12-01-2014, 02:23 PM
This is a project I built a few years back and have posted elsewhere, but I'm told we like pictures here so thought this might be of some interest.
One of our sons has a neuro-muscular condition that greatly limits his mobility. He can walk and get around on his own, but his muscles tire, weaken, and hurt before very long. When we go out to a museum, large store, mall, library, or someplace similar that requires any significant amount of walking, he uses a wheelchair, but even propelling himself in that wears him out. And of course the wheelchair is not very good once you get off of reasonably hard, flat surfaces.
So one of the things I built is an electric scooter for him to to get around on. Yeah you can buy them, but no 11 year old wants to cruise around on an "old lady scooter" (his words...). Plus most of them are heavy/bulky and don't do so well off of hard surfaces. He's no longer 11, of course but the principle still applies
A pic of him on it, the first time we brought it out:
![[Image: ray1.jpg]](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v479/alanganes/Ray%20scooter/ray1.jpg)
At this point this was still "prototype" stage, but I was pretty happy with the result. It breaks down into smaller pieces without tools for getting into and out of cars and such.
Other pertinent specs are:
Frame is 6061 Al rectangular tube, mostly MIG welded construction. The three major parts interlock as it is assembled, so no tools or fasteners are needed to stow it for transport, save one knurled thumbscrew that is between the batteries. You loosen that up and it comes apart like an interlocking puzzle. The frame, motors and controls weigh a bit under 30 pounds. The present batteries are around 26 pounds.
System is 24V, powered by two 12V, 18 AH SLA batteries.
Motors are two 24V 250W PM electric scooter motors I got from an online place that sells parts for such things.
These generate plenty of power. It moves me around (at over twice his weight) without problems. At one point I turned him loose in a grass soccer field with a GPS unit on his belt and measured the top speed at 11.1 MPH (!) which is very close to the calculated top speed based on motor RPM, drive ratio and wheel diameter.
It is hard to convey how thrilled he was with this thing. First time we got it out, just zipped back and forth across the park for over an hour, a big stupid grin on his face. Tooling along like that must have been a great feeling for a kid who never was able to even ride a bike.
Since these photos were taken, we have padded the seat, cleaned up the wiring, and done a few more refinements, Overall this thing was a great tool for him. He now uses a regular wheelchair (though one optimized for very lightweight) that is equipped with a single point power assist when getting around indoors. But this still gets used outside, we have taken it down hiking trails, at parks, and all sorts of places. It's got a considerable amount of mileage on it after five years or so.
Here is a link to an album with some additional photos and a couple of short videos of it being driven around.
ALBUM HERE
Did this all in my home shop, pretty much did the design as I went along.
Thought some of you might find this interesting.
-Al
One of our sons has a neuro-muscular condition that greatly limits his mobility. He can walk and get around on his own, but his muscles tire, weaken, and hurt before very long. When we go out to a museum, large store, mall, library, or someplace similar that requires any significant amount of walking, he uses a wheelchair, but even propelling himself in that wears him out. And of course the wheelchair is not very good once you get off of reasonably hard, flat surfaces.
So one of the things I built is an electric scooter for him to to get around on. Yeah you can buy them, but no 11 year old wants to cruise around on an "old lady scooter" (his words...). Plus most of them are heavy/bulky and don't do so well off of hard surfaces. He's no longer 11, of course but the principle still applies
A pic of him on it, the first time we brought it out:
At this point this was still "prototype" stage, but I was pretty happy with the result. It breaks down into smaller pieces without tools for getting into and out of cars and such.
Other pertinent specs are:
Frame is 6061 Al rectangular tube, mostly MIG welded construction. The three major parts interlock as it is assembled, so no tools or fasteners are needed to stow it for transport, save one knurled thumbscrew that is between the batteries. You loosen that up and it comes apart like an interlocking puzzle. The frame, motors and controls weigh a bit under 30 pounds. The present batteries are around 26 pounds.
System is 24V, powered by two 12V, 18 AH SLA batteries.
Motors are two 24V 250W PM electric scooter motors I got from an online place that sells parts for such things.
These generate plenty of power. It moves me around (at over twice his weight) without problems. At one point I turned him loose in a grass soccer field with a GPS unit on his belt and measured the top speed at 11.1 MPH (!) which is very close to the calculated top speed based on motor RPM, drive ratio and wheel diameter.
It is hard to convey how thrilled he was with this thing. First time we got it out, just zipped back and forth across the park for over an hour, a big stupid grin on his face. Tooling along like that must have been a great feeling for a kid who never was able to even ride a bike.
Since these photos were taken, we have padded the seat, cleaned up the wiring, and done a few more refinements, Overall this thing was a great tool for him. He now uses a regular wheelchair (though one optimized for very lightweight) that is equipped with a single point power assist when getting around indoors. But this still gets used outside, we have taken it down hiking trails, at parks, and all sorts of places. It's got a considerable amount of mileage on it after five years or so.
Here is a link to an album with some additional photos and a couple of short videos of it being driven around.
ALBUM HERE
Did this all in my home shop, pretty much did the design as I went along.
Thought some of you might find this interesting.
-Al