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Electric Longboard MarkII

Ground up, over-engineered electric longboard

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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.

Mark I 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.

My main focus now is to involve more people. I have a few friends helping intermittently, but I think this project can bring together a serious community interested in progressing the field of high-tech DIY electrical vehicles.

P.S Check out the GIT ;)

What we are looking at here is;

12 Hp 4 Wheel Drive - 4 x 6374 2250W BLDC motors

.5kWh battery pack - 64 x ANR26650M1-B LiFeP04 2.4Ah 10C - 12min charge time batteries 

48in x 13 in deck

60 volt system

60mph+ Top speed

40mile+ range

1.5kW charger - 20min charge time.

RGBW headlights - 1000+ Lumens

RGB LED underlighting 

Carbon fiber deck - 500Kg+ load limit

Splash proof

Onboard linux box managing GPS, phone-app connection.

All the files are hosted on the project Git page. This is an open source project.

IMG_3543.JPG

Still gotta do the testing with water cooling. But this is the charger.

JPEG Image - 1.60 MB - 09/02/2017 at 14:35

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Maximum Clearance.png

So I was sitting on a plane with my parents and complained about the lack of clearance, and difficulty i would have in protecting the motors during collision. Needless to say, mom a out-of-the-box thinker.

Portable Network Graphics (PNG) - 802.57 kB - 09/02/2017 at 14:35

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Moulding 1.PNG

I cant spell, but I do know that I will use some thick sheets of MDF and a CNC wood router to create a compression mould for the longboard.

Portable Network Graphics (PNG) - 127.86 kB - 09/02/2017 at 14:35

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  • Break. Again?

    Danny Andreev04/23/2018 at 22:11 0 comments

    The deck is done! However, I did a bit of analysis of my progress on this project and the hardware aspects are hitting a bit of a wall; I am spending more and more time manufacturing while less and less is spend on actually learning and acquiring new skills.

    Thus; I am panning on debugging the rest of the electronics, and writing code for the batter management system, but put a hold on the rest of the project until I make enough money to pay someone else to manufacture for me, or if I decide this can make a viable business.

    In conclusion, ill leave it as something to work on whenever i'm bored. For now I got a few business ventures I want to take a look at ;)

    Test battery pack, tab welded with Keen Lab's kWelder unit (seriously high quality product for only ~200$) https://www.keenlab.de/index.php/shop/

    It seems I might have a little too much noise coming in from the digital side of circuit, so I'll see what i can do to mitigate that. Might have to order new PCB's...

    Finished debugging the SPI, time to start pumping out code...

    Down the software rabbit-hole we go!

  • Caveman

    Danny Andreev03/26/2018 at 16:20 0 comments

    I think i'm finally at the level of Tony Stark in a cave!  We have the first battery rack!

    The Max14921 breakout board is also done. Just gotta program something to control it over SPI. Will probably start off using a raspi and then go over to an STM32 discovery board.

  • Min-Max

    Danny Andreev03/01/2018 at 17:22 2 comments

    I am taking 9 courses this semester, so I am in the midst of an optimization problem...

    Looks like whatever built-in neural net has figured it out. Back at about 20hours/week on the board.

    After much deliberation last semester, I decided to build the battery management system around the Max14921. I made a breakout board for it, and I will be controlling it using a STM32F01 Discovery board (later integrating the chip directly). 

    P.S. the pitch on the Max chip is .5mm not .025in like in other TQFP packages of similar pin number (the data-sheet said NOTHING) So the next batch of pcbs will be here next week.

    As you can see I have a foam core (actually Ill have two of them) and plain flat carbon fiber plates at the front and back so that the mounting points for the trucks are extra secure.

    I am slowly building up the layers of carbon fiber (they are .03in thick and takes me about 2hours for each layer) Half way done though!

