Upgrading the motor on a bought skateboard

Hello. I am pretty new at this, just so don’t kill me if I make say something stupid :slight_smile:

I bought an electric longboard for a year ago. Now I am interested in an upgrade of the motor for a faster acceleration and top speed. I am not the greatest at electronics, but I now a little. I know I have a 25V battery on my skateboard, and I’m not really interested in replacing it (yet). I have been looking at this:

If I have a 25V 8Ah lithium battery, and the max amp on the new motor is 80A, won’t I get 2000W out of the motor then? And will I run into trouble with my ESC because of the motor upgrade? (I know very little on the ESC)

I now have a 1200W motor that runs about 20mph, and I hope it will get a bit faster

I hope somebody can help me learning. Regards Mikael :slight_smile:

You will have to look into the ESC as companies provide barely enough headroom for personal upgrades.

But do you think it is necessary to open it up? Will it affect the ESC if I change to motor?

It would help if you told us what make of board you are trying to upgrade. 20mph is actually pretty good. In my opinion, if your wanting to go faster, you should consider building a custom diy board.

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You are probably right. I am just interested in a few more mph. It doesn’t have to be anything wild. Don’t you think it would be possible if the current motor is replaced? Thank you

https://www.amazon.com/Electric-Skateboard-Longboard-Falcon-Board/dp/B01ILZ7Q7U

you can upgrade the motor. But you could just add 3s battery in series and a better speedcontroller.

My friend had this board and I had the speedcontroller laying around. Now it goes just over 40km/h. Not the best torque (motor is small) but still decent!

Okay. That sounds Exciting. Do you know which speedcontroller he used?

It was mine :slight_smile: It is a 12s AlienPowerSystem controller, it is the same one as the Torqueboards 12s I think. A vesc would also work :slight_smile: since it’s almost the same price and probably the better choice

Okay. Thank you! :smile:

Get a higher kV motor because you have a lower voltage.

How much higher do you think?

?

That looks about right, you might want to double check with @chaka post on motor kv

you will decrease acceleration by just going for higher kv. If you want more topspeed AND acceleration you need to upgrade the Cells in series and change to a ESC which can handle the extra voltage

Have you considered just switching out to bigger wheels?

Im not sure will the setup / board deliver enough power, but if you can retrofit the pulley, you might get the desired speed…

Have you tried to ‘‘play’’ with the numbers here?

http://calc.esk8.it/#{“batt-type-lipo”:0,“batt-cells”:6,“motor-kv”:245,“system-efficiency”:87,“motor-pulley-teeth”:16,“wheel-pulley-teeth”:36,“wheel-size”:83}|

If someone has 90mm to try and they are flywheel clones, the pulley might fit… looks somewhat similar.

Though when running the thing through calculator, it looks like you would better be off with 97mm wheels but then again they might not fit onto your deck nicely because of the size. Though im not super sure.

IF the motor kv thing is somewhat right and gearing too, then you might get extra 3mph.

If you do still want to ‘‘change motor’’ route, then yeh, you would be better looking at 260-290kv motors, if you dont replace the battery and controller…

**The calculation numbers does not decrease the efficiency… so okay, it might be more like 2mph in the end because of the lost torque or something… though if someone around you has the big wheels or you can get them just to test it out… I would maybe start with the wheels as that would require the least modification, I think, if the pulley fits straight to the wheels…

When I put 6’’ inch wheels (pneumatic) with the same gearing and motor I get only about 15mph, then with 9’'inch wheels, I get 22mph.

Ive got a big different in wheel size, but if you go from 83mm to 97mm, then there’s also a big improvement in speed, I think.

Yes I realize but I was just giving motor recommendations because he said he wanted to upgrade the motor for speed. With the current capacity he should go with a higher kV.

Thank you guys. That helped a lot :slight_smile:

I’m going for an ESC change and 3S battery. Maybe some other wheels as well. I was just wondering… Now I get about 36V to do with… What about the charger then? Do I have to replace that as well? And do it do anything that the one battery is Li-ion and the other is Li-Po?

U should avoid connecting Lipo and Li-ion in series… The voltage profiles just dont match (and capacities too)…

You can connect them in parallel and get more power or more range… but not the other way around…

You need precisely the same type of battery, to be connected in series,

You can just buy 3 x 3S batteries (Lipo) and then replace the current battery you have!

As I said, if you want it to do it cheaply and dont want to switch out too many parts, just replace the mechanical part or the motor and hope that current electronics can handle the higher load you will put on the system…

Change the gear of the motor… that costs the least, just find out what type of gear you need.

That does not mean it wont start to slip… but you will gain more speed, with just 5-10$ of purchase… not 100usd or something as you would pay for esc / battery or higher speed motor.

If you want better range speed or power from the ground up… then yes, invest in ‘‘system of parts’’…

Though, I would say that with better esc you might as well also get better speed or power… at least Ive heard it has sometimes happened.

When you say “the gear of the motor” do you mean the pulley?

I will not mind buying a new battery. I’m just afraid if I buy a new ESC because of all that programming. I have no idea how to do that, after I have done some research.