Surprisingly the act of balance leaning is fairly hostile to calorie beasties 
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I would go a bit further and say that a lot of people just now entering the workforce are not interested in the sciences and mathematics specifically because its become a mass production no incentive for passion muck house, the arts and trades are still recruiting pretty well. I theorize that most people going into the arts are doing it because they WANT it, not for monetary gains. Most people going into trades simply donāt see a reason to invest 200k in a degree that will essentially make them more knowledgeable but not garner them anymore income.
I have 4 kids, 1 has graduated college with a degree in marketing and teaches English as a second Language in Taiwan. Another is in college now, pursuing a degree in the Arts, acting and musical theatre specifically. My2 youngest are both active in the arts programs at their high school, which is a fine arts schoolā¦and Iām a n engineer.
I think over the next 30 to 40 years you will see a lot of engineering/mathematics/science skills become more lucrative because so few people see a reason to pursue them. Cant blame people really, its not a lucrative position any longer considering the cost of a degree.
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I believe, there will always be DIY. Thatās mostly the reason why I got into it.
Pre-built will always be around since it caters to the masses.
I have more commercialized options for DIY in the works and to make the process much easier. The goal is to build more reliable products that will last.
A few items we have in the works.
- New ESC (Will constantly strive to improve upon it)
- Durable Enclosures
- Hybrid AT/Street Setup
Iād like to thank everyone who has supported us. We have a lot of new stuff coming to build a more solid and reliable eboard.
@thisguyhere - I donāt think itās that badā¦ Now more then ever thousands of people can learn electronics and engineering simply through youtube. I wish all this stuff was around/available when I was in grade school. You got kids at 12-14 teaching themselves amazing things nowadays. Iāve got an email me and someone mentioned theyāve gone into engineering because they built a DIY eboard.
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They may be more interested in the end product than learning new skills. But along the way, building a DIY board will better their skills. Nobody says I want to learn to solder, so Iāll build an eboard. But building an eboard will increase their skills and increase their understanding of electrical engineering. Meaning I didnāt know the things I learned until during and after my builds.
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Iām 13 and I know I felt that when I started but after a little while I got more interested in the skills than finishing a nice looking board. This was almost 6 months agoā¦ my board still isnāt rideable 
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Where it is now: in my garage
Where it is going: back into the house to get a cold beer then back out into the garage.
I think that accurately sums up the state that DIY has been, is now, and will always be in. For eternity.
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I think better, more reliable and cheaper ESCs would be the main thing to make DIY more accessible. They seem like the current weak spot where a newcomer is likely to spend a bunch of money, blow it up, and either buy a premade or give up completely.
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Electric skateboards are on the verge of an explosion. They are going to be everywhere. People that donāt skate are even using them for metro transport. Itās been a standstill in skateboarding. they will advance as fast as computers. Automobiles are all going in the electric direction as well. Esk8ers will know more about the electric cars then the car owners. There will be 3 types of esk8rs
1.) The total DIY person that builds and customizes everything. These boards will also be subcontracted out to have work done for them like a car in a hot rod shop. these will be the fastest in the end.
2.) The semi DIY that buy complete full kits / plug and play. or changes components on existing complete factor boards. like buying a meepo board and changing the deck or changing motors on your evolve.
3.) From the factory only skater
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Sadly, powered boards will be limited by regulations (they already are in most parts of the world). New and stricter regulations will be enforced the more powered boards are āāobstructingāā regular traffic. Bike riders and pedestrians will start complaining, etc.
Bigger companies might come up with way to conform to regulations in different countries, meaning that specific boards will be legal. Most DIY boards will not.
Same happened in the drone industry. The exact opposite may also become trueā¦hopefully. I still remember a time where snowboarders were not allowed to go down certain slopes in France and Austria. No longer the case.
That said, I donāt intend to stick to regular roads. All I might encounter is hunters and Nordic walkers.
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Prebuilt boards is a great way to introduce new users do DIY world. There is a lot of people who donāt want to risk building something from scratch ā¦but later they will learn ā¦start to modify their boards and end up in the DIY world.
If you watch the path that 3D printers took the exact same thing is happening here. First, there were hackers making them at home, then a couple people started companies that made fairly crappy printers or slight remixes of the open source printers. From there it split off in 3 directions - high-end, mid-level and low-end; and you could get them in kits or pre-built. Then came evolution.
Now, thanks to evolution, you can get a really good 3D printer for not a lot of money.
eSk8 will follow the same trajectory. We are in the āa couple people started companiesā phase (and Iām not saying they are making bad esk8ās btw) and we are coming up on the split.
