Around November last year was the time I decided to start a DIY project. Because I live in the Netherlands, ordering parts from around the globe was going to take a little while. It took a couple weeks but slowly all the parts came in the mail and I began building. This was my original part list:
In the meantime, I bought multiple cheap boxes online and eventually chose these metallic ones because everything fitted nicely and they offered okay protection. To give you an idea of time, this was January 2017. Because of the occasional bad weather I armored up the motor with the bottom of a coke bottle, reinfored with the necessary amount of ducttape.
March 2017, the weather is getting more sunny. The coke bottle is off and I wanted to get to know my board a little bit better. So after doing some digging on the forum, I found a solution. The bluetooth module from metr.at!
Also still balance charging at this point. As you can see the enclosure just went from silver to black. This way the board looks a bit more stealth.
For now, this is my personal top speed while riding the board. I still have not maxed it out yet, most of the time 25km/h is more than enough.
You are probably thinking, ‘hey, I haven’t seen the Bestech BMS and Psychotiller enclosure’. That’s right.I don’t have those parts yet. The BMS is on its way, I team’d up with @zeno as he ordered 2 but only needs one. Stripping down the motor wires and replacing them with flexible ones is also something on my to-do list.
Thanks!
Really looking forward to a more slim and light enclosure. Already hit a curve too hard with the underside resulting in this a couple weeks ago:
Quick update! My new charger came in the mail. Together with a bag full of adapters… must have missed the ‘10 pieces’ note on the order page. BMS is still on its way.
@psychotiller’s enclosure already arrived some time ago. Just came home from buying some mounting materials. T-nuts and M5 bolts. Rubber rings are also on their way to help against the vibration.
Much progress has been made! My old lipo balance charger broke down so I had to order a new one. While my new B6 arrived the last pieces for the transformation to single cord plug & play charging (the bms transformation) also came in the mail.
I bought this one from aliexpress instead of going for the one from Bestech, because it saved me a lot of import fees and shipping costs (took some time though).
It was time to ditch my old enclosure and use t-nuts (‘inslagmoeren’ for the other Dutchies here) to mount @psychotiller’s enclosure. I found out later that those t-nuts loosen up when driving over not-so-smooth terrain and applied super glue a day later. They are holding up great now.
This part took a while, checking, double checking, triple checking everything. Used 2x5s extension balance cords to make a plug & play solution for my lipo’s. This way I can easily disconnect them from the bms en check if the cells are indeed balanced (weekly check).
And here is everything inside the enclosure. Used double sided tape to attach the batteries, vesc, bms, bluetooth module and transmitter. To fill up the empty space and combat any rattle while riding I used bubble plastic on top of thick foam tape that hold the wires and electronics (no picture).
The final product! It’s truly awesome to just plug in a cable and not having to think about opening up everything to balance charge the batteries manually.
You installed the t-nuts on the bottom…They are falling out because they go on the top of your deck. Then when you put the screw in through the enclosure into the bottom of your deck it is sandwiched between the hardware. Cant fall out. No glue needed.
Hey if you wouldn’t mind, when you get a chance from time to time, I’m curious how well the supower bms balances, with regen braking and stuff, I got one but haven’t put it on yet
I did a battery cell check today. Since the last actual balance charge I did about 40 km with multiple short recharges in between. It looks pretty good. Biggest difference is between cell 1 of B1 and cell 5 of B2.
I use the metr.at’s app in combination with the VESC Monitor android app. Metr is great for looking back on a ride, vesc monitor is great for quickly checking stats, range left (persistent notification) and changing the riding mode.
Edit: Just did another ultimate range test. Had to push back home the last 800 meter hehe. New 0% in the app now set at 34.3V.
