Solar Powered eboard concept- charging the battery while you ride (DONE BUILDING!)

so you expect about 12v 3amps from your solar panel array? 36watts? I will be interesting to see how it performs!

look forward to seeing more updates

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yep, this is all experimentation: it may be awesome, or a complete waste of $100 in solar panels… who knows. Either way, it’ll be a fun project that I definitely haven’t seen before…

According to my calculations which could be in error - It will take 34 hours to charge a 1800mah 6S pack from 80-85% discharge assuming you have 40 watts of solar (@12volts), not including losses. Nevertheless, I think it is a terrific project and it will look cooler than cool!

Wiring all of the panels in parallel will reduce the problem of shading. And also reduce the wire size needed until they are all joined together.

There are many “DC to DC step up converters” on ebay. They should take 40 watts… 2 volts @ 20 Amps and convert it to 24 volts @ 0.83 amps. Since the current will be low, no charge control is probably necessary because the battery will pull the voltage down to the correct level. But I am not very lipo knowledgeable.

We need your actual performance numbers from your cells to make better calculations. We really need to know the Actual watts generated by your panels. We need “Open Voltage or Free Voltage” (no connection except the volt meter) and “Short Circuit Amps” (no connection except through the amp meter with each lead) in full sun. This will give the maximum output levels from your cells.

Volts x Amps =Watts. From there we can go further. 2 volts @ 10 amps is the same Watts as 10 volts @ 2 amps. Watts is always Watts!

Press on Sir!

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thanks for the input man! The project is underway, and since it’s for a science fair, I’m ok with it failing if that’s what happens.

I’ll be wiring up and testing the solar panels in the next couple days, and I’ll post some hard stats then.

It will work!
And you will make it become reality!
And you will win a prize in the science fair!

Please know I intended no such thought as failing. As I mentioned, it is a terrific project! As you likely already know…There is only do… or do not!

Please be sure to post us all a picture of your prize! Oh, and of your Powerboard.

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haha thanks bro-The most fun/interesting thing I could think of was solar panels on an eboard.

It’s something I hadn’t seen anyone else do before, so I though why not!

i think your onto something here! keep going bro!

fun stuff is happening… I’ve begun soldering up the panels, but I just don’t any pics of that yet.

I tested them at 4:30ish yesterday afternoon (the sun was already setting, and I had to hold the panel up facing the sun just to not get the shadow coming from my fence) and the 4 that I tested were all reading 2.96-3.02 individually: perfect. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see about the watts, because I didn’t get a chance to test that just yet.

here are some of the other updates though :

power system is all hooked up, and the board is ridable (feels like a land yacht… not the board company, like a legit ship on land… it’s a freakin beast) cut my deck and have already routed out the center (pictured is just before routing it out)

the deck was actually made out of a door that was on clearance at lowes… lol, it is really strong, and cheap single half of it was dented. plus, I needed something thick to route into the center and inset the solar panels.

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ahh, found a pic of it right after I routed out the center: I have since cleaned up those crappy edges, and routed it down deeper (this was my first time, and the router I have it insanely old… the “window” to see where you were milling was completely covered up from not being cleaned in god knows how many years… I had no way out judging where my bit was, lol)

I will lay a think piece of wood inside the cavity that will have the solar panels mounted on it.

wheel wells are coming too, because right now I have to use a massive riser, which I positively hate. The board is high enough as it.

Now that I think about it, I can relate riding this board vs. a normal eboard to the same thing as going from driving a small sedan to driving a suburban (a giant SUV for people living in countries that don’t tend to have massive cars like us in 'merica) … it’s just so different, but not necessarily bad.

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Hell yeah. I’ve seen decks made out of some crazy things but this door takes the cake. This is why i love this forum. Do you think that LDF is going to hold up well enough?

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ya, I was wondering about it supporting my weight too. But, it could hold my 200 pound dad no problem, so I’m not too worried.

Plus, I might use this epoxy stuff that is made to harden wood, so it’ll be like a protective layer around the outside.

Yikes! is that particle board in the center? If it is, better make sure it doesn’t get wet.

yep, I know- that’s why I am going to seal the edges. I still don’t plan on riding anywhere remotely wet because I have all the electronics on the bottom anyways…

Not just that though. Even if you use to much wood glue it can swell the board. Not sure about epoxy but wood glue is water based usually so careful with that stuff. You might already know, but just in case you need to use glue on it might want to research about the swelling. Looking cool so far!

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Suggestion… It might be a good idea to rotate your motor such that the wires are not in danger of scraping on anything. It will definitely make you feel how hard the ground is, and might damage the speed control if they short. Bandaids are pricey these days… speed controls are even more! Just sayin!

ya, I have done that on my previous builds, but these sk3’s have insanely stiff wires. Plus, I took that pic before hooking it up the speed control, so it sits closer to the board now.

It’s alive!!! :smile:

just some epoxy to seal the board, paint, and plexiglass… before you know it the whole thing comes together! if you want detailed photos of any particular part, just ask!

the underside is not final, but I have everything laid out how I want it, and it all seems to work!

I rode for about 2 miles today (almost drained the battery completely, lol), and it really wasn’t that bad despite being 6 feet off the ground… Solar panels were able to consistently charge at .5 amps at 5:00 in the evening (big deal because at that point the sun had almost set… I had to move the board to the end of our driveway just to get some sun from over our house)

without further useless talk, here are some pics, and I’ll just answer any questions you may have! by the way, the panels are wired up in groups of 3 parallel, with the 4 groups in series.

I know, I know, I hate the bottom too… I just needed to finally test this thing to see if it all worked… whenever I get time, I might whip up another wood enclosure for it.

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Sweet!!! Can’t wait to see some video of this thing running

Looks awesome @cmatson ! What will you call your solar-powered esk8 company?

haha who knows, for now, I’m just trying to make it work, lol.

when I become a fortune 500 company though, you can remind everyone that I just started with a couple solar panels and a wooden door :laughing:

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