OK, so looking to get a solid 50miles of range. goal was to make a nice boat I could leave the house with and ride all the way to whatever group ride was going on and ride back. On my other board I was averaging 40wh/m so I started with the battery. As its 18s I didn’t think I would be pulling big amps the way I ride and could eeak out a little more power density by going with the Samsung 50s cell. At 8p I figured I could keep it at or below 50a a side or 12.5a a cell and should have the performance i wanted.
Battery
The pack went together well, was honestly the easiest thing so far on this build
So i forgot to get a pic of the balance wire after I changed it. I soldered the jumpers on the xlite v3 bms and eliminated the extra wiring because it just didn’t look as good. Gave everything a once over and sealed it up. Came out pretty clean, sealed everything with neutral cure sil and also glued the batteries down to the neoprene underneath them and a few large spots around the perimeter to lock them in there.
god i suck at cad. this took way too long. so I needed to figure out the height i needed and had a bunch of 3dp risers to just stack and stack until I got somewhere in the ball park of what I needed for clearance.
final design ended up at 25mm and a couple slits for tyraps and lights and buttons… then i had to do it again because i wanted to add these little modules that pulse the led brightness from 50% to 100%. but having them in sync wasn’t good enough, had to add two so they would flitter out of sync… for reasons.
so i started this build with some apex 6384 motors, they just had the flipsky scream at exactly my cruising speed. Got a set of reachers in 6485 150ish kv. In hind sight 175kv would have been more ideal but otherwise im very happy with the performance and compatibility with the 4gs drives. Almost as quiet as hubs, seriously it is so quiet and easy love that. Definitely have to use a bike bell during the day when trails are busy
Sitting in drafts for too long so this is incomplete and will be edited, just want to get a start so i will finish it eventually
Ok, it’s time to finish the graphic and grip. Im tired of that dam laquack logo and grip. Here is a seizure led machine and some of my inspiration/working title photos
NOOOOOOOOO! I always take projects to 90% then just accept the rough edges. Gotta actually do the last 10% on this one for my self esteem and irrational dislike of logos.
Also i want to do some drivetrain changes to my tomiboi build and in my head i can’t rationalize opening it up until this is done done.
Dun dun dun.
Gonna pick up some grip today and get cutting i swear… or maybe do the 40mile loop around the lake
Lost a balance wire, fixed it then the same one broke after another 100ish miles. Whatever wire that came with the ennoid bms is kinda trash and doesn’t last. Decided to check all of them and 1/3 broke. Counted 7 strands so not very flexible. Got some nice 6 wire silicone ribbon that is more like 40 strand and re ran the balance wires and kinda checked on things.
Much better. Really enjoyed riding this at carve, flat tires aside. Working on the grip tiles a little bit but still not liking any of my ideas yet. Nothing seems to jell.
I keep thinking about an isometric grid on a gradient and going back to it. Let’s see what i can do with that instead since my artist flaked. Then the other artist i paid for a stencil I’m just gonna give up on. I can do patterns so ima stick to what i can do.
When plugging the esc back in the antispark on one popped really good - i think the 18s killed it finally. Next time i open it I’m gonna plan on replacing it
Are the balance wire failings flex and compression related, or just crap quality stranding and insulation?
I like how you flatten the hot glue, just wondering if there is so little clearance that they touch the deck, and a slightly thicker gasket might prevent.
They have lots of clearance, and previously were buried under a layer of fish paper. I’m pretty sure it’s just a super low-quality wire issue. Soft as playdoe insulation mixed with low strands and poor technique - i didn’t support the wire with hot snot i just used kapton tape. If it was better wire or better supported i think i would have gotten more than the 1000miles out of them that i did.
It looks way better now too, this was the last pack i made this way and was part of the catalyst for me improving my method. I don’t use this brand of bms and will probably swap it out eventually to get better thermal performance anyway - it doesn’t charge at more than 10a even when advertised as 20a rated with a huge heatsink and thermal mass added.
With the heatsink i added i could just use a 40a jbd bms and the only feature i would lose is vesc integration and Megan display which doesn’t work correctly anyway. It switches to charge mode sometimes as a nuisance when not charging showing a phantom micro charge current.
