Beginner Question Thread! 2023 Edition

Noted. And yeah main concern with the edging stuff is that it’s solid rubber and doesn’t have any of that closed cell neoprene foam ~squish~. Either way, stuff you linked looks like the same thing as I used in a roll instead of a sheet, lmao. Still probably better suited, though.
That being said honestly I’m financially capable of it right now and this weekend’s been the last straw with waiting on this to wrap up for being able to get around conveniently so I jussst bought a Miles Phantom :woman_shrugging:. Still gonna keep going with this, hopefully it can now be a measurably less frustration-inducing project lol. I’ll figure out making a thread for it soon.
(sidenote: I have a BLE module, flipsky sells a VESC V4 and V6 BLE, I accidentally bought the V6 for my MakerX DV4s but in calibrating the remote/motors and reading RT data it seems to work fine? When I connect to it about 33% of the time it gives me an error msg I can’t quite recall, and reconnecting works fine for some reason. Is there a larger potential issue here? Should I buy a V4 one (they’re like 20 usd it’s fine if so but :thinking:))

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imho with vesc, if it works it works don’t change it. I don’t see why you would need to get a different Bluetooth. maybe its all the carbon fiber giving you a hard time and not the model of module?

i need to put together a hub kicktail. i have a pintail but its just a little too big to take everywhere. that miles phantom looks like fun.

With epoxy curing on my’ better’ esk8, My single hub motor 9999 penny board, 7s1p was feeling low(er) on power than normal, when I went out to make urethane hiss and clear my head on the super smooth asphalt.

Pretty much like 33% less torque, and top speed, and I could figure 8 the board to a struggling standstill.

Also, the super weak brakes were amazingly weaker, and pretty much give up at walking speed.

I thought perhap the cheesy 29.4v battery was just voltage sagging, but was showing 4 bars under max load. Not trusting the LEDs, I checked, and was holding 26.6v accelerating pitifully and rebounding to 28.89v coasting. Hardly great voltage retention, but I don’t think it is solely responsible for rather abrupt extreme power loss.

I swapped a little used, different hub motor truck, from ‘parts only’ 38e$k8 that appears, externally, to be the same design, on same ESC and battery, and it felt exactly the same underfoot. Pitiful power, barely any brakes

The original motor, unhooked to anything, phase wires dangling, spinning it by hand, seemed to magnetically resist rotation to a much higher degree than before.

So I took it apart. I cannot see any obvious issues. I cleaned off the threads and mating surfaces from whatever rubbery glue they spooged everywhere as threadlocker.

Reassembled it, spun it by hand, normal.
Spun it again by hand again and then it again felt 2x as hard to spin by hand? WTF?

Then I noticed 2 of the loose bullet connectors were touching. Seperate the bullet connectors, and it feels normal, touch 2 together and it feels like 66% more effort to spin the wheel by hand, and much stronger magnetic ‘detents’

My brain is not grasping the how’s and why’s, at this point.

But this behavior makes me think the Lingyitech single drive 7s esc that the board came with, is not driving one of the phases, and why it is seemingly down on 33% power and 33%, maybe 66% less brake.

Is this a common failure mode of ESC’s?
1/3rd loss of power?

This behavior also makes me wonder about my dual hub motor board. One of the hub motors on that board feels nice and crisp and regular when spinning a wheel by hand, The other hub motor detents are much less crisp and precise and inconsistent in its rotation. The worse motor also runs hotter being 15 to 20f hotter, consistently.

The ‘aladdin’ stickered 7s dual drive ESC in that board, is truly awful. Unsteady acceleration, jerky largely inconsistent brakes, and makes me wonder if the ESC is responsible for the one hub motor feeling less crisp, spinning by hand, like there is a blown diode or failing mosfet or something, which is alao responsible for the horriblly unsteady accelleration and jerky inconsistent brakes

If touching two loose phase wires together makes such a dramic difference in feel when spinning it by hand, unpowered, unhooked to anything,…

I will be soon be purging 7s batteries and ESCs in favor of 10s on both these boards, so 7s ESC failure(s) are not a major concern, but being esk8less for any amount of time might make Jack a dull and crazy boy, so I try to have one fully functional at any moment.
Even the slow one was previously acceptable for a quick urethane hiss fix, but not when it is down a 1/3rd on power.

Ive had similar results from dual esc/ hub motor kits from amazon. I found that the better i heat sinked them the longer they were last before their eventual and similar demise. The only way i found to solve it has been to ever spiral upwards in power. It’s a vicious cycle. With 4wd hubs my temps got more mellow and I stopped having such frequent failures. I also ride in hilly terrain, often for a few hours at a time so ymmv

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I was trying to convince myself the 9999pennies board had not lost 1/3 power, that I was just more used to the more powerful dual hub motor board which I have been riding a lot, and which is not fast enough.

I was expecting the winding varish to look and smell burnt but it looks fine, then the little used motor behaving just as bad points at esc and or battery.

I want to use both hub motors on penny board as diagonal drive with a 10s esc and p42a battery.

