Boosted Blog

Boosted Delivers: First Boards to Kickstarter Backers

2014-02-19T21:13:28Z

Recently we achieved a very important milestone; our final production board was delivered to our beta testers. Boosted boards are already being ridden all over the San Francisco Bay Area!

Our development is over and we are manufacturing full speed ahead. We are delivering our Kickstarter backers their boards now through the end of March.

These lucky beta testers have been riding boards in different stages of development since last year and have helped uncover all of the issues and bugs so that everyone will LOVE their boards.

Today, it was their turn to receive the love that we put into the final board.

"Gives the same high as a Tesla, but at a fraction of the price." - Beau S

"The acceleration up hills and stopping power is unreal!" - Danny M

"I'm really loving it. I always look forward to my commute each morning." - Alec F

"Forget about Segway, Boosted's electric skateboard feels like an object from the future dropped into the present, more in the realm of Marty's hoverboard." - Tantek C

Thanks to all of our Beta testers for helping make this board an amazing product! Thanks to all of our Kickstarter Backers who helped make this even possible. Your boards are coming soon!

P.S.

Pre-orders begin shipping in April (your delivery date may vary depending on place in pre-order queue, the number of boards we can make per month, and other factors. More info will be available regarding pre-order batch shipping dates in April)

Technical Progress Part III: Lithium Battery

2013-10-09T22:09:45Z

As with our previous posts, you can skim the photos and captions for a quick read or dive into the text for more details.

The power capability of Boosted's drivetrain would be useless without a battery that can match it. From an iPhone to a Tesla Model S, the battery is often the unsung hero, usually quiet and hidden and only noticed when it stops working correctly. Today we explain the performance and specs we needed from our battery, how we prototyped it, how it changed as we prepared for production, and how we tested our new design.

The final production battery and drivetrain.

Design Principles

To accelerate up hills, our drivetrain delivers an incredible amount of mechanical power. To make this possible, the battery needs to deliver thousands of watts of electrical power, far more than most batteries are designed for. Some batteries can deliver a lot of power for a brief amount of time, but since a long hill climb can take seconds or even minutes, we need sustained high power. And while going down hills, the regenerative brakes need to be able to send substantial amounts of energy back into the battery, effectively requiring it to charge very rapidly. This type of high power discharging and charging would damage most batteries, but since it's normal operation for us, we need to reliably deliver this performance over hundreds or preferably thousands of cycles.

Riding uphill needs powerful motors AND a powerful battery.

It's important to differentiate between power and energy, since they aren't interchangeable words. When we say energy (you pay your utility company per kilowatt-hour of energy), we're talking about the range of the board. Double the energy and you'll double the range. But power (which is usually measured in watts or horsepower) is how fast you use energy. A high-power drivetrain is useless without a high-power battery, but with both you can go faster up steeper hills.

When we say powerful, we mean a different scale from most devices. From left to right are AAA, AA, and 9V alkaline batteries, an Apple USB charger, a small and cheap AC-DC converter, a high-quality AC-DC laptop power supply, and the battery cell we use for our pack. This cell can produce 230W continuously or 384W for a 10-second burst.

Secondary to delivering the necessary performance, the battery needs to be as light and compact as possible. In our last technical update, we discussed why this is important to maintaining a great longboarding experience and keeping the vehicle as portable as possible. The biggest differences in performance vs. weight come from different types of battery chemistries, and here are some of the most commonly used ones.

Sealed lead-acid, or SLA, is very cheap but very heavy. It's most commonly used for starting cars, and also found in low-cost electric scooters, bikes, and skateboards.
Alkaline is usually not rechargeable and is most commonly seen in small electronics in AA, AAA, C, D, and 9V formats.
Ni-Cd is rechargeable and cheap but hard to recycle. They used to be common in electronics and remote-control toys, but aren't nearly as weight-efficient as lithium batteries.
NiMH is rechargeable, moderately powerful, and commonly used for modern rechargeable AA-sized batteries.
Lithium-ion is the most expensive but it has the highest energy and power for its size. This is why it's the most common battery for modern phones, laptops, and electric vehicles, despite higher costs and greater engineering challenges.

From the beginning of this project, we've made decisions by asking ourselves "what would we want on our own personal longboards?" and then building it. In this case, especially with our obsession with portability and handling, the answer was simple: lithium-ion.

The battery must be compact enough not to touch the ground during hard carving, even with deck flex.

