Hi! This is my first build. I need some help with choosing parts. I have little experience with the skateboard and want to build one just for commuting/cruising. I don’t plan on doing any fancy tricks or going extremely fast. Any advice/tips would be appreciated!
Is the bamboo deck I chose good for commuting/cruising like I chose above? Is flex good or not good for that? Do I need grip tape?
Of the two trucks I listed, which one would be better for commuting/cruising?
Are the wheels I chose durable/good for commuting/cruising?
Is the 260kv motor good for commuting/cruising? Should I go for higher/lower kv? Should I go dual motor - would that allow for more distance/battery life or would it drain faster?
I’m not quite sure how to make a mount that is compatible with the trucks/wheel/motor? Is there existing CAD files for mounts that are compatible with my build or is there cheap ones I can purchase? Any guidance here would be much appreciated!
I understand the ESC and programming card is very important. Did I choose safe/reliable ones? Would 120A ESC be enough for the parts that I chose?
Should I go for higher battery - 9c or 12c? How much longer distance would I be able to go if I did that? Should I wire in parallel or series? The only reason I haven’t decided to go 9c or 12c is because I don’t know what cheap but reliable charger/adapter I would use to charge it, so any help would be greatly appreciated.
Did I choose the correct wiring cables and which cables am I missing?
Are the pulleys I chose good as well as the timing belt? Should I go for more or less teeth on any of them? I’m not quite sure how any of that works.
Is there any parts that I am missing other than the mount?
I want to CAD all of this before I begin building. Is that a smart thing to do or is it overkill? The main reason I want to do so is so that I can make sure there is room for everything and that everything fits. I also am not completely sure how to do the wiring or build a wiring diagram, so any help there would be appreciated as well.
I know this is a lot of questions, and if you’ve made it this far, thank you! Any help/tips/advice whatsoever would be lovely as I have very little experience in this area!
Here’s a couple of links to some tools that will help you out. The ESK8 calculator. Plug in your numbers and see what your ESK8 performance might look like.
Belt length calculator.
http://www.bbman.com/belt-length-calculator/
FYI: The drive wheel pulley you selected will probably be too large of a diameter to fit on those 83mm wheels without scraping ground. The avg setup is usually a 36tooth drive pulley and 14tooth motor pulley. HTD5 belts.
Don’t forget to use the search box to find topics and info on building. Also check out Endless Sphere. https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=35&start=50 It’s not as clean and easy to use as this forum, but there is loads of great information and inspiring builds there.
Bamboo decks are good for carving but you will need to have a split enclosure design (one to house batteries and one for ESC) so they don’t get broken in the middle of the deck where it flexes. There are also people that say that flexy decks hurt their back more after a while.
Get Caliber II trucks, they are easiest to mount motors to and ride well.
They should be fine. @longhairedboy uses clones on all of his builds
If using 6S i would get around 245kv
Look at Enertion’s open source mount, it is for personal use only of course.
Heard great things about that ESC. Should work well. If you can though, aim for the VESC (it is built for eboards) but it is a bit more expensive
At least 20c. Wire those two batteries in series.
You may have to solder some things. All esk8ers should learn to solder (I am learning too).
go 15/16 to 36 for gearing
Get the GT2B, that is what everyone uses. You will need a power supply for that charger, if you don’t want to buy that then get the IMAX B6AC V2, it has a built in power supply.
Overkill
I hope this all helped you. Any other questions, let me know.
I’m actually in the process of making a motor mount for these trucks(they look similar to your blank ones listed): https://amzn.com/B01B08HCSI
I’ve used these trucks before for a regular cruising board, so I decided to use them for my first electric board.
The design for my motor mount is based off the one one www. I just changed it to fit my trucks. Once my VESC/pulleys get here, I’ll be able to finalize it. I have mine made out of aluminum, and Its so tight on the truck, I don’t think it’ll go anywhere haha. But I can’t be sure until I get my board up and running. The only downside is you’d need access to a CNC.
Here’s a picture of the design, if I get a chance tomorrow I’ll take a picture of the actual mount.
Clones are great wheels. At least the ones from Everland are. I’m sure there’s some crappy ones out there though.
@lox897pretty much nailed everything, especially about the flex. You don’t want flex in your deck unless you plan to use two boxes, otherwise your box will tear apart.
I’ve never tried that ESC, and i’ve heard good thing about it too, but i still wouldn’t use a helicopter ESC if i could have a Car ESC instead. Since you’re going for 6S, get an ESC rated for 8S so that you’ll have some perfermance headroom. diyelectricskateboard has a good one, the Favourite 120A car ESC. I use them in my 6S and they’re reasonably priced and reliable. It has a fan so you may need to cut a hole in your box for it.
Yeah that ESC is fine. It doesn’t matter really how you get your 6S as far as the ESC is concerned, so you could totally do an 18650 pack build if you wanted.
