Hoverboard-Motors on a Scooter

[jetpackjbd]

I’ve got some spare parts from various projects I never finished, including a children’s scooter, a 400W hover board with a dead battery, and an eBike motor controller. I’m considering creating an awful three-wheeled scooter out of everything. Two motors in the back, one unpowered wheel up front. Not planning on giving it a “differential”, just wiring the two motors together if that’s possible.

I’m wondering if anyone’s got experience with reusing hoverboard motors like this, I know people have had success putting them on mobility scooters, but those only go ~8MPH at most. The motor has no gearbox unlike most e-bike motors so I’m unsure if I could reach speeds closer to 20.

 

[chuyskywalker]

I took them off a hover board, fed them 36v through two vesc controllers and made my kids powerwheels hit 15mph with some grass-wrecking torque. At the end of the day, they are just BLDC motors with hall sensors, so you can use 'em exactly like any other. Eventually, with two kids riding it through thick, wet grass, they burnt out a motor because I hadn't bothered to add a temp sensor to them. (So I just found some replacement ones on aliexpress that were a bit beefier and air filled, to boot.)

 

[jetpackjbd]

I took them off a hover board, fed them 36v through two vesc controllers and made my kids powerwheels hit 15mph with some grass-wrecking torque. At the end of the day, they are just BLDC motors with hall sensors, so you can use 'em exactly like any other. Eventually, with two kids riding it through thick, wet grass, they burnt out a motor because I hadn't bothered to add a temp sensor to them. (So I just found some replacement ones on aliexpress that were a bit beefier and air filled, to boot.)

Good to know, did you need to adjust anything on the VESC to hit those speeds? I’m guessing my eBike controller probably won’t get me the speed I’m looking for and it’s not very programmable.

And did you need to go with two controllers or do you think one stronger controller could work? Not sure how I’d do the hall sensor wiring with one controller and two motors

 

[Chalo]

Multiple BLDC motors can't be run from a single controller, at least not under significant load. One will fall out of sync, and the controller can only interpret position sensor feedback from one motor or the other. For two motors you'll need two controllers, though you can connect both to a single battery and a single throttle.

 

[chuyskywalker]

did you need to adjust anything on the VESC to hit those speeds?

Nothing out of the normal tuning process. No field weakening either. I'd guess that the controller on hoverboards just imposes a speed limit (for obvious reasons). But, that will depend on the motor and how it's wound -- your mileage may vary, etc, etc.

And did you need to go with two controllers or do you think one stronger controller could work? Not sure how I’d do the hall sensor wiring with one controller and two motors

You can not control two BLDC motors with a single controller; each has it's own unique position and hall signals that can not be kept in sync. You must have two controllers (or a "dual" controller, though in reality most dual vesc controllers are just sneakily two vesc's in the same box with a shared power bus and pre-made CANbus connection )

If you are going to use generic controllers, you can simply split the throttle's signal wire to each controller (only pull power from one of them, though). It's a good enough solution, most of the time.

 

[jetpackjbd]

Nothing out of the normal tuning process. No field weakening either. I'd guess that the controller on hoverboards just imposes a speed limit (for obvious reasons). But, that will depend on the motor and how it's wound -- your mileage may vary, etc, etc.


You can not control two BLDC motors with a single controller; each has it's own unique position and hall signals that can not be kept in sync. You must have two controllers (or a "dual" controller, though in reality most dual vesc controllers are just sneakily two vesc's in the same box with a shared power bus and pre-made CANbus connection )

If you are going to use generic controllers, you can simply split the throttle's signal wire to each controller (only pull power from one of them, though). It's a good enough solution, most of the time.

Ah okay, I’m more used to brushed motors which are so much simpler. If I do this project I might choose to modify a single wheel to be supported on both ends to fit a normal scooter configuration. I have extremely little space to work with in the scooter body, so the less wiring and components the better.