The most important design constraint was safety and reliability. High-power lithium batteries need more care than the average car battery, with more complicated charging procedures and safety electronics between the battery and the rest of the system. This was our number one priority, so it came first over performance and weight. So our design parameters, in order, were:

Safety and reliability during charging and operation
Sustained high power over many charge/discharge cycles
As light and compact as possible

Range

Most short trips around the home or office are only 1-2 miles (0.6-1.2 km). About 1/4 of US commutes are under 5 miles (8 km). And most public transit stations in urban areas are within similar distances. We found by testing early prototypes that a 6 mile (10 km) range was more than enough for short trips and commutes, especially with a fast and portable charger. For traveling more than that distance, a longboard usually isn't the vehicle of choice.

Since we didn't give the board any more range than needed, the battery remains incredibly light and compact. It still handles like a great longboard, it's easy to push, and it's easy to carry. Our test riders told us that the portability and handling of the board was way more useful than having a 10 or 20 mile (16-32 km) battery at the expense of added weight.

It actually turns out that a longer-range battery pack is easier to engineer, since you can use several regular, low-power batteries in parallel to get high power for the drivetrain. The biggest challenge in designing our battery was getting this incredible amount of power without resorting to using a much larger and heavier pack.

We measure the range using a 175 lb (80 kg) rider on flat, smooth pavement at average riding speeds. Riding very fast, on rougher roads, with a heavier rider, or up hills will decrease that range.

Prototype Battery

Our very first prototypes were built using the lightest and highest performing batteries available: lithium polymer (or li-poly or LiPo). These are most commonly used for expensive remote-control airplanes and cars, with a battery as small as a deck of cards able to deliver 1.3 kW of continuous power and 2.5 kW of burst power. We mounted a 6 mile (10 km) battery to our drivetrain and it worked incredibly well. So well, in fact, that every board we built between the first board in 2011 and our second beta run in June 2013 used LiPo packs. So why change?

The lithium-polymer charger for our prototypes was cumbersome to use.

There are several varieties of lithium-ion batteries, and most lithium-polymer batteries use lithium cobalt oxide (LCO). The high power variants used in the RC world can easily be damaged or even catch on fire if they're overheated, overcharged, or punctured. So they need to be monitored while being charged with a special "balancing" charger. These chargers, and the need to always be with the board when it was charging, was a frequent complaint from test riders. We also sometimes had to replace batteries that became physically damaged, "swelled", or had individual cell errors. And it was difficult to calculate the battery's state of charge without more advanced electronics.

High-power lithium-polymer batteries are easy to damage without proper care. These are some of our test batteries that are no longer functional.

To hold the battery to the board, we designed a fabric pouch with button snaps. This was a light design that was decoupled from the board flex and easy to fabricate in small quantities. But it had no mechanical protection, didn't look that great, and provided no water resistance.

LiPo batteries were housed in a fabric pouch with button snaps. This was easy for protoyping but not durable for long-term use.

Production Battery

We first tried to find an existing battery pack that met our requirements. We found small packs that couldn't output enough power as well as high power packs that were large and heavy, but nothing met our needs and we knew a custom solution could work. So we decided to pursue a completely custom battery that had never really been built before. The design involved choosing the right battery cell, adding a battery management system (BMS) and enclosing the pack in a protective case. And, of course, we would need to extensively test this new design.

Cells

After realizing the inherent risks in some lithium chemistries and finding it difficult to source low volumes of high-power cells, we decided to use a different lithium-ion chemistry known as lithium iron phosphate (LFP or LiFePO4). This provides safety and high power, though at the expense of slightly more weight and bulk compared to LCO. With a few suppliers to choose from, we optimized for reliability and performance with a very high-quality cell that we could easily obtain in the volumes we're producing. We use 12 cells in series, each with a nominal voltage of 3.2V, for a total pack voltage of 38.4V.

Some of the lithium cells we considered for our battery design, both in pouch and cylindrical formats.

BMS

The battery management system, or BMS, is hardware and software that keeps the battery operating safely and effectively. It protects against failures like

undervoltage, where one cell drops too low
overvoltage, where one cell is charged too high
overcurrent, where too much power is drawn from the pack
overtemperature, where the pack overheats
short circuit, where the positive and negative terminals of the pack are connected

To protect the cells, the BMS can turn the entire pack's ability to charge and discharge on and off. It also controls charge cut-off, balancing of the cells during charging, and state-of-charge (SOC) calculations to determine how much range is left on the longboard. The BMS has its own processor and talks over CAN bus, a robust automotive-grade protocol, to the main motor control processor.

Surface-mount components were hand-assembled onto the BMS during early testing. Production BMS circuit boards will be assembled by machine.

