Its been quite some time (like 8-10 months) since I’ve started inquiring about esk8, and now I want to build mine I don’t have a huge budget but still need help deciding what to choose for the board. I am around 170 - 180 lbs.
Weight: I really don’t care much about the weight but I care more about the range
Speed: I don’t really care about it being extremely fast (30 mph) but some good 18 to 20 mph will do
Range: I actually want it to have a long range of about 18 miles will do
Batteries: I don’t know that much about them all I know is that a lot of people recommend the 18650 the ones in the Teslas I believe
Motor: I am trying to decide between the in hub and belt one since I’ve heard that when you run out o charge the belt ones are really hard to push. They have recommended me that for the in hub motors to be around 75 kv and 90mm with swappable urethane and for the belt to be 64something and around 200 kv
VESC or ESC and Controller: this I know nothing of sorts so all help would be appreciated
Board itself: I want the board to be a longboard and the style like the boosted board (downhill style I believe)
I don’t know if I need anything else, if im missing something please tell me.
Hubs aren’t resistance-free when off and pushing, even when disconnected entirely. With belt drive, you can always remove the belt and it then behaves just like a regular unpowered board. One deciding factor between belts and hubs is hills - if you live somewhere hilly, you probably want extra torque to get up them, and belt drive is perfect for this.
One thing you need to figure out is physical size - nothing worse than picking a battery etc, then not being able to fit it all into an enclosure, or worse, not being able to find an enclosure that fits your board. I’d recommend picking your enclosure first, then your board, or at least checking that whatever board you have in mind has enclosures that will fit it. Then you can choose your electronics to suit the enclosure/board combo.
Your budget seems perfect for a single drive with a 12s3p battery, adding the second motor and vesc would likely push your budget over the limit
12s3p Battery (including charger) - $350
Motor - $100
Vesc -$80
Deck (Vanguard clone and Meepo style enclosure to mimic a boosted Just make sure the battery fits the enclosure, I remember seeing one that fits a 10s3p, so 6 extra cells might not be too much…) - $120
Chinese clone wheels - $20
Pulleys -$50
Remote -$50
I estimated on some of the pricing, and you could probably get some of the items for cheaper if you bought used, but this in my mind is the minimum for an 18 mi range board.
My 10s2p only squeeks out 11 miles before sag becomes too much of an issue to ride. Past mile 6 it’s slower than a full charge, and I only draw 12a from each Pgroup
Just remember that safety is the number 1 priority, and you shouldn’t skimp on the vesc, controller or safety gear (which isn’t written here).
Send us links to products you think would work in your build and we can tell you what’s good or bad
Perfect, thanks. About that you said of removing the belt can I do it on the go or do I have to disassemble the whole thing? and where I live it is weird since I live up a hill and I believe that it is actually like 80 degrees as soon as I can ill upload a picture, but the rest of the city has minimal hills. Still I believe I’ll go with the belt since I am scare of running out of battery and having to carry it.
So for esk8 batteries we talk in terms of cells in Series and Parallel, S and P groups.
More cells in Series results in a higher voltage, which correlates to higher speed and increased torque
More cells in Parallel would result in larger pack WH, aka more range.
However I reccomended the 12s3p simply based on my observation that: With a battery made from Samsung 30q cells, each Ppack in a 10s pack seems to offer around 6 miles of range.
The 30 cells of a 10s3p pack would give you around 18 miles, but the 36 cells of a 12s3p pack would likely give you 20 miles (10-14 quick-ish miles, and 5-6 miles of sag speed).
That being said, your range is entirely dependant on how you program your VESC( Don’t worry about doing this yourself, unless you read into it extensively. We can help you with that as well )
Feeding your motors a higher amperage will drain the battery pack faster, and shorten your range.
IT’s just I don’t want this guy thinking on if i go 1s 30p I’ll get more range.
or think that if he goes 10s1p he’ll have speed and lots of hill climbing torque.
(please take caution when liking blitz’s comments when they have just been created
they can change in a split second) I will not be held liable for any embarrassment caused.
Downhill oh boy lol,
boosted deck is perfectly fine for 20mph but it’s not what I’d consider to be a downhill deck because downhill decks tend to be stiff and have little to no flex but can handle 30mph easy.
Range let’s focus on how much energy you could eat
The main non complex factors are
how much the load is (your weight)
Your speed (the faster you go the more wind resistance)
the incline or decent of your route (this is where weight really factors in)
How fast you accelerate aka ride (take a bike ride and pay attention to these factors so you would have a good understanding the above)
Now if you drive efficiently you might get 1km of range per 10wh but there are many variables.
Samsung Q30’s are a great choice for esk8 Because they are
High in capacity
high drain
There are some higher capacity cells but they either cost more or don’t provide a lot of output unless you put a lot together.
I might try to reply with something more informative later, however, this is what I want to say now.
For your first build, I highly recommend not trying to do every single cool thing the community has came up with in the past 4 or more years, and even experimental shit on top of that. Also, make a build list with PARTS THAT ARE IN STOCK AND KNOWN TO SHIP WHEN PURCHASED FROM RELIABLE VENDORS.
After your first build, do whatever the fuck you want. But for your first… heed my advice. Also, I’d definitely build the board to be able to go at least 25mph… once you get comfortable topping out you’re gonna want more.
)