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.
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9/23/2020 2 Comments Week 2: The researchThis week was challenging for me. Originally I had an idea to buy a brushless motor, RC car and longboard trucks off of Amazon. Then I immediately ran into some issues. I had to figure out a way that I could attach a brushless motor to the bottom of a piece of plywood without it hitting the ground and a way that I could attach that to the wheels.
I began thinking of tools that would suit my purposes for the harvesting of a motor. I researched a weed eater, a lawnmower, and a leaf blower. There were pros and cons to each one that included the ability to take it apart without damaging anything, price played a part and also size and power that I could get out of the motor were all important. I decided to get a cheap corded leaf blower because the layout of it was easy to take apart and the fact that it had a brushless motor that would be almost perfect for what I needed was also nice. Then I had to decide on what trucks I wanted to get that I thought I could mount the gearing system onto. So I decided to find trucks with wheels that had slits in them for weight loss. I'm assuming that I would use them for the mounting of gears. This brings me to my next issue, with the absence of tools that could make my own set of gears that would fit perfectly and work perfectly for my project I had to find some that might work. I decided to try to get a nicer RC car so that the electronics would be nicer and that it would have a decent gearing system that I could use. The last thing I needed was a cheap soldering iron that I could learn on. In conclusion this week I ordered a leaf blower, a RC car, a soldering iron, a set of longboarding trucks, and a massive piece of plywood that I can hopefully turn into an electric longboard. |
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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