@torqueboards is right on all counts. A single drive 6S is still plenty of fun. My personal ride is running a single 270kv propdrive on a 14 month old 6S lipo using one of his $70 6S ESCs at the moment and its still plenty fast and fun. Normally its a dual drive setup but one of the ESCs was bad right out of the box so i had to return it and now i’m waiting on my replacement.
6s has never disappointed me. 30mph is doable
Totally doable and i’ve done it. And its scary. lol
1 Like
@torqueboards, @onloop my experience is just the same as Torqueboards … off the shelf hobbyking SK3 and even ESC ran really well for me. I dabbled in Alien ESCs but they were rubbish but not as rubbish as their service (Bruno has been promising to send me a replacement for 2 years). The only thing that killed my cheap “junk” was some idiot (yes, me) soldering parts while it was live. I just can’t wait to try the VESC upgrade because my only complaint with the HK150A was I couldn’t soft start and I had to give that first kick. Not a big deal for me but always thought it was a nice to have. The HK150A SK3 combo certainly had the best braking on any board I’ve tried so far, commercial or hobby built.
To be honest I found the waiting the most painful thing about going for the VESC. I ordered in September and didn’t get VESCs until after I left the country in late November. So I have to say that if the best board is the one that you quickly have working then the cheap hobby setup wins hands down and investing in pricier, purpose built solutions with a slow turnaround is a less desirable experience… as for the total cost of ownership you talk of, it cost me more waiting patiently in bus fares to commute to work and uni than going through two sets of HK150As would have.
Looking forward to finally getting onto my VESCs when I get home in mid Jan.
hey guys i seem to be having some problems with my motor or controller. the board was working just fine yesterday, but the next day after charging (I did not overcharge) the controller won’t connect and the the motor won’t run. any suggestions? Here’s my setup, please help.
I must say…I come from the RC airplane and Multi-Rotor world, where a lot of the concepts of ESC’s and electronics have parallels with the Electric Skateboard world. Building a Skateboard is totally in my wheelhouse! Company’s like Enertion and Alien, and just the sheer amount of info being shared here in this board make the idea of DIY so appealing. But when I look at the cost of building vs. buying a factory built board, the cost difference is negligible. Unless I was building for the sheer purposes of learning or for fun, I don’t see much of an incentive to build otherwise. Going through the high end components at Enertion RC, the dual motor kit is 565.19, the space cell battery pack is 353.70, two of the new VESC controllers (old one is out of production) will be 344.22, the remote is 49.01 and a Loaded Icarus deck is $205, that brings me to $1516.12. Meanwhile, a production Evolve Bamboo GT is $1489.00 free shipping to the US. Add to that the resale value to the casual end user, (when the time comes to upgrade) and it’s hard to make the argument (as is claimed on the Enertion site), that you can save “heaps” building an Electric Board yourself. Anyone else weighing this decision right now?
The best thing about building your own is you get to choose what parts go into your skateboard. You might want big wheels, short deck & mega motors.
You could build one for $400 or $4000
Its about choice Its about the act of creation Its about style Its about art
However, if none of those things are important & if you are time poor and money rich, I think you should buy a complete.
2 Likes
I totally get the customization thing! I really appreciate all you’ve done with Enertion as well! It’s not so much about being time poor, it’s a performance value/resale quotient. It’s my own mind’s idea that DIY should end up saving me much more money than it does (without going directly to China for parts).
I like to create too, but to me that would be in building the board itself. The deck to me is the most creative thing on a skateboard. Everything else is engineering which is WAY outside my wheelhouse! Let’s say the Evolve Bamboo GT is 1489.00 US. If I build a comparable board: 2 motors with trucks wheels and mounts: 565, dual vescs 342.88, battery: 352 with the remote now I believe. add a nice deck at at-least $205. How much did I spend: 1464.88.