Enclosure

The enclosure design started with deciding how to arrange the 12 cells for maximum clearance from the ground and wheels and then adding space for a charging port and an on/off button. To quickly mock up different cell configurations, we cut PVC pipe to the same dimensions as the cell and taped them together to check for fit.

PVC pipe mockups of battery cells, taped in different configurations, were used to prototype and test before building a single battery.

A flat rectangular block was the simplest layout that met our clearance requirements.

Once a cell layout was decided, we moved to CAD models and eventually 3D prints to test how different designs looked and felt in person. We even created a CAD model of the BMS circuit board to make sure it fit correctly into the enclosure.

Mockups were made using foam, 3D-printed ABS plastic, and heat-shrunk plastic before the final part was injection molded.

Once we were happy with the enclosure, we paid for the injection mold tooling and got our first shots of the enclosure. We use the same rugged glass-filled nylon as the electronics enclosure.

The battery pack integrates the cells, BMS, on/off button, and charge port. Its processor communicates with the motor controller using CAN bus.

Charger

In addition, the balancing charger with buttons and a screen has been replaced with a simpler laptop-style charger. The standard charger should complete a full charge in about 90 minutes, faster than most other electric bikes, scooters, and skateboards.

The new charger is similar to a conventional laptop charger with a simple barrel plug, with a huge improvement in the charging experience. Here are some of the final test boards being charged.

Fixed, not Swappable

The LiPo battery we used for most of our testing was always swappable, and we planned to keep it that way in production. But during the engineering phase of the project, with the heavy vibration and potential for a water splash onto the battery, we discovered that a connector was much less reliable, and therefore not as safe, as soldering the battery wires permanently. And we also noticed that of the 40+ riders using 20+ boards for errands, commuting, and fun, only one ever asked for a second battery. Finally, each battery also needs the BMS to be attached for safety reasons, so the cost of a second battery (along with enclosure and BMS) would be prohibitively high. Since safety and reliability is paramount for us, and since our test riders have been happy without swapping batteries, we've decided to remove the connector and make the battery fixed and non-swappable.

Testing and Results

We tested the battery on the benchtop using high-power supplies and loads.

A laptop and XBee radio were set up to download wireless telemetry from the electronics during road testing.

We tested the new battery design on the benchtop using our motor dyno and also solid-state loads, and of course we've spent hundreds of hours outside with test units. Expect a future blog post about our testing equipment and the interesting things we've learned.

The end result of this testing and development is a battery that works incredibly well, with the ability to supply thousands of watts of continuous power from only 12 small cells, an easy on/off switch, easy and rapid charging, and a beautiful design. Our cells are rated for thousands of cycles, so we expect each pack to last for years of daily use. And most importantly, we have a safe, high performance, and compact battery that preserves the design vision we had for the lightest, most powerful electric longboard ever made.

Five test units with the production battery waiting for delivery.

Technical Progress Part II: Dual Motor Drivetrain

2013-08-27T07:30:59Z

The drivetrain, like the motor controller, has evolved extensively since the boards we built before Kickstarter. We’re going to take you through some of the principles and constraints that have guided our design, along with the modifications, prototyping, testing, and manufacturing we've worked on in the last year.

Drivetrain Evolution

Design Principles

One of the most important and unique aspects of Boosted's design is how it maintains the riding experience of a high performance longboard. A good longboard's deck, trucks, and wheels have flex and handling characteristics that are carefully designed. For this setup, that means they were dialed in by the designers, engineers, and longboarders at Loaded, Gunmetal, and Orangatang. We chose these components because they work together to create an amazing carving experience.

Maintain the look and feel of a longboard

Second, the drivetrain needs to be powerful, controllable, reliable, and lightweight. That means enough power to conquer steep San Francisco hills or slow down quickly. It has to operate quietly. It should feel natural to ride, easy to learn on, and fast when you need it. The way we test this? If our beta testers ride it and aren't blown away, we go back to the drawing board.

Ensure the powertrain doesn't compromise the flex and handling of the setup

We also wanted to maintain the look of a normal longboard. There's something beautiful and pure about a longboard that we didn't want to ruin, so we've been careful to make sure every part we design is as compact and integrated as possible.

So we started with three design principles:

Don't ruin the longboard setup's carving experience
Engineer a lightweight drivetrain with incredible performance
Design for a minimal, integrated aesthetic

Symmetric Drive

Since our first prototype, we’ve always used dual brushless outrunners in a symmetric configuration. Brushless motors are better than standard brushed ones because they’re quieter, more reliable, and much more powerful for their size. An outrunner motor, where the magnets and outer casing spin around the stationary coils, provides more torque and requires a smaller transmission ratio.

