Overview
Starting when I was 15 and many interations in the making this electric skateboard served as the perfect introduction to electronics, battery management systems, and motor control. Originally built with 18650 lithium-ion cells scavenged from old laptop batteries, the board has since been upgraded to higher output lipo's packs and a concave deck for impact absorbtion.
Gallery
Build Process
When I started this project I had no knowledge of electronics whatsoever, with my projects up until this point being largly wood based. All the decisions made during the design and procurement were motivated by spending as little as possible, which lead me down the rabbit hole of taking apart old laptop batteries for the cells inside, in order to rebuild into a larger pack with a battery management system from China.
What I Learned
Turns out electric skateboards cover the basics of a lot of important core engineering concepts, that are used on pretty much all mobile robotics platforms from electric cars to drones.