thoughts on cheapest diy commuter electric skateboard trike?

[tommyg28844]

would love to get everyone's thoughts on the issues of making a 3 wheel bare bones cheap skateboard for going to work, mostly riding on paved smooth footpaths. being easy to make so willing to try things that may not last long, like parts from an electric drill...

current issues that cause complexity or are too expensive:
- welding the motor mount is too much trouble, over $100 if bought.
- and clamp mounts are complex to make or unreliable/rotates after awhile

heres my design idea:
1) reduce build complexity but lose out on agility, by removing the back trucks/ axle all together,
instead have a tri wheel setup, so mount one single fixed slim wheel at the back,
which allows the motor to be easily attached straight to the wheel and the board, but allows for some degree of cornering/turning.
Maybe get the single wheel axle/joint from some old kick scooter? or make one from an L shaped bracket and a bolt?

2) use a 18volt brushless drill and take it apart.
Attach the drill motor to the rear wheel and place the drill chips/controller in a flat box.

3) extend the drill trigger with extra long cables and use as the wired speed controller. make the cable detachable.

4) bolt the drill battery sleeve/clip on top so you can use the 18v 2ah battery that came with it.

here in Oz we can buy 18v brushless drills for about $120usd so maybe with an old skateboard the total cost would be about $150.
not sure what the range would be with the small 2ah 18v battery though. i only need 10km really.

i just want a small eboard that's super cheap, easy to carry on a backpack or maybe even on the airplane to travel in the city paved roads.

Any thoughts would be great, thanks!

 

[2wayspeaker]

Someone has made a skateboard based on a drill.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bi5InG3hMQU

You could probably do something similar using

and

Extending the drill trigger on a DC is really doable. There's 2 wires going in and 2 wires going out + the small wires for the light.

So if you take a regular 4G 1,5mm2 wire

you can extend it, you just need to make a nice case to hold it.

 

[Marcin]

I'm afraid that a cordless drill will not be enough to power you through 10km.

My board features 15A capacity at 25V, this is enough to drive me ~30km.
A 18v 2AH cordless drill has almost 10 times less battery capacity.

In my opinion it would still be the cheapest to use the more common build method using hobbyking batteries/motors and speedcontroller. This was you'll be sure you haven't wasted money on incompatible parts and you'll be sure it works.
If you live around europe I am willing to make you a custom mount for your motor free of charge to get you going and save some $$$

If that's not an option you might want to purchase a used electric drill without a battery, keep the motor, gearbox and the trigger
Retrofit everything to work with some LIPO's and you're good to go

Regards

 

[LEVer]

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[tommyg28844]

Someone has made a skateboard based on a drill.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bi5InG3hMQU

You could probably do something similar using

and

Extending the drill trigger on a DC is really doable. There's 2 wires going in and 2 wires going out + the small wires for the light.

So if you take a regular 4G 1,5mm2 wire

you can extend it, you just need to make a nice case to hold it.

yeah saw the drill skate kickstarter but carrying a drill and running it like that doesn't look great or efficient.
I would rather take it apart and fix it to the board permanently.
guess people who use drills and like to skate to work would love that

 

[tommyg28844]

I'm afraid that a cordless drill will not be enough to power you through 10km.

My board features 15A capacity at 25V, this is enough to drive me ~30km.
A 18v 2AH cordless drill has almost 10 times less battery capacity.

In my opinion it would still be the cheapest to use the more common build method using hobbyking batteries/motors and speedcontroller. This was you'll be sure you haven't wasted money on incompatible parts and you'll be sure it works.
If you live around europe I am willing to make you a custom mount for your motor free of charge to get you going and save some $$$

If that's not an option you might want to purchase a used electric drill without a battery, keep the motor, gearbox and the trigger
Retrofit everything to work with some LIPO's and you're good to go

Regards

i was afraid of that too, I agree the maths is there but the drill does work under load for a good 30mins so hoping it will pull me at 10km/h for maybe 30mins...maybe that also means 5km total range??

i think the cost saving is in not using the welded motor mount design and using the tri wheel design, but not sure what cornering ability the state will have...

 

[Marcin]

I'm afraid that a cordless drill will not be enough to power you through 10km.

My board features 15A capacity at 25V, this is enough to drive me ~30km.
A 18v 2AH cordless drill has almost 10 times less battery capacity.

In my opinion it would still be the cheapest to use the more common build method using hobbyking batteries/motors and speedcontroller. This was you'll be sure you haven't wasted money on incompatible parts and you'll be sure it works.
If you live around europe I am willing to make you a custom mount for your motor free of charge to get you going and save some $$$

If that's not an option you might want to purchase a used electric drill without a battery, keep the motor, gearbox and the trigger
Retrofit everything to work with some LIPO's and you're good to go

Regards

i was afraid of that too, I agree the maths is there but the drill does work under load for a good 30mins so hoping it will pull me at 10km/h for maybe 30mins...maybe that also means 5km total range??

i think the cost saving is in not using the welded motor mount design and using the tri wheel design, but not sure what cornering ability the state will have...

You have to keep in mind that a tri wheel longboard would be more expensive in the long run, here's why:
Need to purchase an additional wheel, make a custom mount for it and attach a motor, probably use pulleys/belts to reduce/increase RPM. Things will break, as always with prototypes, so factor in some more work/spares

Please also consider the time you would put into the whole modification.

Regards

 

[tommyg28844]

not sure if i have to purchase a 3rd wheel or mounts, there are lots of broken kids scooters and hybrid wheeled thingys everywhere, most under $10 and some free as they are partly broken. its sad but here people throw away anything if it even slightly broken, the recycling and reuse movement isnt so great yet.

i should be able to copy a rear wheel design where the bearing and wheel is bolted to a bracket with washers to lock the wheel in place, then use 4 screws and a circle plate to connect the motor, and then U clamp the motor to the deck. so the wheel bearing held in place on left side and the wheel spun by the motor on the right side of the wheel.
I'm not doing jumps or off roading,... just mainly straight long lines and some small turns.

i just feel i have all these great parts and free time, maybe i can make a cheap and usable commuter skate to save on bus and public transport costs.

 

[tommyg28844]

just realised that the belt and gears provide better torque than a direct drive setup.
im happy to push to start rolling and maybe even walk up sloppy hills but i think 15 degrees slopes should be fine while you are in motion.

 

[ferez21]

so, any progress with this thing?

 

[astilwell611]

I think if your going to do this the easiest thing to do would to be the skateboard/razr scooter hybrid that Pedi posted.