I’ve been playing around with a PCB design for my 12S4P battery - basically copying @DougM (thanks for sharing the files!) and it’s just a bit thick, making the underlying enclosure pretty deep. A little awkward looking to me. So I was thinking why not have two separate pieces for the deck supported by 80/20. A little larger on the front since my foot is angled. But I never need to step into the middle of the deck and I know many use top enclosures - but what about an enclosure that is in-between? Midway through the deck essentially.
I think the 80/20 should be plenty strong, maybe too stiff? I can mill the HDPE (in red) to slide into the 80/20 slots which would be cool, connect the battery to the 80/20 like Doug’s design, maybe some rubber gaskets for vibration, and then maybe some type of aluminum enclosure over the battery? Then more of a typical shallow enclosure underneath for the VESC, BMS, etc. ? Maybe something 3D printed. The rest of my set up can stay the same… The images are just a sketch level at this point, need to round things out to make it look nicer…
I don’t see any structural issues. Might be a bad idea when I wipe out and fall? Any thoughts are appreciated.
I’ve had a similar idea in my head these past few days, because the ideal position for your feet is on the same level as your truck pivot axis, but the ideal position for the battery is low for better center of mass, but also high so that you have better ground clearance. A design like yours seems pretty great in that regard
Do you reckon aluminum extrusion (I’m assuming 2020) is good enough to withstand the forces we out on our decks? Wood is amazing for having the right combination of strength and flex to handle all the vibrations and whatnot of a vehicle that has no suspension.
I guess we use CF so this is probably at least better than that…
@MarkVa1 I’m totally digging the idea, but I worry that it would have very low torsional stiffness and you might be building a RipStik by accident. It would help if the aluminum bars had more torsional stiffness, you could make a tube by nesting a set of c channel extrusions inside each other. The inner extrusion could go between the foot pads, and the outer extrusion could wrap around the outside of the foot pads.
That thing is crying out for a vacuum formed carbon fiber top battery cover, which would give it all the good things - more torsional rigidity (assuming maybe 6 layers of CF?) good looks, light weight, lots of space for the batteries.
If you really wanted to go nuts you could probably sculpt the CF form to add some additional features to increase whatever you feel might be a weakness in the extrusions. Like the center tunnel of a car dramatically increases the rigidity of the floor pan your cover could have extra features on the outer edges or similar.
Having some experience with 80/20, the gussets and various fixing plate options are numerous and pretty strong. Vibration might be an issue, but I think that’s just going to be part of routine checks anyway. I added a couple of their plates on the bottom and also added another shorter 1" piece to beef up the center area. Certainly can add more. Maybe even make for more options and such for attaching a cover? But in general, I think you can add enough plates/gussets such that any failure point is the aluminum itself. Maybe approaching a rigidity in which some springs or such on the axles makes sense? I’ve seen some of the mountain boards with those but haven’t spent any time figuring them out.
As enclosures are compartmentalized to have flexibility, could this deck idea have a similar build maybe? Compartmentalized with flexing sections to give some pop and deck flex?
I like the idea of some flexible compartmentalized aspect… Not sure how to incorporate that at the moment. At the moment it looks like a tank. I sketched in some 16 gauge sheet metal - I think it can be bent to shape…
Could you add a segmented deck? Like one section for front foot one section for back foot and the middle is battery? Basically thirds. Or some kinda partial leaf spring where only the sections with no battery flex.
like how the back of full sus mountain bike type. a rod, swing arm, and shock of some kind. you could use some corner bracket on the rails ( each side) 2 per segment except 4 in the middle and either us the bracket as the pivot or add a few pivots to make the deck standing area level at all times.
or rail adapter from waternborne mounted sideways between segments
Little known fact about 2020 extruded rail, the center hole is exactly the correct diameter that you can tap it 10-32.
So you can eliminate these braces without losing much structural integrity:
you can drill a hole through the center of 1 rail and tap the cross piece and connect them with a fairly long, say 1.5" socket head bolt. Here’s an example from one of my really early boards:
For a part like that my personal approach would be to bend a sheet and mill it separately. To CNC that out of a block would be too expensive. Also I’d use steel, that part goes through some of the most stress on an esk8.
Also I been drinking so take what I say with a lifetime supply of salt.
At the moment it looks like a tank. I sketched in some 16 gauge sheet metal - I think it can be bent to shape…
