DIY Moonboard Cost Estimate Spreadsheet

Petsfed wrote:

I have a feeling that the moonboard controller isn’t based on the ESP or something similar. The adafruit blue fruit would be perfect for it.

As far as “baby talk”, I assume you mean “has an off-the-shelf compiler to turn a human-readable program into assembly (or whatever)” which describes virtually every micro controller on the market. If you’re doing direct register programming, you’re talking an fpga or maybe a PLC.

Honestly, efficiently building a controller for a moonboard would involve a lot of intermediate EE tricks in addition to some clever programming. Charlie-plexing, designing and implementing an HMI, ESD protection (what with all the chalk...); this would be a serious undertaking for a one-off hobby project.

I was referring to programming a microcontroller like a PIC in C.  Arduino's language is lax on timing and there is some bloat for all the easy to do functions, you can get away with it for a project like this compared to other time sensitive projects but an Arduino should only be used for rapid prototyping or temporarily solutions.

ESD protection?  Please.  Go look up the kit Moonboard is offering, they have a plastic cap over the led for ESD protection.

It would only take several weekends to get it working.  There is enough documentation online to figure out the charlieplexing.  

^^^ That all sounds great if you want an engineering project to geek out on for a month, but most of us just want a wall to boulder on...

jg fox wrote:

If you or a friend has microcontroller programming experience, you could make up your own LED kit for I would say a quarter of the price.  You don't even need a real microcontroller, you could just use a babytalk Arduino.

Go to Digikey for parts and grab a microcontroller devkit from a vendor.

I see on their site they have a phone app to control it.  Unnecessary cost in my mind.  I would just have a little control panel on the side that you can select modes or do a pseudo-random route.  If I had a garage or knew someone setting one up near me, I would give it a try.

Bluetooth integration with the app is the primary reason to have the LEDs. A control panel of any sort would be incredibly kludgy compared to the app interface. It's extremely convenient to select routes, and also allows you to log/track your problems. The app has plenty of issues, but this aspect of it is very well done.

The other big cost factor you haven't considered is the padding underneath the Moon board.  Padding that can cover a 10' x 12' region can cost well over $1000 depending on the quality of padding you choose.  I just finished building a Moon board and now I'm trying to figure out a good solution.  For the moment, I've borrowed a bunch of crash pads from friends, but it would be nice to have a better long term solution.  Preferably pads that can velcro together so there aren't any ankle-destroying gaps anywhere.  

The custom Moon board padding on their website will run you about $4,220 right now.  https://moonclimbing.com/freestanding-moonboard-1.html

Asana climbing sells drag pads that velcro together, but you'd probably need 4 of them and they cost $490 each.  https://asanaclimbing.com/collections/gym-pads/products/drag-pad

If anyone on here has a good (and economical) solution I'm all ears.

is the DIY price of this way lower right now because wood is cheap (for some reason)?

Best way to make a DIY moonboard is to not make a moonboard, save your self $$$$ and just build a systems board the moonboard just isn't even remotely worth it with the price of the holds.

Hobie,
I trained for two years on a moonboard with no led system. One quickly gets used to remembering the moves and therefor the only time I really miss the leds’ is when doing 4x4s or other volume work. The nature of hard bouldering typically involves repetitive work of a certain problem, eliminating the need for the costly led system.
Also, the yellow holds aren’t as bad as some say. I really like them, even on the steep wall. The nice thing about these holds is that you tend to pop off before injury- it’s just that steep. My $.02

Can someone give the actual dimensions of the moon board? I get that the board is 8' wide and the kick board is 1.213 ft high but what about the hieght of the board above the kickboard?? and what is the spacing of the Tnuts? Thanks yall

https://www.moonboard.com/Content/Information/How-to-build-a-MoonBoard.pdf

Could you get by with cheaper plywood?  $55/sheet is pretty steep.

Moon pulled down their old, much more comprehensive, and much more DIY-focused build guide a few months ago. The old one is here. It includes the bolt spacing along with a lot more detail. You'll still need to improvise a bit, though.

You really want some nice plywood.  It makes the climbing more enjoyable and negates splinters between your fingernails.

The link Nkane 1 posted has the best info on dimensions.

I bought my holds many years ago; they're much more expensive now!  There was a US distributor, briefly.  It appears as if that is no longer the case?

Lumber prices are sure steep where you live. I think that my total lumber cost for building my moonboard was around $150, including delivery. I used 7 12-foot 2x4s and this achieves very minimal flex. Chalkboard paint is the way to go if you're not shelling out for the LED kit. Make sure that you drill the holes and install T-nuts before positioning the 2x4s.

Jason Halladay wrote:

Re: Additional holds/not Moonboard holds, we added an additional 5x12 t-nut grid between the Moonboard t-nut grid for an additional 180 t-nuts. We've got it setup to use a lot of these additional t-nuts with juggier holds for warm-ups/easier-than-V4 problems. Occasionally one or two of the extra holds get in the way of a Moonboard problem so we take the hold off. So long as you don't add huge holds in the extra spots, it's generally not a problem. 

I didn't track the cost because I didn't want to know just how much we ended up spending.   

Thanks for all the info.  Wondering if you guys use the moonboard pretty regularly?  Do the walls of the barn and potential temperature regulation issues impact your usage?  I used the information from your blog post to spec out a similar moonboard barn, and it looks like it's about $4,400 now.  Definitely a pricey moonboard operation, but I'm getting a bit desparate to climb these days!  

I stop using mine regularly in the middle of the summer. Too hot and uncomfortable in a shed.  But luckily that coincides with climbing a lot outside.  

I have my board in a shed in my backyard and with a Big Buddy heater and I can climb all winter. I just wear a puffy jacket and use the heater to warm my fingers between attempts.

Does anyone know if escape’s industrial tnuts are compatible with the moonboard holds? I thought that they were generally universal but the escape rep raised some doubts. 

All I know is that I noticed the hole on the Moonboard spec is half inch and everyone else’s t nuts call for a 7/16” hole. I’m not sure if that is because the Moonboard t nut is any different than others in terms of the bolt size?

7/16" is an "odd" size in a drill kit.  Most don't have it; they just go from 3/8" to 1/2".

I bought a 7/16" bit for my home wall.  I used T-nuts purchased from Atomik.  As long as your bolt/T-nut match threads, you'll be fine.  I haven't had any issues (but I also bought my bolts through Atomik).  They work on the moon holds.

If I recall correctly Moon specs metric bolts and t-nuts. The standard t nuts from escape and atomik will work just fine.