It all started when I found this thing at a flea market for a few bucks. Seemed to be in working order, nothing obviously broken or toasted. Then I remembered that I had a bigmoter. These two thoughts quickly mated and had many offspring, and thus the Chuxx0rmobile Ultra Mobile edition was born. I nabbed it before anyone else could, and hurried home for the dissection. Pics after the break!
A pic of the back end. Very basic integrated motor mount and belt drive. The motor is some unnamed 24 volt, probably <100 watt one. Part of the back wheel forks extend up to form the mount. First thing to go, of course, is the cheesy motor.
Hacking the wheel and pulley setup apart, I discovered that the main means of power transmission was a double-D hub on the pulley inside a corrosponding slot in the wheel. This is completely unlike anything else I have ever seen, and I don’t particularly trust it. Heck if anyone can find replacement wheels just anywhere, too. Second thing to go.
Opening up the battery pack reveals a single pack of 24 volt Sub-C cells, 2800mAh. I’m surprised that a toy like the X2 has a 24 volt electrical system. The few dollars didn’t include a charger, so I hacked one up out of a 30v power supply. It wouldn’t take a charge because…
…all the batteries seem to have leaked. A long time ago. Some cells are also bulged on the ends. This tells me someone tried to charge it by plugging it directly into the wall or something. So that would make the stock battery (what’s left of it?) the third thing to go!
Checking the bigmoter for mounting compatibility. The hole circles are very close, but a run with the digital calipers showed me that the outrunner has a ~6mm wider bolt circle.
There was another problem. If I opened up both bolt holes and mounted the motor in the same spot as the original (same centers), the back wheel would scrub it. It would be worse with a fresh wheel (Did you know that 125mm skate wheels are about as hard to find as Lindsay Lohan’s sanity?).
The solution was to carve out the bolt hole next to the edge of the mounting rail. This screw actually hangs out the back by a few hundredths of an inch, but not enough to flex out or anything, being captured at the edge of the slot (and cranked down reeeally tight).
Some of the “brute-force machining” marks are visible here. I’m slightly frightened at the amount of unengineering on this thing. I guess the goal was make it functional and pretty enough (thick layers of shiny anodizing, woot) to sell. It’s a streamlined version of what I could whip up in a day or two.
The motor fits. So what’s next? I’m in the process of hunting for 125mm wheels, which don’t exist in 3 dimensions. Once a reliable source of wheels is found, I will buy new 5mm pitch timing pulleys and machine them to spec. The double-d drive will be ditched for some bolt or other solution. I’ve scoped out appropriate electrical parts already, and they can be found in the CUMe page under Projects. Currently, I can’t afford an electrical system that can dish out 6kW, so I’ll have to settle for less. When finances dictate it, I’ll probably get some giant lithium polymer batteries.
Construction should hopefully finish by the time I have to scram for this place.
Speaking of that place, I’m doing this 90% for the COOOOOL factor and 10% for actual use. It most likely won’t see any real use, since MIT has a tiny campus, but… who else has strapped a giant hobby motor to a “Razor” style scooter?
I’ll ignore the fact that there exist things like this with ETeks on them…