OT: attached DC motor to in-line skates

(Crossposted)

Even though the devices discussed in a prior (metalworking) thread were not used in this design, they are greatly appreciated and probably will be in other designs. The objective is to make a very light weight electric powered skate, scooter, whatever, that will traverse rough terrain like my 100 mm in-line skates do. The following is only one of many possibilities.

Various resolution pictures in: Newsgroups: alt.binaries.phish

I actually machined the motor shaft gear to remove about 1/4" of it, ground down to about 1/8" diameter. Used a rotary tool and spun the motor against the rotary tool. You can zoom in on one of the pictures to see that. It's reasonably uniform IMO but not smooth.

With the exception of me (without real tools and experience) grinding the shaft gear, the motor drive design is simple and easy to build. No alteration to the skates is required. The only parts are the motor, a plate to hold the motor, and a small rectangular thick steel washer to hold the motor plate on the other side of the skate frame. For contact with the skate wheels, an aluminum tube is placed around the motor shaft gear (padded with heat shrink tubing, and superglued). The rest (unseen) is just the cordless drill body with battery, switch, and wire/connector.

Not much ground clearance, but I'll use a flexible shaft from the motor to the roller drive if this particular design is repeated. I really like the fact that the roller drive is between two wheels which counterbalance the thing (and increases traction), putting little if any lateral strain on the motor shaft. The roller drive can be placed between any of the wheels, its modular on that skate frame. The roller does turn both wheels in the right direction :D

Lots of power using the 36 V cordless drill motor. Without gearing, top speed is 10 or 15 mph I guess (I'll measure that later). It goes from zero to top speed quickly. Apparently the roller drive works at least well enough for the application, the roller driving the wheels and the wheels driving the skates. But that depends partly on how long the scooter wheels last.

Also possible is using one 18 V cordless drill motor on each skate with one DC motor controller controlling both. Not sure how to do that but it sounds like a lot of fun.

Apparently the "electric breaking" only kicks in when the motor switch is completely released. Will see if skating overdrive damages the DC motor speed controller.

First use was a riot, as expected. Lots of protective gear but without falling.

--
please feel free to trim groups as desired, I enjoy the two big groups
and that\'s why I posted there
Reply to
John Doe
Loading thread data ...

After another outing. Top speed is about 18 mph. The powered skate is 1.5 pounds heavier than the unpowered skate.

Reply to
John Doe

So I had fun, traumatic fun.

One thing for sure, freewheeling in the forward direction is necessary. But that problem is hopefully being solved and at the same time providing an automatic grip strength. This time planning to add it to a scooter front wheel (Razor Cruiser).

The method I'm trying to piece together for freewheeling and automatic grip could be common, I dunno. You just take a wheel and apply a roller (connected to a motor) at an angle to the wheel that forces the roller to impact against the rubber wheel whenever the wheel provides resistance against the roller. When the wheel doesn't provide resistance, the roller is pushed away from the wheel thereby mostly releasing it. The wheel axle can't be used for the motor/roller fork pivot point because the roller will always be that set distance away from the wheel (unless somehow using a flexible motor/roller fork, but that's another subject), but maybe slightly offsetting the wheel axle and extending the motor fork from there will work.

The general idea is shown in this very simple stick figure drawing: Newsgroups: alt.binaries.phish Subject: freewheeling plus auto grip

--
I am actually working on this project. Today I bought a needed 5/8" 
drill bit for $17 US.
Reply to
John Doe

ElectronDepot website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.