This is just a bad place to talk about pre-built boards in general.
This isn’t a terrible offering and when compared to the stuff most production boards birth into the world this is really decent. It’s not innovative or extraordinary but they are a business and they are trying to turn a profit using tried and tested parts. It almost like we forget that from time to time while dropping 2k on the beasts here 
I think it looks even less, I could completely destroy that thane in one ride
Hi guys, we would like to thank you for all your feedback. We completely understand and appreciate your questions and are more than happy to answer them. Our main objective is to make a product that appeals to all. We will continue to add videos and pictures on our projects to keep you updated.
Before we start we would like to address an important point. Forums are a great place for people to share ideas and help each other. This is the main reason they exist and why administrators start, pay and maintain them. Unfortunately they are not always used in the manner in which they were intended. We started the production and sales of parts for electric vehicles many years ago and since then we have seen an exponential increase of interest in the electric vehicles in general and electric skateboard market. We believe this is the present of the mobility due to the clear power. After we started our business we saw many others starting up. We call them colleagues rather than competitors and the more companies producing parts only helps with the advancement of technology. Sometimes people forget that behind a company like ours are people that work hard and make their own hobby and passion into a profession. It involves long working hours and the sacrifice of family and free time. All our clients are important to us and responding to all queries is not an easy task. When not polite comments on forums are made, it is upsetting. We try our best to help and gave support and prefer to respond our clients who need advice and support by email to avoid the start of debate that just go out the forum rules. We as a small business trying our best to provide our clients with the highest quality and latest products would urge people to use forums as a place to help one another and give support and feedback to help product and projects to develop.
Right, back to our new product.
We have had a few questions about different parts. Hardware specifications, wheels, motors, controller, remote control etc. We have been working on this project for a while now and all the parts have been developed based on feedback and testing. It’s important to keep in mind that every person has a different ride style so the experience can be different from one rider to another. Product have to be tested. Is hard to leave a comment without having tested or even seen the product.
• Let start with the wheels. The choice of an 83mm wheel is for stability at high speed. This is a board capable of 55Kmph so stability at high speed is very important. Some people prefer a smoother ride and we did get that feedback, so we will supply the option of 90mm wheels as well as the standard 83mm with the product
• TRUCKS The precision trucks we use has all been designed by our engineer. To assist him we have been working with professional riders and we have used a variety of CNC trucks available on the market to help us compare. The result is a 184mm hanger TRUCK with TITANIUM axle, kingpin, nut and flat washer. 45 degree base plate. Very stable and precise in riding.
• Motors The motors are a custom product we have develop with one of our main suppliers after testing many different motors on the market. Most of the electric motors are designed to run between 60% and 100% of the rated load. The best efficiency is normally achieved when the motor runs in between these values. This efficient range can vary of course from motor design, size and other factors. Also all the motors are designed to run for a short term over the rated power, but this can effect the motor longevity. There is a lot of choice around HUB motors for electric skateboard, and some of them are performing quite well. The real issue we find is about power output and heat. A small motor needs to be overloaded to be able to output a power required to move an electric longboard. Overload results in a hot motor and loss of its efficiency. Using an oversized motor results in more power, torque and less heat because the system does not need to work at it’s maximum potential for the required power. The result is a system running much better with no heat problems during long periods of use. There is also some power loss to consider such as mechanical loss, copper losses from the winding resistance and iron losses due to the magnetic field to the stator. There are many other factors to consider in the construction of a motor, we could talk for hours about it but this is just about giving some basic information and background to better understand. Most of the motors available today have a decent amount of power, but after some time in use they start to run too hot and they lose efficiency. The goal is to find a good balance between the compact size required in an electric skateboard and enough power. We used a long stator motor and considered the occasionally high demand during hard acceleration and hill climbing. In addition, we included in to the motor design a FAN to help cool it down. Load, power and current measurements have all been considered during the testing. Our battery is a 9000mah capacity so the range is over 40Km and we have made sure that the system runs cool for the whole battery cycle.
