The Imp | Custom 34" "Vanguard" Deck | 80mm Kegels | Caliber 50 Trucks | Dual Turnigy SK3 - 6354-260kv | JuniorPotato93 Pulleys | 8S6P Samsung 25R 15Ah | Ollin VESC and E-Switch | Custom Motor Mount | Custom Fiberglass Enclosure

So this has been a while in the making and it took so much longer and cost so much more than anticipated but I absolutely love the final product. Learnt a whole lot whole taking on this endeavor and even though I just finished this build I find myself already planning a second but maybe that will have to wait until next year. Here’s a shit ton of pictures because I like visuals. There’s words in there too somewhere.

Making the Mold/Press/Deck/Mounts

Tested the set up out with two drone ESCs… gees that was a horrible idea. They basically jump to almost max with the slightest pull of the trigger and theres no brakes which I found out at the end of me street which happens to be on a slight hill. Would not recommend, stick with car ESCs or preferably VESCs.

Battery Pack/Enclosure

“NOT FOR FLIGHT” is what that reads. I got excited and forgot to take pictures of how the electronics are laid out but its thin foam then the battery and BMS, then theres a thin sheet of foam and the 2 VESCs are located around where the word flight is and the E-Switch goes right between the two of them. Bolted it all together and it was a very snug. I keep an extra “drive” wheel on the front truck should something happen to one of the rear ones during a ride

Also, if anyone watched GOT I called it The Imp because beside it is the full scale Vanguard deck, and beside it is its dwarf brother (~80% length, same witdh) so it made me think of Tyrion who, lets face it, is the best character in the series. John is still my fav though.

Using the GT2B controller, was using the Little Buffalo Mod but its hard edges are slightly uncomfortable and something just feels a little off. It’s just a little too over sized. Might take a crack at making a slimmer version but for now I’m going to be using @MasterCho’s case mod as its simply the best one out there from an end user perspective I feel. And the case is printed with Carbon Fiber laced ABS so that is going to be one tough case. Cant wait!

Here are the settings for the VESCs. Already going to make some changes, mainly changing the Min and Max Motor amps to 60, bring the ERPM up to 60,000. Set the Max input voltage back to the default 57V. I’m running two VESCs so the 30 battery max is really 60 Amps combined, correct? BMS is capable of 80 Amps continuous. My braking is a little sluggish so I’m thinking of bringing that up or is the voltage fine but I have to adjust the

This is a picture from @chaka in another post but mine are set to about these settings as well since I dont think I touched this when I set it up the first time. I recall in the Vedder tutorials he has he changed these but I dont remember to what so i’ll change these according to the instruction in this other tutorial the @onloop posted in this post once I pop open the shell enclosure again. That will hopefully make the board feel more responsive to breaking.

And thats it. It’s done. Would like to thank @onloop for this forum with just avast amount of knowledge and comradery on here and making it just so accessible all at our fingertips. It’s insane how much user generated content is on here and that he funds this all out of pocket so that the community can flourish and continue to grow is fantastic. You’ve got my respect so thanks. 4-5 months ago when I decided to take this on I had very little knowledge of this whole sport but it just felt felt right once I started snooping around and reading through posts I just learnt so much about it. And although we dont all always seem to agree on here whats great is that we dont let our differences divide us over the one common thing we’re all here for and that is that we love the sport and we just want to make the absolute best product we can.

14 Likes

Great build! You can try my tweaked version of the baby buffalo gt2b mod, its got rounder edges/index finger and also a slot for a lanyard.

1 Like

I will have to try this in the meantime.

Wow! awesome build!:raised_hands:

2 Likes

awesome deck - I want one :cry:

If I wasn’t in the middle of school I’d be disposed to press you one but I don’t have time right now. But also a side note there’s no real place to get the veneers close to me so I had to dive up to an exotic wood shop to get enough material to press the deck and definitely made it more expensive than just buying a pre-made deck. I believe the term is called economies of scale and they are a bitch :pensive:

2 Likes

Inspiring!!

2 Likes

Whats top speed and range? Cost of everything?

If you could like something more than once, you would get my daily quota.

So ill answer the first part really quick and have to double check for the cost because I have half the stuff in Canadian and the other in American. But I will come back to that when I get home. I don’t remember off the top of my head but it’s geared 15/36 and I believe the top theoretical is something along the lines ofor 30mph or 50km/h. That being said I don’t intend to go that fast I’m just using it around campus and to get to and from local shop/gym since it’s all fairly flat around here.

I’ve only rode it a total of 3 times as of now but I haven’t downloaded a map tracking app to confirm speeds and distances. Any recommendations?

Nice sounds like a sick first build. For a gps app, I know a lot of people that use Stava https://www.strava.com/

1 Like

The free version should be fine.

