Beginner Question Thread! 2023 Edition

I can’t seem to find the email on your site, what is it?

I found an abandoned Backfire G2T in a previously sealed storeroom, it must be at least 3+ years old. It’s got rusty trucks and rusty hub motors, but I thought I’d still try pairing my hobbywing remote and plugging in my battery from my Wowgo2S Max.

Surprisingly, it motors and esc still worked, though I was getting a warning that the voltage was too high. Poor thing only had 80km on the odometer.

I am planning to upgrade my 2s max’s battery, so I will have the original 2s max battery to spare, though the voltage is too high for the g2t’s esc.

Is it okay to skate rusty trucks and hardware?
Will the motors have unseen damage from rusting/lack of use? They seems okay so far.
Do you have any recommendations for a new esc and remote for this board? It’s only got small 550w hub motors so it doesn’t need anything too extreme.

What can do I to save this board? Is it worth it?
Any advice would be appreciated!

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Woah stop plugging that battery in. That’s a 48 volt battery on a board only meant for a 36v pack.

Also, if everything is rusted through like that, it’s likely not worth the risk of riding it. Bearings can blow out/seize on you, and those decks are notorious for not being durable. Time would only just make it worse.

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What Evwan said but also take some pictures. Is it just surface corrosion of worse, where is the rust? Did the battery and other stuff get water damage. Don’t use the wrong voltage battery it will kill the esc.

New top quality nachi bearings aren’t that expensive so totally swap new ones in if the old are suspicious.

A cheap flipsky vesc would probably work if you want to go vesc but a lingye or hobby wing esc at the correct voltage will likely work fine?

The motors are probably fine as long as it’s just superficial corrosion. Take it apart and inspect it really well. Take pics and post. One person’s ok is another person’s wtf.

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I don’t currently have access to the board, but when I do in 20ish days I’ll totally take it apart and have a deeper look. When I do I’ll post photos and ask a few more questions.

As for the battery, I’m guessing such a long period of neglect has made it pretty crap, but how to I test to verify this? Either way I think it’s capacity is too low for me anyway.

Thanks so much for the advice!

Read through this wiki, it will give you a good overview on the basics of the battery construction and what everything is called and how it’s supposed to work:

Then when you get the battery in your hands you’ll need to get access to the balance connector for the bms and a volt meter. You can get a cheap meter online or at harbor freight or similar hardware store. You don’t need anything fancy just something ok. Then test the total battery voltage as well as each p group voltage and record all the results. Test carefully not to circuit the balance leads or main battery output:

Your connector will look similar and you want to test across the wires via the clips on the back of the jst

Just as a place to start and not getting into the details here but every group (assuming it is a LiIon pack) needs to be at least 2.5v and no more than 4.2v. They should also be within a few tenths of a volt of each other - optimally within .03v. The more out of balance the more carefully it should be investigated. if any group is at less than 2.5v it will likely be a loss if the reading isn’t due to open connections and is accurate to the cell groups voltage, when sitting below the minimum voltage parts of the cell dissolve into the electrolyte and when it is charged back up it can make little short circuits that will put the cell in thermal runaway (fire bad) (@Battery_Mooch did i get that right?)

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The DIY ability on this forum has no equal that I know of, and Im hoping to tap some knowledge and experience of members here.

I need to get better wheels on my Kayak ‘scupper’ cart, and sooner is better for my mental and physical health, as well as that of my Dog.

I am towing the Kayak with my dog inside, (115lbs or so total, minimum) with my 7S esk8 a mile to kayak launch trailhead, at full throttle, then walk it a quarter mile over crushed shells trail, to the water, where I remove front truck hanger, break down kayak cart, stuff everything in kayak hatch and paddle 4+miles, throw the ball a hundred times on sandbars, and bark at cormorants and turkey buzzards. It is our only real joy these days.

My mom has Alzheimers and My dad and I are her only care givers, and she is driving me/us nuts. Tuesdays and Fridays we drop her off at a ‘senior friendship center’ for 6 hours and it is our only peace from her cruel disease.

So far, 3 sets of wheels, 3 fails. They’d be tolerable at walkng speed but simply can’t handle 10+mph for a mile, and soon the tow vehicle will have 11.1v more nominal volts and of torque and speed, and 90 more watt hours of sanity/ range.

I try and carve high amplitude high frequecy leg burner laps round the block solo, when I can, as much as I can, and my dog freaks out when I Ieave, and my Mom will then try and feed her the whole damn pantry while I am gone, and a lot of the food is just toxic to dogs.‘’ Do not feed Fiona’ signs everywhere, do no good.

I skated 2 miles this evening came home to mom feeding her Ritz crackers and other junk and now Fiona has puked twice and is miserable.

I want to second purpose the new improved pneumatic wheeled kayak cart in a relatively lightweight rolling tow sled and carve and cruise with Fiona in tow, as she absolutely loves riding in the kayak enroute and no doubt would love her own personal kayakless chariot as well.

I want 8" pneumatics and and ball bearings, but can also fit 10" tires in kayak hatch next to my esk8, but any larger is a no go.

I have to remove front truck hanger to fit Esk8 inside kayak hatch, so removing two more nuts and the wheels with the skate tool is likely less time consuming than the 6 greasy hub bolstering washers I am using per wheel now, to keep them centered on the axles.

