I am on the email list with mellow, today I received an email detailing their unique braking system. I’m not going to copy the entire email, but here’s the stuff people here might want to know:
“Our breaking system is the most powerful and reliable breaking system ever developed for electric skateboards and getting it right, is one of our top priorities. By adding the thermal breaking resistor we ensured the breaks of the Mellow Drive will never have to shut off due to a full battery or in order to not harm the Mellow Drives electronics. Even on long descents the breaks will stay fully functional, keeping you safe, way over the point where every other product would go up in smoke.”
“Voltage peaks trigger a switch that allows the energy to flow off in a controlled way.”
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I’ll see what else is worth posting from the email
Here u go @link5505
“On our test rig we are able to run the Mellow Drive with every combination of torque and speed – aka – we can simulate every riding situation (light rider vs. heavy rider, uphill vs. downhill) in a controlled lab environment. During testing we can monitor all voltages, currents, temperatures and we can even simulate wind resistance and rolling friction, to get very realistic results on range and real world top speeds. Pushing the power of the Mellow Drive to the max and meanwhile monitoring the systems every reaction is something that only intensive lab testing can provide. This will ensure that the you can safely take the Mellow Drive to the limits without risking your health due to system failures”
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From the explanation I guess they use a big external resistor, away from the main electronics and put all the excessive braking regen current through it so it doesn’t gets transformed to heat at the ESC level if the battery can’t handle it fully (batt min absolute value isn’t low enough).
I can’t take anyone seriously who doesn’t know the difference between break and brake.
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lol I copied the typo without thinking
Indeed. Their breaking system and breaking resistor sound like a bad time. Nobody wants broken brakes.
It is easy to swap two letters if you are a non-native.
Yeah that’s is probably what they are doing but how are they just switching the current line that? Apparently you aren’t supposed to switch regen current while braking… It can possibly damage the ESC or something.
I hope someone can get a diagram of how it works.
@Pantologist @makevoid @link5505 @TeleRando if anyone has questions I would recommend sending an email to mellow boards, Tony in particular. He has been very helpful with my questions and always responds within 48 hrs. I am not advocating for mellow in particular, but these guys have been open about their technology at every step. Here’s his email:
[email protected]
