Stock vs this build (if you ask which is which I’ll ask you to remove yourself from the internet for the next 2 millennia):
Here goes…
Long time lurker, been active on the forum for almost two months now. I have three Evolve boards that I’ve been riding since about three years, a GTX and two Carbon GTs. I have noticed that I’m only riding full speed, trigger fully pressed. It does get a bit boring and since one of the Carbons had a bad battery and Evolve hasn’t had a spare available for ages, last winter I decided that I would upgrade the Carbon.
Blahblah
I have been flying a lot of drones and built most of them myself. It gave me lots of soldering experience. I soldered my first radio when I was about 10 years old, over 30 years ago so I guess I will die soon anyway because of the vast amount of lead fumes that I breathed in as a kid. The drones also taught me about how to handle (and respect) bigger batteries, which comes in pretty handy. As of yet, no interest in building batteries myself.
I am in the process of getting a few Nylon pulleys with ABEC and Kegel cores (press fit, making Kegel bolt-ons to be used with the Dickyho retainers), a buddy of mine prints them perfectly. So far we have 36T, 40T and 44T to be used on Evolve axles, with double bearings for extra support. I’ll come back on that with test results. I will update this post with pictures, but earliest this weekend.
I really love the Carbon deck and even though many people have a disliking for the DKP, I love them. I have been stably riding them up to 50km/h and I also trust them above it, given they have the right bushings setup.
Bushings setups
This build
F1 Riptide 90a Shortstreetcone
F2 Riptide 90a Barrel
F3 Riptide 90a Shortstreetbarrel
F4 Riptide 93a Barrel
R4 Riptide 93a Barrel
R3 Riptide 93a Shortstreetbarrel
R2 Riptide 93a Barrel or Evolve SC 90a Barrel
R1 Riptide 93a Shortstreetcone or Evolve SC 90a Shortstreetcone
On my other Carbon GT I use:
F1 Riptide 87a Shortstreetcone or Evolve HP 92a Shortstreetcone
F2 Riptide 87a Barrel or Evolve HP 92a Barrel
F3 Riptide 87a Shortstreetbarrel
F4 Riptide 90a Barrel
R4 Riptide 93a Barrel or Evolve SC 90a Barrel
R3 Riptide 90a Shortstreetbarrel or Evolve SC 90a Shortstreetcone
R2 Riptide 90a Barrel Evolve HP 95a Barrel
R1 Riptide 90a Shortstreetcone Evolve SC 90a Shortstreetcone
On my GTX on AT I use only Evolve SC 90a bushings (the standard black/peach ones), they are comparable to the HP 95a ones but have a bit more pop.
I figured an upgrade would be cheap, but so far I’ve bought:
- 10s5p with discharge BMS (PelicanBay)
- Maytech 6374 190kV sealed (which appear to be 170kV)
- Flipsky dual FSESC 4.20plus (space is tight in the Carbon GT)
- Flipsky enhanced AS
- Maytech watertight remote V2 (I need an Evolve style remote, a puck makes me uncomfortable)
- Metr Pro
- TB110 74a, yeah, the blue ones… Already planning to move them down to the cruiser and put the upcoming 72a on this build.
- 3DServisas 40T pulleys
- a shitload of small stuff that I had already anyway but hours on Amazon and AliExpress do no good for the wallet…
- Maker-X DV4 in case the FSESC goes up in smoke
Space is really a subject on this build but somehow I’m actually able to cram everything in there. I use a 21mm spacer to get the BMS and ESC in there, both thermal-glued to the heatsink. The AS lies on top of the BMS, the receiver and the Metr Pro really do not have much space. They both get an external stubby (15mm) for better connectivity in the carbon enclosure. EDIT: no, they don’t, I actually removed the stock Metr antenna and replaced it with a 15cm 1dB antenna (same as the maytech). They’re routed out of the board with the motor cables. Connection is perfect!
I know I’m gonna get shit for buying a FSESC but I need the space so really only the 4.20/6.6plus or the Maker-X would fit. I have thought about using a charge-only BMS but really don’t want to.
After reading so much crap about FS I was actually reluctant to hook everything up. Tonight I finally had some time to put everything together and I was able to hook everything up and do motor detection successfully.
Question about the Flipfry ESC (answered)
I do have my first question here: who else uses the Flipsky AS with the 4.20plus? I had understood that the ESC defaults to roll-to-start when its button is not connected? Without the button connected to the ESC, I can turn on the AS (with its own button that I was planning to use) and the ESC also turns on. After about ten seconds the red LEDs flash twice and the ESC switches off again. With both buttons connected, everything works as expected but that’s not how I want it. Any help would be highly appreciated!
EDIT: I suspect the ESC does really default to roll-to-start, it just switches off when nothing happens. The AS is still powered of course. @mmaner, I think you have some experience with the 4.20plus and an e-switch, are you able to answer that?
EDIT2: Flipsky answered this. If I want to use the AS (and I do because I don’t trust the ESC’s built in AS), I can just short the ESC’s switch connection so it’s permanently closed (“S” and “+”).
Rage caused by VESC Tool
First of all, I need to say that the VESC Tool is some of the worst piece of shit software that people ever had to work with. The interface is an unintelligible abomination, absolutely horrible. A long time ago, after college, I worked as a programmer for 7 years, and if I would have ever produced something like the VESC Tool, my boss would have kicked me in the face and left me bleeding on the floor. Then he would burn every server in the building and have me start over, paying for it myself. They’re actually trying to sell that? Fuck me sideways wit a rake if I ever have to pay for that crap.
