Andres Guzman-Ballen, a Senior at the University of Illinois studying Computer Engineering sent us an email about his latest project. It is a Wireless Electric Mountainboard. You can see the video below of the hard wired version that he built when he wanted to debug some issues he was having with the wireless setup.
“I chose a mountainboard because the truck design allows the rider to carve more since the center of gravity is lower than a skateboard. Because it is designed to bend and absorb impacts and still be very strong (with the carbon fiber and fiberglass combo), riding it feels as if you are surfing in the street. I use a 25.6 V 10.2 Ah LiFePO4 battery and it weighs only 6 lbs! The brushless motor that I use only weighs 0.6 lbs and the board that I bought from eBay weighs about 18 lbs. If you add that up with the material supporting all that, it weighs about 30 lbs. It can go up to 20 mph but I usually ride around 10 to 15 since I want to live long enough to enjoy it.”