For range if wrote use @torqueboards method of 5Wh is equalocated (wtf auto-correct…) .49km then we get. Watthours of the pack = 83.715=444 Range = 444/5 = 88.8 units of 5Wh Distance = 88.8*.49km = 43.5 km of range. That’s theoretical though of course. Would like to use a tracking app to do a few runs and calculate the mean draw per km of travel myself since I often ride it with a full school bag or gym bag so I don’t believe the 43.5km range will be the true range. I’m also quite the large guy. Right now sitting at 220 lbs which is a pretty average weight for me so that too is probably far more than what the estimations account for.

That being said even with me and my full gym bag, maybe like 15 pounds, this board has no problem putting some serious torque through to the wheels. I do like to do a kick on start up because of the weight though but it can start up no problems even without that.

Still if theoretically at 43.5km taking off maybe at most 7km to account for everything, that’s still a really great distance. Better then Boosted by far.

@LivingLongboard Oh yes for sure. The reason I decided to make my own is because I loved what boosted boards allowed for you to do and originally I was going to do a smaller sleeker pack and keep everything thin but when shipping and import fees were added on then it because almost useless to buy smaller quantities so I ditched my original plans and went for a bigger battery pack. For example my motor pulleys? Those cost me $20 US for 4. Not bad, 5 bucks a piece. Shipping was 20 international anyways so I figured I’d get 4 and make it a round 10 per piece. But then it crossed the border and when I got it at my doorstep I had to pay 40 MORE dollars for duties?!?! That’s almost the same price as the freaking parts cost to aquire and ship?! Anyways, so my costs are going to be ridiculous but I did write everything down so I’ll get you those in a bit :stuck_out_tongue:

Okay, so for the costs. I’m going to use American.

Board Press and Mold: 112 Board: (fucked up once, had to do it again with more materials) 112 Kegels: 60 Bearings: 37 Hardware: 4 Riser Pads: 8 Trucks: 60 Grip Tape: 15 sk3 260kv: 114 GT2B: 20 Silicone wires: 6 Batteries : (48 Samsung 18650 25r + shipping) 274 BMS: 80 5amp Bike charger: 50 Nickel Strips: 5 PVC Heat Shrink: 13 4 gage welding cable: 9 copper grounding lugs: 5 Ollin VESC: 2X165, 330 Ollin antispark switch: 50 Solder and flux: 10 heat shrink tubing: 5 Fiberglass and resin: 25 cheese cloth: 10 Motor Pulleys: 40 Wheel pulleys: free Belts: 20 (for 4) misc hardware: 20 MasterCho Mod: 25

Shipping overall: like 100? Duties…, fucking duties…: another 100?

Total: $1,699 USD

Edit: Actually today I got the most important piece that was left, my helmet. So add another 45.

That was not planned but that’s actually kinda cool. $1,699, a dollar off from 1700.

Originally I was aiming for around 800-1000. So like double the budget I was aiming for… but I dont regret it. It’s supper fun to ride and the range is phenomenal.

I do want add a handle to carry it sometime soon as well since when I do have to carry it it’s kinda heavy. Havent weighed it but i’m guessing like 20lbs? the board is 7/8th thick since I wanted no flex at all.

I downloaded Strava and went for a nice long cruise around campus. I went a few blocks down at the end of my run and on the way back decided to see how fast it could go. It definitely was fast but it was still accelerating when I pulled back and started to brake since I ride with my trucks fairly loose, probably too lose for those speeds which I wont hit very often. Might try to do a sped run at some point but I dont really intend to go fast just far so cruising around 20km/h or 12mph is fine with me.

I charged the board probably like 2 weeks ago and assembled it one week ago and have done maybe 10-12 kms on it? wasnt tracking it but I did go from 32.7V down to 31V after those 3 rides, one of which I know is about 6km round trip.

Did 5.5km just now and dropped from 31.0V down to 30.0V. Assuming a linear trend we can say that 9.6 volts of usable energy (33.6-24) at 5.5km/V results in 52.8km/Charge which Is too high from what I’ve seen here. Lets assume theres a declining rate of return on the voltage once it gets down to 26.4V which is the battery cut off start.

26.4V-24.0V=2.4V Lets say on the last 2.4 Volts you only get like a third of the expected travel distance?

so 7.2V5.5km/V +2.4V1.8km/V = 44km/Charge

Things to note, the land around here especially on campus is very very flat. Pretty much all around campus with the exception of a few hills here and there a few km away but not likely that I will be riding them. I also wasnt carrying my backpack with all my stuff in it which is another thing that will likely reduce it, maybe knock off another 2-3 km? so down to 41km. So thats actually kinda close to the theoretical from the calculator which said 43km was the range of the board.

Not sure if this one balances out but theres almost always a tail wind when heading towards campus and a head wind when coming back but that might also affect range as well in an uneven manner.

I guess that happens a lot around here, want to spend one price but end up doubling it, eh as long as your happy with it that’s all that matters. But that’s awesome that you probably could get that distance on one charge, a definite need for college. How’d you like Strava?

Oh Strava is fantastic. I wanted to keep my phone out and see the speeds in the moment but ended up just putting it in my pocket instead.