I’ve been following the Electric Skating community for a while and have decided to build my own board. Now I have no experience in this field whatsoever and have been reading multiple threads on these forums to help myself get a basis of how to actually build my board. On diyelectricskateboard, they have a semi-complete kit which comes with everyone I need expect for battery, charger and the deck itself:
(1 set / 2 pcs) 180mm TorqueBoards Trucks (BLACK)
(1 set) v4 Bolt On Motor Mount
(1 set / 4 pcs) 83mm ABEC Flywheel Style Wheels
(1 pc) 36T 12mm HTD5 Drive Wheel Pulley for 83mm ABEC Style Wheels
(1 pc) 16T or 18T Motor Pulley 12mm HTD5
(1 pc) 255mm Pulley Belt 12mm HTD5
(1 set / 4 pcs) M4 Bolts for RC Motor
(1 set / 8 pcs) Bearings
(1 set / 4 pcs) Spacers
(1 set / 8 pcs) Deck Hardware
(1 pcs) 6355mm RC Brushless Motor, 2650 Watts, 230KV, 80Amp Max, 63mm x 55mm, 8mm shaft
(1 pcs) Single Motor 12S 120A ESC
(1 pcs) ESC Programming Card
(1 pcs) 12S UBEC
4mm HXT Series Connector
On/Off High Voltage Anti-Spark Switch 2S-14S
My goal is to keep the price below 1200AUD which I would be able to do with this setup. I was wondering if there is a alternative route to assembling my first board that may save me some money and even be beneficial in the long run. It will be used to ride to and from work, as well as to the campus perhaps. I live in an area with some hills but nothing to steep. wSorry for the inexperience
Hi! Fair warning I’m half done with my first build (although I do have RC experience), but some thoughts.
The hardware (motor mount / pulley / belt etc) look good. Any considerations into the longboard deck (price range)?
I would look into getting a VESC (Vedder’s ESC). I believe it’s cheaper than the 12S 120A ESC that you have listed, and is more suited for e-sk8. You also wouldn’t need a ESC programming card (the VESC is programmed via a USB cable and a computer).
Have you thought about what batteries you wanted to run? How many cells, capacity, etc? That will affect what motor you should effectively run. The DIYElectricSkateboard kit will work just fine, but if you’re trying to save some money, consider parting out the components yourself.
agreed; in general the ESC is the brains of any RC build. Try to save up the money for the VESC; all of the other ESCs are made to drive manless RC cars, boats, etc, not skateboards with ~200 pounds cargo.
Hey,
Living in Australia, I can’t seem to find a place that sells cheap longboard decks so if I can’t find one I’ll probably resort to making my own. The batteries, I was looking at running two Turnigy 5aH 6S 20C Lipo Packs which I think will get me the speed and mileage I am aiming for. Not sure whether to run them in parallel or series though as I don’t know the benefits and cons of each.
With the VESC, I’ve seen mixed opinions about it with some saying that it is very hard to program and some saying that it is very straight forward. What is your say on it?
I’d search around a little bit on the forums about what you want out of a battery. In short, parallel = same voltage, more current; series = more voltage, same current. More voltage increases top speed, more current increase max distance travelled (more or less).
In general, larger cell packs (like 6S) are thicker than smaller ones (like 3S). Many here would recommend to buy 4x3S packs, so that you have more flexibility with mounting the lipos as well as ground clearance.
Again, I’m working on my first e-sk8 build so I can’t say directly how programming works. It looks simple, but hey, I’m recent computer engineer grad
I weigh around 62kg or around 137 pounds and probably won’t be carrying anything in excess of 3kg (143lbs total). Would you be able to explain the difference between the two motors? Is it just the difference in torque?
