During last year’s hoverboard craze, we more often than not saw the devices catching fire and malfunctioning. However, if you’re willing to take one apart that is fundamentally unstable, the parts can be very useful.
Maker Tim Giles built an electric mountainboard with the wheels, motors, and battery from a broken hoverboard. The most expensive part of his build was the mountainboard itself, an MBS Atom 95x, which he purchased for $180. You could make your own deck, but his board comes with a hand brake assembly, which is convenient for a project like this since it can be used as both a brake and for adding an integrated speed controller.
Initially, he tried to use the hoverboard’s circuitry but wasn’t able to bypass the control loop that makes the board balance. As a result, the conditions were unsafe, but the control scheme he ended with was rather simple and used an e-bike speed controller as the throttle.
One of the biggest challenges Giles faced was adapting the hoverboard wheels to work with the MBS Matrix Trucks he purchased for this project. Since the inner rods that typically plug into the wheels to attach everything are connected rather tightly, he reported that the steel shafts pressed into the aluminum truck.
While it seemed like modifying the trucks would be a simple task since there is a set screw on each shaft, after removal, the shafts did not come out as smoothly as expected. Originally, Giles attempted to use a torch on them and then a spacer to install a nut and force it out. As a result, it stripped the threads after approximately ¼ inch of movement. After just about giving up, he came to the realization that the shaft was eminent on the last ¾ inch, which caught on the spacer.
The solution was to cut off the last bit of the trucks (deemed unimportant) to release everything. The result involved inserting the hoverboard wheel axles in place and drilling it out to 16mm. After Giles had everything properly drilled, the shafts fit well and were able to be locked down with set screws.
After these essential pieces were in place, only a few more brackets needed to be set to complete the board. He had to replace his non-hoverboard tires with ones that would better support road use, and also put additional holes in his trucks to allow the wheel wiring to go through. Lastly, Giles tested it out.
Since completing construction of the mountainboard, he has ridden it 75 miles. For reference, Giles weighs 180 pounds and noted that he can travel approximately 11 miles per hour with a four-mile range.
Source: Makezine
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