After completing my first build that will probably always be more or less a work in progress I am questioning if the whole process of locating bits of information when I required them, could have been placed in a easy to understand comprehensive book with images and maybe even troubleshooting tips… (I knew some from my time as a mechanic in the Air Force, but not so much about electrics). Maybe even have deck building and enclosure creation methods in it?
Do you guys think that something like this would have been beneficial to you for your first DIY?
How did you get into electric skateboarding and what drove you to build your first build?
How convenient (or inconvenient) are YouTube tutorials over forum posts and discussion?
I think at this time it’s still such a niche market that would would have a hard time beating the tutorials that have already been provided by the leaders in this community such as @mmaners series “building a lightening powered murder board”
What would the value add be with a book? How much experience do you have to add to the book past what’s already out there?
I think what would be best is for people to continue to make build threads, write breakdowns on certain tech or walkthroughs, and build the knowledge base on this forum.
Not saying a book is a bad idea, but think of most of the “hobby” books out there already, they go over ever facet of the hobby and it’s usually one that has been around for decades (ie: wood working, sewing, etc)
I think right now the technology is still in its infancy and is changing so fast that once you put forth the effort to write a book, it’s going to be outdated.
That’s why I asked what’s the value add with a book? It could be good if done right! Maybe an e-book?
Have you ever seen the book “the way things work”. It explains high level concepts in ways that are much easier to understand, and is one of the reasons I tinkered as much as I did when I was a kid.
There has been much exploration and discovery with this build and it has me thinking one why more people don’t DIY when it gives you an opportunity to build a board to your specs and budget.
I have a battery building book as a reference guide. And an esk8 manual from @longhairedboy.
Forum and videos are much better than a book. Forum gets community involvement and more importantly links to parts and tutorials. A book is useful to a certain extent but limited in how far you can go without turning to forum and YouTube.
Understood. Now a days the hardest part is getting past the adds and the “like and subscribes” to get to the meat and potatoes of what you are trying to find out.
I am starting to feel like the best thing I could do to help others is a super well documented build thread and short videos to insight convo about best practices.
Some people are so afraid to mess up. The worst possibilities are you waste a lot of money, start a fire, or get smacked with 80Amps hahaha
So I find that the advantages of a forum is
1: you get way more information then a book
2: the information ‘updates’ unlike a book
3: it is interactive so can ask if I don’t understand something
But there are still the cons
1: I have to search often through 1000s of posts to get my answer
2: there are a lot of stupid answers on here
Books pros
1: definitive information in 1 place
2: it is often simpler then what we have here as it poses a single opinion
I definitely do think though that if someone could compile all the how to thread some into a single thread and edit it so that it would basically be an ebook which he could update then I am all for it
Would something like a super comprehensive build thread with images, explanations and conversation add the most to “the community”.
My project is half way complete on its way to be an eskate/ go kart hybrid thing and I am super happy with the electric skateboard I have built in the process to test the “drivetrain”. If it was closer to spring, I probably would just stop where I am at as it was awesome to cruise and not worry about hills!
I love making things and want to empower more people to make more stuff.
DIY people would likely prefer DIY books… (personal collections of snippets of information, forum posts, links, and PDFs held together with mental duct tape and cable ties)
Push this scene forward. What happens with technology after you publish is not that important. It would be a great milestone and a nice book to have for builders if it goes through the entire a-z of things. A few anekdotes by current builders on how they messed up. Great pictures and schematics.
A forum is messy, stuff gets edited. Links die. A book is a great timeless tool to have.
A book on how they built/invented cars from the 90’s is still great nowadays.
Concepts like Parallel vs. Series, how anti-sparks stop sparks, trouble shooting hall sensor issues… essentially DIY basics paired with some knowledge and some extras like 3D printing, bent plywood, etc.
I only had very vague ideas on this stuff before I started my build and still have so much to learn.
We have a lot of these threads/wikis already made but it’s lot for a beginner to swallow.
There’s an “is diy right for you?” “esk8 glossary” and a few other threads that are a good intro but I wish the most useful threads were permanently indexed in the menu instead of me having to search for them over and over.
I think it is a very useful tool/idea that only the intelligent and determined diy type will turn to.
