December 2, 2013

All Terrain Scooter Redux

The original version of my all-terrain electric scooter suffered from a number of problems, the most important of which was in the motors I used.  The triple CIM motors were just not capable of providing both the top speed and acceleration I wanted out of the vehicle.  Actually they could, but just not for very long before the insulation on their windings turned into a melty black mess.

After some attempted snow-scootering during the northeast snowstorm last year, I decided I was sick of the freshly roasted motor smell, and stored away the scooter until the summer.  A full teardown of the scooter revealed enough unnoticed or impending failures that I decided to scrap pretty much the entire mechanical end of the original scooter.

Version 2 features the same HobbyKing LiPo battery pack and Kelly 72V 200A brushed motor controller as the original, but nearly everything else is new.  Replacing the CIMs are a pair of Magmotor S28-200's, which are slightly larger than the S28-150's of battlebot fame.  Like before, the motors are mechanically coupled to one output shaft through a gearbox reduction, and connected electrically in series.

This version also has even bigger wheels (because the old ones clearly weren't large enough...), and over a foot of clearance everywhere.


The scooter's build log can be found here.