faklord wrote:OK I'm back on it....
A couple more thoughts (possible improvements?):
a) The whole system can be turned upside down. This has a number of pros & cons:
Pros:
Less force required to depower.
Maximises overall depower. Ie the middle ring moves away from the kiter as depower is applied, giving Max bar throw at max depower – I think this is probably the safer option?
Cons:
More lines through the bar. Though, this isn’t a problem if you using an eyebolt modified bar & use something like Tomatkin’s ingenious prussic ball to provide a floating ‘label’ for the lines. (put it on the line that goes to the top ring -> pull to depower, push to power up.)
b) If one of the rings is replaced with a shackle, the main line can be made with spliced loops at the ends – much neater & easier as in-field replacement.
Excellent idea, and suggestions to test out. My first thought, after drawing the "upside-down" idea, was that: As the kiter powers up the kite, the middle ring will move down towards the bar, and this would limit the 'throw' of the bar...unless the middle ring can pass through the bar hole. This situation could be avoided by making the rope a lot longer, so that the middle ring never, in practical use, gets drawn down to the point, where it would encounter the bar hole.
I think, to avoid the wear on the powerline, that the "I" bolt ring is a good idea, except for the fact that the kiter could not "split-finger" grip the bar. I like to put the "I" bolt on top of the bar as shown in the picture, where I am making a new bar for my "swimming drift launch" set-up (I will start a new thead on this: "Drift launch; the good, bad and ugly").
The picture shows the use of a "T" nut to hold the "I" bolt in place. I sawed the bolt off even with the bottom of the "T" nut, afterwards. This avoids having a big nut protrude on the other side of the bar and still allows one to disassemble the device, if needed.