I just did my maiden run on my first board, built more or less from scratch. Wow, these things are fun! On flat ground, I’ve gotten it to 18 mph and it had more to go. I’m heavy and live on a hill so it’s geared low. With 6s 10Ah batt, it weighs 17 lbs. I still need a component enclosure, a spark-less switch, battery alarms, and to do some better wire routing, but so far I’m very happy with it. Using a lipo charger I already had and some scrap metal and hardware I already had, I spent less than $600. I’m sure some of my components will need to be upgraded to better ones, but I felt like these were good to get me started. I used mostly hand tools to make it (except for a drill press and a porta-band saw–converted to upright). One of the other issues I realized is that the rc car ESCs I’m using are quite loud, especially when braking. I have a question as to whether the VESC is quieter than a hobby ESC? I know it’s better in many other ways and look forward to upgrading soon, but noise definitely affects quality of the ride.
Thanks for checking it out. Details bellow.
Joren
On an ebay 42" longboard with 90mm knockoff flywheels, it’s dual diagonal motors. Turnigy Aerodrive SK3 - 5065-275kv with trackstar2 150a ESCs. 2x 6s 5Ah Lipos and a Wiiciever powering it.
The gears are HTD 5m 12T smaller pulley from robotdigg and a polycarbonate 50T large pulley from sdpsi. A couple cheap skate bearings work as an idler bearing so more teeth grab on the small pulley as well as tensioning the belt. Belts from polybelts.
The motor mount is DIY’d with scraps of aluminum from the shop (1/2" for the clamp, 1/8" for the motor and idler bearing mount). It needs to be cleaned up and painted or anodized, but I couldn’t wait to try it out. It feels pretty solid, although I will probably go to welded mounts next time, now that I better understand what angle they need to be welded.
This is how I clamped the truck: Using a bi-metal hole saw, I rounded the truck for the mount to clamp. I added 2 set-screws to the clamp to prevent turning. Unfortunately, the clamp was a little too big so I used a small strip of sticky backed sandpaper wrapped around the truck to allow the motor mount to clamp properly. So far it’s rock solid, but I’m keeping a close eye on it.
your build looks pretty damn good there… in fact it looks a lot like one that I have built myself…
I like your bearing idler, I have considered something like that myself… haven’t gone there yet though.
a couple of bits of advice that I would give you:
crack open the nyko kama dongle and solder the little board directly to the wiiceiver. that will prevent any drop-outs that are common among wiiceiver users.
also your mounts look a little bit on the thin side. I used 6mm (I think that’s 1/4") and while I thought it would be super solid its still possible to bend them, so I probably wouldn’t go any thinner.
Awesome build thread @joren ! It’s especially helpful for me to see where you ordered your hub, pulley, and other parts. Great job on the mounts, and the idler bearing seems like a good way to keep the belt tight.
When I see new builds, I’m always interested in where folks are living and what the roads are like. If I took this board out for a day in my neighborhood in New England, I think that some of the exposed electronics parts would be devoured by sand, salt, debris from trees, and cracked pavement. This is one of the reasons I like DIY; we can play to our strengths and design esk8s that are right for unique circumstances!
Thanks, all. Yes, I need an enclosure, despite having relatively clean streets to ride on in Southern California. Also, despite having what I thought was good ground clearance, my batt hold downs scraped on a speed bump. Otherwise, the issue I’m working on now is turning with my cheapie eBay trucks. After getting speed wobbles, I cranked them down, but now I can barely turn using the full width of a street. I need to relax them for sure, and look into better urethane bushings for them.
Venom double barrels are great bushings. They can be set as loose as you want but they always seem to snap back to center with little wobble. I use them on all my boards.
Check with @psychotiller he can probably fab you a nice box for a reasonable price to keep your batteries from getting punctured and turning into blow torches.
@longhairedboy do you have a durometer that you’d recommend for the venoms double barrels? I’m pairing these with 195mm Paris trucks, and I weigh 150 lbs. I was going to use 90a, but now realize that’s the same as the stock bushings. Also, why not put a cone on the roadside position? I’m trying to eliminate speed wobble, but find that the turning radius is too great and I don’t weigh enough to execute good turns when the trucks are tight.
my venom double barrels are the 94a variety. I’m right around 155 pounds and i get a good turn radius while still not getting wobbles. I don’t keep my trucks very tight, either.
In order to make the “E-board Builds” category really easy to search & locate specific builds i am asking that you change your title to something descriptive that better expresses the makeup of your build.
Most of the new build threads tend to end up with a name such as
"new- noob - noobie - beginner - first - build - help - newb" this becomes hard to keep track of.
I would like to see each build thread with a descriptive title, such as;
Project Name | Deck Name | Trucks | Motor type | Mounting method | Voltage/Battery | ESC
Example
The Samurai | Custom Deck | Paris Trucks | R-SPEC | Custom Mount | 10S | VESC
Looks great. If you are keeping with those power cells I would reposition them closer to the trucks as opposed to in the center this way you get a little better clearance in the middle when going over bumps. Flat packs are even better for clearance and like lowGuido with you skills and extra connection easily makes 2x3S into 6S.
Great tensioner/belt contact area improvement going that large on the wheel increased the angle and decreased the belt contact area on the motor. Did you have/notice any belt slip or did you just add the bearings as a precaution?