A 450W brushed scooter motor (left) and Boosted's 1000W brushless outrunner (right)

For quick braking and smooth starts, we’ve added sensors that measure each motor’s angular position and speed. The sensors are connected to our motor controller, which ensures that both motors are balanced and smooth. The sensors must be mounted co-axially with the motor shaft and have to be protected from shock and vibration to ensure an accurate measurement, so we designed billet aluminum "end caps" to house them.

Sensors, mounted inside the motor end caps, allow smooth starts and braking

Using a dual motor setup means two small motors instead of one large one. These smaller motors allow the board to stand at a normal longboard height while avoiding clearance issues with the ground and the deck. Two driven wheels also means power gets applied over twice the contact patch of a single wheel drive system, giving you better traction and a reduced risk of unintentional sliding. Finally, having a symmetric drivetrain prevents torque steer under hard acceleration and braking and provides an equally balanced ride when carving hard left or right.

Independently driven rear wheels for better traction and balanced carving

Choosing a Motor

Motor specifications are very different across manufacturers, which we discovered after building prototypes with different motors and seeing inconsistent performance. To compare motors more accurately, we built a benchtop dynamometer, or dyno, that powers each motor with an identical test load and measures each motor’s performance (speed and torque). We then calculated motor efficiency and safe operating conditions for 12 different motor samples, and picked the best one to move forward with.

We've tested many motor samples from several manufacturers to find the best performance

Our benchtop dyno for measuring motor performance

A team meeting discussing the motor test results

Mechanical Parts

All mechanical parts started as sketches in a notebook before a 3D CAD model was rendered. The models were assembled together in the CAD software to check for fit, clearance, and interference. Once we were comfortable with a design on the computer, we 3D printed each part and assembled them into a drivetrain. We confirmed all of our clearances and looked at how the drivetrain would be assembled, but couldn’t actually ride on these because the 3D printed plastic would break under riding loads. So the final step was machining of these parts using a CNC mill and assembling them into a working drivetrain. To give you an idea of how many iterations it can take, just our final design (see ‘Third Generation’ below) went through 8 revisions alone.

This CAD model shows the clearance area for the trucks during hard carving

A machined aluminum drivetrain (left) is made after prototyping with a 3D printed one (right)

Testing for drivetrain-deck clearance with a 185 lb rider

The Evolution of the Design

First Generation

Our first design supported the motors in the center of the truck while the belts connected out at the wheels. This worked great for our prototypes, since it was simple and lightweight. But it had several problems, like uneven belt tensioning under load and unusually high loads on the motor bearings, which resulted in belt slip during hill climbing and eventual bearing failure. After seeing these issues in an early batch of test boards, we decided to redesign this drivetrain for the Kickstarter boards.

Early Prototype (August 2012)

Second Generation

Moving the motor mount closer to the wheels resulted in less flex in the motor shaft. This increased bearing life in the motors and allowed more belt tension to prevent slip, but it also required us to find a better way to attach the motor mount to the truck hanger which wouldn’t slip from the high torque. The sensors, which were originally housed in the center support, were moved to outer caps, which also prevented “motor bite” during hard carving. This was used on both the first and second beta builds with some minor changes between them.

Sidemount prototype (January 2013)

Beta 1 board (April 2013)

Beta 2 board, modified with wider belts (June 2013)

Third Generation

At the end of our second beta run, we realized the belt should be wider and smaller pitch to both maximize belt life and reduce slip. For our last build, we used the results from the motor tests to select a motor that's shorter but still powerful enough, which allowed us to change the transmission pulleys and fit the wider belt. An extra bearing was added to improve motor bearing life, and a spring-loaded tensioner was designed to keep the belt properly tensioned after servicing. We've finalized small details like wire routing and assembly fixturing, so barring unexpected issues, this will be the drivetrain we ship in our production boards.

Beta 3 board (August 2013)

3D printed version of the spring loaded tensioner

An extra bearing on each motor mount to increase reliability

Pre-Production Testing

Boosted prototype to production

As you can see, going from a prototype to production requires an incredible amount of design and engineering effort, and it involved our team's industrial designer, mechanical engineers, and electrical engineers. We're in the final stages of testing, and we think the end result meets the design criteria we started with:

Don't ruin the longboard setup's carving experience
Engineer a lightweight drivetrain with incredible performance
Design for a minimal, integrated aesthetic

Our next update will be about our lithium battery, which we're in the middle of bringing up right now. Also, be sure to find us on Facebook and sign up for our newsletter to be the first to see sneak peeks of the final design!