My thinking is a mountain board hanger cut and grinded to fit inside aligned and JB welded inside the stainless steel square tubing of the kayak cart’s borizontal bar.

The vertical uprights need to slide off the horizontal square tubing which supports the axles so the cart can break down and reside in Kayak hatch with wheels and Esk8.

I know nothing about mountainboad trucks or axles or wheels and my financials are pretty pathetic. Mom’s seemingly useless meds are thousands of $ per month.

I saw a cheap Non electric mountainboard with 8" pneumatics for 130$, or some 8" pneumatic wheels for 30$ each and a single truck for about 60 delivered, so the cheap mountain board at least gives me 4 wheels to wear out, and two hangers to take the angle grinder too, and a deck which might not be useless either.

I just saw a member here selljng some 6" pneumatics.
what size axle would those bearings fit?

Could I get some grade 5 or grade 8 bolts of correct diameter, align and JB weld them the right depth within the square tubing of kayak cart?

Is there a different solution that I just cant see?

I need to get something sorted soon.

My first kayak wheels, whose hubs melted and ejected a wheel underway, would use 1.75 to 2 amp hours roundtrio, of my 4 available, and could only approach the esc limited top speed with a good tailwind and we would return nearly as fast as we left.

The wheels i have now, which technically work, heat up so much and get so soft and draggy, we barely made it back and at not much faster than walking speed.

The hub motors were far hotter than I ever felt before on a relatively cool late afternoon, and the 4.0ah battery took ~3.5 amp hours to recharge near full.

Thanks for reading this far.

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It can be true for some cells (we don’t know which), if low enough voltage and for long enough.

I’m a big crusader against generalizations and not all cells do this or do it quickly, the details matter. Folks brains explode when they see words like “electrolyte” and “thermal runaway” too.

But we don’t need to explain this all out, taking time no one wants to take. How about something like “…if some cells go below 2.5V for more than a brief time there’s a chance of the cell catching fire when recharged so don’t let it happen.”? They can ask for the tech details if they want to then.

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This is probably the best way here, you choose your own rabbit holes that way :grin:

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So skate bearings (regular skate board sizes) fit 8mm axles, you can get ones that have a 10mm id that fit the standard

Standard skate 8mm is 608rs and is 7mm thick by 22mm od 8mm id

The 10mm version 6900rs. It is thinner (6mm thick with a 10mm id. These in my experience work but are prone to wear as there is just less meat on them.

Mountain board wheels use 10mm or 12mm axles. The bearings are 8mm thick and od is 28mm

10mm version is 16100rs and 12mm version is 6001rs

You could easily use a 10 or 12mm carriage bolt for your trailer imho. at low speeds and light duty use home depo should have something good enough and a grade 5 or equivalent strength bolt should be findable.

You should be able to find some cheap mbs rockstars to run on it with 8” pneumatics but something makes me want to see if someone knows of some big cheap 12 or 14” bike tires you could use.

Unfortunately everything i find that looks like a win is in the $70 a wheel range

https://www.amazon.com/Sunlite-Trailer-Sunlt-912061-Pts-6/dp/B0747TFKRG/ref=mp_s_a_1_12?

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Thanks.

The 10 inch wheels are pretty difficult to fit in the fionayak with eskate along with the disassembled cart , 12" or larger is unlikely to fit but for sure would be better for a dedicated Fionasled.

I have a self defeating tendency to try and dual purpose everything.

Let me scrape around the garage after work and see what I have. I’m sure I have 8" tubes and tires I could let go of for shipping cost. Probably some old mbs hubs as well. I’m working on an early Alzheimers detection test so it only makes sense that our paths should cross in this way. Stay strong man. The mental toll is hardest on the surrounding family. Keep yourself and your dog happy.

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If you don’t have any @Venom121212, I have a set of MBS Fivestars and a big box full of 8" knobby tires & tubes I would be more than happy to donate to the cause @SternWake

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Wow, this community is freaking awesome, thanks for allowing me in and all the kind offers of help.

In my desperation, and general tendency to order stuff I probably shouldn’t, I clicked ‘purchase’ on the cheap passive 115$ MTB free shipping, shortly after my last post, then went to bed, and awoke to an Email saying it has already shipped.

Thank you both for the amazing offers of rims and tires

This place quickly became my favorite forum, prior to member reaching out with offers of free stuff.

It really improved my mindset this morning, and while my mom cant understand much anymore, she is attuned to my moods, and if i am an a bad place emotionally, she wants to help, but in the process makes it so much worse, as often I just want to jump out the window screaming and pulling out my hair, which she senses and then sends her into that bad place somewhere in that wasted brain nobody should ever have to go

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Anyone know what I can do to address that?

Firmware too old or running a beta version?

Thanks! ill update tonight

A couple quick questions,

First does vesc tool calculate remaining battery percentage from the capacity imputed during setup or the voltage per cell?

Second what’s a good soft voltage cut off for p42a? currently have it set at 3.4 per cell wondering if i can lower it to 3.

Thanks.

HAPPY NEW YEAR :sweat_smile::rofl::sweat_smile::rofl:

Loopkey.

Is it used in place of an on/off switch, in in addition to it?

Roll to start, does this negate the need for a loopey/antispark switch?

If one were solucky as to find a pair of OG focboxes in their mailbox, and were wondering how best set up their new enclosure, should one plan on a loopkey or is an xt90s off the battery, by itself, all that is needed?