Hi all,
This forum was incredibly helpful for my first build, so I thought I’d share some photos & specs in case anyone wants to build something similar. I had a red Penny board when I was about 10 years old that I loved so I went with the larger (because I’m larger now!) Penny Nickel 27" deck for purely nostalgic reasons. It turned out this was a tricky deck to build with due to the contours on the underside of the deck (presumably for strength) which meant I needed to design my own enclosures that would sit flush. I designed them in Fusion 360 and printed them on my Anet A8 3d printer in ABS and acetone vapour bathed to make them shiny and stronger. I’m happy to share the CAD files if anyone is interested.
The board is running great so far (probably only 15km total), I’m 6 foot tall and about 90kg and I’m reaching a top speed of around 30km/h on the flat which feels crazy fast on a board this size! Rode 7km from home to the train station this morning, will test the full range this weekend. Anything over 10km and I’ll be very happy! For around the same money (and a lot less effort!) I could have bought a brand new WOWGO 2S Mini (which looks like a great board), but where’s the fun in that?
Ordered (total cost A$550):
- Maytech 90mm Dual Hub Motors/Trucks
- 2 x ZIPPY Compact 5000mAh 5S 25C Lipo Pack (wired in series to make a 10s 36V 5ah 180Wh pack)
- Diyeboard dual hub motors ESC + remote
- Penny Nickel 27" Deck (Black)
- Foam for between 3d printed cases & deck (from local store “Clark Rubber”)
- 2 x Lipo Voltage Checkers
- 1.25 inch hardware (for trucks)
- 1 inch hardware (for enclosures)
- Bones 1/8" risers (probably not necessary)
- Momentary on/off switch with built in LED (from local store “Altronics”)
Had on hand:
- Lipo battery charger
- XT60 connectors
- 12AWG silicone wire
- Heatshrink
- Black ABS 3d printer filament
Let me know if you have any questions!
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I made it clean and well! Light machine ~~ !!
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wow dude that is awesome! whats the range you get out of that?
Nice, I really want to make a build like this for riding to school.
You should get close to 20km with moderate riding. 180wh/10 = 18km
how much does the board weight?
Thanks for your interest guys and sorry for the slow reply. I’ve been having some issue with the board that I’ve been working through:
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I was losing power in one wheel. When I disconnected the sensor wires from the ESC the problem went away instantly. The sensor wires came without any connectors so I had to crimp them on myself. I don’t have the proper crimping tool so I just used needle nose pliers. So I think the problem here was just that I was losing connection on one or more wires. For now I’m quite happy riding it sensorless, if I can be bothered one day I’ll re-crimp the wires and use a dab of solder this time which I’m sure would fix the problem for good.
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The bigger issue I’m having is the battery case cracking along the layer lines (see photo). I’ve gone through two cases now (and they each took 12 hours to print!). I think the weight of the batteries and the vibration is just too much for the ABS to handle. I’ve just ordered a 1kg roll of Ninjatek Cheetah 3d printer filament which is semi-flexible and supposed to be very strong. When it arrives (in 2 weeks or so) I’ll re-print the battery and ESC cases and I’m sure this will solve the problem for good. As a bonus, this material should be perfect to print new tyres with for the Maytech hub motors when I eventually wear them out.
Because of the above two issues I still haven’t been able to test the full range. I only charge the lipos to 4.1V per cell (trying to extend their life) and after riding roughly 10km one day I still had about 3.75V per cell. I’ll run the lipos down to 3.4V per cell so I think I’ll easily get to 15km.
I just weighed the board and it comes to 6.5kg (see photo). Everyone comments at how surprisingly heavy it is but it doesn’t bother me really.
Overall, the board is still great fun to ride and once I sort out these teething issues I’ll finally have a reliable alternative mode of transport 
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