I hope this is in the right place! I’m a carer for autistic adults looking to add some more variety to my autism support/care work.
At the moment I primarily do downhill mountain biking experiences for my clients, but after discussing the idea of downhill boarding ( in particular electrified), there’s been a lot of interest!
So my questions!
What kind of programmable setup do you think could work for this? (Primary concerns are speed limit and acceleration curve limit, I think)
What setup is hardy enough for abuse by novices? Belt drive/ gear drive? Trampa pre-built??
Are there remote kill/ control options for boards?
If I wanted to partner up with a vendor, who would you recommend?
There are sometimes small grants available for ventures like this, but I really need to work on some proposals before I can access it.
Thank you in advance for your help, let me know of you have any questions and if there’s any way you think you can help, I’m all ears!
That’s a great idea. I have done work in the past with A-Skate, they do some really cool stuff.
I would talk to @Arch at LaCroix. They make great boards and internally developed their own VESC so would be able to discuss config and hardware changes & requirements to achieve your goals of speed limiting and remote cutoff.
Hi! Welcome dude! And thank you for your hard work! I’ll try my best to answer your questions here.
With all of our DIY builds, we can easily limit speed and acceleration through many ways, but the easiest change would be through the VESC tool/Ackmaniacs/Unity UI by adjusting throttle curves and amps.
I’m not sure how much you’re willing to invest, but this is a difficult question to answer because quality and price might not equate to how much abuse they’re able to handle. If you’re looking mostly for abuse, I’d recommend looking into top mounted eMTBs because they’re a little more rugged in build
To my knowledge, there isn’t a remote kill switch for boards. There are remote switches and even roll-to-start, but no “kill switch” Generally, there’s only one power switch/loop key which is located on the board itself. I don’t trust riding a board if it can be remotely turned off by someone else
1 on 1 is the plan, the awareness required is such that I don’t think I could do any more than that.
Starting from a limited speed and acceleration up to trips out on land with permission.
First realise that I’ve not seen any board with a remote kill switch, so letting someone ride one of these is akin to letting them drive a car — they could go really, really, really, really far very quickly if they desired to.
Of course you could make one (or have one made) with a remote kill switch. I’d set it up with two remotes and the second remote just holds the wheel turned which allows the system to give throttle. If the board goes out of range of the first remote or if the wheel stops being held, then the system only allows braking and coasting. That’s how I would try it.
You could probably get a custom built skate for that, from someone on here.
Swapped to laptop for the intense number of responses I’m getting!
I’m comfortable with a lot of mechanics, electronics and general manufacturing processes, though I’m also familiar with my intense ability to not finish projects, sop focusing on vendors and mostly complete options availiable!
This is an excellent response with a lot of detail, thank you!
The financials is a tricky one, I could spring for a Trampa but need to know what kind of abuse it can take (more misuse than proper hardcore offroad!).
I would also like to have at least two boards, so I could be alongside the participant while they travel.