Well you could check if there is a measurable resistance. Or reheat everything with a big (40W+ Big Tip iron) without moving it again to be safe.
Yeah, but I would redo them just to be sure, I also use MT60 and it won’t close a short
What power iron are you using? With low power ones is hard to make a good weld, I recommend at least 100W, this way you can make a good solder very quickly without melting the connectors
I also have one of those but i didn’t use it for my heavy wires on the MTB. I got a set with a big tip - not sure how well i worked with the thin tip you have there. But 60W should be ok for 12AWG.
In mother Russia you don’t measure the resistance, the resistance measures you
Those MT60s are pretty neat and will plug straight into racerstar motors from Banggood
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It’s not only a question of power, you need mass, a iron with no mass to store the heat cools quickly one you touch the wire and connector
Yes that’s true. But those 60W cheap irons are surprisingly powerful once heated up.
Normally i use a big 80W old ass iron that’s probably twice as old as me for those big wires 
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I want this plug! Been debating whether to use the MT60s & mt30s or try making my own by epoxying 4mm & 0.8mm plugs in a machined nylon insert…
Done the first test ride! And it worked! Yay!
My ESCape finally arrived today, so a test ride was a must. I was a little worried about configuring the ESC, since I have never used the Vesc Tool before. But it turned out really easy. The hardest part was to overcome the anxiety from connecting the thing with the full load of 12s lipos to my not exactly cheap laptop. And the second hardest part was connecting the RC receiver since I didn’t have the right cable. So I had to get a little creative with jumper wires. 
I also tested my new extra sturdy cardboard battery box and attached it to the board with a very securely looking blue string. 
(It was getting dark and I couldn’t find anything better.)
Since I have anticipated I would end up with a setup of that kind, I kept the max motor amps at 40 when configuring the ESC, which turned out a good idea. I still didn’t have the balls for doing full throttle.
And it worked! I made it to the end of our street and back (with a few stops for reconnecting the jumper wires :)). And even with all that makeshift stuff, it was already a lot of fun. I can’t wait to putting things together properly and doing a longer ride.
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I made things a little more properly. Still temporary/testing setup, but already such that I can take it on road without worrying it will fall apart at the first bump. I got a proper JST connector (turned out pretty hard to find in my city) and made a simple lid for the batteries using cardboard and some black tape.
Today I took a longer ride – about 3 km. Good road only. All worked well. The board gets a little wobbly at higher speeds and more wobbly when braking. For braking, I believe it’s the single motor. For high speeds, it might be the trucks. The steering is pretty sensitive. I never noticed that when riding off-road with a kite, but it’s all very different on the road without the kite. Also, my back leg hurt as hell. I’m not used to riding in the same direction all the time. Overall though, I’m very happy with the board so far. It might take some more tweaking and getting used to a different riding style, but it looks very promising. I think it will be perfect for my kite spot commutes.
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Oh, BTW, starts are very smooth. I don’t have a sensored motor so I was worried about starts being too rough, but with ESCape in FOC mode it’s not a problem at all. It starts very smoothly even if I go full throttle straight away.
I have done a 10 km ride today to get a rough idea of the range. The voltage in individual cells dropped from 4.2 V to ~3.9 V, which should be ~60% of the total capacity. It was on a good road, almost no hills and I drove very slowly. Still it looks like the 16 km I need to be able to cover for my commutes will be doable.
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Today I went to my favourite kiting spot to see if I can make it there and back. I made it there:
I wasn’t sure if I’ll make it back as well. The cells were around 3.8 V, so it looked promising. On the other hand, I took a shortcut through a cucumber field on the way there, which started as a lot of fun… but then the path got narrower and narrower. Near the end, it was just wide enough to make it through with very precise driving, which I wasn’t quite able to do and I kept hitting the plants. At that point I accepted the defeat and pushed the board for the last ~100 meters, which wasn’t that much fun anymore… So I decided to go around on the way back, which would be some extra distance.
