Astro is a substyle of 5A (or "counterweight style") yo-yoing. An Astro counterweight consists of two pieces: one piece that is tethered to the end of the string and another, usually heavier, piece that freely slides along the yo-yo string. The player can do any existing counterweight tricks by keeping the two weights together near the end of the string, or the player can experiment with new tricks by sliding the weight along the string or taking advantage of having two weights instead of one. Astro was created by Doctor Popular.
The Astro Weights included in this project are the first counterweights Doc designed specifically for Astro play. The intent was to create a counterweight design that could be used normally or for Astro style. I'd suggest keeping the tethered "landing gear" weight at around 3.5grams and the sliding weight around 9grams, but you might experiment with different weights to see what you prefer.
- A slightly heavier design (at about 14grams total)
- A rounded tip on the sliding weight that I think is more comfortable in your hand
- The same landing pad as the Mark I
- A reinforced edge at the bottom of the sliding weight to make it more durable.
- A lighter design (at about 11grams total)
- A pointed tip on the sliding weight
- The same landing pad as the Mark II
- Doc Pop's guide to setting up your Astro weights
- Machitako's Astro Counter Weighed Tutorials
- AKi's astrocwtrick
- D.K.5.A.'s Astro CW Trick
- Mr YoyoThrower's Double Dice
This design is intended to be printed with the following settings:
- 3 or more perimeters
- 100% infill
- No raft
- No support material
Infill can be reduced without negative effects, but it will reduce the weight. Because of the model's size and shape, there is not very much volume within it where infill can be used, so reducing the infill will not necessarily reduce the weight by much.
The CAD drawing is done using FreeCAD, an open source solid modeling tool. If interested in modifying it, make sure to use FreeCAD 0.19. Older versions of FreeCAD do not render the model properly.
Astro Weight by Doctor Popular is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. You are available to copy it, modify it, and print it. You are even allowed to sell the 3D printed pieces. My only request is if you are selling these pieces commercially, you hook me up with a set for my collection.
If you are selling these, please shoot me an email me here to get my current mailing address. Please include a link to your shop so I can send you a shout out on social media!
- Thanks to Hesperaux for turning my original sketches into functional 3D models. Hesperaux also added lots of touches to make sure the models would hold up overtime.
- Props to Steve Brown for creating 5A style.
- Thanks to Seth Peterson for coining the term "Astro"... he was originally calling my tricks "Astro Crap" as a reference to the Astro Jax toy, but the name stuck.
- Props to Dave Poyzer who created another substyle of 5A known as "Double Dice". Double Dice is similar to Astro, but both of the counterweights are identical in weight. A set of Double Dice weights is usually twice as heavy as a normal 5A counterweight, but the same tricks could probably be done with Double Dice or Astro Weights. Although Astro and Double Dice were created around the same time, they were both created independently of each other.
- Props to Whip for designing the Astro logo.
I'm open to feedback and suggestions on these designs. If you see room for improvement, please feel free to send me an updated 3D design and it may get integrated into this project. I'm also interested in tweaks to the landing pad (aka the smaller weight tethered to the end). It would be interesting to find new ways to have landing pad attach to string without needing to try to work the string through a narrow hole.