Want to get in touch? Email us at community@boostedboards.com

- The Boosted Team

New Logo and FastCo Video

2013-07-16T18:37:00Z

You may have noticed a new logo on our prototypes. We had to change our old one for a few reasons, so we teamed up with Mackey Saturday, a fantastic designer and boardsports enthusiast. The new logo reflects both the 3-phase brushless motor at the core of our design and the dynamics of the riding experience.

FastCo Video

A few months ago, the BFD crew came to Boosted to shoot a feature for Fast Company's Change Generation series. This is the first video showing the beta board and remote in action. Enjoy!

Like Boosted on Facebook
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Explore Boosted on Instagram

Technical Progress Part I: Electronics

2013-07-02T20:00:00Z

The motor control electronics have changed significantly since our Kickstarter campaign, and today we're going to show you their evolution from prototype to (almost-)production. This has involved the design of printed circuit boards (PCBs), the software in the motor controller, and the mechanical design and manufacturing of the heat-sink and protective cover.

Evolution of prototypes, starting with the initial off-the-shelf electronics version and progressing through custom electronics revisions

Off-The-Shelf Electronics

Boosted's drivetrain uses brushless motors, which are smaller, lighter, quieter, and more powerful than normal brushed motors. The trade-off is they require more advanced hardware and software to correctly control them.

The first batch of boards we built last summer used off-the-shelf motor controllers, a small custom PCB, and an Arduino. These were all enclosed in a laser-cut acrylic and cloth enclosure and controlled by a hacked wireless Nintendo Wii Nunchuck. Testing with these units was invaluable, but major problems made them difficult to use and required frequent repairs and maintenance. Issues included:

jerky operation at low speed
electrical components vibrating loose
electronics booting up in "braking" mode if you pushed the board while it was off
the enclosure cracking easily from minor impacts
switches that could change position due to shock
loud motor operation, especially during braking

We listened to feedback from our early testers and thought about the safety implications of some of these problems, and we realized that we couldn't use these off-the-shelf electronics for our Kickstarter boards. So we began working on a completely custom motor controller from scratch that could handle the high power output of the motors and still provide low-level software control of the riding experience.

Early prototype board with off-the-shelf electronics that weren't usable for Kickstarter boards.

Custom Controller

Our first custom motor controller used one PCB and microprocessor for each motor and was controlled by software that we wrote in C. We left off a protective cover to maximize airflow and used connectors between modules so we could swap parts if anything failed. Despite some problems, the end result was a functional motor controller that provided smooth start-stop, reverse mode, quieter operation, and torque control instead of speed control of the motors, all of which were praised by our testers when compared to the off-the-shelf prototypes. You can see one of these custom prototypes in the photo below.

Our first custom motor controller in front and subsequent enclosed revisions behind it

Beta 1

Over the next few months, we fixed issues with the custom design and added important hardware, such as a current sensor and an integrated radio receiver. We also compressed everything onto a single PCB and microprocessor. After some intermediate test units, the first batch was built up in April and delivered to our initial beta customers. Along with field testing the betas with some of our Kickstarter backers, we've tested them ourselves and watched for issues due to electrical stress from high currents and motor loads or mechanical stress due to shock, vibration, and flex from riding. We've also brought the beta boards back into our shop for regular inspections and tune-ups.

Enclosed motor controller designs with the enclosures removed

Our physical cover design wasn't ready for molding yet, so we quickly made temporary covers by heat-forming sheets of laser-cut ABS. The beta units all had a flat sheet heat sink, while in our lab we started experimenting with finned heat sinks for better cooling.

Beta 2

The next revision of the PCB saw many small but important changes that shrank it, improved its performance, and made it more reliable. Software has been tweaked and can be updated on earlier beta boards in our shop. And the mechanical design of the cover and heat sinks progressed from sketches to CAD models to paper mockups to 3D printed plastic and finally injection molded plastic and machined metal. This process involved long hours spent by John, JF, and George both in CAD (using Solidworks) and with physical mockups to ensure proper fit.

Various stages of the electronics enclosure design: including paper, heat-formed plastic, 3D-printed plastic, injection-molded plastic, bent sheet metal, and machined metal.

Injection molds were machined in Minnesota and we decided to test three different plastics for the enclosure cover to see how they held up to impact and abrasion. The latest boards were built using these molded covers and the newest PCB revision, and they've been delivered to our second group of beta backers. Barring any unexpected issues, we'll make one last minor revision to the PCB to improve manufacturability, and then ship it and the current enclosure design on all our Kickstarter production boards.

Three varieties of plastic covers (glass-filled nylon, regular nylon, and transparent polycarbonate from front to back).

