Life-threatening accident because of ESC (maybe even VESC)?

General Discussion
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Let’s be clear here. **

Skateboarding is dangerous. Electric skateboarding is even more dangerous (more speed).

**. If you don’t know what you are doing - don’t do it. If you still choose to do it - accept that you are doing something dangerous and do what you can to mitigate the risk (like - staying in the safest area to skate possible and not riding in traffic), and riding at a speed you feel you can control (like swerve/avoid and stop).

People need to be responsible for their own choices and don’t expect safety when riding on top of a toy at 20+mph! Wear protective gear appropriate for the speeds you want to go (like downhill folks wear if you want to go that fast), and ride speeds you feel you can safely stop at.

I also Paraglide, and when folks ask “is it safe?” - “No. It’s as safe as i can make it. And I fly in conditions i am confident i can handle, or stay on the ground if in doubt.” Safety gear and training and practice - but it’s still not safe. Staying on the ground is safe - but not as much fun! (cloudbase - can’t even describe it properly)

/rant

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With this attitude there would be no airbags, ABS, ESP or any other safety equipment/technology. Why are you even wearing a helmet when “you know what you are doing”. This is not that simple!

“do what you can to mitigate the risk” includes letting people know and starting discussions about the topic. It should also remind the people involved in the development that they can save lives. It should also remind people that a certain type of ESC is safer than others - right now I don’t have the feeling that the VESC is the safest ESC out there. It should be but (to me after reading of multiple issues) it is not. So which one is actually better? We don’t know - and that needs to change!

Edit: Obviously this could also be related to receivers - then there should also be a discussion about them. We should not wait for the first active forum member to die because of issues like this and should start talking/improving the situation regarding safety - and not just increasing speed or range.

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bet it’s the receiver. I had tons of stuff like this happen with the nunchuck and hadn’t soldered connections. Or when battery gets disconnected with vesc brakes can slam on.

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if ti is the receiver does anyone know what receivers are most likely to cause this issue. What known receivers are there in the esk8 community and what one tend to fail. This way we can help to rule out some options. If we find one receiver has no problems we can ask the community if their board has ever cut out like this and then see whether its the VESC or R/T

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@elkick,

re: your comment "The VESC is 100% safe with it’s timeout setting "

with all due respect this is not true. I (and a couple of other people) had a runaway where the controller stopped sending serial commands and the VESC did not time out. It continued to execute the last command, which unfortunately in my case caused the board to continue to accelerate uncontrolled.

I posted here and emailed Vedder, but got no response.

I do think we as a group and as a sport are maturing to the point where a little introspection into safety is likely to help more and more people and very probably will save someone’s life.

@mishrasubhransu suggested that the people doing Arduino controllers should get together and share best practices - I think this is a great idea.

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Seems like a lot of people getting dumped from a wheel locking up.

Does this only occur on belt drives? or do hub setups also get wheel lockup sometimes?

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You are being contrary. I understand what you’re saying about airbags, abs, etc. but those are all part of mitigating risk. Yeah - start the discussion. But it’s not likely a VESC issue here - most likely the Tx/Rx. Why i use a GT2b - less prone to these issues.

I disagree that certain ESC’s are safer than others. A properly setup ESC (or VESC) with a reliable Tx/Rx setup is just as safe as a similarly setup ESC. Now, before you jump on that - this also equals same setups for brakes, acceleration, etc. Some ESC’s have limited control of those settings. But once configured safely, for your skill (some like more acceleration, some like more braking force) - it again is up to the rider to choose how to operate it as safely as possible.

And gear was already mentioned - nowhere did i suggest to not wear gear. Quite the opposite.

@CSN - i think the wheel lockup is related to the Tx/Rx, not ESC. Folks with this issue should comment with what they are using to confirm. The timeout issue is definitely concerning - but a fair point to consider is does a normal hobby RC ESC also have this timeout?

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My winning remote keeps losing connection and i have to brakes. So I had to bail at high speed more than once yesterday.

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I am creating this POLL to see if we can see what controllers will be more likely to have a problem. I think this will help us figure out the most secure/safe controller for our boards and maybe help solve this problem

  • Psycotiller’s Winning Controller - PROBLEM
  • Psycotiller’s Trigger Mini Controller - PROBLEM
  • Enertion’s Thumb Stick Controller - PROBLEM
  • DIY’s Trigger Mini Controller - PROBLEM
  • Hobbyking’s G2TB Controller - PROBLEM
  • Nyko Kama Wii Nunchuck Controller - PROBLEM

0 voters

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Hey @DougM - what controller are you using? This sounds really scary and i’m curious if it’s Tx/Rx specific? Would be great to confirm the culprit.

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I had an accident last September on my DIY board that messed me up pretty bad and possibly, permanently.

I had been riding a Boosted for two months without issues and without a helmet. I wear a helmet when on my snowboard/scooter/etc, but for some reason, I didn’t rush to buy or even put a lot of thought into wearing one while riding an electric skateboard.

I bought a kit from dexter @diyelectricskateboards. Had a few issues from the get go with the kit, but dexter was great and after some parts back and forth, I got it up and running. One day I went out and was making adjustments and testing it around the neighborhood. At one point, I went down a small hill at a low speed (maybe under 10mph) and had been holding the brake on the FlySky. That would be one of the last moments I remember from that day.

I woke up to a stranger asking me questions and an ambulance pulling up. I spent the next few days in the hospital in a daze. I suffered a traumatic brain injury, internal/external bleeding.

A few days out of the hospital I sat down to eat lunch and I noticed my food tasted horrible. After 20 min of trying to figure out what hell was going on, I came to the sad conclusion that I was no longer able to smell or taste. A few days after that, I noticed I was having trouble whistling for my dog. Over the next week, half of my face became increasingly difficult to manipulate, to the point that it began to affect my speech. Luckily, it stopped getting progressively worse one day and over the next week, began to slowly go back to normal.

Now here I am, almost one year later. I look and feel the normal, but I haven’t not been able smell or taste a single thing since my accident. There is a good chance I will never have the ability to smell or taste again.

I bought a helmet and recently grew the balls to take a look a the skateboard again. It seems to have connection issues and the brakes will randomly give out and not work at all.

I have no memory of the accident, but based on my injuries, it was clear I felt straight back. My best guess is that the brakes gave out and I wasn’t expecting it.

LEARN FROM ME, WEAR A HELMET.

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@sl33py

Linkie…

Runaway Longboard

let me know if you need more details

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could also be the bms overcurrent or temp shutoff

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no, then it would freewheel, and not brake hard-.-

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I think youre quick to jump to it being the controller. if we all had hardwired throttles really doubt we’d have problems. I’ve been through a lot of transmitters and they’re a constant source of danger. why not go to vedder’s site and tell him since you’re so concerned and see what he says. really doubt its the escs.

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guys its not the vesc! its due to the winning remote on low battery! im using a x-car beast 150A esc and having the same issue when the battery is low. its always happends then. just keep your remote battery charged!

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guys please keep this thread constantly updated to get the exposure it deserves.

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Looks like we need a batttery upgrade for winning remotes^^

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I think maybe someone should perform some tests with these remotes at full battery and low battery to see how they affect the boards. Anyone with a few different remotes that wouldn’t mind doing this?