparent to overcoming the disadvantages of the prior art as well as other disadvantages known to those skilled in the art.
To this end, by using a power assisted user operated lever associated with the transmission and associated electronic devices the user has a more pleasant recreational experience. In addition the transverse lever provides a more stable balancing effect and enables the user to face the direct line of travel instead of the conventional sideways and unorthodox viewing of the line of travel. The user now has a 180 degree view of their direction versus a 90 degree view conventionally.
One feature of the user controlled power assisted lever is automating the turns and lessening the learning curve of making turns. As the user presses down with one foot or another on the lever to make a turn, it rotates the control shaft, which actuates the potentiometer, motor controller, and then the motor proportionally rotates the drive shaft, which rotates the board longitudinally to effect the edging.
As with the opposite turning direction, the user steps down on the lever with the left foot rotating the control shaft counter clockwise, And by way of the sprocket and potentiometer, the motor controller directs the drive shaft rotation clockwise, and the left foot now is the downhill foot and the board rotates in a clockwise motion with the uphill edges digging into the terrain and making the right hand turn.
The sprocket is connected to the gears on the potentiometer by way of a chain, and electronically the potentiometer sends the appropriate signal to the motor controller for direction and speed changes.
This embodiment shows optional coiled springs to create a tension on lever motion to alleviate freewheeling of the lever.
The motor is mounted to the control shaft and is free to rotate around as the shaft being the center of rotation. This design helps alleviate motor shaft counter rotation of the board if the motor was attached directly to the board. The counter rotation could reduce the shaft rotation effect on the board during turns.
Hereinafter, the present invention will be described, in detail on the basis of a preferred embodiment while referring to the accompanying drawings appropriately.
