12/13/2020 0 Comments Week 12: The end...This week was quite strange for a couple reasons. It felt weird not planning another stage of my project for the next week or buying parts to use on a part of the project that I needed to finish. I knew that whatever I had done at the end of Sunday night was all I was going to get done for a while. Also I had to make a presentation for the class by Sunday night which turned out to be kinda stressful.
At the beginning of the week I was pulling some late nights huddled beside a heater trying to put everything together and finish. Then when I was so close to being done my fears came true and the electronics fried and the joint between the wheel and motor had popped off. This was something that I had been messing with for a while and apparently did not calculate correctly. It was a huge bummer because there was no way that I could get the parts I needed and finish in time. So I decided to lean onto what I had learned through this process and not the actual project. I then had to make a presentation that I spent a long time on. I looked over the rubric and tips and youtube videos and other random sources for a good presentation because I really did not want a bad grade on this project. I had my whole family look over the presentation multiple times and tell me what they thought and even presented to my friends (which was weird). I animated and deleted and added so many slides it's kind of embarrassing. With that said overall this experience has been great and I’m glad I got to do this project. If I had the chance to do this for all of my classes I would definitely do it. Also I do think that I am going to finish this project eventually I am just going to wait for warmer weather.
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12/6/2020 0 Comments Week 11: Finishing TouchesI had some issues with the wheel and the motor attachment. The dowel rod that was supposed to go into the inside of the wheel did not stay when I turned on the motor. What I ended up doing is putting glue around the shaft of the motor and sticking it into the wheel. This took forever because I needed to wait for glue and epoxy to dry which took forever and multiple days because it was too cold to wait all night.
The next thing I did while waiting for the wheel joint to dry is I soldered everything else that needed to be soldered with the exception of the motor for now. I soldered the part that connected to the motor and the arduino. I also attached the remote to the handle with some zip ties. This works pretty well considering the fact that I only needed the trigger. Also it was basically free because it was from an old remote control car. Which basically free is pretty nice when you are trying to keep the price of the project down. Also I attached the motor to the handle that I had to use my 5th wheel for the part of the project. I figured that I would put a piece of wood or metal through the top of the handle. The reason for this is so that when you aren’t going up hill you don’t have to hold the handle up. I also had to test the project but that will have to wait because it is so cold. Also I had to finally attach the motor to the other pieces I soldered which I had to wait to do because the glue still needed to dry. 11/18/2020 0 Comments Week 10: ANother StruggleThis week was productive to say the least. I have built the frame that I needed to make the electric portion of the longboard. I ran into some issues with the sizing of the pieces of the rod that I am attaching the motor to the board. This was just annoying because I was finally making some progress and then I just had to wait for the joinery of the glue that I used to dry. In the end this did not work and I had to figure out how to attach the pieces with no screws into the pvc and no glue because of the differences of material. I pondered for a bit then figured out that I could recess the holes in the wood deep enough that I could put the wood on top and below the pvc and squeeze the pvc into place. I just needed something from lowes to do it right. Which I went to and promptly got back to work. This ended up working out pretty well but not as good as I hoped.
I also had to attach the motor to the wheel which was really annoying as well. I had an amorphous shaped shaft on the motor that I had to attach to the wheel. I did this by using a dowel that I stuck the shaft into that I then stuck into the wheel with a little glue. Lastly I had to mount the motor to the up down device and this was also difficult because it's the equivalent of sticking a round peg through a square hole. I had a round surface with no attachment points that I needed to attach a board to. I ended up just botching it. You will have to wait and see if it holds up before I tell you what I did. 11/13/2020 0 Comments Week 9: Finally ProgressThis week I began work on the final build phase of this project. Also this week I made a mental blueprint for myself. On top of this I finalized making some pieces that I would need to assemble the build. I still need a piece that I can’t get quite yet.
