Ground up, over-engineered electric longboard
August 8, 2017
I want something under my ass that has enough potential energy packed into its batteries to fire a pound of bacon into the Asteroid Belt. Since nothing on the market fits the bill; I am building it myself.
With a sufficient disrespect for my own time and money I am learning every EE, ME, CS, Manufacturing technique necessary to complete aforementioned longboard.
The project started in my freshman year of college, Winter 2015.
MarkI was completed in the spring of 2016. It featured a whopping 35mph top speed, a pair of lead-acid scooter batteries giving it a theoretical range of about 4 miles of range, and a jaguaresque construction - requiring field-repairs every 2 miles.
MarkII was started soon after. Initially I focused on learning the electrical engineering skills necessary to create the Motor Drivers, BMS, and Headlights. The Motor Drivers were my introduction to H-bridges and after creating a design that could vaguely spin a BLDC motor I opted out for Vedder's VESC The BMS vas envisioned as an adaptive system that could be daisy chained across as many batteries as necessary, however that became more of a PCB design and manufacturing learning experience after I learned more about how they are made industrially. The headlights were and still are massively successful. With 5 watts of pure photon emission created by a triple bank of German OSRAM diodes, they are blindingly bright in all Red, Green, Blue and White colors. The issue is that I can’t run them on more than 10% brightness without facing serious heat management issues.
In parallel with the electronics, I created a few iterations of the deck. I constructed my own longboard-deck press by molding an initial foam model with cement. The initial few attempts at carbon fiber-foam composites failed, however on the 3rd iteration of the Baltic Birch - Carbon fiber Composite, I was able to produce a beautiful deck that stands at 48in tall and flexes less than an inch with 500lb on it.
I also learned how to use a few CAD packages, and CNC equipment to make the mounting hardware for the motors. Learning from the flimsy construction of the MarkI motor mounts I designed my own longboard trucks to accommodate the installation of a pair of 2250Watt motors. My designs were based on the Caliber II Longboard trucks.
As it stands, just about everything made in the past year needs to be reiterated.
My main focus now, is to involve more people. My friend Anton Zaytsev has been diligently helping me create a 1.5kW charger and another offered to do some of the software. However, I think this project can bring together a serious community interested in progressing high-tech DIY electrical vehicles.