[jakecodes]

I always wanted to make an electric skateboard. After a few successful iterations, I decided to make a really fast one that could replace a car. I built my own lion battery out of ~500 18650s. It could go about 30 miles on a charge. It could go about 50mph. It was a very wide body with huge air filled tires. It could pull 10 of my friends up the steepest hill. It was very powerful because I installed an electric motorcycle engine on it. My one extra stupid move was I didn't account for the battery dying at high speeds. Normally I'd stop well before an empty battery but I only had 3 LEDs of primitive battery indication. And that only measured with voltage. Voltage fluctuates wildly in motorized vehicles. It died while only going about 20mph but up a steep hill. The sudden loss of forward momentum flung me off the board into the pavement where I flipped a few times and scrapped across the pavement for a while. Was a painful lesson.