I started with finishing up setting up everything that I needed to build the board. I started with making the motor how I needed it. I had to take this really annoying plastic piece off of the rod and it turned out to be a pain in my butt. I then had to get the wheels how I needed it. I needed to get the bearings out of the wheels. This is because with the bearings in the wheels I would lose efficiency. The issue with doing this is that when moving while the motor is not spinning then the wheels would essentially melt because they would not be moving. I also had to make sure that I had everything that I needed to build the board so that I could go get it soon. I did realize 1 piece that I still need. The motor has a rod at the end that I am going to tap so that I can put a nut on it to attach it to the wheel. I then figured out how to make the actual electric part of the board and attach it to the board. I figured that I had to make a handle to be able to get around the non-bearing wheel problem by lifting the wheel up and down. To do this I needed to make a box with a PVC pipe and dowel rod going through it and attaching to the motor and wheel. Overall I finally have a grip on what I’m doing for this project. The only thing I am still not sure about is if the wires and stuff will handle the strain of the battery and voltage. But that's for next week. 11/4/2020 0 Comments Week 8: waiting on partsI have some time while I am waiting on parts to get here that I can make a new plan for how I will go about doing the rest of my project. I think that I will go and make the device to hold the various electronics and battery and the other nuisances that I need to deal with first. Then I think I am going to make a attempt at soldering everything together to see if it will work for once. Then i will test ride it a decent bit so that I know if it will explode or not. Finally I will make revisions and/or paint and decorate the board to make it look better. This is all time permitting of course. Even if I run out of time I think I will still try to paint it or something. Lastly I will take a couple days to work on the presentation for the class that I will eventually have to do. Hopefully we will get a date on that soon so I know when to finish.
I also think that during this time I will try to ride the long board as is so that I can get a feel for how to ride it so that I don't look like a buffoon while I am trying to test for the class. I also am going to try to get second opinions on what needs to be done and anything I can improve. With that said if you are reading this and have any suggestions please comment. Sorry this is short I just don't have much to report this week. 10/28/2020 1 Comment Week 7: More researchThis week I needed to finally decide on how I was going to mount my motor to a wheel and figure out how to make it efficient. I had a good idea that I would make use of a fifth wheel so that I would not have to cut the trucks for the motor attachment for the wheel.
The issue with not knowing what you are doing is the fact that I actually have no idea what I’m doing. Professional companies use weird techniques that use the attachment of the motor to the wheel on trucks with specially machined parts that are meant for electric longboards. The issue I have is that if I put the motor on bearings I will lose all efficiency if I put the wheel on the ground. If I don’t put the wheel on bearings then when I put the wheel on the ground and when I don’t have the motor going it will just destroy the wheel. So what I think I’m going to do is put the wheel on a stick so that I can push it up or down when I need to. I was even thinking that I could put the throttle into the handle as well. This could be nice because it could make it all in one for the handle and the board. Even though the hand position when trying to balance would be worse. The last issue that I have is that I have no idea how I am going to mount this said motor handle and motor. I was thinking that I could add an extra piece of wood that I can mount the motor to with a hole that I can use for the rod that has the handle with the throttle. I think that I am going to order an extra wheel or two to let me mess up and not have to wait more time. 10/21/2020 0 Comments Week 6: The First RideThis week I finally got around to building the board portion of the project. I started by sketching an outline of sorta what I wanted. I knew I wanted to put the battery on the top so I made sure to outline that on the back as well. I knew that I also needed to be certain that I knew I had the board pointed forward so I made the back different from the front. If you want to see the board it's on the homepage of my website under progress pictures.
