A yo-yo, or a Maxwell wheel, hanging from a fixed point, is placed above a CBR, facing upward.

The motion of the target is therefore measured in a reference frame with vertical x-axis directed upward.

The "restoring" force along x is therefore constant and negative while the torque (due to gravity and to wire tension) changes sign when the body reaches the wire-end.

If the wires are attached to a force sensor, this may detect the sharp peaks in the wire tension corresponding to acceleration peaks at the equilibrium position.
 
 

The plots x(t), v(t), a(t), f(t) vs. time are quite similar to those for a bouncing ball (with reversed x-axis).

The main difference is in that here rotation drastically reduces the linear acceleration: the angular velocity may be calculated from the relation between v and w . In the energy balance the term corresponding to rotational kinetic energy must be taken into account.
 
 

See: B. Pecori and G. Torzo: "The Maxwell wheel investigated with MBL" The Physics Teacher, 36, 362-366 (1998)