ESK8 - Electric Skateboard Controller

thingiverse

ESK8 This is a work in progress! While intended to be a replacement housing for the controller that came with my Meepo longboard the electronics are pretty standard and there's a good chance this design will suit others too. Electric Skateboards are great: -Lots of fun -Useful for 'last mile' transport ...and: A source of endless amusement to me, especially as I'm 50 - sadly the world is full of tiny-minded people who get 'triggered' by anything that might be outside their personal, limited, experience or beyond their puny capacity to understand... ...while I get a lot of smiles and interested questions when I'm out and about you'd be amazed (and saddened) by the number of people who look on my skateboarding as if I'm a herald of the apocalypse; to the point where I do get button-holed by daft fools who feel the need to berate the 'evil teenager' for my 'evil ways'... ...until they get close enough to see I'm not - The inevitable looks of confusion, especially with resultant subsequent halting attempts to tell me how 'irresponsible' I am are always a source of great amusement to me... ...most of the time I just reply as if I speaking to someone showing polite interest and quickly move on... If I'm in the mood I quite enjoy calling out their stupidity with the application of logic which always results in more confusion when 'ridiculous indignation' meets a polite and reasonable response. An example conversation: Woman walking her dog along a quiet country road, without pavements, on the end of one of those annoyingly-dangerous extending leads: "Don't you think..." It catches up with her that I'm not an evil teenager, "...that, that it's a bit irresponsible to be using that on a road?" It's amazing how such people have the stupid arrogance to plough on even when it dawns they might be on the wrong end of a debate "Oh, I don't know. I'm in full control of a vehicle intended to for use on a road." I carefully look at her, her dog on the end of a very long lead, standing in the middle of a road and smile politely. "You're a danger to other road-users!" I suppress laughing at her for the obvious unthinking stupidity of this comment, especially in the face of a pedestrian walking down the middle of a road without pavements barely in charge of the dog she has with her. I just smile politely and ask "How is an electric long-board, which intended for road use, any more dangerous than, for instance, a car, or a bicycle, or especially a horse?" I look pointedly at the barely controlled horse that's passing us and then at her dog that's obviously the cause of it's skittishness. "I guess you would feel safer if this road had a pavement for you and your dog to walk on." I then volunteered with sweet concern to see if she would see the irony of her situation. -several moments of confused cognition later- "Well, there's certainly no place for you to put put lights on that thing and shouldn't you be wearing some kind of high viability jacket?" It was a beautiful, sunny day. So first looking up at the sun, and then from a passing cyclist who had neither lights nor high visibility attire, I briefly regarded her coat (a dark woollen thing) smiled politely, and picked up my longboard to show her as if I was speaking with someone who was interested and curious... "It's most kind of you to think of my safety as well as others. As it happens my longboard does have a tail-light. But of course it's only switched on for the rare occasions when I'm using it and visibility might be an issue." -more confused silence- At that point I took pity on her, smiled once again as I got back on my longboard, and remarked "It has been very nice chatting with you." And went on my way. I don't do this often as I was brought up well enough to know it's not nice to tease the local wildlife. Usually, if I suspect I'm about to be greeted with such idiocy I just smile winningly, as if they had waved a greeting, and continue on my way. The moral of this story is, sadly, there are too many people in this world who regard anything they come across that is outside their limited experience and understanding as threatening. Often being exemplars of the Dunning-Kruger effect they then feel the need to share their empty point of view. Happily, I get many more friendly greetings and genuine curiosity. Anecdotes aside, what's this Thing about? I own a Meepo longboard because at the time of purchase it was the best one I could find at a sensible price. It's well made, and well thought out, fast, and has very good range. If there is a down side the controller, while serviceable, isn't great. Initially I modded it to have a thumb wheel for better control instead of "wiggly thing" but like all such mods it was a bit delicate and it didn't take my nephews long to break it. This Thing is a replacement case for the perfectly good electronics. In addition to the printed parts you'll need a standard skateboard bearing, a 10ohm potentiometer, a couple of Allen bolts, a soldering iron, and a bit of glue... ...carefully dissemble the old controller: Note how the factory potentiometer connects to the control board and re-use those wires to connect your new potentiometer. You can reverse the connection if you want the new control wheel to operate the other way round. Bonus: There's room in the shell for a larger battery. Any 3.7v LIPO that fits will do. I found the standard battery in my controller had rather less range than the board itself!