I then had to put the trucks of the longboard on which turned out to be a total pain in my (fill in the blank). First I was making holes for the screws and then when I put them in they were not long enough for the spacers and the trucks. I then took the spacers out and they were too long. I believe that there is a particular thickness that the trucks and spacers are made for and I definitely did not have the correct thickness. Instead I decided to make the holes deeper so they are currently recessed about a half of a inch. I then put the trucks on successfully and because I have no idea what I’m doing I put them on the wrong way. So normally when you turn left the board goes to the right correct? Well when I put them on the first time it went the opposite way. So leaning left goes right sorta thing. This is incredibly difficult to steer because your center of gravity is going the wrong direction of the board. So I switched the way they are positioned and it rides pretty good. Before the first rides I had to put the wheels on and again I have no idea what I’m doing so I put the bearings on the wheels all weird so I had to take them out and try again. I eventually got the board sorted and I think I might have an idea about the mount of the motor to the wheel. 10/14/2020 0 Comments Week 5:Finally, LuckThis week I actually struck some luck for once in this project. Last week I had been taking apart a leaf blower that I was going to use for the motor and ran into some issues. I had no idea how I was going to make the big motor work and the voltage right. This led to me having to figure out how to get the right voltage to not make the project blow up or smoke. Instead I found an electric weed eater that had a good motor that I do think I can use.
The next thing I had to do was figure out how to make the board shape in a way that I could attach the motor and battery and chords and such. The hard part of that is the fact that I need to connect everything together and I think I’m going to put the battery on top of the board and drill a hole to connect the cords to the motor. This could lead to cords being tangled or messed up in general. This would lead to obvious problems that would require extra work. I also have no idea how to wire it in the first place. That ought to be next week's project. Lastly I have no idea how I am going to make a gear system that will attach to the wheel so that I can actually power it. The problem is I might have a way to transfer the energy to the wheel with gears. I just currently have no way to attach the gear to the wheel. I might be able to use a pulley system or something. I just don’t know how to attach it to the wheel. If anyone reading this has any ideas on that it would be appreciated. 10/7/2020 0 Comments Week 4: Good ProgressI made some good progress this week on destroying what I bought. What I mean by that is I was disassembling the leaf blower and the RC car just to get the motor and the arduino and receiver for the controller so that I can change the speed and turn it on while on top of the board. For some reason taking apart the RC car was a struggle because I didn’t want to mess anything up and I had no idea what I was doing and I was making it up as I went along.
Taking apart the leaf blower was somehow more difficult than the RC car. For some reason I can’t get the fan off of the axle of the motor and I have no idea how the motor works or what parts of it make it work. It looks like there are a lot of exposed wires that seem to have no purpose. The motor seems to have two parts and I don’t know which parts to keep and which to cut. Another thing that I was doing this week was doing some research on the gear system and it turns out that I got lucky and I might be able to use the gear system from the RC car if I can attach one gear to the wheel. If I could do that then I would be very excited because that would save me some work and some money. Lastly I got some batteries that I can use for the motor that are supposed to be used for kids motors. I’m probably going to use these batteries in series so that I can get more voltage out of them. These batteries are pretty big which will pose an issue but I’ll probably just strap them to the back of the long board. Overall I have no idea what I’m doing and this will probably explode. 9/30/2020 0 Comments Week 3: The inevitable StruggleThis week was interesting to say the least. I had previously ordered a leaf blower for the motor which I still think will work but it will be a pain in my (fill in the blank). I did some calculations on how fast I think that I will go with this blower motor in this week's research. I figured out that if i put 24 volts through the motor then I could theoretically go 30 mph uphill. That seems highly dangerous and scary but also quite fun. If I put 12 volts through the motor then it will go about 12 mph which is still pretty good if 30 is ridiculously too high. The issue with the leaf blower motor is actually not what you would expect, you would think that it would be hard to wire together or something but actually it is that I can’t take it apart without messing it up. I would like to connect the motor to the wheel by a gearing system or something like that but honestly that is the only thing that I have absolutely no clue how to do. If anyone reading this wants to give me some suggestions that would be gratefully appreciated.
The RC car that I am using is going to work perfectly though because I can use the same electronics and just change some wiring and I’ll be good. I also can use the servo that is used for steering for a little bit of a flare, personally I’m thinking that I’ll put a flag there and then be able to raise it and add a little bit of humor to the build. Lastly I think that it is actually going to blow up or smoke because I will be putting about 10x more voltage through the tiny arduinos of the RC car and I don’t think that's a good thing. |
AuthorI'm Alex and this is my progress for my Genius Hour project of making an electric longboard. Archives
December 2020
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Photo used under Creative Commons from RickybanPhotography