One Wheel

Inspiration

My dorm to my classes is around a 15 minute walk each way. I got tired of walking, and I also wanted to really wanted to work on my engineering skills. I've never worked on an engineering project before by myself, and this was a really cool opportunity to learn the process.

What it does

You stand on it, and it drives you places. Its a skateboard without the effort. Call it skatefun.

How I built it

I got a brushless hub motor, and used solidworks to design a rim which allowed the motor to sit in a go kart tire. I had already pre-built a 36 volt battery, which I'm using to power the skateboard. There is a motor controller that identifies how much power to give the motor based on an external throttle. It sits in a strong aluminum frame casing. I hope to replace the throttle with an gyro+accel hooked up to an arduino. The next step of the project is to have the arduino sense the direction and accordingly drive the motor.

Challenges I ran into

Too many to count. At first the frame was too small so I had to widen it up so the wheel can run smoothly. I'm using a pre bought motor controller so identifying the wires without a documentation sheet was interesting and hard. Building my battery ahead of time was a laborious process as well. But most of the brunt work and challenges came from the motor/rim/wheel rig. I had to figure out how to properly line up the rim with the motor without documentation sheets, and I kept running intor problems. Then I made the rims too small so I had to glue on aluminum sheets so it would fit sung. I kept running into problems on how to properly put the assembly together.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

The skateboard can support all the pounds that I carry. It can also move based on how much manual input I give to it.

What I learned

How to engineering something with all components - mechanical, electrical, and the coding aspects. I learned how to troubleshoot problems that I had no idea would pop up. I learned how to wire a motor together; how to mechanically create a structurally sound setup, and I'm still learning how PID loops can work well.

What's next for One Wheel

Using arduino+ sensors to automatically drive it. Put on led lights for night visibility. Furshing up the aesthetics.