Hi Guys, first post here although I have been reading along for some time. I have been eyeballing Onewheels for some months already but can’t justify the costs of a new one. The market for used boards is almost non existing here in the Netherlands so I was really stoked to learn that people are actually building these with parts from Hoverboards as low budget alternative.
Examples for these are
ZDLab: https://youtu.be/0dq-1kT_1OI
Thedirits: https://youtu.be/tJ3aADChl2o
The 3D printed version from Ddrito was most accessible for me with the tools I have available.
Printing the hub/rim for the wheels. Later I discovered that with this print orientation (or with my printer setting) that inside needed to be sanded down a bit. The hub is a really snug fit around the hoverboard wheels. With a 4 layer perimeter print setting it seems to hold the load of the Onewheel and passenger quite well.
Most of the files have been designed for a printer with 30x30cm printbed. My Flashforge has a 16x26cm printsize so I had to split some of the print files.
Because the wheelhub encloses the hoverboard motors the diameter can not be smaller than 6”. This rules out using 5” Gokart tyres. A bit of a shame because 5” tires are only €30,- new. And the original Onewheel tires are often €80 or more. Luckily the owner of a Superkart team lives only 15 minutes away from me and he was kind enough to donate some Dunlop 11x5.5-6 tires that had only been used for a qualifying race .
Aluminum rails are 20x40x20 mm size and 3mm thick. Local hardware stores only had 2mm thick profiles but an online supplier was able to supply them for €20.- shipped.
The beauty of Hoverboards is that they produced millions of them and because the hype has past you can get used ones online for €50.- or less. For that money you get a 10S2P 18650 battery, 2BLCD controllers, 2x 350 Watt motors and 2 gyro sensor boards. Sounds like a good deal to me.
Wheel assembly. The rim is not tubeless, so an oversized inner tube is placed. Because of the motors the valve has to exit on the side of the rim. A flexible valve extension is used for this. The extensions that I could source locally all had a bigger shell than the printed design accounted for. Some modifications where necessary to make this fit.
Once printed all parts come together really nice and it shows that the designer of files really had some thoughts about designing the components.
It rides…. Well kind off. It turns out that the manufacturers of these batteries like to cut some corners while producing. The BMS would cut off during power peaks. I would not be surprised if 5A is the true current rating on this BMS unit. As the IR on the individual cells don’t show anything out of the ordinary I decided to bypass the BMS temporarily. This solved the problem but it is not a permanent solution off course (don’t try this at home people).
Upgrade to VESC setup meanwhile, see post 52 for more details.