My idea was to take my existing longboard and make it into a motorized longboard. My friend had already provided me with some motors to buy, so I thought this would be a simple task. I knew I would need some motors, a motor controller, a large lithium battery, a power distribution system, some wiring, an enclosure, and a means by which to properly mount everything to the board. I did some research into where to buy the parts if there were do it yourself (DIY) kits available and how those prices compared to an already assembled motorized longboard. My research concluded that buying a kit or pre-made product would prove to be the most cost-effective solution.

 

Buying all the parts separately, scouring the internet and trying to make this all by yourself, does land you a lower cost, but only if it is done right and done on the first attempt. Doing it the first time seemed to be the glaring issue. As I talked to my friend who has already attempted to do it all by himself, he told me that he had blown multiple motor controllers and had yet to get the electronics working just right. This has put him into his 3rd attempt and roughly $260 over budget. By going this far over budget, he could have purchased a pre-made and far superior product to what he was making. He had confessed that he wished he had done so, as he would have already had the product that he wanted to make, and one that worked.

 

There is one last method that I explored but did not abandon yet. This method involves buying a used, non functional motorized longboard, and making it functional. This can be cheap and produce good results, but you are also taking a huge risk. You may buy a non-functional board and it could just be the remote not working or a frayed wire, which is a cheap and quick fix. The other side of the risk is that you purchase the motorized longboard, and all the electronics need to be replaced or the battery needs to be replaced, in which case is an expansive repair or a total loss of money.

 

With all this information, I concluded that building a motorized longboard by using my existing longboard and electronics and circuits knowledge from MECH-210 (a course taken in Queen’s Mechanical Engineering), would prove to be an ill-advised use of my time and money. With the costs of materials to build one being nearly the same of an already functioning motorized skateboard, my labour would then increase the cost and make buying a pre-built electric skateboard cheaper. This makes the best solution being to purchase pre-built product. The second-best solution is buying a “non-functional” motorized longboard and making it functional.

 

Below will be photographs and links to all the products that I considered purchasing, as well as all the calculations that would have been done.