• GRIP TAPE The grip tape design is a design test rather than the final design we will use. During all the test our riders also were initially dubious about the design but in fact have found that the current design doesn’t effect the actual grip. We do however want to listen to the feedback we have received and we are more than happy to alter this and as suggested we will use grip tape on the full deck. This will also be coarse grade rather than fine.
• Battery We chose the SONY VTC6 after a long period of testing. Compared with other high end batteries these run at a slightly higher voltage and lower temperature by delivering a higher current. We are been very happy with the great results we achieved by using an 11S3P configuration and matching BMS? Most of the battery packs used on electric skateboards are 10S2p or 4P. Using 11S means having a higher voltage. The advantage is to have a lower current draw, so the motor can run cooler, and at a higher speed. 3P with a 3000mah cell means a 9000mAh battery pack. 9000mAh gives an impressive range of 48 Km with top performances, and still keeps the weight and size relatively low compared with 4P battery.
• Speed controller. We have tested a custom ESC made to work with our motors and a dual ESC compatible with the VESC™ open source project. Both options gave us very good results. Great power output with smooth operation on the whole throttle range. The only real issue we have faced has been the heat. We tested the longboard on hot and cold days to check how the actual external temperature effects the motors-esc combo. The tests have also been executed with a fully charged battery to check the efficiency during the full range of the battery life. In both cases, probably due to the motor power and capabilities of the battery – BMS system the esc was heating up by the end of the test. In a few cases we did experience power drop due to the ESC protections. These few cases occurred by using the full power of the system with no with no limitation by the riding mode. We resolved the issue by re designing some of the hardware and using a large heat sink. Most of the HUB motors ESC available today are only giving a limited output current of 30A total, so this mean 15A each motor. Our ESC is capable of 90A total. We will mostly be using the custom ESC. ESC based VESC™ are great and we think they are perfect for the DIY market.
• Remote control The new remote control is not a simple variable POT for adjust the speed and brake response, but a proper device for communicate with the board. We update our Alien remote and manage to keep the size very closed to the current remote. All the nice features like soft touch material, rubber handle grip, stable connection and others are been kept. The main addition is the display. Display that we think is better to have on the top for easy an access and reading instead of been on the side or on the handle. The LED display shows information like battery life for remote and board, motor and esc temperature, distance, and others. Also the user can adjust the brake-acceleration response and choose between 3 riding mode, each of them can also be programmed to best suit the ride style. Trigger can also be reversed. There is a button in the finger guard to turn on and off the board light and a buzzer to advice when both board and remote battery are low.
We will add more videos and pictures soon. As per forum rules we can only add 1 or 2 per post due to be new user.
Loving the new remote personally. I could see the shape being an issue for some of our US friends but that’s a separate issue entirely.
As I said before and I’m sure a bunch of people here would echo, it’s great to see you guys alive and kicking, you’ve got a good history and have proven to be reliable over the years.
Questions:
Is there a plan or possibility for a smaller deck with a lighter battery using these hubs as a commuter option?
Will you be open to releasing your remote with a receiver for the DIY sector? There’s most certainly a market for it.
What country is this being assembled and shipped from?
Thanks for taking time to get involved, stick around 
Hi and thanks for your feedback.
Here are the replies to your questions:
Q. Is there a plan or possibility for a smaller deck with a lighter battery using these hubs as a commuter option? A. Yes, making an 11S 2P battery is not a problem. The only part that will have to be redesigned and then moulded will be the battery box. We were also considering to use the 21700 cells but at the moment not all of them provide high energy density compared with the many 18650 available today, and cost and space also matter. For sure with the future development will be some improvement, but at the moment the 18650 for power to size ratio and weight are the best choice for small battey pack in our opinion.
Q. Will you be open to releasing your remote with a receiver for the DIY sector? A. There’s most certainly a market for it. Making the new remote as an option with the current model is not a problem. The part will need to be developed is an interface to be able to read the system info and send to the display.
Q. What country is this being assembled and shipped from? We are currently planning production in the UK so we can keep all the manufacturing process under control. We want to keep all the parts coming from separate suppliers so there is no risk of the parts we are been working very hard on being copied. We have learnt this the hard way.
