As the title says, what important knowledge about building an electric skateboard took you long time to learn because that knowledge is hard to find?
If you are new all you need is already in the beginner Thread. Most times when you have to search is when you get a special problem/error code or something. Just use the Search button upper right.
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I ask because a lot of people in my country ask me for really basic stuff 
so I want to know if there really are some specific important subject that are hard to find.
I dont think so. I made my first build now and i didnt had to search more than the beginners thread. Just read everything from top untill end and you basicly know all you need to start.
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So basically this topic is useless and the people that asks me for help are lazy
It’s easy to bash folks that don’t do any research… but it’s also really nice to pass on knowledge i learned from folks when I was asking “dumb” questions too.
I think the most commonly missed questions are simple:
Things like - your weight, hills vs flats, and target speed (with links to speed calculators) should be almost always included.
Plus WHATS YOUR BUDGET!?
It’s pretty critical to know if you have $ and want a nearly plug-n-play solution, or if you are going to cobble things together and make your own mounts etc… because you have a super limited budget.
my .02.
I work in customer service and truly believe the only stupid question is the one you don’t ask. Yes there are sometimes annoying questions you get constantly, but in their shoes it’s still something they need to know…
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I’m happy to explain to someone how to do something they don’t know how to do, or how to learn to do it, but I won’t waste my time explaining to them things that they can easily find by searching, but obviously prefer to ask me because it’s easier to them.
I work in customer service and truly believe the only stupid question is the one you don’t ask.
I can really relate that, but I’m not sure if in the way you meant. People ask me if I recommend them to buy “this” motor or “that” Lipo battery in the most general way, so I explain to them that the choice of the motor and the battery depends on the the personal preference of them for the whole board characteristic. So far so good, but they will keep asking me to give them links to things they need to buy. The point is that they don’t ask me how to know what parts do they need, instead they ask me what do they need.
I think we are on the same page. The question is valid “what do i need” and the answer isn’t “x board” and “y motor” - it’s what kind of ride do you like, how much weight and power do you need for your area/hills/weight/etc. It’s still a valid question, but you aren’t spoon feeding them exact model and specifics - rather educating them to choose themselves. I might recommend a few motors (usually depends on what’s available and their budget), and even some sites to pick a deck if they let me know what they like. I’ll usually steer people towards a stiffer DH deck vs a flexy deck as it’s simpler to wire and less challenges w/ battery placement - but if they LOVE flex decks - i usually have them read up one of the Vanguard builds by OKP, Squad, or Whitepony (who did it better than Boosted IMO).
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one thing i find missing from calculators (which are handy) is some way to estimate range…which shouldn’t be too hard to ballpark based on mAh of the cells and the weight of the rider. obviously it won’t be perfect but a decent range estimation would be handy in general. It could be as simple as the 10 watt hour = 1 kilometer rule of thumb
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The battery selection stuff has some non-obvious subtleties. For me, for example, the price per ride, which really matters for frequent riders like commuters. I had a pretty good understanding of the various chemistries and form factors.
But cycle life:
- lipo 250ish charge cycles
- li-ion 500ish cycles (samsung 25R)
- A123 (LiFePO) 1000+ cycles
Usually this is defined as cycles until you reach 70% of original capacity.
You can shorten cycle life with heat, overcharge, over discharge, pulling max amps, riding in freezing weather…
You can lengthen life by not max charging, not max discharging, not pulling max amps (use more cells in parallel)
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