It doesn’t make sense to build vs. purchasing an Evolve or your co.'s or similar (not Boosted for range limits) unless you go for low end components. Which is outside of your very praised quality-mantra any how. 3000w motors, high end propriertary vesc, remote with optical feedback, long range battery, nice deck…you see my argument. Build if you want the experience and the bespoke (to the degree you don’t buy a pre-made deck) board. Otherwise, I can see the DIY route actually costing you more, in time and money. Plus, it seems to me it’s easier to sell when the next upgrade comes out. A turnigy SK3 motor at 75 bucks, a cheap deck at 50 bucks, 27$ caliber trucks, $50 wheels, $20 bearings and spacers, 60 bucks for an off the shelf motor mount, 20 dollar rc car controller, 30 spektrum receiver, some sort of hobby esc or an 80 dollar vesc and a couple cheap turnigy lips at $60…sure. Looking at $472. Is it high quality? Is it an apples to apples machine component wise?
not sure if this is the thread, but I need help with my inertion components. My son aged 12 was hypnhotized by th enretion you tube channel. He followed the prespcription for the “$400” eboard but wound up with a bunch of parts that did not fit together. So we returned all of that and went with enertion across the board. We have the VESC standard, the Nano-x wireless controller and a single 190 kv motor that we plan to power with 2 30c 3 cell zippy 5000 batteries in series, We purchased a marine grade 60 amp breaker that will also function as an on/off switch(could not find anything from enertion on that). Here is where I am now. After waiting months for the Nano -x and planning to build our summer project before Christmas I have no idea how to connect the nano-x receiver to the VESC-standard? Why are there no cables provided? Where do I get one. What are all the connections on the VESC board? Why is there no information on the website as to how to connect the VESC? Any help would be appreciated…
Chris
I would make a build thread as well as look at what others have done on the forum- this thread is somewhat off topic from your actual problems.
I order to connect the receiver to the VESC, you will need a standard 3 pin servo cable; it likely came with the remote, but if not, it is a $2 cable to can buy from a local hobbyshop, amazon, etc.
You will then need to set up the VESC in the BLDC tool on your computer- all of this is outlined on various threads here on the forum, so I would just recommend using the search bar feature and reading up on similar situations to your own.
GL!
I don’t think you’re taking into account several important factors of DIY @Racetored. Think about it this way: To MAKE your own 10s4p battery: 225$ To MAKE your own motor mount: 25$ To MAKE your own deck: 50$ To MAKE your own enclosure: 15$ Alec Flywheels: 75$ SK3 Motor: 70$ AXLE VESC: 83$ Polar Boards Controller: 30$ Machining pulley and Gears + Belt: 30$ Misc: 60$ Caliber II trucks: 50$ This is one of the best single drive boards you can make, for 713 USD. A whole lot better than a production single drive like Inboard for 699…
1 Like
Caden
Thanks so much. After watching a few more videos I got that impression. The nano-x controller has 3 sets of 3 pin connections, Bind, ch1, and ch2. The instructions say binding is done automatically when you connect via channel 1 to the VESC. So it’s just the three large pins that come off the VESC, the mico USB is for connecting to PC for the BLDC process, but there is also a 4 pin and an 6 pin connector that I have no idea what they are for. Also, how do I know which wire goes to which pin on the receiver and the Vesc. Hate to fry something right out of the gate.
Chris
Axle vescs were only $83 to start out. They now go for $120 but they are still super worth it. Great quality vesc and that $120 comes with a guarantee if anything goes wrong! By far the first vesc I would recommend to anyone right now.
Never buy cheap motors, believe me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EhVnBHUYJs A good motor is worth investing.
I may be an isolated case, but honestly the only reason I want to build my own board is because I like making things, I would not get much enjoyment out of simply buying an off the shelf board, I want to build the thing from scratch and get to know every component that went into it–I don’t know, maybe I am just weird lol
2 Likes
@potatowarrior13 nah this is okay I think, you will win on the fact that if something happens to a shop bought board you have limited knowledge / skills and tools to make it work again… When something happens to diy, in most cases, you should have some orientiers on what went wrong and how it should be fixed…
Right here, right now. I could get a dual setup bamboo gt basically brandnew for about the cost for a diy. Think i’ll buy it!
This DIY idea isn’t all about saving some money. It’s from joy what we get when we can build our own boards.
3 Likes