    I have also figured out all the PCB placement and solved the issue with high current print contacts! (more on this later)

  • Back in Black

    Danny Andreev01/26/2018 at 23:52 0 comments

    Weather because of sickness, winter break, or lethargy I haven't made much progress in the past month. However, I did manage to trash about 200 man hours worth of molds. 

    However, I am ready to try again and I got some good ideas as to how to fix them.

  • Adjust

    Danny Andreev11/20/2017 at 15:10 1 comment

    Sad news this week. The Techshop has closed. However, I am glad that most of my hardware requiring heavy CNC machinery is finished.

    I have already started to recreate some of the capabilities of the techshop. One such adjustment is a epoxy curing, vaccum press oven in my living room.

    This is the single layer outer shell, its a bit rough around the edges and I am going to redo the layup.

    Roomates have agreed... as long as I keep it clean.

    In other news. The GPS tracking works! the sensor board is outputting gps, and using the google maps api I can overlay my location onto a proper map!

    Lastly:

    I am going to be doing some redesign and try to remove the rest of the hardware manufacture. Since I no longer have access to CNC and metalworking machinery I will have to impovise...

  • The Molds are Done!

    Danny Andreev11/15/2017 at 03:20 0 comments

    The All-Mighty!


    These are a little extra side-project but i still wanted to share :)

  • Molds and Models

    Danny Andreev11/05/2017 at 23:05 0 comments

    A week off of the project due to midterms, and now im back!

    Got a lot of good stuff since the last project log.

    Sensor module is reading in data. The next step is to take the Accelerations,position, velocity and have it plot on a neat interface

    Got the Molds painted, just need to sand, and buff them. Should be ready to do the CF lamination next weekend.

    A decent amount of time went into a side venture. I have a friend who sells finger boards, I made him some molds to speed up the process :)

    I hurt my foot (bruised a metatarsal) So i slapped V1.5 together so I dont have to push when getting to/fro class.

  • 4 Day Weekend

    Danny Andreev10/16/2017 at 21:46 0 comments

    Fall break! you know what that means! just clocked in 50 hours at the techshop in 4 days.

    - Bought Carbon fiber vacuuming stuff

    "hhhnnnnnngggg" - My wallet

    -CNCed the last two molds out of the MDF that I prepped last weekend.

    (All me!)

    -Almost finished the battery pack hardware

    Dat sand blaster tho

    Yea, yea, I know. Steel on aluminum ill figure it out.

    "What exercise equipment do you use?" - "Oh just the  BDB 1340A Jet Lathe"

    -Started on the GPS, Accelerometer, Raspi module!

  • Check your CNC specs!

    Danny Andreev10/08/2017 at 22:21 0 comments

    The 3/4"D 6"L ball endmill does not fit the shopbot... The highest diameter that ER-25 collets go is 1/2"

    Probably for the best since i got 3 exams this week and I gotta study instead of CNCing molds.

    P.S. If you are ever spearing large amounts of glue: buy the non-waterproof version and the largest paint roller they have.

  • Battery Holder Skelton Done!

    Danny Andreev10/01/2017 at 16:28 1 comment

    Another 15 hours at the machine shop this weekend and the aluminum armature is done.

    I finished it off with a sand blasting and it looks sick!

    Next up is the deck :)

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Discussions

Waynerothchild wrote 03/25/2020 at 15:02 point

what kind of engineer are you ?

mechanical or electrical ?

  Are you sure? yes | no

Danny Andreev wrote 03/25/2020 at 16:23 point

I do a bit of everything, no real specialization. 

  Are you sure? yes | no

AVR wrote 02/28/2018 at 17:41 point

excellent project, I really appreciate the complex design and the build is just wonderful, all the custom machining and manufacturing. Keep it up!!!

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Morning.Star wrote 03/01/2018 at 01:20 point

Indeed. You also have to admire over a grand's worth of batteries nestled in there, that things got mileage too. ;-)

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Danny Andreev wrote 03/01/2018 at 17:24 point

ohhh, only 496$

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Danny Andreev wrote 03/01/2018 at 17:25 point

<3

Btw may i ask how you heard about this project, Iv had a burst of activity on this page in the last 2 days!

