Boosted Clone | Vanguard F.3 | Dual 75KV hubmotors | 90mm | 10S4P 25R | FOC

Update #8

Today was battery day, as is tomorrow! Yesterday I tidied up the VESC enclosure :grin:

I’m using 0.15mm by 8mm nickel strips. There’s 2 layers, just to be sure. In my old 6S build I only used 1 layer and it held up just fine. So I’m sure this 10S pack won’t have any issues with the welding. I’m using the same nickel strips on this build.

I’m being very careful about not soldering on anything directly on to the battery, instead I solder it on the nickel strip and then weld that to the pack.

The small strips with solder on are going to get connected to balance leads and then shrink wrapped. I’m doing something similar for the positive and negative ends of the battery.

More pictures tomorrow!

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Update #9

The battery is finished and the motor I had to open up works better, I believe, than the other one. I also tested the shrink wrap on a small piece of the copper braid that will run down the board from the battery to the VESCs.

I hooked everything up to my old VESC and ran it a little in sensorless BLDC in my living room. Even with only one motor it had plenty of power to push me around, so I’m very optimistic! Here’s a video of the opened motor’s first test run.

But since the board is concave, the battery is just a hair to thick at the moment. Not sure how I will remedy that since it already has minimum padding.

I tried two different ways to get good contact between the braid and the bullet/XT-90 connectors, pictured below. The one on the left is twisted and the one on the right is folded and then twisted. Turns out that makes a pretty big difference in contact area! Shouldn’t make much of a difference though, as it shouldn’t be the bottleneck.

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This is a really nice build, can’t wait to see more!

Glad you like it! Hopfully I’ll be done in 2-3 weeks :sweat_smile:

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Haha these things always take longer than they should. Forgot to say, that’s a some great photography as well. Makes it a pleasure to read through this thread :slight_smile:

Why, thank you! :grin:

Nice build! Got some inspiration for further work. And a good tip with kabelstrømper from Biltema :slight_smile: I also found that Kjell has a similar product.

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Nice, thanks for the tip! Might buy me some red for the sensor wires :slight_smile:

Beautiful photos, keep going and good luck!

Thanks! :slight_smile:

Update #10

I set the battery, BMS and enclosure on paus since I’m not entirely sure on how to proceed since the battery is just a bit too big at the moment. So I went to work on the VESCs and it’s enclosure, but I seem to have got stuck there as well! :expressionless:

It’s a bit of a puzzle, really. Here’s the steps:

1: I need to secure the hubs to the truck by drilling/filing some holes for the grub screws.

2: Then secure those and the end nut/cap with loctite.

3: Somehow thread on the mesh cable for the sensor wires, then solder them on to the extensions.

4: Redesign/remove the VESC-plate that will hold the upgraded capacitors and VESCs - because the motor cables takes up more space than I thought they would.

All this while still making sure I can easily remove/modify everything in the future :grimacing: It’s going to be intersting to see how I get this shit done! I’m finally getting some time off now so hopefully I’ll get it done in 2-3 weeks.

Still waiting for screws, charger and some other stuff.

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Update #11

Today the chargers, charging plugs & the black M3 screws came in the mail! So I soldered the plugs to the chargers and then poured some epoxy into the black sleeve that goes over it, to strengthen it and make sure it stays in place.

I also counter sunk the holes so the screws would sit flush. It’s not perfect yet, so I’ll redo it eventually.

When I started drilling the holes for the grub screws in the truck I fucked up a wee bit. I drilled too deep :sweat_smile: Drilled half way through the steel, so I won’t be using those trucks! Instead I’ll use those that came with the deck. The colour scheme is a little off but I’m not too bothered by that.

And after seeing @BoostedBuilder’s pictures on his sanded Loaded Vanguard I got inspired and did the same to mine! Went over it very carefully with 120grit sandpaper on my orbital sander. I did go through the veneer where the VESC enclosure is though. But it was such a small spot that it won’t effect it structurally :slight_smile: After that I went over it with 5 layers of clear laquer to seal it!

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Totally awesome dude! :thumbsup:

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The man himself @jackw :grinning: I keep checking your build log every now and then for inspiration!

Update #12

Today I made the harness(?) that goes between the VESCs to the 2.4ghz reciever and temporarily soldered it to the reciever. I also tried using it but had no success - I’ll revisit that tomorrow.

Instead I hooked up my kama nunchuck, old VESC and the battery to mess around with it and try FOC. Using the quick “guide” made by @JohnnyMeduse here I had success! Took about 30 seconds and made it run very quiet.

Buuuuuuuuuut I fucked up! Video of that here. As you can see in the first 3-4 seconds, it runs dead quiet! :smiley: But since I didn’t expect the torque to be so massive I didn’t bother securing the grub screws :grimacing: I’ve done the same tests using BLDC without a hiccup! Oh well, lesson learned.

I also got a nice spark. Have to check the VESC if I fucked it up… At least it was my spare one! :sweat_smile:

I did this test 2-3 times before I decided to film it, so it was pretty great timing actually! What I wanted to document though was the horrible screech that came when it reached top RPM. Absolutely horrible. My sister said she thought I was choking on something and came to check on me :joy:

Should probably limit the eRPM as well… Good thing I’m testing!

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Update #13

Not too much has happened in the last few days. I did secure the hubs to the trucks with grub screws. I just drilled some small holes about 5mm deep for the screw to sit in. Then I loctited everything with 270, including the axle screw holding the hubmotor in place! I’ll let that sit now for 2-3 days.

I did notice that the bullet connectors in the riser on the side which got ripped out has lost some friction and isn’t sitting as well as it used too. Does anyone have any good tips on how to make sure they stay in place? :slight_smile:

Hopefully I’ll get around to making the reciever work in a day or two.

Here’s a checklist on what’s left to do:

  • Get the reciever to work.

  • Use the router to make a groove for the cables going over the deck.

  • Solder the sensor connectors/adaptors in place.

  • Somehow get the battery to fit.

  • Connect the battery to the BMS and get the charging sorted.

  • Griptape it.

  • Add the capacitors the VESCs and mount them.

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Hot glue is a favourite tool of mine (very easy to use, very strong when fully cooled if melted well during application, very easy to remove), though always not very pretty. You could also try to squeeze the female connectors so that they’re smaller.

Also, is your VESC still alive? Poor little thing, having its motor ripped away so violently. Like a mother losing a child :cry:

I joke, of course :stuck_out_tongue:

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I’ll try the hot glue and see how it works, thanks! :slight_smile:

Haha it actually survived with no errors! Guess current wasn’t high enough to do any real damage.

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Update #14

My enthusiasm for this project has started to drain just a wee bit, but I’m slowly making some progress.

Today I got started on the mounting plate for the VESCs. The attached VESC at the moment is my test VESC. Just wanted to make sure I’ve got the holes lined up properly.

After drilling all the holes I put a sheet of kapton(meant for 3D-printing beds) tape on each side of the plate to make sure it doesn’t short any of the VESCs.

If anyone would be willing to confirm that my diagram for connecting the VESCs to the capacitors is correct I’d be very happy! As you can see in the chart below, the capacitors are “bypassed”, allowing the VESCs to get power directly from the battery and not always from the capacitors.

Yesterday I also tested FOC using the new VESC Tool and BLDC, which was louder of course. The cruise control didn’t work on BLDC, instead it just started to stutter.

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Just wanna say - in my opinion you have the best quality pictures of build on the forum :wink:

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