Nevertheless, I did make it home and still with ~3.7 V in the cells. Total distance 19.7 km. Here’s the route:
BTW, as you might have noticed, my board went through another evolution step. I put the ESCape into the same compartment as the batteries. Here’s a few more pics:
Here’s how things look inside:
At last, I didn’t use the the MT60 connector for motor wires. It’s actually pretty hard to disconnect. I just used 3 bullet connectors instead that I labeled with a piece of yellow and green tape. I figured they are easier to deal with than the MT60.
And here’s the board with the electronics removed. This is very easy to do. Just remove the two straps and carefully lift the box, which is held by two pieces of velcro at the bottom.
Now it’s just a matter of swapping the motorized trucks for an extra pair of unmotorized (that I don’t have yet) and the board is ready for kiting!
One other small upgrade I have done is a small window in the lid to see the battery voltage indicator and the LEDs on the ESCape and the receiver… In fact, I made it big enough for the whole ESCape to be seen since it looks really cool and I didn’t want to hide it.
So that’s it. I think I’ll replace the cardboard with something more water resistant at some point, but the build seems good enough to be used in a good weather already. Time to order another pair of trucks and wheels! 
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Looks good dude! Very neat and tidy. I’ve decided to bail on using the MT60 motor connectors too, just going to have a long lead hardwired into my central box and keep the standard connectors at the motor end. So you got 20km on 8000mAh? seems pretty good going!
Thanks!
I have considered that as an option as well. One thing I didn’t like about that setup though is that I wouldn’t be able to seal the connectors (easily) and I was worried about a short should I get caught by rain and the connectors would get wet. There’s a little bit of metal poking out of the insulation on my motor connectors. I guess I could just fix that, but having the connectors inside the battery box seemed a better option.
I suppose in your case the cable will go through a hole drilled in the box so connectors inside the box wouldn’t work.
Yeah. That’s better than expected. On the other hand, I thought I had some padding with the 3.7 V left in the cells, but after some googling now, that’s actually pretty close to depleted. And that’s with new batteries and I was riding pretty slowly. I’ll need to find some shortcut that doesn’t go through a cucumber field. 
I decided to test the board max speed today. It turned out to be “more than I can control”. Fortunately I did have some protective gear, so I only got some scratches and a dislocated joint on my left thumb. The doctor just put it back. Ouch. Hopefully it’s not broken. Still waiting for the x-ray.
I may need to tighten up the hangers for stiffer steering. The board got extremely wobbly at around 40 km/h. I wasn’t able to control it. I’m also thinking of getting a full body armor. I had my backbone guard, but nothing on my side, so I have an ugly bruise there. Plus, it hurt quite a bit. 
Gloves instead of just wrist guards might also be a good idea. On the other hand, ones that would protect fingers against fractures and dislocated joints would have to be really stiff and that wouldn’t work with the remote. One glove for left hand only?
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I tried to tighten the kingpin nuts following my recent crash and it made a HUGE difference. The board is nice and stable now. All the wobble is gone. Turning is still fine. Very happy with that change.
I have also played with my ESCape settings. I increased the motor max amps from 55A to 60A and limited the ERPM instead. The rationale is that I don’t want to hinder the uphill performance, but I prefer to have some reasonable speed limit. I set the max ERPM to 35k, which I believe should limit the speed to 40 km/h. I haven’t tested these settings yet.
Jesus, hope it’s all good now.
I use Hillbilly gloves/wrist guards, works fine.
https://www.powerkiteshop.com/accessories/hillbillywristguards
BTW I ordered some parts in this shop last week but never got any e-mail. @AndyBigD because I know you ordered something there, too. Are they legit?
AFAIK these ATB skate trucks are not good (stable) at higher speed, I wouldn’t exceed 35 km/h. With trampa channel trucks without dampas I get speed wobbles above 39 km/h. With yellow dampas no problems up to 49 km/h (top speed).
I’ve bought from there twice now (maybe 3 times?) with no issues, they’re legit.
Thanks, good 2 know, feel better now 