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motor_madness84 wrote 11/16/2017 at 02:11 point

Love the project man! Me and my team are currently working on a similar project for a new high powered electric skateboard and we were wondering if you are/have designed your own custom battery management system for your A123 battery pack?

  Are you sure? yes | no

Danny Andreev wrote 11/18/2017 at 20:13 point

I am about to start designing, youre welcome to help! should be done by the end of the winter.

  Are you sure? yes | no

Neon22 wrote 08/30/2017 at 15:14 point

Have you considered using trucks like Other planet revolution. much stabler at high speed. flat spot in the middle.

Also I have inkscape based worksheet for batts through to drivetrain with HTD belt torque calcs integrated.

but needs looking over as I have an error (at least one :) somewhere... Output looks like:

inkscape electric drivetrain

  Are you sure? yes | no

Danny Andreev wrote 09/01/2017 at 15:38 point

Those trucks look sick! I may pick a pair up and look into switching over in the next  board version.
PM me about the work on batteries, im interested

  Are you sure? yes | no

Rod Hower wrote 08/29/2017 at 18:45 point

I may be able to help with the motors, I work at Ametek-Rotron and design BLDC motors and controls.  We bought Extreme Motors about 8-10 years ago and continue designing that product from our Kent, Ohio location.

  Are you sure? yes | no

Danny Andreev wrote 08/29/2017 at 18:47 point

No way! That is amazing, PM me your email, we alreadu have 3-4 guys on board.

  Are you sure? yes | no

Marco wrote 08/23/2017 at 08:38 point

i'm learning bldc drv and wanna join your team

  Are you sure? yes | no

Danny Andreev wrote 08/23/2017 at 17:32 point

PM me, lets chat

  Are you sure? yes | no

Marco wrote 08/23/2017 at 05:23 point

i wanna know bldc drive schema...

what's the status of the project?

  Are you sure? yes | no

Danny Andreev wrote 08/23/2017 at 17:32 point

currently using Vedder's VESC controller (its an open source bldc driver) i plan on updating his design (eventually) to fit better with my board.

  Are you sure? yes | no

Peter wrote 08/23/2017 at 01:31 point

Do you have a source and/or price for the batteries and charger?  Or for the BOM in general?

  Are you sure? yes | no

Danny Andreev wrote 08/23/2017 at 17:35 point

I am buying the batteries from A123, they are a manufacturer in Detroit. Me and a friend are designing the charger ground up, by ourselves. Latest iteration delivared 900W. I will eventually go through my digikey purchases and add the BOMs to the git page.

  Are you sure? yes | no

Aaron_Kraus wrote 08/22/2017 at 18:21 point

wait... WHAT? 90+ kph? ryly O_o

Must... not... buy... all... parts

As soon as my other 4 Projects are half baked, i'll start with this

My fastest run on my Board was at the Gravity Festival 2015 in NZ with 72-75  kph.

But that was Downhill, I always dreamed of a board like this :)

[EDIT] another Solidworks guy and all source files *Thumbs up*

  Are you sure? yes | no

Danny Andreev wrote 08/22/2017 at 19:16 point

Much love! I am definitely interested in collaborating, so hit me up if you good some good ideas.

  Are you sure? yes | no

Aaron_Kraus wrote 08/24/2017 at 19:48 point

How far developed is your Project at the moment?

Did you build all that drivechain already?

I go thru your SW files and they look really good, I'm doing cad with sw since 2006 and can't find much to criticize :p 

  Are you sure? yes | no

Danny Andreev wrote 10/01/2017 at 15:26 point

I have a lot of the electronics finished, but working on the mechanical/hardware revision right now. I have a V1.5 drivetrain (check the pics) working on V2. 

Appreciate it! Iv been CADing for some years now as well :)

  Are you sure? yes | no

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