What is the best advice to builders both new and old? Whether it be something you think about when building, problems you came across and overcame, or just something you live by, what wisdom can you give to the community?
My best advice is to fail faster. The faster you fail, the faster you fix, and the faster a final product is made.
Also, wiring. Pay attention to the lengths of motor wire, they should always have some amount of slack. Depending on how you turn, you can pull on the wires which can cause problems if there isn’t enough slack.
For gods sake, do literally everything you can to protect and fully insulate the phase wires. Don’t kill your vescs!
Pads, all of them, if you intend to ride above 25.
loctite
foam pad your enclosures, no one likes a rattle machine
wire slack, yes the boards flex even stiff ones, leave some slack in your wires
adjust your chargers to proper endvoltages, if you don’t your fancy bms may never kick on if the chargers voltage isn’t adjusted for the load of your pack
wider belts the better, if you can’t go wide use an idler
setup your ppm endpoints, center points and failsafe properly
program VESC based escs independently with isolated power supplies, then later connected to canbus.
bigger wheels the better, the more reduction the better
use Ackmaniac firmware, it’s the tits, and has loads of extra features not baked into stock warez, as well as improved safety features
Antispark switches 95% of the time are a waste of money and will fail… eventually if not quickly (stick to as150 or xt90
toe stops, find one, use one, thank it(unless you have a drop/microdrop)
griptape, don’t be cheap, good grip is your glue to the board
skateshoes, they make a difference
bearings, ok I know your board is all fancy, but 100-200mile intervals for bearing services
replace your wheel nuts, often, 5-10 times on and off and you should be spending the $2 for new nuts
don’t use stock bushings unless you wanna end up in a bush, tune your board for you
I said it first, but pads, do not skimp on them if you intend to ride at speeds this is the most important piece of building that is overlooked.
The amount of time you spend researching and asking question is INDIRECTLY proportional to the amount of money you will go over budget.
TRIPLE CHECK DIMENSION of EVERY SINGLE OBJECT/HARDWARE AS WELL AS SPECS
Don’t re-invent the wheel when you don’t need to.
Rely on whats out there thats been tried and tested, and limit your scope.
This is especially important for builders who are trying to sell.
Earlier on when pre-builts started showing up on crowdfunding sites you always had people trying to come up with plans that involved building their own decks, making their own wheels, making their own trucks, and trying to innovate and improve everything all at the same time.
Then boosted came around and got it right. Used well known high quality, and good looking parts that were already out there and respected. And all boosted needed to do was to assemble and motorize it.
Much smaller scope, less room to fail, and much less work.
The more helmet, the better I use a motorcycle helmet. Already saved me once, I will never not wear it again. Especially after reading about Randy Jensen, people really need to wear them. There’s no reason not to honestly.
I use a motorcycle helmet. Already saved me once, I will never not wear it again. Especially after reading about Randy Jensen, people really need to wear them. There’s no reason not to honestly.