Story time: So im using one of the ningning variable fast chargers so i can charge with the euc’s at ev stations at 240v input and fsr it wouldn’t charge. Got some weird behavior at first - started at 3a and went to turn up the amperage - display amperage started going all over the place then stuttering and wouldn’t charge. Tested the charger on an euc and worked fine so i just didn’t charge at the stop and threw it in the bench when i got home.
I must have bumped the charging current up over 15a and popped my fuse. Quick swap and it’s good to go now. Need to be more careful and order some 25a fuses as this was definitely a nuisance trip.
Would be nice to have the fuse accessible without opening the enclosure but I don’t know of a good way to do it and shouldn’t have to mess with it often or at all really.
Got 62 miles of range running at 23mph average so flying around at 30-35 with the eucs and bikes really pushes the wh per mile up. Still really happy with the 50s cells
Was a fun ride but my sweet spot is about 5mph lower. I get more out of a ride when not so focused on just going fast. Really good route so I’ll probably go back solo or with some slower riders
1600 miles in and the big beam mount broke. I don’t really take it easy on this thing but its time for a rework of som kind. Failed at the keyed section that interfaces with the part that wraps the truck hanger… which is being held in place by tape already. I both suck and hate 3d modeling in equal parts. Wish me luck
Aaaand broke a gear too lol. Hit a good but manageable curb at some road construction and the secondary or middle gears in my gen 1 4gs drives shattered. Let’s see about getting some of those new metal ones
Overall im happy with how these failed. I was not gentle to them and got a solid 1600 miles in before this. The pom slave gear was a known weak point that has been addressed in the newer versions and in the replacement parts. When it failed i got a big fat abs over current fault and could immediately feel something grinding in there. Low speed it locked the wheel up but when it happened i was going about 18mph and it just got chunkie but not uncontrollable. I thought i had just dropped a phase conductor or sensor wire got snagged and broke but naaaa.
By hand it quickly locked up and was pretty obvious there were chunks floating in there. Yanked the whole motor/drive assembly off and limped home. Did pretty good on all the hills back up to my place but the unbalanced drive was no fun to carve around on. 4/10 would not recommend… still better to then a taxi/uber home.
So the board is dead for a bit. Took a small fall and busted the riser. Didn’t think too much of it and did the repairs needed. Went over all my stuff and did about 5miles of test ride and thought all was well. Grouped up for a build day ride and a couple miles in my throttle stuck. Wasn’t full beans but was accelerating from my cruising speed of 20. Kept fucking with it and couldn’t get any response and bailed at 30mph. Fully geared up and slid well but the board crashed into a fence post fucking it all up.
I must have banged up my zmote and like a dumass didn’t give it a once over after my little spill. The battery connection was loose and going in and out. Tried to replicate the throttle sticking on the bench and couldn’t. Im going to send it back to kman and see what he thinks but im pretty sure this was me using a busted remote problem and not a zmote issue. It was rapidly cycling power and i think it recalibrated the 0 to slightly positive and then disconnected leaving the receiver outputting a positive throttle to the vesc is my best guess after thinking on it for a while. Though I couldn’t get it to replicate that on the bench.
Thanks dude, honestly it was the best possible fall. Slid out and got a little butt bruise with just a little chafe from my armor in one spot. Little bleeding scrape on the tip of my finger, a scratch. Wasn’t even really sore the next day so i call it a cheap lesson. I know better than to assume my remote is good after a fall and should have been more thorough, just spaced and now im trying to hold out for the next batch of dualities .
Still have my other ride and a buddy is loaning me one of his loanstars for long distance stuff while i fix up some of his batteries. Already had some winter projects but now my plate is full ha!
Why just put it back together when i can add a few months of work… starting sanding the surface and ordered the green hubbas to match.
Getting the replacement risers done in petg. Laminating epoxy shows up Friday and im going to play with some test spots. Frit will be here shortly after. Need to get the graphic on fabric if anyone has a good or bad suggestion. Otherwise im going in dark to whatever google sends me