Such upgrade! Many power!
I was happy with my single motor drive, but then I got stuck in the middle of a hill several times. Once you have to stop, there’s no way to get going again with a single motor. Also the off-road performance wasn’t great and I constantly had some wobble in the rear truck, which I thought was due to the single drive.
So I decided there’s time for an upgrade. And so it happened that Idea had the motor mount on hand and stewii had a few ESCapes left from the last group buy. It only took about a week to get all the parts in. I didn’t even have time to get a proper CANBUS connector.
I took the board for the first ride today and it’s great! The improvement in the uphill performance is enormous. I tested it on the steepest hill I could find in my surroundings. It must be at least 20% and it’s paved with cobblestone. The board made it up like it’s nothing. I could even start in the middle going straight up.
Off-road is also great. I took it through high grass. No problem at all, even when going uphill.
Only the wobble in the rear truck didn’t go away. In fact, it’s even worse now. I think I need to balance my wheels. They are both quite a bit out of balance and that’s likely the culprit of the wobble. It would make sense that the second drive made it worse.
The wiring is becoming a bit of a rat’s nest. I’ll have to do some refactoring at some point:
The only issue I had is that the motor driven by the slave ESC refused to spin when starting a few times. I attribute it to my CANBUS wiring, which currently isn’t, ehm, exactly the most solid one.
I already ordered the proper connector, but I’m just too impatient.
Overall, the upgrade was definitely worth it! On the other hand, it’s also a bit scary. Before, even if I went full throttle when starting, I wouldn’t loose balance. There’s no way I could do it now. At one point I accidentally pushed the throttle a bit harder than intended and the board rushed forward like a wild horse. I managed to keep the balance but it was close. I definitely need to go easy on the throttle now.
The only thing that yet remains to be seen is how the added power affects the range. I hope I’ll still be getting close to 20 km on road. Otherwise I will need to upgrade the battery pack as well, which will be a bit of a challenge. I guess I would need to replace it completely since I can’t really see a good way of adding to the four 3S LIPOs. I should have listened to the advice of the more experienced ones and get two 6S LIPOs instead.