Self Leveling Gimbal Cup Holder

Intro: Self Leveling Gimbal Cup Holder

Hello I am a 14-year-old boy who has experienced many spills while driving up a hill in a car. It has happened so many times, we are going up the hill and one of our cups of soda spills over on our nice carpet barely missing our expensive electronics. And then that smell of coffee soda, or whatever you might be drinking will last forever. But even worse than that Is the times when we would hit a speed bump and our drinks would splash everywhere. But I have the perfect solution a self leveling, shock absorbing cup holder that can level to even the most difficult of hills, and can absorb even the bumpiest of speed bumps. This can fit into almost all cup holders that are standard. And you can fit any cup in this as you could in a regular cup holder. It can tilt a maximum of 35 degrees which is enough to handle the steepest street in the world, Baldwin street in Dunedin New Zealand. It can also handle even the bumpiest of bumps.


Here is a link to the finished design.

http://www.123dapp.com/smb-123D_Design/gyroscopic-cup-holder/1660021

Also if you like my instructable could you please vote for me.

STEP 1: The Part That Will Fit in the Cup Holder

This is the part that will actually go in the cup holder. The dimensions should be anywhere from 2.5 inches wide to 3 inches. And anywhere from 2.5 to 3 inches tall.

STEP 2: Making the Place for It to Swivel

This piece should be anywhere from 5 to 6 inches wide to allow the cup to properly move around. Mine was 7 inches tall because I think that is the biggest we will need.

STEP 3: The Joints.

These are the parts that will allow the cup to tilt. The outer rim is .5 inches in diameter, and .5 inches long the inside shaft should be smaller in diameter but the same length. It is also required that you change the thickness of both parts so that the fit inside each other like in the picture. You should also place them as close as you can to the picture

STEP 4: The First Circle

This should be the same diameter as the original cylinder and be .5 inches tall to match the joint.

STEP 5: Placing the Joints

These need to be very precise because they are going to be moving. I recommend that you make one joint and then copy and paste that one to everywhere else

STEP 6:

STEP 7: The Next Inner Circles

Make these so that they will connect to the inner joint, but not the outer part. Also I made mine .5 inches tall. To match the other ones

STEP 8:

STEP 9: Placing It

This is the part where we attach the gyroscope the the holder. You might have to resize it a little to make it fit better.

STEP 10: Finishing Touches.

I decided to paint mine black because I thought that it would match the car cup holders. I hope you enjoyed my instructables and found it as useful as I do. If you do I would appreciate you to vote for me. Thanks for reading.

Comments

[zazu_247]

I think that this is a great design, do you mind If I use parts of it to make a coffee quad, a drone that gets coffee from Starbucks?

[jfc115]

No I would love to see it being applied to other uses such as a coffee quad. Just make sure to send me a pic of it once your done, I would love to see it.

[jfc115]

I have actually thought about what you have said. My main thought about it is The inertia created by the water and the cup would be enough to tilt the cup forward on the fulcrum. Since the fulcrum is at the top of the cup I think it might allow the cup to tilt forwards, there for absorbing some of the shock. But of course there is absolutely no way to know if I am right without tests.

The only thing that I can think of That would solve this problem is to put the gimbal system on tracks. It would be tracked on both top and the bottom of the swivel so that it would allow it to move forwards and backwoods, with the resistance of a spring or rubber band. The point of this system would be to try to absorb some of the shock made by inertia. But of course, there is absolutely no way to know if this would actually work without tests.

Thank you so much for the advice and pointing out my mistakes. You were in no way being a jerk, and I feel very proud that you had thought so fondly of my design.

[TheDuderino]

The only main problem with this design, is that if you have to make a sudden stop or any stop the momentum of the cup will lean forward which will end up in another spill depending on how full the glass is. This same problem also occurs with acceleration (except for the cup tilting backwards). This is a really nice design and I really admire the modeling and building it through so nicely in 123d. I'm sorry that I don't have a solution in mind at the moment. If any of this sounds like I'm being a jerk I'm sorry, I was just pointing that out in case you ever decide to print it and use it. Again, the concept and application is really great and I really admire the 123d work.

[jfc115]

Thank you for the advice. Next time I will be sure to do that

[wilgubeast]

Alt+PrtScn will yield glorious screenshots.

[Kiteman]

Nice design.

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