Popsicle Stick of Death (Concept)

Hey all,

I’ve been sort of designing a commuter board in my head over the past few days and I wanted to hear y’alls thoughts on it. I love my current e-board, but it’s not exactly ideal for taking buses/trains/car rides/etc. I’ve seen a lot of people make low-profile/lightweight boards out of decks like the Jet Spud and Penny Nickel decks, but I kinda want something even smaller/more minimalist.

So here is the general plan: -Traditional Penny Deck -Gullwing Sidewinder II trucks -6S1P battery (2P if there’s space) -Single hub motor -No BMS - if its a single lipo I can just use my balance charger -VESC/GTB remote

What do you guys think? I’ve seen people make Penny builds before and am curious if there as bad of an idea as they seem.

Thanks, -MH

P.S. I figured Gullwing Sidewinders would help improve the turning radius/feel, but I’m not 100% certain. Thoughts?

The tail will help the turning more than nimble trucks. I use a shortboard for commuting, currently on a Powell-Peralta Lance Mountain (replica, of course) deck though, not a penny. With a handle on the front of a deck and not on the side it makes it extremely convenient for trains et cetera. I think that feature alone - handle on front, tail on back - is more convenient for carrying it than down-scaling to penny size

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Good to know. I was drawn to the penny cause its just so freaking tiny but if I can scale up a little without sacrificing portability, I’ll definitely look into that.

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I’m building a pool deck right now designed like a Schmitt stix deck from the late 80’s. I’m eventually gonna power it up for short trips/ travel/ commute. What does your setup look like? What are the specs? Pics? Hubs or belts? Would love to see more of these. Thanks brother.

I’d recommend Lipo for battery in something like this over say an 18650 pack (You didn’t say what you were thinking). 6s1or2p just won’t have the oooomph. Something like a couple 3s 5000mah in series. Otherwise sounds like a lot of fun, I’d like to do something similar.

This is an arcboards setup on a regular park deck. I’m not saying you should seek out and scrap an arcboard, but i do want to let you know that you can fit a lot more thana 6S1P on a popsicle and have it stay in the realm of mall-grab.

These have a single 5055 and a 10mm belt, 9S2P 18650 pack and a VESC derivitive. BLDC mode with the start-up boost a little cranked, it will start from a standstil and does everything a pospsicle can do. Fly off curbs, ollie, and stomp-catch into a mall grab.

all you’d really need is a decent box and its on. everything else is standard. I’d probably go with caliber 165s, maybe a used Enertion mount or a new caliber compatible one, maybe a 170 or 190 KV motor for the smoothness of startup since top end doesn’t need to be that high and a single drive has to work harder, then just dial in your vesc settings and choose a remote. You can buy 9S BMSs, or since you just want to use a lipos, maybe a pair of smaller 5S packs would be better so you’d have the higher voltage when you need it. Run the balance leads out the side and bam.

so yeah, if you got a single hub, i would definitely go at least 10S, which can be done in minimal space, and that would actually leave you more room than this has underneath. a pair of 5S zippies would kill it.

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Thanks for the tips you guys. This project probably won’t happen for awhile, since I’m a full-time student right now. I’ll definitely keep y’all in the loop if/when I decide to go for a smaller build.

Part of me wants to see how big a battery I can fit on a traditional penny deck- I know it’s not the simplest solution, but I like a challenge. Still might be bear to ride though…

i managed to get a 12S1P on a penny with no issue. I’m willing to bet you could get 24 cells on there, so maybe 12S2P or 8S3P. 10S2P would be good too, that’s only 20.

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Was that thing as scary to ride as it sounds?

I want to see a build on one of these for maximum terror:

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My board is currently a 29" cruiser deck, single 192kv SK3, 15t/36t pulleys, a carbon fiber and aluminium motor mount some random dude sold me shortly after I joined the forum, 9" Caliber trucks and 90mm buildkit boards wheels, all powered by two 5000mAh 3S zippy lipos in series and a FOCBOX (which I got for cheap during the Cyber Monday sale).

It does 26-28km/h on flat when fully charged. I’m 110kg but it still flies up any hills around here with no troubles. The acceleration isn’t incredible from low speed but it’s enough that if you floor it at half speed it’ll try to throw you off. I have motor and battery max at 60A (the motor gets a bit hot on extended hill climbs but nowhere close to burning me, the FOCBOX gets warm but not hot and the batteries only get luke warm). Even though the batteries are only 5000mAh I’ve put the battery min at -8A. That’s a 1.6C charge rate. Supposedly it should be safe to go all the way to -10A for a 2C charge rate, but I’d rather not push it that far. -8A is acceptable braking strength, but you have to be ready to start braking a fair distance from your target stopping point if you’re going fast. As you can see from the picture, I could easily fit a lot more stuff on the bottom of that board. What you can’t see is that the cardboard/duct tape enclosure could be a lot smaller. I estimate the range to be 7-9km with my weight and the way I ride.

It’s ridiculous just how much energy you can get out of such little batteries. People always complain about battery technology’s limitations, but it really has come a long way and it’s amazing that it’s available at such low cost to hobbyists.

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I don’t have the balls to try to ride that. I’ll happily assist in designing it if you ever decide regular esk8 is too safe for your tastes

It looks like your board rides kinda high (could be the photo). Have you noticed any issues with that or has it been pretty manageable?

Originally I was a park/street skater so I was used to a low board with tiny wheels. Then my sisters started rollerblading on paths quite often and I wanted to come along, so I bought a cheap short cruiser board with 63mm wheels. At first it felt very strange, being higher than my “normal” skateboard, but after a couple of rides I was used to it. However the main issue wasn’t the height off the ground when carving, it was the distance I had to reach (and how much I had to bend my front leg) to push.

Having never ridden an electric longboard I can’t compare to my board, but I would say this: it really doesn’t make much difference. Your body will get used to riding anything in a short time and you can ride almost any style of board like a pro with enough practice. The choice comes down to personal preference.

That’s not to say dropped longboards aren’t objectively the best in terms of ride experience; they may well be.

Idk why I said all that. Kinda irrelevant. Point is, I’ve never found a high board to be bad in any way. I’m not sure what the stigma is about. It feels weird when you first try it but ultimately you just get used to it. I can carve perfectly well at high speed.

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How much range are you getting out of those batteries?

Sorry just quoting the post is a bit rude. Yeah I don’t know the exact range yet, but I’ve basically been riding as far as I can in ~35-40 minutes (in my lunch break) and haven’t run out mid-run. I’ll try doing a real range test at some point, but it would vary so greatly with rider and riding style that I don’t think it would be useful.

I see. Was thinking of getting some cheap lipos for a small cruiser build as well, might go with these for the price and convenience

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Good to know. I’ve only ever ridden relatively low/dropped boards (powered & normal) at speed so I wanted to hear your thoughts. I’m sure at really high speed-- 35mph+ – a higher deck might cause issues, but I don’t really want a commuter board that could blow my socks off.

Well because of my soft bushings and high-angle trucks (55°) I can get very slight wobbles at full speed on lumpy or rough roads. Easily solved though. And yeah I think at 35mph it might start to widen the gap in usability between a low longboard and a high shortboard :stuck_out_tongue:

Man, for some reason I’m coming up with the weirdest wording for my posts in this thread…

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