As a second development stage we already plan a belt drive option for the V4R. We are testing t now. There are Pros and cons to both systems so we would like to offer the product in both configurations. We are starting the APS Electric vehicles division and have already began working on a few different vehicles that we plan to marketing.
I want that remote. Put my name on the list.
I assume that when you say…
…you mean that it can be set to full throttle by default and that squeezing the trigger slows you down. Amirite!? Sounds like a hoot.
Yes this. Hubs are great for some. But my roads would be painful with hubs and under 90mm wheels.
I’m really liking the looks of this board but my main question is why the vtc6. Mooch did some testing and found that after as little as 50-100 cycles the vtc6 has degraded quite a bit of capacity and only holds the same amount as a 30q at the same charge cycles. Switching to the 30q would not only lower the price but mean longer overall charge cycles.
The only downside is slightly less current delivery but even the vtc6 can’t handle 30a cont without overheating
Hi and thanks for the feedback.
The bench battery test been carried out by Mooch is great. It give lots of useful information on the cell. We did a similar test with 8-9 different battery models and achieved the best all round performance with the VTC6. We believe the reasons for this are as follows:
We carried out the test not on a single cell but on the complete 11S3P battery pack so the discharge conditions were effect the batteries differently. A key point to consider is that the customized BMS we are using has been developed around the battery pack so all the specifications are related to the battery spec and the working conditions of the whole system. The pack we use has a range of 48Km on average depending on the road conditions and usage. This means that the board will hardly need to be charged continuously. The battery pack never reaches high temps, so the overall efficiency probably did not affect the Sony as it did in the Mooch test. Voltage sag is dependent on different factors, mainly to load (MOTORS), IR, connections etc. In the end the SONY is a great battery and the test shows how if it is stressed it can be worse compared with the Q30. On the other hand if the operation is in the correct working conditions with the right balance of the whole system, the Sony is the one that performs better. In any case we are comparing high end cells so the differences are only minor.
Here a video of the custom trucks, and a picture showing the new remote size against the current model
Can this remote be used with two receivers? (One per vsec)
Hi, not sure about this. I’ll need to check with our engineer. The 2.4 GHz radios use a range of frequencies that are much cleaner compared with other system. Reason is to have very little interference and therefore much less chance of glitches and loss of sync. Each transmitter will bind with its own receiver. Not sure why you need one remote control with 2 receiver. You can simply connect the 2 ESC signal input together and control them with the remote, unless you plan to control the 2 motors separately, but in that case you will need 2 different channel
It’s a fail safe that some people are fond of. @b264 is the one that put me on to it. And he’s a trigger remote guy. So I’m sure he would be interested in finding out as well
Two receiver used to run two esc without CAN or y-split so that they totally autarke from each other. If one fails there is still the second working as backup. I will use the second receiver for a 4wd board. Don’t want to route a y-split cable all over the length of my board to connect the vescs
Yes, and also a third receiver on your helmet for a brakelight if you want or a fourth receiver in your enclosure connected to a bell/horn (when you roll the wheel on the remote)
There are just so many possibilities it’s endless
Hi. Ok. Got the point. Unfortunately the problem is that with 2 receiver, A and B, as soon as you press the bind button the remote is switching between the 2. This is due to the frequency serch and safety. Can’t work with 2 simultaneously. Will have to be a custom system.
I don’t know how this all is working, but with the gt2b remote you can bind up to 5 receiver if I remember right. It’s one of the most reliable remotes used here and 2.4ghz too.
Why not a double kingpin?
Foremost, what is the height of the deck? Considering you are using 83mm wheels it should be something between 110mm and 120mm, right?
Hi and thanks for your message. Many options can be added once the board will be on the market. The deck height is 115mm (ground to bottom of the deck).
About the motors PU, the the 83mm wheels are about 11mm thickness, the 90mm are about 13mm
The wire used for the battery - ESC connection that run through the deck are FLAT braided copper 8mm (60-80A rated)
Did you guys attempt to increase this at all?