3d Printed Motor Mount for E-Longboard

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Aug 9, 2013
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So I am currently working on a 3d printed motor mount for an electric Longboard. I have the first prototype setup, just need to test it all to see if the plastic can support the load. My plans with it is to upload it to thingiverse so that anyone who wants the motor mount can download it and print it on a 3d printer. Anyways I just need some components, anyone have any recommendations? I already have a charger for the battery, I plan on getting a 7s lipo.

I also already grabbed a motor, being that I cant charge anything bigger than a 7s I decided to go with the Turnigy SK3 5055 280kv motor. Has anyone used this one? and what is the difference between this one and the larger Turnigy Aerodrive SK3 - 6374-192kv that everyone seems to use. I am pretty sure at 1500watts/2hp the smaller one will be able to push me.

I will be using 3d printed pulleys as a drive train, decided to use a 32t and an 18t pulley. I figured its a good place to start I can always print differnt ones. Any one have any recommendations on ratio with this motor?

Lastly any recommendations on speed controllers? I was going to go with the CC Monster Mamba, but it kinda seems too expensive.

Love to hear what you guys think.



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Nice, very interested in how the plastic handles the load. What material did you go with? I plan to build a 3D printer this fall.
 
I went with PLA for now, Its stronger than ABS in the sense that it has a much higher Crush rating. ABS tends to bend and crush. The only downside is that its a bit brittle, but this stuff is still really strong, You have to take a hammer to it to crack it. I've had this mount on for a few days and I cannot for the life of me break it with hand force. Im probably gonna head to my local hobby shop tomorrow to get sorted out with the ESC and other electronics.
 
Would you consider sharing the CAD file right now (Solidworks or what ever you are using) and we the community might be able to help you optimize the design?
 
Update...having some trouble with the motor pulley, getting the grubscrew to work without stripping the plastic seems to be an issue. I am reworking the design tonight and reprinting it.

I kinda put myself in a hole being that I used AT5 Pulley design, If I ever decide to go alum. I have to order from the UK because no one in the us makes those. Oh well all the more reason to get the printed versions working.

I would upload the designs but being that I am a 3d modeler and texture artist for games I modeled everything in 3ds Max...I doubt anyone would want my messy Max File haha.
 
If you havent bought your batts yet id reccomend the hk150a esc and run it on 5s. Ive got two on my mounyainboard running 6374s and there working a treat.

Love the 3d printed stuff, i had similar plans for my own but using alloy pulleys. I gotta get myself one, but have been holding off as the guys at my uni have been testing one that can apparentky print in many different plastics like pollycarbonite and over a huge area... Be great to print of replacement parts for my rc stuff too!

You could try putting a big D in the shaft or using a metal part with grub screw to secure to the shaft which has some kind of hexagonal or toothed outer profile to secure on the plastic pulley?
How are you adjusting belt tension?
 
So my old design for the motor pulley was using a m3 hex nut inside of the collar and screwing a m3 machine bolt in...that didn't work as you can see in my picture. The new design that actually works because I just tried it is just making a hole for the grub screw but making it smaller so that there is a lot of support. I was able to screw the m4 grub in extremely tight and it did not break at all.

I made some slots for motor adjustment. should work the same...hopefully there is no slippage.

I went to my local hobby shop today to get the speed control. I ended up going with one that was slightly overkill only because I know I will end up getting a bigger motor/battery for this thing. I went with the Castle Creations Phoenix Ice 100A ESC. I just have to wait for it to come in. I also discussed battery and I think to Start I am going to get 2 3s 5000mah packs and run them together to get a 6s pack. I was going to separate the packs out to fit under the board anyways so might as well get 2 separate ones. If one of the cells dies on the pack I don't have to replace the whole thing.

Any suggestions on how to keep track of the battery life? anyone come up with some sort of battery gauge?



 
Great use of 3d printing. My motor mount is a hybrid aluminum/3d printed system. Watch out for the pla warping from the heat of the motor. My prototypes use abs, and I'm going to print pla to test this week. I won't sell any until I try nylon first though, which I think is the best material in the hobby 3d printing area right now.

