Hi there, from Sweden

[eizbear]

Hi there,

My names i Andreas and I am from Sweden and have a son with spinal muscular atrophy type 2. I found this site while searching for various electric wheelchair and how to try and build one myself. I'm currently trying to build a temporary one from the site www.openwheelchair.org , and have already faced some problems as I'm not as skilled as I wish and that I later found out that they haven't released what type of control board they're using.

So while I was browsing this site I saw the site owner's own creations and thought they were amazing. I would really like to find out where you find the base for the wheelchairs, cause I wanna build something similar to my son. Cause the one I'm building is kinda lame compared to that hehe

Best regards,
Andreas

[MenCallMeGimpy]

Welcome, Andreas.

The people on this forum are very friendly and helpful, so I'm sure you'll get the support you need building your chair.

A good starting point is to read through the main site. Most of the information you'll need is there, and what isn't will probably be in the forums. John, the site's founder, AKA Burgerman, built his latest chair on a Quickie F55 frame. He chose this because it's a steel (as opposed to aluminum) frame, making it easier to cut and weld. The battery box is a custom component he made to his own specification, and is part of the load bearing structure of the chair. It's narrower than what you'll find in mass market chairs, allowing him to use fatter rear wheels (for better handling over difficult terrain) while keeping the chair's width acceptably narrow for indoor use.

He also worked some magic on the controller and batteries, enabling the chair to generate high torque, drive at high speed (15 mph) and enjoy extended range (40-45 miles). Mass market chairs typically trade these off against each other, so a torquey chair that's good at climbing curbs is limited to 4mph, while a 10 mph "speedster" dies at the sight of a small hill.

Some of the information can be a bit intimidating, but it's all pretty clear and will enable you to build a far better chair than anything commercially available.

[Burgerman]

That frame is from a discontinued chair. But I wouldn't worry really what you start with. Its all just metal. But don't start off building something that you cannot finish. The lithium, Roboteq setup is also pretty complex to do right. And easy to do wrong and be dangerous.

I suggest you read the full Roboteq thread, and the lithium thread - both pinned at the top of the forum, and the Roboteq user manual, before you start.

How old, heavy is your son? If the other chair you linked to is the correct size, something like my chair is massive overkill!