As you can see, this is a complex process, thanks to a combination of factors like unique electronics and software, thermal limitations, and demanding environmental conditions. But the end result is a functional, lightweight, reliable, and beautiful electronics package.

We'll soon have similar blog posts about our drivetrain, battery, and remote as those get finalized... stay tuned!

In the meantime, for progress on our beta testing and manufacturing, check out our update.

Ride, Redesign, Repeat

2013-07-02T18:00:00Z

Beta 1 Testing Progress

During the last 3 months, we've been testing our beta boards with Kickstarter backers of all ages and skating backgrounds who reside in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Beta riders at Golden Gate Park

Our riders use the boards for daily commutes and errands as well as recreational solo and group rides. They've been kind enough to record their usage patterns to give us an idea of real-world performance and endurance.

A sample of our actual ride data submitted by our beta tester Dan

With their help, we've been able to identify problems, tweak the design if needed, and install a new part quickly to solve their issue. This iterative process is crucial to reach production. We've seen issues ranging from minor software bugs to finding out that our 3D-printed prototype remotes will melt if left inside a warm car.

Despite these issues, our beta testers have been patient, and their amazing feedback and help is making the production boards more reliable, more fun, and safer. Here are some of their comments:

Mike Dodge (age: 27) says, "It's been my go to vehicle to use on my daily commute to and from the company shuttle as well as meeting up with friends on the weekends in the city."

Bernie Schneider (age: 43) says, "I take my board everywhere I go including work. It is so much fun! I'd rather spend 10-15 minutes riding my Boosted to pick up my lunch even if it's quicker to drive there in my car."

Dan McDonley (age: 35) who has never ridden a skateboard before but logged over 100 miles in the first 2 weeks says, "For commuting it is fantastic! Before I had to wait for the next bus or train if it was too full to store my bike. Not a problem with my board."

New Beta 2 Batch

For our second beta batch, we improved the motor controller, electronics cover, software, and drivetrain design using lessons learned from beta 1. For more technical details on the motor control electronics check out our blog post, "Technical Progress Part I: Electronics".

The progress of our electronics from beta 1 (middle) to beta 2 (bottom)

In addition to building boards, we used this new beta batch as an opportunity to develop and test our assembly line, inventory management, and operations. We tripled the production size while increasing build quality and decreasing time spent per board. We will keep increasing our production batch sizes as we finish the beta and start production.

Want more technical details...?

We've blogged about our electronics, and soon we'll have more info on our custom battery pack, new motors, drivetrain, and board graphics. Stay tuned!

TED Talk and Beta Board Sneak Peek

2013-04-25T01:04:22Z

Watch the TED presentation

If you haven't heard, the Boosted team was invited to present at TED2013 a few months ago. The presentation, featuring John, Matt, and Sanjay, is now available online. You can check it out here!

Beta boards sneak peek

Today we're releasing the first five beta boards to some of our local Kickstarter backers. They'll be the first ones outside of our team to test our latest motor controller, drivetrain, and remote. This testing and their feedback will be a crucial step towards the development of the production units.

What do you think of the updated look?

Feedback

Feel free to email us at community@boostedboards.com with any questions or comments. All feedback is shared with the team, and we appreciate your honest responses and support.

Sincerely,
-Sho
Boosted Community Manager

6 month update

2013-04-02T02:37:31Z

We’ve crossed the six-month mark since our Kickstarter launch, so we’ve put together a comprehensive update to share with our backers. We still have lots of work to do, but it’s also exciting to see how far we’ve come. Thanks for joining us on this journey!

Our prototyping and assembly facility

Six months ago we were based out of Techshop sharing tools and machines with other makers and hobbyists. This was good for building one or two boards but not for full scale design and production.

Our new machine shop (that we share with our friends at Double Robotics) allows us to quickly prototype designs, create some of the parts for your boards, and provide quick turnaround for any maintenance or repairs. We have a CNC mill, manual mill and lathe, laser cutter, 3D printers, band saws, drill press, and lots of hand tools.

Battery
We’ve partnered with a custom battery manufacturer that specializes in aviation-grade lithium battery packs. We chose a lithium iron phosphate chemistry, which means more charge cycles, higher safety, and even the potential for faster charging.

The packs they are building are custom for Boosted, and incorporate an advanced battery management system. Also, by going custom, we can tweak the layout of the cells to create different pack shapes. Right now we're experimenting with some of these designs on our prototypes.

Motor Drivetrain
When the prototype boards were ridden heavily for a year, the belts connecting the motors to the wheels started to slip on steep hills. While the motor mounts allow adjustments to tighten those belts, if the rider does not adjust them properly it can lead to premature wear and broken belts.

