DIY Ex-Snowboard (diy e-freeboard) SummerBoard

Hey it’s me Marcus :slight_smile:

I am a bit late to reality but recently got interested in skateboarding after a long 4 year injury-break.

So I got really interested in summerboards and freeboards and I was about to buy them both but i thought they were too expensive and have shitty service and battery issues. So i thought to build it because I want to.

So this is my early sketch of how i name it “EX-SnowBoard” (ofc some things will change as i build)

So in a nutshell im going to attach a battery and a own made caster to a regular skateboard and see how it’ll work.
I have 3D printer so that will really help me to master the design.
The only problems are:

  1. is that I don’t know if 6374 motor will work for this?
  2. From where do I get summerboard like wheels?
  3. I don’t know what esc’s to use
  4. What batteries should i use?

For the caster I’m going to use sliprings and lazy susan bearings(as i tested myself they are really durable) For caster resistance i’m going to 3dprint some pancakes and going to use really thicc oil paste or idk how it’s named.

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If I remember correctly on the summer board only the caster is motorized. So, in terms of ESC you’d likely just need a single and can choose from this list ESCs based on the VESC

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@Fosterqc is the resident expert and has a thread about all this stuff

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The answer to all of these questions is basically anything we commonly use would work.

So this could be built for extremely cheap with spare parts.

You can get Summerboard like wheels for $12 from JMK or use regular eBoard wheels and round them yourself.

Battery and esc can get away with basically any VESC and cheap battery. I would recommend a hoyt puck or something because remote disconnection can make you fall easy with Freeboards.

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I love the diagram you drew up, fitting onto a standard popsicle deck is a great idea and it seems you want minimal mods to the deck. For another design would you be ok with cutting a rather large hole in the deck to increase the center wheel size allowed as well as elimination of the slip ring?

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Yeah of course i could try that. But how would I transfer electricity to motor without slipring?

Or maybe i could drill a big hole like you said and create a cover for the slipring which would look like summerboard’s battery thing but instead there of a battery i could fit electronic’s such as esc and other. And also hide cables there :thinking:

Btw Sorry for bad english. English is my second language

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Yeah i forgot to mention that I’m aiming this to be extremely cheap. :))

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I most certainly have totally understood you!

It’s a bit tougher DIY when you avoid existing solutions looking for lower prices. If you have the energy there should be a way to get it done!

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An easy way to save a good amount of budget to the board would be to skip using an VESC all together and just go with an ESC. Even cheaper would be to buy someone’s used ESC and use that as they tend to be sold for very cheap.

My current ESC I got used with the remote for only $20 after a tiny drop of water killed my old ESC. It was an old Meppo esc and the remote was dying but even after the remote fully died a working replacement on Amazon was only $27. Only downside to ESCs is that you can’t use a ton of current for your motor and you can’t program them at all.

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I have heard of one dude putting stock 10S electronics from a cheap prebuilt onto a SBX and it worked fine supposedly. So unprogrammable ESC seem to be ok with slip rings. Only thing to watch out for is getting the right hub motor or outrunner for whatever esc.

One last note about non-VESC controllers is they will put out enough power and be not overkill for a 5055 motor like any v6 vesc is.

@rusins do you have spare parts or know of any nearby? seems like 50xx motor,esc,batt,remote are required.

As far as I know, most of the ESCs would get fried from too much current well before any motor would. Kind of hard to know for sure though since even ESCs that are labeled with their exact part number don’t list how much current they can handle and looking the part up online gives no specifics either.

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yep exactly.
My point being even a v4 VESC can easily smoke a 5055 motor (twice as easy with 1/2 the powered center wheel modules)

VESC not needed to get a working board, unless going up a steep hill fast is your goal.

Slight concern with uphills given the single drive wheel but it would still be ok for some hills.

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Looking at your OG drawing it makes sense to me the highest refined design for manufacturing would be PCB slip rings like the SBX directly coupled to a PCB battery and a ESC all one module. Minimal wiring to make it super compact.

Issue with that design is do you try making the Caster module low enough to fit below the battery pack all below the deck or do you split the battery to either side so the caster sits up against the bottom of the deck like the SBX.

I guess actually you could have a PCB battery pack with a hole in the middle or a C shape.

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op make sure you look at this.

Awkay It’s me again :))

So i drew up new design and i think it look really dope!

I was thinking alot about the slipring and I think this variant would be the most durable and easy to make. I dont want to use pcb sliprings(pancake sliprings) because It would need much precision and to me it would be a bit too expensive.

Batteries would be on the bottom splitted in two segments
Electronics such as vesc and other would be stored in the upper tank
The cables of the batteries would go through drilled holes in the deck.

I’m probably going to buy used esc because why not
Is it worth buying prebuilt batteries? or build them myself using 18650 batteries?
If I build batteries myself do they need some type of protection?

And what is the difference in esc 75V 80A continous and 75V 80A peak?

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And the bearing will be sitting below the deck not in the deck

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if you want to recreate the design shown here for pivot bearing and slip ring you need these parts.

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I dont actually inderstand something
Are you making your caster with suspension or something?

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Sorry that was just the render I had onhand. it had suspension because there were three castors in the middle so keeping traction required suspension.

This is the same idea with no suspension:

The multiple parts of the modular castor could be replaced with a single piece of C channel extrusion.


Need to determine what is an acceptable caster/rocker height

to shrink this design as much as possible this is the smallest pivot bearing.


All the transparent parts would need to be custom made.

with a 3x2" C channel extrusion there is room for a 12mm wide gear / pulley.

25:46 190KV 10S 25mph 12S 30mph