In the effort to cut down the time it takes to travel from building to building on campus, it is not uncommon to see students zooming around on their bikes, scooters or skateboards.
What is uncommon is seeing students riding around on devices they built themselves, however, engineering student Juan Rodriguez does just this on an electric skateboard he made.
Rodriguez an electrical engineering student who is a freshman at Texas A&M University-Kingsville.
During his second semester of college, Rodriguez decided to get a skateboard to help him travel around campus.
Rodriguez has back pain, so he decided using a skateboard would help alleviate some of his pain.
Soon after buying a skateboard, Rodriguez’s girlfriend proposed he make an electrical skateboard.
With his knowledge as a mechanical engineering student and his experience with drones he was able to transform the board into an electrical one.
“When I was in seventh grade, I started building drones, so over time I knew what components did what. So, fast forward to today, I know how to put these components together to make an electric skateboard.
“It’s kind of an oversized drone essentially because you have your battery, then you have the controller and then you have the motors…with those basic things you can actually apply to anything and that’s how I went about building this,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez explains that the board runs off batteries which connect to computers that help regulate the electrical current that runs through the motors.
This allows him to use a repurposed controller from a remote-controlled car to skate around campus.
The most popular electric skateboards currently on the market are called Boosted Boards.
Rodriguez had initially looked in to purchasing one of these, however as the boards cost between $700 to $1,600, it was more than he wanted to spend.
The skateboard he built himself was ultimately about $450, making it at least $300 less than its brand name counterpart.
The base of the board is a longboard from Wal-Mart.
It then took three months for Rodriguez to purchase and receive all the parts he needed. But as he was fueled with the passion to ride the board as soon as he could, Rodriguez assembled the board in only two days.
Rodriguez then talked to some of his engineering professors who allowed him to build the board in the Drone Research Lab located in the Engineering Building.
For Rodriguez, assembling his own electrical skateboard was a passion project that would allow him to customize what he wanted from the board. This allowed him to make the board have more range and more speed.
“This is not very professional and someone who wants something that looks really nice, this is not it. But for someone who is like me who loves to DIY, tinker and take everything apart and see how it works, this is for me,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez’s friend Alec Gonzales was familiar with electrical skateboards, but Rodriguez’s was the first he saw up close.
“It’s super cool. It’s crazy impressive that he was able to just whip that thing together [with] no problem,” Gonzales said, “I’ve ridden it twice and it was definitely an experience. The first time I gunned it not really knowing just how powerful the motors were and how fast it’d go. It launched forward, so I quickly stopped it after a somewhat embarrassing yelp. The second time I rode it, I took it extremely slow and cautious not wanting a repeat of the first time.”
Marilyn Coronado shares the same sentiment as Gonzales.
“The skateboard he built is incredible. It is a faster way to get to places and is powerful. I was impressed with his skills to build the electric skateboard just how he wanted,” Gonzales said.
Rodriguez has had the elecrtic skateboard for a little over a week and he has hopes to continue to improve it.