EDF Removes Hill Necessity For Snowboarding

EDF snowboard

Getting stuck on a flat portion of a trail while snowboarding is a major buzz kill. You can either hop yourself to the nearest slight downhill or unstrap your board and take a walk. Neither option is fun. [Jude] was tired of getting stuck on the flats so he strapped an electric ducted fan to the back of his snowboard.

The powerplant is an Electric Ducted Fan (EDF) intended for RC Aircraft. It is supported on the snowboard by a 3D printed mount. [Jude] made his mount design available for anyone interested in following his lead. Good ole glue holds the fan to the mount and the mount to the snowboard.

The battery is a 12S, which means it has 12 LiPo cells, 3.7 vdc each, wired in series to put out 44.4 volts. Inbetween the battery and brushless motor in the EDF is an Electronic Speed Control (ESC) that is normally used for RC vehicles. [Jude] purchased an ultra-cheap RC transmitter and receiver setup to give him one-handed wireless control of the fan’s speed. He estimates he can hit 15 mph on flat ground. If nothing else, it looks darn fun to ride!

[Thanks for the tip, JonRB]

22 thoughts on “EDF Removes Hill Necessity For Snowboarding

  1. This may look lame, but for many snowboarders – this is a a real problem and a genuinely interesting idea.
    If the weight of the added gear isn’t too great, and if the batteries can last for a good few minutes on the higher setting – this can make a massive improvement for many snowboarders, and possibly even a real product some day.

    1. Reading the thread and seeing “control with your mind” followed shortly by “Wouldn’t the edf just make the board horribly unbalanced and hard to maneuver” made me laugh out loud.
      I guess it was the “unbalanced” part.
      Makes me picture Wile E Coyote getting distracted and rocketing into a tree!
      OK pretty sick…

        1. i can only imagine if you fell off and you went into panic mode a mind-interface would not handle that very well. that snowboard would quickly become the airplane it always dreamed of.

  2. Ive seen a lot of EDFs flown, and while the largest are capable of serious efflux (and higher top flight) speeds, Ive never seen one with enough thrust to move a board, a rider, and batteries across snow, with that sort of acceleration. a model on wheels will get going like that but most are foamy EDF’s weighing maybe 20 pounds. the gas turbine guys will get moving with dual engines and a wet weight of over 50LBS. methinks there’s some downhill, tailwind, or starting only on polished sheet ice.

Leave a Reply to Ed AbramsCancel reply

Please be kind and respectful to help make the comments section excellent. (Comment Policy)

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.