EDIT: Given it a name… éPok, because it is an electric Poke, and because it has taken an epoch to make. Works on so many levels.
This has been a long one - I started a build thread on the old forum, which didn’t gain much interest, but I am still interested in other people’s builds, and find myself back on the build train in the current state of lockdown, so thought I’d migrate/add to it.
TLDR; 2 years in the making…still isn’t made (quite). Picture story below.
The DIY community is an incredible thing. I have spent way too many hours poring over other peoples builds. The innovation and imagination of people around the world is incredible, and the sharing nature is something else. So, thank you to everyone who has helped me on the way (without necessarily knowing).
The story so far:
- Spring 2018 decided it would be fun/a challenge/a more gradual financial outlay to DIY an electric skateboard having found the eskate.builders forum. Started buying parts, had a long battery build phase.
- Spring 2019 bought a house which needed more work than the skateboard did…really ramped up the DIY ability and confidence
- Spring 2020 found myself with more time at home and a few roadblocks in the house renovations, so now getting to finish the skateboard. Also had a knee reconstruction in 2019 so now I might actually also be allowed to ride it
Pictures! I won’t bring them all over from the old post… just the pertinent ones.
Phase 1 - planning:
Phase 2 - battery build. Please offer thoughts. This is a copy of Whitepony’s spud battery. I would use more fishpaper to wrap the P groups now, but given my board is not a flexy deck I think it will be fine.
Obviously battery building is serious business, so I took a lot of time with all these parts.
Nickel strips - I left a bit long so they rest on top of the cells, so as not to get a corner in between the terminals and cause a short.
Folding the battery like a butterfly, the nickel in the middle and braided copper on the outside to provide the series connections. Nickel tabs of different lengths on the negative terminals wherever possible for balance wires - different lengths so I can route the wires without crossing until off the battery pack. Kapton tape and fishpaper under any folds to reduce the chance of shorts.
BMS on solid fishpaper-board on top (to minimise length) and the whole thing shrink wrapped - battery is just about done! Weighing in at 1.67kg complete.
Wire the thing up and a first attempt at the Vesc tool…and a huge amount of excitement as it works!
No enclosure though…so, a year later… I sent an message on the 'gram to @BigBen who gave me some great pointers on fibreglassing enclosures. Armed with this, and some guidance from other friends with a bit of experience I decided to use a mixture of techniques. Deciding the first one would be a sacrificial lamb proof of concept as my foam cutter hasn’t arrived, I did some testing.
I wanted the design of the board to show through a bit, so traced it on the twill weave fibreglass before laying up. I used a ghetto vacuum bagging approach from the old forum, with no bleeder layer as that hadn’t arrived either…knowing I’d get some iffy results for science…
It fits! The design works really well (I think) so I am going to repeat with more care and attention as soon as I have all the parts. To test though, I taped the enclosure to the deck and took it for a spin, just up and down the road as I haven’t charged the battery up due to it not being in use…
And that is where I am now! Hopefully some people will find this interesting/amusing/entertaining. All I know is, within 50m of riding something I have built from scratch, I am hooked.
Thoughts and feedback are all very welcome.
