Finally getting around to making my board. I’ve known about eBoards for awhile. But I recently tried an electric long board at SF Makerfaire this year and wanted to make my own. Seems perfect for my short commute to work and around the city.
I road a Vanguard in college and recently found one on Craigslist here for cheap so it has become my base. Have been snooping around awhile so hopefully have picked up on a good selection of components.
My only hold up right now is Battery. Would love a plug and play charging pack. But I don’t want to build my own (buy equipment to spot weld). But Vanguard means I need a split pack solution so prebuilt solutions like the Space Cell are outta the question. Also not sure if I’ll actually love this so spending that cash on a custom pack also seems a bit excess right now. So might just go with LIPO and deal with the hassle of charging. And if I love it upgrade eventually.
Mount : TorqueBoards V4
Gear ratio : 16T/36T
switch : AntiSpark xt90 key MEB Switch
charger : IMAX B6 MEB Charger
Remote: Kalys Mini Remote
Like the 12S Lipo mainly because it would be $70 shipped to get a battery solution. Charing 3x 4S lipos might be a pain, but its a cheap way to get me up and running. Cheaper than picking up a single 6s pack or I could go 8s and take the hit in speed and drop the cost way down, but I’ve read that running this vesc/motor at lower voltage isn’t ideal.
The drive train part is done. All I need to do is pick a battery solution. Enclosure and program the VESC.
Trust me, you’ll love it. Get a custom pack and use flat wiring under the griptape like boosted does to connect the enclosures. 10-12s will be a hill-climbing machine!
Also, don’t use Lipo. I’ve spent 150$ in lipos on one board now for various reasons, li-ion is better and cheaper in the long run. I usually account for about 1 mile per 1000mah, so depending on your commute 8000-5000mah should be just fine.
Thanks for the offer, but after thinking through the options I think I’m going to go with Oriols Miami Pack. A 12S pack with everything (bms, switch, lcd, charger) coming in at $280 shipped. Seems like a great deal. Plus I can get it soon, as opposed to having to wait for a custom pack to be built. Wanna get out an riding as soon as possible. So this makes the most sense for that reason.
Once the battery pack gets in. I’ll just have to wire it all up, program the VESC (is there a good tutorial on this) and get up and riding.
After I get it mechanically sound I’ll work on making nice enclosures and routing the wiring on the top of the board.
@sl33py They are CHAM battery Cells.
So far they have been amazing, I have a few hundred miles on my test pack and just about 70 cycles still like new! PM me for more info, or feel free to post on my dirty dervish thread.
This looks like a Really nice new Vanguard Build so I can’t to keep the topic on his board!
Hi, looks awesome!
I am also planing my first E-Board with the same motor and VESC, and I’m pretty glad I found your post!
How happy are you with the 16:36 gear ratio? With 83mm wheels, 12s, and 149KV that should be optimized for a top speed of ~ 47 km/h / 29 mph. Do you actually go that fast? I was planning to rather get 13:36, which would do ~ 38 mk/h / 24 mph.
I was also looking for convenient, affordable solutions running 12s and this pack looks nice! But do know the maximum balancing current of the BMS? I have been looking around for BMS but the only one that I could find was this one:
http://www.batterysupports.com/lion-lipo-nbsp-44v-nbsp-12s-c-32_42.html
The problem that it only allows a few mA of balancing current and I am a bit worried that this will not be enough to keep the cells balanced. After all you charge at around ~100 times the current and draw/brake regeneratively at the 1000-fold!
Haven’t actually ridden the board yet, so not sure how the ratio will workout.
I went with the larger motor pulley mainly because it means the belt will have more teeth in contact on Motor Pulley, The smaller the motor pulley the tighter that radius and less teeth in contact on the belt. From other applications I know that this increases wear on the belt and can cause slipping since the load is being transferred through fewer teeth. Its a 12 mm belt so might not be an issue, but figured Id go with the bigger motor pulley.
Also for 29 mph the motors might be a bit less efficient not at full rpm. But I don’t have to run them at full speed. So this gives me head room to go faster if I ever wan too.
Looks like the battery will get here this weekend. So hopefully I can get it wired up on Monday and Test ride by Tuesday, and give better feedback.
and @Mathias - I usually gear for a top speed of 22-25mph. I have run dual motor 9mm belts w/ 12/36 and it was problematic with skipping. I would not go lower than 13 or 14t to help avoid. 12mm will definitely help (more contact area) and that’s likely my next build using 13/36 or 13/40 w/ 12mm belts.
I can’t wait to hear from your first ride, @emancarrillo! I guess your board is going to be a stamina monster with decent climbing capabilities. However, now I am thinking about going for a smaller motor because I like to have to option to add a second one on the front truck later (might move to an area with killer hills soon). Dual SK3 6374 might be a bit overdone…
It’s going to be my first build and the belt is one of the parameters I am most worried about. With this motor I was even planing to go for 15 mm width at 13T:36T pulleys aiming for a maximum of ~6.5 krpm, 37 km/h / 23 mph at 12s-lipo.
Then again I am a bit concerned about the friction. @sl33py, what motors do you have and how well does the board roll? Well enough to ride it without power?
I am trying to figure out a good compromise between range, torque, rolling resistance, and weight. If I can’t really find it I might consider making a second really light build with hub motors. But this will simply blow my budget at the moment, so I’d love to make some all-rounder…
@Mathias - rolling resistance will always be higher w/ a dual setup - twice as much friction from second motor, belt, gears, etc. I would endeavor to setup a dual board w/ the range you need, so you don’t need to push. If you want the least rolling resistance - hub motors might be the best way to go, but they won’t be as great at hills from what i understand (one of the experts are welcome to correct me if i’m wrong).
A special note on riding without power and VESC - Don’t do it! This has been shown to kill a few VESC’s and when i asked the vedder.se forum they strongly said to avoid. It only takes a little while to saturate the Caps and potentially fry the VESC w/o the battery connected and somewhere for the regen power to go! So don’t do this, unless you disconnect phase wires between motor and VESC, or are really good, or want to become good, at SMD soldering new DRV and other chips on VESC…
Quick 3D printed cover for the TorqueBoards V4 Mount with 83mm wheels.
Couldn’t exact find CAD data on the spacing for the holes. (54mm?) So tried to measure it as best. Also the outer edge isn’t a perfect match again since its a tricky shape to get exact with calipers.
Also the two holes come threaded, but M3/M4 and 6-32 didn’t seem to fit. So I re tapped them for 6-32 and bolted the cover plate. Super easy mod and covers the belt nicely.
If I can get the correct dimensions confirmed I’ll throw it up on Thingiverse.
That looks great. I printed this other motor cover but it’s ever so slightly smaller and doesn’t quite match up with Enertions mount. Do you think yours would?