The FSESC 4.20 was at FW3.62 and I was happy with that. However, it was impossible to go through the input wizard because it kept telling me I need to upgrade first. So I load FW3.66 and hit update only to be on FW5.1 afterwards. Also on FW5.1 it’s impossible to go through the input wizard because VESC Tool still thinks the firmware is way too old for that. I’m now trying to downgrade, which is also simply not working.
Worst thing is, it’s raining and I wasn’t on a board today. Fuck VESC Tool.
Update: I went through the process of upgrading and downgrading a couple of times and the ESC changed the CAN IDs (master slave switched every fucking up/downgrade) quite a few times. However, in the end I was able to set everything up the way I want it to be. I don’t seem to be able to use the CAN connection though, all settings will be forgotten or just simply different the next time the ESC starts up. I just setup each ESC separately with the same settings and it doesn’t seem to care whether the receiver is hooked up to the UART of the master or slave. It works. There must be something going on with the CAN bus though… Flipwhore.
Everybody that knows the Carbon GT can see what I’ve done here, just pretty much took all the excess carbon fiber away. Cost: €7 for a big-ass metal flat-file. Had my mask on d/t COVID19 anyway and filed away after which I grinded it down with some 180 sandpaper. Then I screwed on the 12mm spacer with the heatsink and figured out that 30mm screws are too long. Ordered 25mm M4 countersunk screws on eBay and had a beer. Next day I used some universal (neutral) silicone to close the microscopic gaps that might let water in. The screw-holes will be filled up with epoxy. I like insulating tape to make surfaces smooth, so I used it appropriately.
The Flipsky ESC fits perfectly in between if you do a good job grinding, and be honest, who doesn’t like grinding a bit. I glued the Flipshite heatsink on top of the Evolve heatsink with some Silverbead thermal glue. I don’t think I’m ever going to separate the two of them, that stuff is actually really glue.
The actual reason for the grinding was that I definitely wanted a discharge BMS. This is pretty much the only thing that fits. It is indeed a perfect fit. I used some EC360 thermal tape to fixate the BMS to the heatsink without having to use excessive force if I ever need to separate them. The Flipdipshit is definitely going to die should I ever need to separate it from the heatsink.
The Maytech remote is awesome I think. The receiver is a fail, as far as eSk8 goes, maybe it is actually good for eFoils. That’s a whole different project though, but I will make one eventually. Anyway, the receiver has these dumb-ass 2.54 connectors which are way too big and just useless. Straight or 90-degree jst-ph connectors should be standard. I just desoldered them and soldered a flat cable with the right connector directly onto the board and put some clear shrink-wrap over it (picture will follow).
Not entirely satisfied with my cabling. Marked all cables with shrink-wrap stripes instead of colours but didn’t put meshing all the way around. Might actually leave it like this or be completely dissatisfied and put meshing on everything. Undecided. A beer might help me decide.
Those TB110 are just awesome:
It’s raining again here so I had some time to do some soldering and what not. I used double sided tape to put the Fliptwat AS on top of the BMS. The receiver goes right next to it.
I need a way to fixate the receiver. I’ve put some foaming on it so it will stay in place but that’s not optimal.
I’ve set the Flipass settings as follows:
Motor Current Max : 50A
Motor Current Max Brake : -50a
Battery Current Max : 50A
Battery Current Max Regen : -30A
Absolute Maximum Current : 110A
Here’s a short test video:
I swapped the gearing to 16/40. One thing I noticed is that the motors get pretty hot pretty fast. Anyone have similar experience with the Maytech motors?
Somebody please convince me of the need for a loopkey routed alongside the motor cabling to allow for a 3d-printed housing for the XT90S underneath the board in between the motor cables… That does mean the Flipdick ESC’s AS is shorted, I do actually use the enhanced AS but I want to have peace of mind and be able to just cut the circuit when I’m away. Especially with stuff like @janpom his board burning down and what not. Small chance, but still.
Made a cable for the Metr Pro, works perfectly. Connected to slave. Will fixate with adhesive foam.
Next “problem” I ran into yesterday:
I limited the ERPM to 60.000 (HW limit of the 4.10), even though according to my calculation max ERPM with full battery is 190kV * 7 pole pairs * 42V = 55.860
ERPM limit start is set to 80%, the ERPM seems to cut out at 46.000 even with full battery. I thought the ERPM limit start only starts to cut current slowly up to 100%, thereby softening acceleration instead of cutting off hard? It seems to actually stop at 80%, can anybody offer some insight on this setting? Is this efficiency loss or do I need to set the limit start at a higher percentage?
Okay, I figured this one out. Even though the box says 190kV, these are definitely 170kV motors. Maytech must have put them in the wrong box (or electricboardsolutions, but I doubt that). Anyway, this is shit, because I wanted 190kV and 170kV for another board, but I ordered 170kV Flipsweat motors via the group buy. So I need to get the Maytech swapped for 190kV.
Seems to be a hit and miss with the motors. See my topic and a really good answer by @Gamer43 about it here.
Finished my build, going for a testride as soon as it has stopped raining.
ToDo list:
- make a loop key so I can depower it when not riding (2 keys done, need some more 12AWG to hook it up)
