OneWheel

TrailBuddy– Portable Onewheel Charger for the Pint X/S

Power Up Anywhere the Trail Takes You

Introducing the TrailBuddy, the ultimate off-grid charging solution built for adventurers, overlanders, and trailblazers. Whether you're deep in the backcountry exploring rugged off-road terrain or cruising along the streets without an outlet to use, TrailBuddy keeps your Onewheel powered and ready for more.

Key Features:

Portable Design – Compact, lightweight, and built to keep all your devices charged and ready to go.

High-Capacity Output – Delivers fast and efficient charging to your Onewheel Pint X and Pint S. Quickly charge on the trail at 3.5-4 amps to get your board ready to hit it again sooner.

Solar-Ready & Multi-Source Input – Recharge from portable solar panels or external battery banks. Made to be used with 6S external battery packs, it can accept from 12-30 volts. Stay powered even when you're miles from the nearest outlet.

Keep Your Devices Charged Too - 

With the integrated USB-C high speed output, keep your phone, camera, or any other USB-C powered devices charged while you're on the go.

Why TrailBuddy?

Stay self-sufficient, eliminate range anxiety, and explore deeper into nature with the confidence that power is always within reach.

Specifications:

Input: 12V–30V DC, solar-compatible

Output: 63V / 3A 

Dimensions: 6.3" x 4" x 4.5"

Weight: 12.2 ounces, or 0.76 lbs.

Go Beyond the Grid.

TrailBuddy – Built for the wild.

Got some nice glow in the dark RimSavers from TFL? The glow doesn't last the whole ride like you want it to?

Check out these RimSaver Glow Lights

A simple self-contained unit with a power box and 2 light pods that just velcro on to the wheel. Flip the UV lights on and ride all night with your fancy glowin' wheel. The power lasts at least a few hours, and is USBC rechargable. Easy to put on and take off, a must have for any glow in the dark fans.

Over the last year I have made a couple of other projects for the Onewheel, and I'm always coming up with what I think are great ideas, I just need to find the time and energy to fully explore them.

THE TRAILBUDDY RECHARGER

Coming from an FPV flying background, I already had all of the things needed to safely recharge LiPo and LiIon batteries. My friend did not though. So I threw together a little battery recharger. The idea is, you charge up the Onewheel and go ride, top- up with the TrailBuddy while out on the ride, and come home and charge the Onewheel back up using the normal AC to DC charger. Then, you can use that same charger that came with the Onewheel to recharge the spare TrailBuddy batteries too. It works, but my friend ended up buying an off the shelf battery charger anyways, so I haven't done much other work on the ReCharger.

SPARE BATTERIES

Of course you need some spare batteries to use the TrailBuddy, so I began making and testing some batteries. I aimed for 6S (21.6V nominal) batteries, but the TrailBuddy will accept any input between 12 and 30 volts (anything over 30 volts will fry the USBC fast charger). I made some 6S2P 21700 batteries, and that gave me 207 WH, and about 60% battery charge on a ride. I also made some lighter 6S1P 21700 batteries, and they gave about 25% charge. I used some 18650's as 6S3P to get 181WH, and about 45% charge. On a longer trail ride, I'll usually bring too many battery packs, but my range anxiety is completely gone!

I have also tested out some alternative power sources, like drill batteries, FPV batteries, and even some portable solar panels. They all work (as long as they fall within the 12-30V range), but some were sketchier than others (trying to make an adapter from a cordless power drill to the TrailBuddy) but some worked great (solar panels with an XT30 output were literally plug and play to charge the Pint X from the sun).

Riding a Pint X I knew range wouldn't be the best. When my (lighter) buddy got a Pint S, we really started pushing the trails, and my battery capacity. After a few rides of barely making it back to the car at 5% battery or less, I knew I needed something that would let me charge up while out on the trails. We stopped every few miles anyways to rest our feet or enjoy the mountain view, so why not top up while we were waiting?

I explored a few different options and looked into bringing a battery bank with a 120v AC outlet and my hyper charger, but that setup was way too heavy and bulky, plus I knew the energy loss converting from DC to AC and back to DC would chew up the battery in inefficiencies, so I opted to make a DC to DC power supply myself.

After a few weeks of planning, 3D printing, and prototyping, I came up with the TrailBuddy version 0.5. Well, I settled on the TrailBuddy 0.5 as my first working prototype, after testing out a few other models. The 0.5 was big, but it could still technically fit in a backpack and be taken on the trails. It had an internal 207 WattHour battery, that would give a Pint X/S about 60% charge. The little battery indicator was all the information I had to go on, and it just showed how much battery was left in the unit. I found myself wanting more information about how much power was being used and how fast without having to pull up the app. Also, I rarely needed to charge the Pint X up an additional 60% so I found myself wishing I could have some options like bringing smaller and lighter battery packs to on shorter rides, or bringing multiple battery packs for the really long rides. Since the battery for this guy was internal, once it died, I was SOL.

So I began work on the next iteration,  which became the TrailBuddy. I pulled the batteries out, and made them hot swappable. This let me pick how much power and weight I wanted to bring on the ride. I dropped the internal fan and let the heat sink drop through the body of the TrailBuddy, using the wind to keep it cool. I lobbed off the XT60 pigtail, and incorporated the XT60 plug directly into the body to keep a cleaner, sleeker look. I added more informational screens to know my output voltage and amperage to make sure everything was working well at a glance. After too many dead phone batteries on the mountain, I added a USBC fast charging port to keep my phone and camera topped up while charging my board.

I made a couple of test units and briefly explored the idea of selling them, but a niche part of an already small market didn't really make much sense. The TrailBuddy works great with the Pint X / S (and should also be adaptable for the Pint, and older XR) but newer models like the GT and XR classic use a chip in the charger so that 3rd party chargers can't be utilized.