So after a week or so of research and parts shopping I think I have finally decided on what I want.
I had a longboard lying around under the stairs and instead of throwing it out I decided I wanted to build a low budget e-board. I wanted it to do at least 15mph, get me around town on a weekend and not cost me more than ~£300.
I think the brakes on that esc might be a bit dodgy. If you must have an rc esc perhaps try the fvt120.
Also some kind of enclosure for the batteries and electronics.
If you’re that under budget, you should consider upgrading to a vesc instead of the hobbyking esc. Also it looks like the mount kit comes with HTD3 belts and pulleys. If possible I’d recommend switching to HTD5 hardware, it’s less prone to skipping.
You’ll need wire, heat shrink tubing, a soldering iron and solder, a voltage monitor of some sort, and a couple xt90 antispark plugs for a loop key.
I have enclosure, cables and all the odd bits and bobs in bulk at work so that part isn’t such of a worry at the minute.
How hard is it to set up the vesc’s? I’m not looking for something I have to plug into a computer or anything (at the moment, maybe the next build) I just want something that can get me the 3 mile round trip through town on a weekend. Is it really worth the upgrade for such little need? This was my concern that I could end up throwing money at it for it to be either sold or unused in a few month?
You have to plug the vesc in, but the setup is really quick and easy, especially with the latest version of the PC software. It makes everything better, especially smooth, safe, progressive braking.
XT90 is a type of plug, often used for batteries and motors in the RC community. It’s the bigger version of the xt60 connector which you’ll find on many batteries. The XT90-S is the antispark version, which prevents arcing of the contacts when you plug it in.
Imho, the vesc is the most crucial part of an esk8. It’ll work without, but everything is just better with a vesc.
I cannot recommend the VESC enough I also advise you check some other build threads and see what other people recommend for people like yourself. And setting up the VESC isn’t to complicated there’s tons of tutorials out there and it’s totally worth it.
for those batteries i suggest you get imaxb6ac it will charge those batteries perfectly and it is a somewhat smart charger where it will beep and stop charging when the lipo are full
Dont get that drive train, its a waste of money and you wouldnt like it, go for htd5 and higher quality parts for the drive train, if your drive train breaks and stops the wheel youre dead meat. And also, if youre that much under budget I would say the vesc is the best Esc you can get for eskate and theres nothing that can even compare to it, its almost a necessity and a luxury at the same time, you want the brains to be good and the body to be strong.
Getting the vesc is great, but Im highly highly highly recommending you to not get that drive train and those pulleys, I have 2 sets of them in my basement and trust me, they are shit, the belts slip and theres just no grip on the pulleys at all
just get a decent set of htd5 pulleys, nothing less, theyre shit, and if youre looking for a motor mount on a budget you can either make your own or get one of those on hobbyking, they feel nice and sturdy and come at less than 10 bucks
