awesome explanation dude! I didn’t realize you could get CNC mills capable of cutting aluminum that small. What does one of those cost?
@faithfulpuppy about $1200 for the CNC ready version. After that you have to provide your own stepper motors, drivers and software. But I went this route because stepper motors and drivers are incredibly cheap now and I use LinuxCNC as the software, which is FOSS.
You can find them used on eBay if you’re willing to take the risk.
Taig just came out with the new 5 series which has ballscrews rather than the ACME the old one has. Upgrading mine would cost $1,000 which I might do if I start see lash in the axes. So far there is zero lash which is pretty amazing.
oh shit, nevermind lol. I had assumed they cost around the same as similar size 3D printers
well, they do 
My Lulzbot mini was almost exactly the same price. I will be the first to admit, however, that I bought the lulzbot because I wanted something that “just works” out of the box and on that count it did not fail.
Until I went to the latest software/firmware, then it was a flaming piece of crap. Until I reverted to the software/firmware that it shipped with. Now it’s back to being reliable.
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AAAIGH! one Nickle shy of a complete battery pack!
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Well, I have news. I’ve fallen in love. With eFoils. I know, and I’m sorry, but the lines, the grace, floating effortlessly over the water is the siren song I simply cannot resist. Also, it hurts a lot less when you fall.
So instead of doing the trailing link suspension on this board this winter I’m going to wrap this up with the current suspension and mostly my traditional build methods; and bulid and eFoil. I invite you to follow my build over here…
I haven’t actually started my build log yet, but as soon as I wrap up this board I’ll be learning about the complex, frustrating world of waterproofing things which, if you read my novel about my ride home in the hail, is probably something I need to learn
TO THAT END, I’m actually putting the electronics in a box for the MTB build, so I needed to learn how to bend metal. My idea is to build a box out of -6061 aluminum 0.060 thick by using a cheap Harbor Freight metal bender and then 3D print the end caps so I can route wires in and out. I will be posting piccies of that here soon.
After that my Flipsky’s have come in from @Hummie’s group buy:
My initial impression of them is pretty good - I had no problem connecting to them with VESC tool 0.95 (Note that 0.95 is brand new, if you’re running 0.94 you won’t have access to the 3.40 firmware that they come with)
I happened to have a 5065 on my desk, so I spun it up and configured it. The target motors are of course the 2 6374-190’s that are on the MTB, so once I get the Flipsky’s mounted and wired I’ll configure for those and with luck will have riding impressions up by the end of the weekend.
That means that the FOXBox Unity will end up on WidowMaker driving the 2 aforementioned 5065’s leaving the genuine VESC6 to drive my eFoil!
Almost like I planned it.
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So, let’s talk about bending metal. I started with a sheet of 0.060 6061 aluminum and I bought one of those amazingly cheapie Harbor Freight metal benders, which basically is 3 pieces of metal welded together with a handle, but amazingly it did the job…
The two things I learned are 1) make sure your bend is 90 degrees before you move on to the next bend because you won’t be able to get it back into the machine; and 2) bending is an inexact science, so even though you are really careful to draw your lines in the right place there will be some variation, so account for it in your sizing. In my case one of the wings was a bit longer than the other wing.
The clever part, I mean I think it’s clever, is that I can 3D print the ends, which means I can print all sorts of holes and connections and doodads in the end that would be much more complicated if I tried to make the end out of metal.
Note this is an early prototype, the final ones will look like this:
So this brings this capability within the skillset and budget of just about anyone. The metal bender is dirt cheap, the aluminum is cheap, and everybody knows somebody with a 3D printer.
2 more quick notes - remember that aluminum and radio waves don’t mix, so make sure your receiver is outside this box; and that aluminum and heat do mix, so mount your ESC’s heat sink directly to the metal
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Long overdue update.
I’ve still been working on this board a bit. I made a cool Carbon Fiber battery cover for it, but the bad news is that I was running it with 2 flipsky 6.6’s and one of them died. Won’t turn on anymore. It’s something in the anti-spark portion of the board, but I’m not sure I want to mess with it.
So I ordered another FocBox Unity. I already have one of these and I’m pretty smitten with the fact that you can change settings from your phone!
So far all riding I’ve done with the Unity has not resulted in significant injury or Uber rides home, so I’m willing to take a chance on another one.
The only downside is I have no idea when I’ll get it. Hopefully by late spring.
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Late question : was this arm design (with 2 plates connected by scew) rigid enough?
Thanks
If you need info about the Flex design, do not hesitate…
I never got the thing on the ground for any testing, it’s all in a box in the shop. If and when I get back to it I’ll totally hit you up for design hints - I’m not sure whether I’ve got any of the geometry right since I did everything from pictures, so it could be fine, could be a total disaster.
Thanks for your offer of help!