Brushless Mobility Scooter

[Nick]

So I've been having great fun on a disabled/OAP Mobility Scooter today.

They are electric, limited to 8mph for UK law. It's powered by 2x 12v batteries in series, the motor I'm unsure of.

I'm looking for a cheap brushless setup to feed this beast on either acid or lithium batteries, anything 20mph+ would be fantastic.

Any ideas where to start? It would need to have some power to carry an driver, as well as move the scooter its self.

Don't really want to spend much, as it's just to mess about with.

[BrianG]

20mph should be pretty easy to do. Basically use a modified ebike setup? Maybe look into one of the new Mamba XL setups; the large motor should stay cool (especially at 8mph) and up to 8s lipo should help runtime. Might have to do some playing around with gearing. Maybe one of those giant Hobbycity outrunners and a cheap turnigy HV ESC? The slower speed would be a better match for an outrunner without as much gearing needed.

I would start by figuring current power requirements for 8mph (calculated by runtime vs battery capacity) and go from there. Either way, I personally would choose a large motor, not for power per se, but more for extended power handling.

[What's_nitro?]

Well, you could try these for starters. If 20mph is your max speed this combo should do it.

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbycity/s...idProduct=7870

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbycity/s...dProduct=10944

Is there a gearbox on the scooter? Or how do you plan on hooking it up to the wheels?

[Nick]

Thanks guys.

Is faster possible without much of a stretch in budget? Willing to stick $300 in to it.

I imagine batteries would need to be fairly high amp?

[Nick]

Just looked at this monster:
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbycity/s...idProduct=5142

6500w, so around 8hp?

Would that work okay, noticed some outrunners have shaft either side, could this be a problem? Cut it off?

Main thing is, what batteries would I need for a setup like this? :|

[_paralyzed_]

been batting this idea around for a while. I'd love to see some pics if you get anything going.

Get us a pic of the current drivetrain and we can help you.

I know a guy that could benefit from a high powered brushless mobility aid.

[Ironman]

maybe look into the electric golf cart stuff.They have some pretty beefy speed controls

i looked at doing this last year...

What was available then... it didnt seem possible for less than about a grand....

Come so far since then, with hobbyking and the like... it seems possible for half that!

Scooters are dam heavy... thats the only thing holding you back... if you wanna ride it its gonna take some power...

i was gonna make a go cart from one, chop the seat and turn the handlebars into a steering wheel... would be the nuts!

Pics of the driveline will help, just to see how the motor is mounted will be nice :P

[tashpop]

did you guys see the 20 hp motor on HK? got me thinking about a brushless stool racer project.

[Nick]

Yeah the 20hp one is a beast, lol.


A little technical query.....

If I run one of these motors on 4x 12v batteries (which would get the 48v) would that be okay? I imagine the runtime will be shocking but I'd get an idea of power then.

Also, I'd need a brushless ESC but how would you wire one of these up to a lever throttle on the steering bars? Would I need to rig up some TX/RX thing in order to work the ESC as you would with an RC car?

throttle lever... use a servo tester on it... or a tx/rx... but using a servo tester would be much better and mean there would be less to go wrong...
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbycity/s...idProduct=8296...
This one is a bit bigger so may be easier to work with... http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbycity/s...dProduct=11780

just wire it up to the pot of a twist grip throttle contorl :)

what type of batteries nick? if you were to run 2 24v car batteries in series you would have huge run time... their about 70,000mAh!

[tashpop]

that question has been floating in my mind for soooooo long. i would have never thought a servo tester lol, but i knew there had to be something on the market but in my mind it was going to be industrial. nice to see a cheap fix!

your welcome ;)