frankm 1960,

Good to have you here on the "Skunkworks" crew!

Here is a suggestion: Replace all the 60 cent steel rings with $3. stainless steel rings! I am a "cheapskate", errrr, I mean "thrifty"... but even I pay the big bucks for stainless rings. The corrosion is the problem.

As far as visualizing how it would work...hey, that's your job...get out some paper and pencils... go at it, and you might surprise your self. Here are two hints:

(1) the magnet can be used exclusively as the "chicken" aligning and orientation device, in a way that it will guide the "chicken" into the "coop" ( ie think "funnel", "cup", "cage", etc).

(2) the magnet can be used to "trigger" the lock, once the "chicken" is "in the coop" (ie think "trailer hitch/ball", "deadbolt" lock, "windsurf mast base slider lock" etc)

The "worries" about the magnet would be (1) wallet with credit card (2) black sand (iron filings, etc) (3) car body...

Here is a picture of some of my hardware, which has been used in salt water... guess which ones are stainless

I would go with a "three ring circus" release… if it's good enough for sky divers, it's probably "the best"…watch the video!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3-ring_release_system

Hear him...hear him...he speaks the truth!

For what it's worth, here is my opinion on the use of the GOOD and EXPENSIVE shackle ($100+), made by Ronstan, Wichard, Tylaska...not the imitations.

I use the one shown in the picture in my newest bar system creation (Thank you Zeeko!!), as the "solo-but-secondary" release. My "primary safety" is release of the bar by my fingers. My justification for this use is: Whenever I would be forced to use the release shackle, I would be executing "Plan C" or "Plan D"... and would be way down the line in the cascade of recovery manuvers. "Plan E" involves the use of a big knife. Anyway, here is a picture of my set-up, which has no stopper or adjuster, or anything else, located on the 12 foot power line, above my bar. I don't even have a pull tab or ball on the release shackle, since I fear an "accidental" release of the shackle, above all...and I am practiced at finding the little "pull slide", to make it release...also, just through the process of "hooking-in", I must use it, and thereby, am "checking and testing" its grit-cleanliness, and its' ability to function. That is good enough for me.

Put on your thinking caps for this one:

The Magnetic "CHICKEN BALL"....based on the Trailer Hitch/ Ball concept.

Here at the 'lab', we start each new idea with a "Mock-up"...grab some 'materials-at-hand' and slap together a "model" to look at, think about, and yes, Starsky, to "mock"...that's why we call it a "mock-up"... because it is UGLY (but not in a bad way)...and hope for

Sooooo, in your "mind's eye' imagine the whiffle ball and duct tape, shown in the pictures, as a nice smooth, properly engineered, stainless steel "hood", which could not catch a stray line or rope, with a 'ball-trapping', "trailer reciever hitch" type of design, where the black part of the whiffleball would be cut out, and would be the space where the "chicken ball" could be inserted.

Now, imagine that the inside of the red "chicken ball" is made of ferrous metal, which would be attracted to a magnet, which would be located in the top of the "hood", above the 'receiver hitch', so that anytime the steel ball was positioned near the slot in the 'receiver hitch'...that, the "chicken ball" would be sucked up into the 'receiver hitch/hood', and would be held there with maybe a 5 pound force.

The next step, would be to imagine a 'pull' or 'push' slider that would move the magnet, located in the "hood", temporarily off to one side, allowing the steel "chicken ball" to lose contact with the magnet, and to fall out of the "hitch receiver", and this would be done, when the kiter wanted to un-hook. Lots of ways to do this, but any lever or other kind of protruding object would have to be covered, so as not to catch a stray line. The idea is to make the device, very unlikely to tangle with anthing else, and avoid the problems that are presented with the classical chicken loop. A spring would be incorporated to automatically reposition the magnet, into the original position, where it would await the return of the "chicken ball", as the kiter, pulls the bar back against the spreader bar, and the "chicken ball" gets sucked back into the 'receiver hitch hood'.

Here is something to be determined: We know that an unhooked kiter needs both hands on the bar, in order to "re-hook" the chicken loop... but couldn't the kiter take one hand off the bar, in order to trigger the "chicken ball" magnetic release? Would the "un-hooker" kiter need both hands on the bar, in order to un-hook?

Just an idea to play around with and find out if it is "chicken soup" or "chicken poop"

Magnet - steel - rust - keep away from water

Stainless steel - non magnetic - kitesurfing

Stainless steel - non magnetic - kitesurfing [/quote]

I imagined it covered with a water-tight coating of plastic...we'll see how the Neo magnet that OR is using for their GoPro holds up. The "chicken ball" would be easily replaceable and would have to have a stainless "I" bolt sticking out the front, to attach to the ring, that the mushroom release connects to.

You are right about the rust problem, as I showed in the pictures of the rings. The other thing to worry about is the potential problem of the plastic coating getting a crack and the fact that steel can expand to about 6 times its volume, as it corrodes...probably, the answer would be easily replaceable "chicken balls".

Here's something to research: What other metals are magnetic? Or even, is there a non-metalic material that is corrosion resistant, and is magnetic? I think that a lot of materials are magnetic, even though we commonly see iron/steel being used in practical applications.

Also, I have read that the rare earth magnets, Neodymium, being the most common, are somewhat fragile, and corrosion sensitive, so the magnet would have to be protected with plastic.

The way I look at it, chickenloops are for hooking and unhooking. If you dont need to hook and unhook, you can probably do without a chickenloop and you are then probably looking at some type of quick-release.

As I said, for chickenloops I'd favour a quick-release spreader bar hook with a recessed button on the top to release whatever you hooked into. The loop design then can be simplified and just be attached to something which the kite leash passed through and which could be rotated to unspin the lines. As is already done now, you could leash directly to the flagging line or clip onto it and the chickenloop. Really this is just moving the Q/R from some of the current systems to the spreader bar.

I think we already have good chickenloop systems and I would take the 2012 Cabrinha as an example although it is a complex design and expensive. There are several other good designs and they just need a bit more time to be refined to iron out any wear or maintenance problems.

I had one that looked like this picture, made by Slingshot.
It worked Really good, Really Liked it !!

Really liked it till the bolt that held it together had rusted in half ...
and my 15m Ozone instanct flew into a light-pole.
YEA, the leash was attached to the same bolt !!

& most All my kiting is done in fresh-water ! The two times i went
in salt water with it, (it got rinsed off with fresh-water after).
I was BUMMED ;
Never purchased another product made by SlingShot "EVER" again !

So ask the Corporate-manager at the time -- if the few pennies they saved by having
it made with "CHEAP" materials from probably china, was worth the
thousands they lost from not only Me, but all the other people i talked OUT
of purchasing a slingshot product (?) !!!
And i usually always held the broken part in my hand when i told the story.

Bille

I own a Surefire bar Bille, but dont use it. My safety systems have always been good enough to not need to use it.

The leash part of the Surefire is no longer needed, which makes it easier to design a nice clean functional hook Q/R. They did have a weakness and that type of breakage is well known.

If I was going to use it, I would have to modify it to remove the rotating leash part and get the hook rewelded.
I dont think it would be difficult to design a new Q/R hook on a bar, but kite designs would also have to change for it to be worth buying.
I think it would be a step in the right direction for kiting though to have the final Q/R on the hook.