Electric Skateboard

Greetings fellow instructables traveler, I hope your journey to this moment has been prosperous. I am Dhruv Hegde, a high school student with a passion for engineering and design, and I am here today to show the process I used to revamp a cheap skateboard I bought from Amazon into an actuated electric skateboard that can support weights up to 150 pounds and provide an enjoyable and carefree riding experience.

Firstly, let us get all of the supplies necessary in order to conduct this process:

1. Skateboard (A longboard could be used as well and might actually simplify the process, but I used a skateboard for this instructable)
2. 24V 20000 RPM 775 DC Motor
3. Motor Mount
4. Drill Battery (20V +)
5. Wires
6. #6 - 1-1/4 inch Screws
7. 20 & 60 Teeth Wheels
8. Appropriate Timing Belt
9. Superglue or Epoxy
10. Velcro Strips

Tools:

1. Drill/Screwdriver
2. Dremmel
3. Hammer
4. Wrench
5. Plies
6. Bolt cutter
7. 3D Printer

1. Choose one of the front wheels or one of the rear wheels to replace and act as the driving actuator with the belt (I chose to make mine a front wheel drive as I believe the torque would be enough and my design worked for me at around ~135 LBS. To leverage as much torque as possible for motion at greater weight, rear-wheel drive would be slightly better. ).
2. Using your wrench, remove the nut and take the wheel off. You should see two ball bearings embedded within the wheel and the goal is to remove one of them in order to be able to accommodate the larger 60 Teeth wheel on the side.
3. Using a screwdriver or some shaft to remove the ball bearing, use the dremel to round off and cut out the inner area slightly so as to be able to fit the nut inside of the area and allow it to tighten. By the end, you should be left with a hole similar to the hole I have in Image 3
4. Take the wheel and put it side by side with the larger of the aluminum wheels it will be alongside

This part is fairly simple, there are not too many complicated instructions really as it is simply mounting and holding the motor in place so that it is rigid and does not move around.

1. Place some adhesive foam underneath where the motor will be mounted. Ensure that the end of the shaft of the motor is aligned with the aluminum so that when we add the attachment with fewer teeth and of smaller form, it is able to fit the belt horizontally.
2. Place some adhesive foam onto the motor itself and place the mount on top of the motor
3. Take two screws and on either end of the motor mount, drill them into place completely until the motor is secured
4. Use a bolt cutter or another metal cutting tool you might have to remove the ends sticking out and possibly use a small bit of adhesive foam of the same color or just some regular tape on the other side so that the protrusions are not as noticeable and you do not make any contact with them.

1. Glue the metal wheel with teeth to the actual wheel of the skateboard and then put it into the skateboard using superglue or some sort of Epoxy. Screw in the nut using something like a thin plier to be able to reach into the hole and secure the nut. It will be a small gap between the hole and edges of the nut, so the thin nose plier was one of the only tools I had that worked to secure it, but it is a fairly easy and fast process.
2. To secure the smaller bearing onto the shaft of the motor, I designed and 3D printed a small attachment to adjust for the gap between the diameter of the smaller aluminum wheel and the shaft itself. I made it have a tight ft and it was quite secure, but you can use super glue or some other type of adhesive if you wish.
3. You can then add the belt, leaving a small amount of slack so that it works optimally. If you tighten it completely, it would lead to excessive wear, stretching, or slippage, so I left a small amount of slack and that seems to work quite well in testing.

1. Place velcro strips on the board
2. Place opposing hook velcro strips on the battery
3. Place the battery pack with the velcro strips onto the board

Yes, it was really just that simple :)

Now, we get to the wiring. There are several different options you can use for this step, such as the type of actuator or the control. I personally just used a small momentary switch that I had for my wind tunnel project. These work fine, but you need to make sure you have the ability to place this in a spot where you can consistently actuate it. Initially, I wired it so I could just actuate it using my hand and pressed down with my thumb, but eventually I decided to drill it through the board and place it near my regular foot position so that I could be able to press down with my foot like normal.

1. Add two wires into the battery back that will be either side of the circuit. Attach one wire to one of the slots in the motor directly from the battery, so it should be running directly between the two.
2. Add another wire connecting one end of the button wire to the battery. Connect another wire between the other open slot in the motor and the other button wire. Now, the circuit should be complete.
3. I made sure that the inserts into the battery have a larger surface area than normal through bending it and utilizing a connecting piece so that there is less slippage and greater contact. This will ensure your wire will not accidently be displaced, especially if you're using wires with a lot of small coils that are able to easily disjoint. You could also try just adhering those connection points, but with my method, I have not had any trouble or problem yet.

Now that your electric skateboard is complete, you can enjoy riding it and having a seamless experience. I now use my foot to actuate the button while riding, but with some additional automation and wireless actuation, this can definitely be controlled using some sort of RC remote. Given the prospect, I believe this is a development I want to pursue and will be doing in the near future. If this is chosen to receive any reward in the outdoor competition, I will use all the funds to get the extra parts I will need to further develop this design and other designs for other mechanisms and keep you guys updated on the status of this and other designs here on Autodesk Instructables. I appreciate you for taking the time to read this post and I hope this design serves you well if you decide to pursue it. Farewell and I hope we cross paths again someday fellow traveler.