Also, try the eos sentry for battery capacity readings. I bought a knockoff, which only reads when you plug in, and not in real time. I think the sentry might be real time because it can balance the batteries as well
 
My question is how much did that cost to print out? I too would watch the heat, those motors get hot. The one nice thing about the metal mounts is that it acts as a big cooling vent. Your design looks great though. How did you do the wheel gear? Is that just screwed into the wheel?
 
So im not 100% sure that it wont warp...I kinda just broke down and bought a spool of ABS just to be on the safe side, plus it was on sale for 27 bucks (Good quality stuff too!). As far as actual plastic cost I have no idea what that single piece cost being that I print it all myself. Id have to weigh it and then divide it by the cost of the spool of PLA.

To update where I left off I reprinted the small gear in a way that I could use an M4 Grub screw to mount it. There seems to be no slippage with me moving it around by hand but well see once I actually use it how it holds up.
Next thing I need to do is fix the mounting holes on the main mount. The holes seems to be slightly off, probably because I drilled them crooked, but once I get that set I think I should be good to start finalizing the design.

Anyone have a machine shop that can make it for me in metal haha? Id love to try that too.



 
lookitsneil said:
So im not 100% sure that it wont warp...I kinda just broke down and bought a spool of ABS just to be on the safe side, plus it was on sale for 27 bucks (Good quality stuff too!). As far as actual plastic cost I have no idea what that single piece cost being that I print it all myself. Id have to weigh it and then divide it by the cost of the spool of PLA.

To update where I left off I reprinted the small gear in a way that I could use an M4 Grub screw to mount it. There seems to be no slippage with me moving it around by hand but well see once I actually use it how it holds up.
Next thing I need to do is fix the mounting holes on the main mount. The holes seems to be slightly off, probably because I drilled them crooked, but once I get that set I think I should be good to start finalizing the design.

Anyone have a machine shop that can make it for me in metal haha? Id love to try that too.





you could try coating the pla in a coat of epoxy (one thats slow cure... so it doesn't melt it itself!!) thats what's been done at my uni, for a high flow water pump. more to make it harder wearing than for heat protection, but should keep the pla from warping as it gets a bit warm.

you could also try using those small alloy X brackets for the motor, and bolting that to the plastic. that would help isolate the plastic from the heat of the motor, though it'd require you to change the part to accommodate the new bracket mounting points.
 
You can't possibly convert the 3D Max file to STL for us to toy with?
 
Man, I need to get a printer. Why do places charge so much to print for you when a roll is $30? You want to do some wheel gears for me?
 
Yeah I can print some stuff for you, you'd have to send me the files you want printed. I would not charge much, depends on how much plastic you use and how long it takes.
 
I have a small cnc mill. And access to chunks of free aluminum. Send me a PM. Trying to start my own build soon :)
 
JstSqzd said:
I have a small cnc mill. And access to chunks of free aluminum. Send me a PM. Trying to start my own build soon :)
lookitsneil said:
Yeah I can print some stuff for you, you'd have to send me the files you want printed. I would not charge much, depends on how much plastic you use and how long it takes.
where abouts are you from? id be interested too!
 
Beautiful work! I've got a question for you. Which truck are you working on with your motor mount? Is it paris 180?
 
I modeled it to work with a paris 180 yes...But the truck that I am using it with is actually a cheaper "Compound" Truck from Zumies. I didn't want to ruin a good pair of 180's being that they are expensive. The Compound trucks are almost the same design, the mount seems to work better on them than the 180's.
 
I'm in Los Angeles by the way.

Tested my 3d printed build. See photos below...

Had some issues with mounting electronics out of the way of wheels/ground, then an issue with losing the set-screw for my drive pulley. But now i have logged a successful few runs. Broke the motor bracket once, but fixed it with a healthy amount of epoxy. It will probably break again soon (it was printed hollow, so its somewhat weak :/). I was thinking about printing it with a hole and filling it with epoxy. But i'll probably just mill it out of aluminum. Let me know what you think, and PM me if you want the CAD files.

I think i need to upgrade my ESC, then i want to 3d a print a battery/electronics mount

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Nice job :D.
So do i want to do a 3d printed mount. Which part has broken to you?
Which infill did you use?
 
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