People still build their own 3D printers, and people will still build their own eSk8ās. Most of the evolution comes from these people.
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Wanted to say - really nice discussionā¦
Im also agreeing about these points:
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Hybrid / urban setups should become more popular
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Price of vesc / other reliable esc should come down, otherwise a decent āsystemā for dual motor build might cost more than some āalternativesā (ebike/ escooterā¦ etc) if looking from cost perspective
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In my opinion, some form of mechanical brakes would be welcomeā¦ there are still cases where brakes get lost in most inappropriate situations.
ā
What I like to see:
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NoWinds / esk.de Direct Drive system (no open gears)
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Vesc telemetry integrated remote / app itself.
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More ācrossbreedā wheels - small pneumatics or large urethane wheels / 3d category - āairlessā wheels which @diyeboard offers
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Choice of motors / esk8 part vendors available
Probably more itereationsā¦ but these are what come to mind
When you mean youāll meet nordic walkersā¦
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I have this setup. Do you mean that more vendors offer this as opposed to belt drive?
This wonāt happen until there is competition. Right now since the reference PCB design isnāt availableā¦ the only guy on this forum who managed to replicate the VESC6 is a fellow @stewii who is supposed to be releasing results shortly. He said the components cost about Ā£50 and he would be willing to sell for $150 or Ā£100. I am curious how his board turns out, I think the schematics were from Vedderās beta design, donāt know if he included any updates.
yeh, I meant that in general it would get used more. I sort of see it as an innovation.
On a side note, I suppose anyone could make a box / enclosure for the belt/pulley but that is extra work so not many people do this.
Some / most commercial boards probably are doing this already, but then the system is not as ācompactā and seems to be causing other problems (belt rubbing, loose compartment / enclosure, etc)
Also for longboard it might not be as needed as for mountainboards which might face mud, waterā¦ salt / snow etcā¦ Though I really liked @MoeStooge build with his directdrive spurgear longboard using inrunner motor. ā¦ That was also something unique I had not seen in a while when i first saw his build (not to mention his āstabilizingā arms (not to confuse with these springy things people are making fun of)
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Gear ratio is a little hard to maintain on the direct drive on smaller wheel setsāthey work well on MBS/Trampa type or similar hubs but I donāt think on Kegel hubs. I think Jens will be making a smaller one to accommodate the 125mm gummies coming out soon.
I agree with you on this point. I was thinking about trying to make my own too for a future build. Compared to other mounts ā itās easier to reproduce (pricewise not engineering sense) rather than a 60-70T drive pulleys made of aluminum arenāt do-able at home. You have to have a vertical CNC mill which are a lot more expensive than a CNC router (like XCarve, Shapeoko, 6040, 6090) to cut HTD 5M pitch pulleys. The last two cut aluminum and stainless steel really well because they come with 1500W ā 2200W spindles.
So without the 60-70T or whatever diameter drive pulley not needing to be CNC milled, then all you really have to do is find a nylon drive gear and a metal motor spur for the gear portions. I think he gets these directly from http://www.maedler.de/
The remaining plates can be done using a regular CNC router and perfect for the home hobbyist CNCāer even.
Anyways, itās an interesting idea, I am kind of sold on the direct drive as well. You would have to make all the parts fit together just perfectly - Jenās probably spends 100ās of hours getting those gears and trucks to fit just right 
The fit is so perfect I am just daunted to even try.
As with your previous comments, esk8 DIY vendors arenāt well capitalized and you canāt find a one stop shop easily that has good inventory, etc. How many of these websites do you go to and many are routinely out of stock. Thatās the core issueā¦ not well capitalized and then the marginsā¦ they stink. Motors donāt have great marginsā¦ maybe motor mounts do if you can get a large volume. I think many enter the business and then leave after a while.
Good points. From mobile so will answer short.
With vendors i meant place like fottaz has for eu folks. I agree that there is a lack for one stop shops and that from vendor perspective theres not a lot of areas to screw up the price a lot while customers would be still willing to pay.
Iāve been working on a bevel gear direct drive for a couple months nowā¦
It is HARD. Pioneering something always is, but holy hell, Iāve been through at least 50 iterations of different sizes,different clearance amounts, different helical patterns, different mounting strategies etc.
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I thought iād chuck up a picture of where Iām at currentlyā¦
still working on the mount but I think ive got the bevel gears figured out
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Gonna need grease on that.