Low Guidos Skate-a-tron 4000 (electric skateboard)
Ok I put a few k’s on it yesterday and I have worked out how to drive the thing without dying. its different. its not skateboarding, it’s something else.
its fun carving the flats as if they were downhill. i’ll have to get some more photos and videos now I have sussed it out a bit.
this thing looks and sounds rad!!! I kinda want one too now!!
Yep, this project is super rad. Really enjoying all the updates.
ok I got a little bit excited and skipped a few steps in the process..
this is the speed controller I am using
I think its designed for an RC plane so its small and light, however in hindsight its probably not as precice as something intended for a large RC car. but at half the price it does the job.
the way that Im controlling the speed is with an off the shelf cordless nintendo Wii nunchuck. they are about $12 these days!
(there is 2 in the pic but I only use 1)
to get the Wii chuck to talk to the speed controller requires a bit of electrickery
the microprocessor is an Arduino and the code is all open source (available here: https://github.com/jaustindavid/wiiceiver )
I made some containers from carbon fibre to hold all the stuff to the board because the cable ties werent cutting it.. especialy on my gravel street..
and Skate!
hey guys,
I just got back from my first decent distance test.
I’m a little bit scared of fully depleting the lipo batteries, even though my speed controller has a low voltage cutout I’m not sure that I trust it too much. I’m going to fit a voltage meter/alarm so that I know when to stop without fully depleting the batteries.
all that aside..
first thing everyone asks: “How fast does it go?”
answer: I dont know.
I clocked up 10.9km while cruising at an average of (what my sport tracker calls 2:46 min/km) ~21km/h
obviously the data that my sport tracker gathers isn’t Ideal for this kind of testing because it doesn’t record a peak speed.
but i can tell you that 20+km/h on a skateboard on a path that’s littered with cracks and gum nuts is plenty fast enough for me! and its got alot more left in it. i have never been full throttle.
Battery range of around 11km is also pretty decent. I can always keep a couple of lipo’s in my back pocket for extra range if I need it.
I promise i will get some proper videos of it one of these days. I have just been coming to terms with it so setting up cameras hasn’t been my number 1 priority.
I made some containers from carbon fibre to hold all the stuff to the board because the cable ties werent cutting it.. especialy on my gravel street..
Looks epic, dude! 
I have fitted a voltage alarm now so that I can cruise around without worrying about depleting the batteries too much.
I have also worked out a go pro mount on the top of it so that I can take some better video. if the weather gets better outside i’ll take it for a run today.
it’s a little bit messier than I would like at the moment.. but im figuring out a way I can mount it all inside the case.
OMG Devo’d!
I set everything up with cameras and everything and then when I plugged it in my speed controller smoked!
Im not even sure why. It was running fine yesterday and then this morning bam as soon as I plugged it in.
oh well it was a cheap ESC and I guess this gives me an excuse to upgrade to one with a bit more programable throttle response.
still sad tho :(
Sorry to hear that, man. 
Yeah man, I was totaly bumed. but dont worry! we can rebuild him! we have the technology!
Gutted for you mate, hope the rebuild goes alright and there hasn’t been too much damage.
After playing around with a new speed controller I have to say. wow my old one was shit LOL!
the new one has a much better programable throttle so it can accelerate without trying to kill me. it comes on slowly and smoothly.
the old speed controller I had disabled the brakes because the thing would pretty much stop and you would keep going. the new one I have set the brakes to a 50% level and if feels more like a gentle drag then a brake. Its not something that really bothered me because.. skateboards dont have brakes.
I get the feeling that my old one was defective.. because even when programed to soft throttle and soft brakes it was either all or nothing in both cases. and then it melted for no real reason.
im looking forward to going for a long skate on the new and improved Skate-A-Tron 4000
Awesome! Sounds like you’ve made a big improvement since the recent disaster. Can’t wait to hear how your long skate goes.
I have been quiet for a bit because of work, but its time for a bit of a catch up on whats going on.
So I have got my new speed controller installed. i still need to make another carbon fibre box for it to go in because the new setup doesnt quite fit in my original box.
also been working on another one for Dr1f7r. almost finished the truck motor mount for that one too.
still havent had the chance to get any video.. I know I keep promising…