My learnings building

ESK8 Builds
1

After having built two ESK8-boards and having ridden them for some hundred kilometers I would like to share my experience as a new builder. Some sound pretty basic, but hey, I had to learn all of this.

The soft factors

  • Building an electric skateboard is a very time consuming hobby (researching, ordering parts, waiting for parts, re-ordering parts, putting everything together, fiddling and tweaking … )
  • It is a very rewarding and addictive hobby; note: you will never be finished
  • Doing more research saves time building – but eventually you just have to start
  • Most of the issues / topics have already been covered somewhere, you just need to do your research
  • You will make mistakes – and learn a lot by doing them
  • Having at least two boards is great – you can work on one and ride the other
  • This forum and its members are great!!!

The hard factors

  • Dealing with the VESC is not that complicated – and well worth it
  • A 9mm belt for a single drive doing hills is not going to work (I’m around 85kgs)
  • It works well in the flats if you are careful with your braking
  • My 12mm belt is holding up fine, even going up and down steep inclines
  • My single drive SK3 6364 is very powerful, I can do pretty steep hills …
  • … but not for very long as motor gets pretty warm (still ok) and VESC cuts down power due to heat
  • An anti-spark solution with 12s is a good idea 
  • The vibrations your gear has to withstand are immense, use more loctite, hot glue, tape, whatever
2 Likes
2

Good tips. I ate a few 9mm belts on a single drive mostly under braking they would slip and cause them to wear out fast. 15mm now and is working great.

Vibrations are extreme and red loctite is good in places that won’t need removed often.

3

Spent 5 hours just re-placing lighting and wiring on one board last night

:sleeping:

1 Like
4

PB1,…How are you geared and what voltage ?

Thanks

5

Randyc1, I am running my boards 13x36. One 12s and 83mm wheels, the other 10s and 90mm wheels.
Too fast for me… :smile:

6

Do you have heat sinks on your VESC ?

7

this = true

the amount of times I have heard people say “oh but this is designed for vibrations on cars/mountain bikes/pogo sticks whatever…” people don’t seem to get it… there is seldom a vibration more harsh than skateboard.

which I why I say solder everything!

1 Like
8

originally the idea was to go dual motors for my second build. Now waiting for parts …

Now that I see the amount of power my single drive already has I will play with gearing and heatsinking my VESC. Need to do research, hunt for parts, order parts, fiddle around … => see original post :wink:

1 Like