Full DIY Custom Electric Caster Board | Emax GT5345 | Maytech 12S ESC | 10S 10Ah Lipo

There are five LEDs and each represents certain capacity left,100, 75, 50, 25 and under 10, if I recall properly(4 green, 1 red) I just modified it to show percentage all the time, bridged push button.[quote=“jackw, post:37, topic:18902, full:true”]

How does this battery meter work? [/quote]

That’s pretty cool, did you build the circuit or is it something you bought?

I bought it from here http://www.ebay.com/itm/221813764673?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

UPDATE!!!

I must say I’m kinda changing my way of looking at this vehicle, I’m starting to feel really comfortable riding it. Today I rode 12 km in local park, on bike lines, between some people. It’s really maneuverable. I guess I just had to get used to riding my caster board, it’s not “scary as fuck” anymore :smiley: Really enjoyable to ride, even on not so perfect asphalt, with cracks etc.

@bill_f how is Your board doing?

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Hi. The board is doing well. Just got some new wheels for it so it doesn’t need loaners anymore. Just like you, the more I ride it, the more I enjoy it. I only have maybe 45 mins. total on it but I can definitely feel like I’m improving on it and it gets more precise. Am able to keep it pretty close to where I need it to be. I am learning to use the accelerator to help with balance, accelerating at the right time to pull out of turns.

I imagine it’s like snowboarding or something; takes a little time to get it dialed in. Like I said before, it’s challenging in a good kind of way. I don’t find it too difficult or frustrating. Want to keep riding it and see how I progress on it. Hopefully will have a video or two soon.

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You still riding it? Anything changed in your design or riding style? I find that I ride mine anywhere I ride my four wheeler and am pretty comfortable with it. Haven’t changed the geometry or anything. All parts are holding up well. No mechanical or drive train problems to date. Have maybe 100 kms on it. Now having ridden the four wheeler and two wheeler back to back I can say that the two wheeler feels more stable than the four at high speeds. If I slow down enough, I can make pretty small radii turns, in some ways sharper than the four wheeler. Post another ride vid if you get a chance :grin:

Hi, unfortunately at the beginning of may I had an accident on my caster board, quite severe… I broken ulna and radius as well as scaphoid bone in my wrist. I have 2 plates and 14 screws in my forearm and immobilized forearm till beginning of July, 4 more weeks to go :confused: I was riding under bridge with steel structure and tram tracks and suddenly my nano remote lost connection, I tried applying throttle- nothing, then breakes and suddenly connection came back, I was not prepared and board suddenly stopped, I went flying forward and landed on my palm, unfortunately my forearm shortened about 3cm and was crooked at about 15 degrees in the middle. Sooo, I’ll probably have to take a break from my caster board, but I miss it anyway I felt totally confident on it before accident, it was unfortunate ending of my 20km long ride…

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Wow man, I hope you get better quick!

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wow, take care mate.

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This makes me sad! :frowning: I really enjoyed the uniqueness of this build, and also your ongoing updates with @bill_f. To hear about your accident is upsetting. I hope you recover quickly.

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I will :smiley: Two VESC SIX are on its way to me, I’ll put them in my trampa build, I MUST jump on that board till the end of summer.

Ironically I always wore hillbilly gloves with integrated wrist guards while riding my trampa, as well as at the beginning of riding my caster board… ( I think it would save my bones).

Oh man! That sucks. I saw your x-ray photo on the picture only thread and thought it was a battle wound from days past. Didn’t realize it was recent. Interesting to hear that it was because of the remote and not because of the design. For what it’s worth, i’ve been riding both my boards with a gt2b and never had a single hiccup. Haven’t modified the tx for fear of having a problem. Just bought a second receiver for the two wheeler for 5 dollars from China (frsky for gt2b). Crazy that I trust my life to this $5 piece of kit but it seems rock solid–just like the one that came with the Tx. Let’s hope it stays that way. Hope you’re better soon and back to riding soon after.

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Looks really painful. :head_bandage: Active tram tracks? I have noticed some strong RF around these. I even had my GT2B drop out near them but it has fail safe set to neutral position so just a temporary loss of power. After this I moved the receivers antenna from under my foot to the middle of the board and never had a drop out since. Do you still trust the nano? Can it have a fail safe, I think that very important safety feature.

Active tram tracks. Nano does have a fail safe feature, the board didn’t stop because of drop out, it stopped because connection came back and I had my thumb on brakes, and totally didn’t expect that.

The strenght of brakes was just too hard, poor combination of esc settings and short thumb wheel travel in nano. I obviously don’t trust it any more, but I’m worried that lot of 2,4ghz remotes might fail in those conditions.

Ok that’s unfortunate and scary. Guys just coast during dropouts till control comes back, no sudden inputs.

This was my way of testing if it came back, short thumb wheel travel combined with esc settings caused that slight brake turned out to be board suddenly dead-stops-brake.

Just curious. How long would you say the dropouts have been on your gt2b? I haven’t noticed any on mine and I ride around electric buses and trams all the time. Maybe I’m just not noticing short (very) losses of power as it goes into coast mode. Always keep my Tx charged up nicely too.

Just intermittent power cut outs around tram tracks. Like 1 second, it’s very noticeable if your accelerating. I moved the antenna from under my rear foot to the middle of the board and never had an issue again. I also moved the receiver further away from the motors. I’m not 100% sure it was the antenna position but since moving I have not had any dropouts. Keeping the remote charged up is definitely a must.

In my case this unfortunate dropout lasted for about 2-3 seconds

Maybe time to switch to GT2B? It has a long brake travel. I put a stronger spring in mine so it self centers better but it also makes it difficult to accidentally press all the way down. Also if you use the thumb case like the buffalo that uses the steering pot you have 50/50 movement accel / brake. Which is more brake travel than the trigger styles.

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So… as this project in eyes of my girlfriend and parents was kinda “doomed” because I had an accident on it, it’s time to modify it a bit. I decided to add a foldable handlebars, and wired thumb throttle. I’ll be using arduino nano to convert analog joystick type potentiometer output to PWM signal, there’ll be no remote dropouts anymore.

Handlebar folds nicely on a press of a button, everything milled and turned on a manual machines, no CNC :slight_smile:

As You can see I didn’t give up on caster steering, decided to leave it as it was, handlebars are to have something to hold on to and avoid being ejected by strong brakes, also I can mount wired throttle on it :slight_smile:

UPDATE, 1st Sept.

I finished throttle/brake lever, probably one of the most complex parts of this build, it’s based on nunchuck joystick (hidden inside handlebar tube), and arduino nano will be connected to its potentiometer to generate PWM signal depending on voltage between its legs…

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