I have been reading the forum for a while and trying to figure out what my build will consist of but I have made little if any progress.
To avoid assaulting you with a wall of text Ill try presenting information in a structured way.
CuriousSavage’s build
purpose
mostly cruising around for fun, maybe for commuting from the subway to work/home.
rider
~170lbs
location
SF bay area (east bay) - Its kind of hilly here but its mostly flat where I live. There is one place I might like to use it to get to that is up a hill.
wishlist
in order of importance:
easy to maintain - I would love a board with a charging port/bms so I can Just plug into a laptop charger.
range - rethinking this, I originally wanted really long range (15-20 miles) but to be honest I doubt I will be going on really long rides
speed - maybe 15-20mph top speed (not totally sure how fast I will be comfortable with ). Not really a daredevil so going really fast is not a priority.
Budget
~$400-$500
the lower the better (to keep the wife happy). But I understand that quality has a cost so willing to bite the bullet a little.
I’m not really set on any of these parts. To be honest I kind of got lost while trying to research this.
I know the battery I’m thinking of building only sort of matches my wishlist so I’m willing to consider other options. I looked at the space cell and the 6s4p epower pack. If I have complete plans I wouldn’t mind building my own pack. I’m just not sure if that’s a great idea.
I agree with @Charster10.
Ollin Vescs are top quality and they come with a warranty.
I’ve been running a pair of them for some time now and they have been very dependable.
I highly recommend getting the optional heatsink package.
It’s pretty easy to get 20-25 mph and 10-15 mile range at 10s voltage and 5000mah capacity using Lipos with a high C rating.
As long as you know what you’re doing and read a lot before messing with your vesc you should not need a warranty. I say save some money and buy from DIY, axle or vanda. I have a DIY VESC and wasn’t very happy with the quality but after replacing a few connectors that were mishaped by too much heat, trimming a few through hole legs that were poking into the main leads and reflowing a few components that had cold joints, it looked solid. If I had no experience with electronic, I would have 100% returned it as it was just a matter of time before something in it burned or shorted.
If you don’t want to deal with this kind of stuff. I recommend you buy from ollinboards. I would still do a very thorough inspection of it though.
I would get my motor from @JLabs. Only thing is it doesn’t come with any hardware but i see your mount does.
One thing I’m still a little unsure about is some motor mounts say they only work with certain motor sizes. The Turnigy motor I listed says the diameter is 59mm but the mount says it only works for 63mm motors.
No idea where to buy pulleys or how to choose too…
@Namasaki will I have enough space with a 26" wheelbase for that battery?
my shortest wheelbase is 32"
I’m sure 26" is doable but you will need to use either A123 26650 cells or Lipos in order to get enough power with a small enough footprint.
The problem with that 12s2p 18650 li-ion pack that your looking at is it will only deliver 40-50 amps max.
I tried running 12s when I started. Yes, its noticeably more powerful than 10s but it was not very dependable for me.
I’ve been running 10s for a while now and it’s plenty fast enough and very dependable. Everything runs cooler on 10s, motors and electronics.
With your budget, you would probably be better off with Lipos.
The 5 lipo packs I used on my build only cost around $130. The BMS I’m using was only around $60
I would highly recommend getting e-skate motor from one of the vendors in this forum.
63mm is the standard. The Hobby King motors will work but I just think the motors sold by e-skate vendors are better quality and they’re not that much more money.
Diyelectric is a good source in the USA fro 63mm motors
Allienpower if your in the UK or EU
Enertion if your in Australia
I’m currently using motors from Allienpower.
They’re shipping to USA was pretty fast.
I have also used Diyelectric’s 63mm motors and they are good as well and have 8mm long shafts which give more options for pulleys.
the round thing is the power switch. the red square circuit board is the meter.
Alien Power systems used to sell Bestech BMS’s. Don’t know if they still do or have any in stock.
You can order directly from Bestech but they have a minimum 2 per order. The good news is that their delivery time is good and they accept PayPal.
Here is an example of total cost:
