Building an Electric Scooter?

[Omar.M]

Hello!
As summer rolls by, so does my wish to have an electric scooter. Before I was all for paying about 100 dollars for a cheap-o electric scooter, but now that I am a bit familiar with electronics and such, I thought maybe I could build one!

I know it is a hefty project to take on, but I thought it might be a summer project. I pretty much have broken it down to a few things:
-Scooter body (I can usually find some kick scooters around here for about 20 dollars, sometimes even thrown away in garbage bins)
-Motor (Enough torque to move me around)
-Battery (Chargeable without being overly dangerous and expensive... but able to power the motor)
-Some sort of switch (throttle thing for on and off)

When I put it like that, it seems that the idea might not be all that crazy. Now I am not looking for some super-charged turbo thing. I'm just talking pressing a button and getting the scooter moving itself on plain or just-a-bit-of-hilly ground.

So this brings me to my questions: First of all do you think it is possible? I might have to go dumpster diving and instead of buying the things, just reuse old scrap stuff. This would help me save money (I don't even have 100 dollars to spend on this =P!) What kind of motor would I be looking for? What about the battery(/ies)?

As I was discussing on another topic here, I popped by Princess Auto on the weekend and they seemed to have many of the things I might need. So that is a plus.

I'm open to any suggestions or what ever you may throw at me, thank you very much =D
-Omar

 

[TheVictim]

Try this place.

www.atomiczombie.com

They have plans for the "Sparky" electric minibike and plans for other electric vehicles and bicycle plans too.

It also happens to be the support site for the "101 Spy Gadgets for the Evil Genius" from TAB Electronics, as it is the author's site.

 

[Omar.M]

Woah, thanks!
I was a bit hesitant to go to those sites, because most of them are by rich people who have no worries regarding the budget of projects.
Plus, I am in no shape to be bending metal and stuff.

It assures me that at least others were able to build stuff similar.
That battery pack I see, any ideas how much it would cost? It seems awfully expensive.

Thanks again for that quick reply!
-Omar

 

[things]

those are just regular car batteries. you could use some sla's as they are much smaller and lighter. you can get sla's for under $30, most electric scooters use them.(well mine does anyway)

 

[Omar.M]

That is great, thank you
I do think that Princess Auto has those batteries in stock (probably the cheapest around here). I was just wondering, how would I go about charging that battery? It seems rather hard, and I for sure want no batteries exploding during the charging process.

Secondly, which kind of motor should I use? If anyone has been to Princess Auto, are there any good motors around there?

 

[things]

low rpm, high torque motor, and if you are using 2 car batteries usually they are connected to give 24 volts at whatever amperage one battery is. also if you can get a 24 volt battery charger it should work ok

 

[Omar.M]

Two car batteries... that may be way too much power. I think I can find some 12 V batteries around here. Is it possible to build a scooter from a 12V battery / motor?

Thanks so much for your help !
-Omar

 

[things]

the reason they use two is simply because it make it run longer so 12 volts would be fine, it probably just wouldn't run as long and also it depends on your motor