I have had a couple of projects on the go so its time to share some..

I started out on my "Original" longboard with my home made paddle, didn't take long till i got a little bored with the speed.


I am an Auto sparky/electronics technician by trade so thought i would try and build my own electric skateboard, it is basically a remote control car attached to a skateboard but has an outrunner airplane motor.
everything was sourced from a RC website except the bracket which i had to by from the UK. ( eventually was to make my own bracket)


Here are some pictures, This isn't a tech or build forum so i won't bore you with the build details but by all means if you have any questions fire away.



I have recorded speeds on gps of up to 44kph with the motor only tunes to 30% capacity!!!!!!!
It is capable of 25 km trips (i haven't really pushed it any further yet)
I have also towed a mate on his skateboard for 10 plus K's (160kg weight both riders)

Nice work!!!

cheers Ando313

Thats pretty cool, reminds me of old scalextrix controllers :)

That is sweet. Have to be careful you don't bottom out though!?! Was it hard to make up the bracket, belt & drive gear for the motor or did you buy fiik spares or something?

Ben 86 was my inspiration for thinking that I could build a Stick that could be powered and used on any longboard. I copied all the components as per Ben 86 except for the batteries and wheel drives. The concept worked but in the end my power source and speed control were too bulky and it was too hard to put the power to the ground.




I ditched the power stick idea and decided to make a longboard and use the components for it. Board was made with 4 sheets of 3mm ply and 2 layers of carbon pressed up in my LDP jig to produce 6mm of concave across the deck and abound 7mm of camber lenghtwise.
Wheels are 97mm Abec fly wheels, for the trucks I used Caliber 44's (acid melon for something different). Sprockets are 40 tooth wheel and 16 tooth motor to suit 5mm x 15mm HTD timing belts.
Motor bracket was made out of alloy using a hacksaw and a file for the first one and a milling machine the second. The battery box is 2 layers of glass with a layer of carbon over the top (just for looks really).







One motor set up worked well but I could not help myself and fitted a second motor. When I was ordering the electric gear I noticed some RC high power LED lights that could be triggered off the spare channel of the remote control so for 20 bucks it was a done deal.















Initial short runs have been scary. Acceleration and torque are impressive (I am 110 kegs). I have not been game enough to find top speed yet but chickened out at 34 km/hr and the board was doing it easy. It can pull 3 other people on longboards no worries. Have done a run over 10 klms distance, started with 25.14 volts and ended the night with 22.68 volts (batteries can go down to 18 volts before cut-off). I would be confident to do 20 klms but have not tried it yet.
Awesome fun and a great project, thanks to Ben 86 for the inspiration.

Looks SHMICK Gdog, the full carbon job looks awesome... 30k round trip is easily within reach with your current setup, i have been meaning to chuck a battery monitor on mine to gauge how long i have left! the two motors will be great for redundancy but as for power i think ill leave mine as is haha.. glad to see that you were inspired by my build hopefully see more DIY e boards on the road

You two blokes are awesome..... I so.wish I had the ability to make one,it would have been done yesterday if could. Thanks so much for making me jealous

Need a vid!

The 2 motors work better than expected. They both run with heaps less loading and close to the same power consumption (0.14V less than a similar run). Just tidied the lights up with a custom mount.









Also made a boo boo with the motor speed controller. I installed 120A ESC's that were only rated for 4S batteries and i am using 6S batteries. Found out because i could only get a top speed of 36 klm/hr while a mate with lower gearing and smaller wheels could reach 34 klm/hr. Purchased an optical tacho and checked my motors top revs of around 5100 rpm. My mate could get about 6400 rpm with his set up so we looked closer at the differences and then noticed the specs of my ESC (Dough). You live and learn I guess. Anyway 2 150 A ESC's are on the way. I will keep you posted and maybe add some video next time.

Seriously looking into building something like this, looks amazing! I've found a supplier online (hobby king) but know very very little about what parts are needed, do either of you have a parts list to get the electronics side of things going? i.e. motor model, battery model, speed controller etc.

Any guidance is much appreciated!

James

The thing here is... Large Scale Radio Control Electric Cars...

Electronically, they were mentioning 2 x 150 Amp ESC's (Electronic Speed Controllers)...
You need about 6+ Cells of LiPo Power.... Lithium Polimer.... Each "Cell" is 4.2 Volts. Commonly purchased in either 2 Cells or 3 Cells ... As in 2 Cell Packs, or 3 Cells Packs... You need a Transmitter (hand held controller), and a Receiver. The receiver plus into the ESC, and the battery packs need to be correctly wired into the ESC. The Motor / Motors are also plugged into / wired into the ESC...

Go to your local Radio Control Car Retailer, and watch them have a laugh at this thread! ... But they will help you with the ordering, and wiring configuration... It's not hard to do...

This car of mine is running 6 cells LiPo, and 1 x 120 Amp ESC, and 2000kV Motor...

I prefer to drive this though!

Thanks Simondo, great help, found a few instructables too to help out, will be going into store next week to have a chat!

Hey sandman, look at the pictures and you will see enough details to get it all. I ordered all my gear through Hobby King and copied the components in Ben's original post. Make sure you get 2 x 5000 mAh 6S LiPo batteries, at least a 150A ESC and your choice of motor (my NTM's are still working). The hard part is mounting the motor to the truck, fixing the pulley to the wheel and getting the right size belt (ebay has pulleys and stuff but i used stuff from NAISMITH). There is heaps of info on the web you just start with a proto type in wood or HDPE and see if it works before going with some aluminium. Like i said the first one i built was with a hacksaw and file, but i would have been screwed without a lathe for the wheel drive. I was lucky that the "Old Man's Shed" group in Cairns had a lathe and for a $30 buck/year mebership it was a life saver (of course you can buy the drive kits but they are expensive). Good luck with your build and let us know how you go. PM me if you have any questions.

Hi Gdog, thanks for the info especially with the battery, was unsure weather 6s or 8 s was needed.

Found some great info over on the endless sphere forums endless-sphere.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=35&sid=fa234baae183d4ce7717472e411fc426

And have started to piece together the suppliers needed etc. I'm an active mens shed member here in WA too so milling, lathe and hacksawing will all be easily achieved :-)

Will post some progress shots when I get it under way!

James

Hi there finally found a guy who has designed a chip-board so you can use a wireless wii controller to drive your electric longboard. Cost me $100 (chip and controller) and got here inside of 7 days. Worked straight away, just plugged it in. Has variable cruise control and full on raw control, you can save money and build the components yourself if you are handy at electronics. Check out the thread on endless sphere forum for all the history. You can also adjust and adapt all the settings if you know Arduino. Arduino program is all open source and out there if you want to play but it works perfectly as it is. Have fun.


http://www.homanndesigns.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=51&products_id=277

Forgot to add, i have now got designs done for an 8mm and 14mm truck risers incorporating the hobbyking mini high power lights.

Man you guys are awesome! Building an electric skateboard is on my bucket list of things to do! May I know how much you spent on this?

Thanks,
Michael

Lost track really as i keep adding to mine. I would say $500 to $600 bucks (that's in Aussi dollars).

These boards look awesome! when do they go on sale?