Riverside Secondary’s Vlad Pomogaev, designed and built an easy to ride, smartphone controlled, and practical ‘last-mile’ electric skateboard. It can travel ten kilometers distance at full speed, can reach fifteen maximum, and can drive at 30 km/h. Even braking becomes useful, as the motor turns into a generator to produce electricity and charge the battery while you brake.
Pomogaev, one of Riverside’s seniors, built and designed a fully functional smartphone controlled electric skateboard. It’s just the same as a regular skateboard, only no more pushing. It’s powered by a powerful but simple electric motor, easily obtainable by the general public. The design is also completely possible to be done by the average person. “With the proper tools you can find in a tool shed, like a drill, a jigsaw and some drill bits, it’s definitely easy to build. Of course, we built our own skateboard deck, so if you buy one it would be much easier,” said Pomogaev.
Vlad looked at existing commercial designs for skateboards, and came up with the current design. “It was nothing special really, just probably a cheaper and easier alternative to existing electric skateboards,” said Pomogaev. “That being said, it was difficult. I would have to say that Elon Musk, CEO and designer of Tesla, inspired me to keep it up,” said Pomogaev. It is definitely easier to build something through an inspiration.
The project cost around $300 dollars to build, even with Pomogaev’s background in remote controlled vehicles and the parts he already owned. “Of course it’s expensive, but it at least costs less than most commercial designs,” said Pomogaev. Of course, Pomogaev already had quite a few of the parts needed to complete the skateboard. If one had nothing to start with, the price would rise to about $400 dollars.
Pomogaev bought many of his materials online, since the needed materials are rare in a common supply or electronics store. Some of the sites he used include HobbyKing.com, SPI, and various other online hardware stores. You can see how he built his design and what materials he used on his YouTube channel over here.