Hello,
I am looking to build my first electric long board. This being my first board, I am looking for advice on my build. I can solder, but can not weld, so I am also looking for advice on the best way to attach my motor mount to the board. I am looking for advice on my VESC/ESC. I also wanted to avoid actual drilling and welding all together, but will find a way if needed. Mainly, I am looking for advice on the motor mount situation (leaning towards two part epoxy) and if all the parts seem like a good choice. If not, what parts are? Thanks so much!
Build:
Longboard
Atom kicktail deck (already had it)
Paris 180mm trucks
83mm flywheels
ABEC 7 Bearings
Drive Parts
Turnigy Aerodrive SK3 - 6364-190kv Brushless Outrunner motor
36T 9mm Enertion Drive Hub
15T 9mm Wide Motor Pulley
HTD5 9mm Timing Belt 265T
Electric Longboard Skateboard Motor Mount For 5065 5055 6374 6364 Motor-
Electronics
Zippy Flight Max 5000mAh 20c 3S1P / 3 Cell / 11.1v
NEED ADVICE ON VESC/ESC
HobbyKing® ™HK-GT2B 3CH 2.4GHz Transmitter and Receiver
All other necessary bits and pieces (thread locker, bannana jacks, wire, etc…)
I built a similar build to yours and I used a motor that was 190kv and it is very slow on 6s. I really wish that I had gone with a higher kv maybe around 245kv
Or you could use a Vesc and 9s which would give you more speed or even 12s. Just make sure to set the erpm limit on the Vesc if you use 12s because if your motor is slightly high kv like mine is it could blow the vesc
Ok, I’m not looking for a board that is to speedy, just one that can get me from point A to point B at a reasonable time, about how slow was the 190kv motor on 6s. What 9s battery setup would you recommend, and do i need to worry about erpm on a 9s set up? I am guessing that a 245kv motor would work well with a 9s setup, am I wrong? Also, can you give me a link to an VESC you would recommend? Thanks.
Can get a pretty good idea of top speed using the calculator here and punching in some numbers http://calc.esk8.it it’s pretty accurate. For the VESC I’ve got mine from DIY and no problems from what they delivered for me (I did fry one but was my own fault). Seems anyone who carries them is pretty good apparently aside from Maytech (from what I’ve read).
Switching from 6S to 12S basically means the difference between 18mph max top speed to 36mph max top speed. Also varying the kv by 50kv is pretty significant as well. I tried both 6S and 12S I personally settled on 10S with a 149kv 6374 SK3 so top speed is about 21mph with my current setup. Typically I cruise between 10-15mph and average 12mph on trips.
With 2 5S 5Ah in series, so 10S 5Ah effectively I get 12 miles range before I’m down to 3.6V per cell.
Strongly recommend the VESC it’s worth the cost and time to go through a few configuration guides, Benjamin has a simple walk through video for some basic configuration as well.
The VESCs typically come preprogrammed with the firmware so you just use the configuration tool and a USB cable to calibrate it for your motor and configure your battery cut off limits and control settings.
So in that case, what do you think of a 8s battery setup with the 190kv motor I put in my original build list, along with the following VESC- diy-electric-skateboard-kits-parts/vesc-the-best-electric-skateboard-esc/
I will definitely need to do much more research on VESC’s then.
You may want to go with caliber 2 50 trucks. Because of the shape you will have less issues with motor mount and will have more options. Also, VESC is your best bet, I went through 300.00 worth of ESCs (actial fire with HK and others just stopped working).
Looks pretty good in general agree with @korryh too though, also for mounting the trucks can get some JBWeld if there is any wiggle can use that to solidify the connection without really welding and is comparably strong (just make sure you have it all positioned how you want it before using JBWeld you can’t remove it).
Lower voltage means higher amperage to deliver the same wattage and more amperage means more heat and therefore energy loss in wires and components, so really ideal to go higher voltage for that reason (aside from higher speed) it also will affect the torque to some degree.
So by mentioning lower voltage are you hinting that I should either increase cell count/ decrease motor size, or are just saying that for reference and the voltage on the 8s set up is fine?
Yeah just saying in general higher voltage means more power with less amperage so that’s better, 8S I think should be fine with the setup you had described like in the link the calc in my previous post.
Yup we all start there and that’s how we end up here all good nice that someone put that calculator together too helps to be able to do that without needing to crunch all the numbers yourself (and trust your own math).
The trucks I was referring to are the caliber2 (name of the truck) 50 is the angle of the truck. It comes in 45 or 50 degree options. This truck has a “D” shape profile that helps the mount stay in place. As opposed to the cylinder shape profile like the Paris trucks where the mount can spin around and around.
If your going with 8s what esc will you be using? I have heard that the Vesc can get a bit hot sometimes when going up hills on an 8s setup. I don’t actually own a Vesc but I have only heard good things about them
Oh, ok that makes so much more sense. (250mm trucks seemed crazy wide) and yes, I definitely will look in to those. Sorry for not responding earlier. (response limit for first time user was reached lol)
Another question, spinning the motor the opposite direction works as a break right? If so, how effective is it at stopping when you are going down a hill. How do regenerative breaks work?
The regenerative brakes can be really strong. I honestly probably couldn’t explain it properly in terms of technical detail but the gist is the VESC is using the motor as a generator and allowing current to flow back into the batteries (basically applying a higher voltage than the battery itself to the leads the same way the chargers work). So instead of pushing Watts/power into the motor from the battery to make it turn you’re using the turning of the motor to drive power into the batteries (and creating drag). There could be more to it but that’s what I gather.
Biggest problems with stopping fast are:
1 It might throw you from the board. If you don’t have your feet locked in tight on the grip and don’t have much concave or a nose or tail on the board then if you try to stop from 20mph+ to 0mph in a short time the board might stop but your inertia will pull you off of it and onto the street.
2 You can put as much or more stress on the pulley and belt while stopping as you do while accelerating so can tear up the belt more quickly.
3 If you have only one motor then only one wheel is being used to stop the whole board, if you are braking really hard you’ll notice the tug to one side since the rest of the board wants to keep going (inertia again). Also if that one wheel is off the ground you’ll have trouble but doesn’t take too long to get used to planting over the back trucks when you’re going to accelerate hard or need to brake quickly.
Usually I try to slowly decelerate up to intersections and if I need to stop quickly I use the regen braking to get down to a speed I can run off the board and do that then use the brakes to get the ghost riding board to completely halt (not a good look but it works in emergencies).
In terms of hills there aren’t a lot of them here really, but so long as you don’t let yourself get over like 10-15 mph downhill the regen braking won’t have a problem slowing you down, once you’ve got a lot of momentum it’s more of a problem (again not just the regen braking itself but all the other components under stress like the pulley connection to the motor shaft and the belt).
all good nice that someone put that calculator together too helps to be able to do that without needing to crunch all the numbers yourself (and trust your own math).