after some consideration, I added a carbon window for the receiver (it acts as a receiver seat for the vacuum enclosure mold as well) and routed the LHB phase wire channels on the board topside.
its amazing how much time these things always take, I feel like a snail.
top side got routed channels next to the motor, but this side is more intersting: i kinda made a permanent connection of board and vesc. if this thing blows up it will be oretty hard to remove and most of all reattach later. i didnt really find a better solution if I eant to use the components as mold. open for ideas!
same problem with a loop key and charge connection: how can I set up connectors as mold when I want them later sticking through the enclosure. its all a little awkward, but ill make the direct mold thing work!!
tonight I jumped into action - last night I was fixating the loop key + charge port with sugru (gave it a small ramp pointing slightly upwards and once the enclosure is cured I can remove sugru, drill 3 holes and attach it to the enclosure):
while I had sugru open, I also attached it to all of my triple layer nickel bands leaving the cell packs for the routed serial connections - smoothing out sharp nickel edges - didnt want it to pierce my separation foil between board/components and the fibers.
all components are fixated with double adhesive tape, the vesc is additionally fixated by the 3 wires sunk into the board. the pcb has contact on full length with the boards surface - the 3 copper heatsinks are routed into the board. was a little afraid that atmospheric pressure might just break the pcb otherwise.
finally laminating. used a lot of resin and in total 5 layer - 3x 400g/m^2 glas, 2x 200g/m^2 carbon. was hoping to smooth out some of the sharper features and irregularities by that. you can see that the cells, despite heatshrinked and wrapped in felt are clearly visible. the electronic stuff around the vesc is less clear, also the very sharp features of the copper heatsinks are very rounded - didnt really manage to model sharper edges - the fiber sheets are well connected already and it was really hard to drag around the sheets through the vacuum bag.
think in the end, the results can vary between “pretty good” to “interesting”. in any case, its the roadside of the board, takes 100km to make it look like crap anyway, so even if things arent perfect I think I will be fine with the results. wont find a better fitting enclosure for board & electronics than this and it make me clean up the electronics more than I ever did in the past.
i wrapped everything in cling film and used a separation foil too. didnt want resin on components or the board and most of all I didnt want resin pressing in behind components so that i wouldnt be able to separate enclosure from components anymore. basically did a wet layup on the separation foil, quite loose actually, I let the vacuum pull everything into form. i really hope that i get the enclosures off later!
even though I didnt have much time tonight, I just needed a sneak peek on the enclosures. first of all: they just fell off so my fears that I might have trouble getting the enclosure off the boards/components was unfounded:
and thats how the surface looked directly after unwrapping. I expected the crinkles, but it couldve been worse I think. never ever had an enclosure without them. the rear enclosure with the electronics looks actually not that bad - vesc and vesc power cables are clearly visible, every detail pressed forever into carbon. plus some extra crinkles
anyway, impossible to just leave it like that and mind my other business, so I at least had to cut it out and give it some rough sanding. keep in mind, the enclosures are just put ontop of the enclosures without any pressure - all rims can be sunk in flush with the board (and I was generous with cutting, think I could take off more material, but for now decided against it, cause that bend edge will give a lot of stability for the screws.
soo, front enclosure with battery only - that one looks really pretty great:
I think it will look pretty great once the screws are in and the enclosures are actually flush with the board! right now, the shadows of the bent edge destroy the visual impression a little.
haha, ah well, I somehow I think its not that bad and Im usually quite anal about aesthetics.
the original idea was a bamboo natural board with transparent fiberglas enclosures. the problem right now is, that in that light you have max shadows and max lightning reflexes, so any imperfections are really exaggerated. thats a problem you wouldnt have at all with a transparent fiberglas enclosure where its hard to even spot which kind of surface and form you have.
sadly my router left a lot of burn marks on the bamboo, so that in the end I decided to use carbon instead of fiberglas.
but that aside: I really think that once the board is ridden, you wont even see the enclosures anymore, because the board is quite wide, the enclosures really narrow and as slim as it gets. few hundred kilometers riding and everything is matte, dusty, scratched and only one thing counts: reliability, robustness, rattling and weatherproofness. thanks to all the features imprinted into the enclosures, they are the stiffest and most robust enclosures I ever made. features add a lot of strength, just like concave & co adds a lot of stiffness to a board.
If accept constructive criticism, I’d suggest to trim the enclosures following the shape of the board, it’ll look a lot nicer IMO. Just to be clear, it doesn’t look bad at all!
I agree, it looks more harmonious - did that on my vanguard and on the first pressed board on this thread - but my building experience decided against it this time:
you route a lot more surface than whats needed
the rim is partially a lot wider than whats needed, and the wider a surface is, the more likely it is going to rattle in some way
if the rim surface is wider than necessary and picks up vibrations easier with the board, dust and sand is a lot more likely finding their way between rim and board and eventually entering your enclosure OR you have the screws following the curvature of the board and the components arent 100% fixated which was the main goal with this build - waterproof supersolid minimalistic enclosure with absolutely zero ratting. rattling/movement is what causes wear over time. not many people ride so many kilometers with their boards - anything that moves will eventually wear something down. on my vanguard I had to resolder the battery exit wires 2 times now. never broke on the run, but maintenace was definitely needed.
its very simple to realign screw-holes and screws after everything is done - I knew from older builds, that screwholes you set up initially sometimes arent perfect because of how the laminate turns out. it happened this time too - the rim is bent upwards a little sooner than I thought, so I probably want the final screw holes closer to the electronics. with a rim following the curvature of the board, the routing and the very undefined electronic edge of vacuum laminates, its very hard to properly align screws. the outer edge however is very clear and precise - a very useful guidance!
all of this stands vs. aesthetic reasons when you turn over the board, which you basically never do. the rim is sunk in flush with the board, you cant even tell the rim form, even if youre looking with your head on the floor. easy win for the pragmatic functional form tbh.
you guys just wait until I shoot some fotos with the enclosures properly attached and sunk flush with the board standing on its wheels.
didnt have my blacked screws anymore, so I used silver which is a little too unstealthy, but I wanted to see the fit and the flush edge. think you cant get more stealthier unless you completely hide electronics in the boards body.
very happy with the stability, 400g/m^2 glass is really sturdy and the structure of the components really stiffes it up. on these enclosures you could probably railgrind
finally the worst looking part of the rear enclosure - with it sitting flush, its really not bad, in reality all irregularities will be in the motors and boards shadow anyway.
one is still running my vanguard, the other had this weird noise and when I disassembled it one of thebearings did that sound. wanted to replace these bearing with ceramics for weatherproofing (and coat windings to rwduce noise), but I havent done that yet! the bearings were stuck in really hard and I definitely would need a hammer and some bolt to hammer them out. reluctant atm
the old rspecs are still from my very first build - the dual rear topspeed!
LHB style motor wire channels. the motor side had the wires a little tight on my vanguard, but with wire exits on opposite side they are a lot more relaxed:
Did you wet lay up Carbon with the resin directly onto the components?
tic tac
so my fears that I might have trouble getting the enclosure off the boards/components was unfounded:
WOooooow !! … so slim build ! Enjoy it 
