[Corvettaholic]

For the mech I want to build, I just want to walk to work in it. As a conversation piece, you know? That and I have a fascination with ballistics, and caseless ammo. Good for shooting off some rounds in the arizona desert. A tank would work a LOT better, but the mech has the 'coolness' factor.

So no pressure responsive suit for movement, that leaves control sticks and foot pedals. You'll need a seperate controller that can synchronize all the movement so you don't have to manually move each leg and arm. If you swing the arms, that can help shift weight around so while you have a leg up you don't tip over. What about a fluid ballast that can be pumped around to move weight? Think mercury would work? But the EPA would love to a giant walking mech that pumps 100 gallons of mercury around to just to be stable. I'm not too familiar on how gyro's work, but I think you can get some small ones from model rocketry suppliers, but I don't know how to interpret the output.

Currently the US Army is working on an exoskeleton, but they're using nanotechnology and its soldier size. A monster sized one would be a lot neater though.

As far as power, I was thinking of a fuel cell that ran either off methane or hydrogen. A water splitter would be neat, but I don't think those work. The trick is getting a hold of a fuel cell with enough to juice to power all those heavy duty motors, then watch your fuel! You'll probably need an emergency 'let me out of here' door.

[Limpet Chicken]

Yeah I thought about the need for an emergency exit, I was thinking, entry and exit through the cockpit, at the top of the mech, I love improvising my own weaponry/sciency stuff, as you could probably tell from my expriments in mustard agent chemistry:)

But I agree, it would just be sweet to be able to walk around the city in a fully armed and armored urban mechanized shock trooper squad

I thought of using Hg myself too, unfortunatly, I lack any good source of quicksilver, I have a little that I cannibalised from thermometers, although at £4 a time, I can't afford to buy more than a few ml, sufficient for catalytic use, but not much else

[Corvettaholic]

Maybe jdurg would know how to get a large quantity? But here in the US, the feds will be all over that and WATCH you. Kinda creepy. There has to be a better balancing system, and I think it has to do with feet. You when people start falling backwards, you can throw your arms forward and lean on your heels? Gotta have multiple joints in the feet that can shift weight around. This is where hydraulics would be good, because you don't need the faster response of arms and legs. You'll need a hydraulic pump running at all times though, and thats a good drain on available energy. For a cockpit seat, I was just thinking of grabbing a seat from a 1980's camaro, and have a basic sheet metal control panel with holes cut out for the levers.

Figure you need one lever that controls throttle, where it links to the motion controller to move forward at a certain speed. Lever 2 should control turning, by slowing down and shortening the step of either leg. Lever 3 should rotate the torso only and keep legs straight. Lever 4 should allow the head to move so you can look around, or just install a lot of remote cameras. Then you have another panel where you can blow things up at the push of a button. Think foot pedals would be good for anything? jumpjets...

Oh a thought just occured to me for a powerplant. Use an old decomissioned Allison 250 turbine engine. Not enough flight hours left to be used on a plane, but plenty good and cheap for us!