We’ve redesigned the truck to accommodate different pulleys and belts that minimize slip. In addition, the new design can fit larger motors that would provide a significant increase in torque compared to the prototype motors, which means better hill climbing. With this new system, you can worry less about drivetrain maintenance and focus more on riding.

Battery, Motor, and Electronics Covers
On our previous prototypes, we used soft nylon fabric covers to hold the battery pack and electronics onto the boards. For our newer boards, we’re experimenting with various covers that would protect the drivetrain from daily scrapes, bangs, and debris.

Motor Controller / Remote
Six months ago we were using RC controllers and off the shelf motor controllers. Although they weren’t intended to move human riders on an electric vehicle, we were able to tune them to work for our test boards. Through ongoing demos and user feedback, we decided it was best to design our own custom motor controller to provide the smoothest acceleration, braking, and throttle feedback.

We’ve also been testing various remotes with our Alpha testers and riders at demo events. We don’t have the final design yet, but we’ve added more features that users loved such as the ability to go in reverse and a start assist to help new riders.

Battery Charger
So far, our Alpha testers have been using an off the shelf battery charger made for the hobby Lipo packs on our early prototypes. They've told us it's bulky and complicated, so we’re simplifying the charger by making it more like the one you use with your laptop.

Packaging Design
We started working with a box manufacturer who will create a cardboard shipping box that can double as your storage case when you’re moving or traveling.

Demo Event Responses

Here's some of the feedback we received at TED, SXSW, and other events.

“Love at first try!”

“I've never felt anything like it. “

“Wow. These @boostedboards are SO FUN.”

“I love them. And that was the first board I’d ever been on”

“Finally got to check out @BoostedBoards in person yesterday @chaoticmoon and I love it!”

“A blast to ride!”

“Friggin sweet “

“the COOLEST board ever invented!! “

“this was too much fun.”

“Jesus eff. Just met the @boostedboards guys at #sxsw and got a demo ride. I'm sold. This is absolutely amazing!”

“WANT!”

Feedback
Feel free to email us at community@boostedboards.com with any questions or comments. All feedback is shared with the team, and we appreciate your honest responses and support.

Sincerely,

-The Boosted Team

TED preview and SXSW photos

2013-03-18T23:55:00Z

TED 2013 Preview

photo: James Duncan Davidson

Sanjay, John, and Matt were invited to the annual TED talks held in Long Beach, CA. It was an inspiring milestone for the team to present our technology and meet the global innovators in attendance.

Check out this Instagram post by skateboarder Tony Hawk with Jim Carrey riding our prototype at TED.

We'll post our talk when it's made live by TED. For now, we're excited to present our new video that Alchemy Creative made for the talk.

SXSW photos on Instagram

Have a photo you want to share? Tag us with #Skateboosted.

Cheers!

-Boosted

Boosted at TED and SXSW

2013-02-26T01:46:00Z

We're excited that Boosted has been invited to present at the TED 2013 conference this week. We'll be sharing the stage with some amazing innovators as we talk about how the technology used on our boards can revolutionize the future of personal transportation.

We're also heading to Austin, Texas during the annual South by Southwest film, interactive, and music conference from March 8th to March 13th. We'll post a schedule on our Facebook page and on Twitter so make sure to follow and keep an eye out for those updates. If you're interested in meeting up in Austin, email us at community@boostedboards.com and we can schedule something!

-The Boosted Team

Breaking things down to build things up

2013-02-06T18:12:00Z

We know it's been a while since our last update, but we've been busy and have tons of news to share with you! We've been building up the office facility, adding new team members, and finalizing the battery and remote configurations.

Office Deconstruction

We've broken down walls, converted from carpet to tile flooring, installed a roll-up door, and rewired the electricity to 3 phase power to create our manufacturing and assembly rooms. Along with our friends at Double Robotics, we're building up a prototyping shop with a mill, lathe, drill press, 3D printer, and other equipment.

Looking a bit bare now, but this assembly room will get busy in the next few months.

New Mechanical and Electrical Engineers

To help us as we prepare for production, Mark and Jean-François have joined our team.

Mark interned with us last summer as we prepared for our Kickstarter campaign, and he built most of the parts on our prototypes. He just graduated with his ME degree from Stanford and will be in charge of mechanical design and manufacturing.

Jean-François drove cross country from Québec to California last week to join us. He'll be working closely with John on the power electronics and software in the remote and motor controller.

Battery Configuration

We've looked into various battery chemistries and pack designs. We're currently planning on using a lithium iron phosphate cell, since it has better safety and cycle life than the LiPo packs we used earlier on our prototypes. We're working with a fantastic supplier who's building a custom pack that's both high performance and high quality.