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This is normal. With no phases touching, the motor will more or less spin easily. With 2 phases connected, it will be hard to turn. 3 and very hard to turn.

This is basically how regen works.

Give this a read

Regen brakes will always be weaker at very low speeds.

I really don’t know much about LingYi controllers, but I think the power levels are all handled through the remote throttle or speed settings… best advice here is just get a VESC. Even a simple 4.12 will be more powerful, and give better customization and flexibility than a LingYi, but I’d recommend a VESC 6 based one or even a cheap 75100 Alu off AliE. All about $100.

The ESC is really the heart of any board. The motor will do whatever the ESC tells it to do, and the battery just needs to support the range and power. The feel, acceleration, braking, smoothness, noise, etc is all in the ESC.

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Thank you for the info and the link.

I’m an esk8 newb, but have been skating and surfing for 40+years.

A V ESC is in my future, But I have 2 new unused 10s ESCs to regret purchasing first, a lingyi dual drive and a Puaida, and i dont know if that is yingli, hobbytech or something else.

My esk8s and the new escs, were kinda of hasty purchases, as I wanted a skate and backuo esc now, and had #1 apart within hours of arrival, seeing how it might be improved, then realized I dont know shit, other than I hate voltage drop.

Googling lingyitech brought me here, back in October, and my mind was blown as to how far you guys have taken it.

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How do you people keep finding those weird brands no one has heard of before.

They also use Lingyi btw

I will say the one thing I am super jealous about on those LingYi ESCs is the way that when you engage the brakes, they do the thing where they lock the motors by driving the motor out of phase. When you lock the brakes on those things they are rock solid. It feels luxurious getting on LingYi boards with the brakes engaged.

I think there was some effort towards getting that feature on a VESC (it wouldn’t be hard) but it hasn’t been prioritized.

You might find this video interesting - it does a great job of demonstrating why the motor acts the way it does with and without phase wires touching.

At about 1:42 is the motor specific part, but the whole thing is worth watching IMO.

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I remember playing with magnets as a kid and having my mind blown watching that magnet fall softly on that copper plate was simikar.

I spun my suspect motors via a drill, checking AC voltage on the phase leads and comboes there of, at same drill rpm, and read the same voltage always.

If the bullet connectors are just loose, dangling next to each other, barely touching, and i hand spin the motor, there seems to be something clunking inside the motor, but bullets far apart, or firmly touching and it spins normally or spins with resistance. or lots of resistance with all 3 shorted and no clunk.

I checked inside for loose magnets and all seemed solid, but the clunk with loose bullets barely touching, is disturbing.

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Does anybody know if RT Data in the VESC mobile app over BT displays current draw and wh/km ect. only for one side? Talking about the maker DV4s specifically.

Hey i have a brand new makerx dv6s. So far i have updated the firmware to the custom 6.02 found on maker x website, i have also got the power switch working.

When i go through foc dection i get an error “vesc disconnected during setup”

Using the latest vesc tool.

I do not get any errors when connected to the vescs, just when going through foc. My motors are new as well.

I have not had this problem before with other vescs, can someone enlighten me?

Why are there no bootloaders in my bootloader tab?



Processing: 20240112_210521.jpg…

I tried various vesc tool versions and flashed 5.03 - 6.02 found on maker x website.

Any tips would help.

@BigBen @eBoosted @tomiboi @jamie @longhairedboy (&anyone else) By any chance, do you have a diagram, sketch, and/or CAD model of a tayto/jet spud deck?

Any idea where I could get more info, aside from CADing it from scratch?

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Ok just bear with me, im no expert but this is what i would check

Try a different usb cable, mine only works with one of my cables even though both are data cables.

Update the boot loader using the generic boot loader then flash the makerx fw6.2

Hard Reset both vesc tool and the board after loading the firmware. Youll have to set the button function again to 30min and always on respectively probably

Check fw version in vesc tool and if it’s good try detecting again after checking all your connections to make sure they are solid

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I don’t have one - you could ask BKB if they’re willing to share it.

But why pass on the fun of CAD from scratch?

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@BuildKitBoards

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Thanks. I am using the stock cable but can try a different one.

I have flashed the generic bootloader and updated to 6.02 the problem persisted. Not in the mood for more headache tn.

Appreciate the input!

More info

Both lights come on, motors spin for a bit before the vesc disconnects

Connections should be good to go

Will need to try another reboot tomorrow

Re download your firmware also just incase too? Reset everything then try twice. Also was the can stable to the second controller? Double check the addresses didn’t default to the same number.

Good luck

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Hey! it decided to work! It appeared to be random but it worked on the second try after a few firmware flashes and reboots. Thank you for providing these tips!

now, anyone have success getting a Vx2 to communicate and read back battery data (on makerx dv6s)?

I can get my remote to pair, and I go and change the input from off to current, but it doesn’t seem to tell the motors to go.

Also despite the status of “pairing succeeded” the remote cannot detect battery. Ive swapped tx and rx as my receiver was in the flipped orientation.

Thanks and thanks again

also tried nrf wizard

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