Remote Design

We've cleaned up the design of our handheld remote, and now we're testing functionality. There are indicator LEDs to display information such as the remaining battery life on the board and remote. We're testing various spring tensions and dampening levels for the scrolling wheel to get the right feel for the throttle and brake. We're also testing various diameters of this wheel to work with varying hand sizes and gloves. Once we finish with the prototyping, we'll be injection molding the plastic components.

We also added a killswitch on the bottom of the remote for safety. If you drop the remote, it will cut power to the motors and prevent your board from running away.

Crunch Time
We're just a few months away from our Kickstarter delivery dates. We've been making great progress, and with our new tools and team members, we're now moving even faster. Thanks for all the support and continued encouragement!

Feel free to drop us a line any time at community@boostedboards.com.

Sho
Boosted Community Manager

New office and product development

2012-11-30T01:57:00Z

It's been just over a month since we successfully finished our Kickstarter campaign. Since then, the team has been busy moving into a new office space, printing and packing the Kickstarter rewards, and developing the new remote and other components for the boards.

New Office in Silicon Valley

After checking out over a dozen locations searching for the right space, we found it with our friends at Double Robotics in Sunnyvale, CA. This will be the headquarters for the design, prototyping, and production of your boards. We packed and moved all of our parts and tools from Techshop in San Jose, our home for last summer where our first prototypes were built. We're still setting things up, but here are some pics of our new workspace.

Our new office

The electronics lab

Kickstarter Rewards

Hot off the press! We just received our Boosted die-cut decals and t-shirts for our Kickstarter rewards. If you responded to the Kickstarter address surveys we sent, you should be receiving the rewards starting late November. If you did not send us your address please check for more information here.

Stickers, t-shirts, and thank you cards

The shirts have a custom "Original Backer Tee" print inside signifying you have a limited Kickstarter-only run of these shirts. We also will have t-shirts available for purchase on our website just in time for Christmas. Order them here.

Product Development

Every week we've been tuning our motor controllers, mechanical design, and other components. It's getting closer to the design renderings from Kickstarter. Here's a working 3D printed model of the remote (the production one will look much nicer).

3D printed plastic and rubber prototype remote
Read more about this remote on our Kickstarter update.

Questions or comments? We'd love to hear from you! Feel free to email us at community@boostedboards.com.

Kickstarter Homestretch and New Uphill Boosted Video

2012-10-09T19:07:00Z

Only 2 days left to lock in the Kickstarter price of $1199

We're in the final stretch of our Kickstarter campaign, and we're so close to our stretch goal of $500,000. If we hit that goal, we can promise a fast-swap battery pack (like a cordless drill), so it will be simple to add more range.

After our Kickstarter ends, you can order via www.boostedboards.com for $1299 plus tax and shipping (estimated delivery September 2013).

New gravity defying video! Boosted Boards prototype sliding uphill

The Berkeley Hills are famous for longboarders bombing down these steep runs... We wanted to make the first video riding (and sliding) UP the hills.

Jumping jacks for your support

2012-09-18T18:28:00Z

Thank you, thank you, thank you! We are overwhelmed with all the positive support we received for our Kickstarter campaign, especially on our Facebook fan page and our Twitter since our launch on Tuesday. We are especially grateful for all the Kickstarter backers and fans who helped spread the word about our campaign. Thanks to you, we met our funding goal in just 24 hours and the support continues to grow. It's hard to describe how much energy this has given our team.

Since then, we have received a tremendous number of messages with questions and feedback. We're reading through them all and trying our best to respond to everyone as quickly as possible, although we are also answering common questions in the FAQ section of our Kickstarter page. Thanks for your patience so far!

In the meantime, we haven't stopped working on the prototypes, and we'll be posting updates on our progress. So stay tuned, and once again, thank you!

For every dollar pledged in the first reward tier, we promised a jumping jack.
Here's our team doing the first 30 jumping jacks. We still need to work on coordination.

and we're officially live!

2012-09-11T14:55:00Z

We are excited to officially launch Boosted Boards today. As many of our closest friends and family know, these past few months have been an often sleepless yet very rewarding time for our team. What started out as a common interest to find a sustainable and enjoyable method of getting around has transformed into a company and a vehicle that we are deeply passionate about. We are grateful to have a team that we're proud of, a product that's game changing, and a new Kickstarter campaign which we hope you will enjoy and share among friends.

There's still lots of work to be done, but we're excited to be part of this journey and fortunate to have all the support from our fans. Thanks everyone!

- The Boosted Team