Not bad looking, the amount of bolts might be a bit overkill but I’m worried about the heat set threaded inserts on the case coming loose, that amount should hold
One more side to go plus the wiring and connectors, still not sure where I will put it
In the end I will have 540 + 2 x 162 = 864 Wh, if I did this the right way I could fit around 2160 Wh in the same space with a new enclosure with 2170s, well, for the future maybe
I needed to charge all packs before connecting everything in parallel, sounds easy right? Just need to make an XT60 to GX12 adapter. Obviously I’m out of female GX12s, and I need this board done in around 24h before setting off on the first real holidays in two years
The obvious solution is to open again my little cousin hoverboard that was already fixed and packaged and use it to charge the packs
Other than that I did a really sketchy place for another XT60 that will connected the external packs to the main one, using a Dremel with just a few mm to spare from the cells
Now just need to make the internal wiring, add a fuse, and make the harness that will connect both external packs in parallel and then to the main one
Unfortunately looks like I will go without doing a proper test, specially since it’s raining non stop
This is always very reassuring 
Merry Christmas to all
Last days before traveling was finishing a lot of work related stuff and going until a few hours before leaving finishing the board, and it was damn worth, best ride ever, 50 km in 3 hours, still had a little bit of juice left but not much, don’t know if I could’ve made 60 km, the terrain here is so different, even though the average speed is similar, the speed profile is completely different from my usual riding grounds since riding in the city has lots of start and stop, will know more when I get back home and do some more tests
It’s a nice range for now but still not enough, if I knew I had the range, I could easily ride another 60 km into the night, would not be something to do always, but nice to know that I could
At least now I can ride to a bunch of places, explore those places and still get back home
You guys probably saw, but had a bit of an incident yesterday
I’m kinda on the fence on what to do. Obviously I removed both external packs from the board and will be getting rid of them. Without them, my range drops to a maximum of 40 km with the ebike pack on top, it’s good, but far from what I would like
The right thing to do would be to make a new enclosure to fit more cells and a new pack, but that will take a quite a while since I do things slowly. On top of that I will be moving in a few months and leaving this board behind, so hard to justify expending that much on it only to use for a few months
What I might do to open my possibilities is taking the car to the places I want to ride instead of going from home like I always do and leave the board as it is. Since in this case I’m saying screw it to the range, I might even play with 4WD, I have all the parts for it to happen, most work would be designing and enclosure to fit in the front with all the lights stuff
Lets see what happens
Don’t worry, she will be left behind so when I come back here I have something to ride
Hey my boys, despite my absence, I’m still here, just way too busy making some really cool stuff with the fine folks at Lacroix that I hope you guys will see soon
Finally got some time to clean part of the shop so I can do some maintenance on the board, it’s been cold here and will continue for a few months, been more than a month since I last got on a board, so perfect time to do it
Tearing down everything drivetrain wise, might replace all motor bearings and rotate the tires, wanna see the state of the gears
This board has been abused and neglected, specially the right motor which I used for a bunch of test, and it got way hotter than it should, I’m expecting no grease left on the bearings
Board has been rode through mud, lots of fine dirt and sand, crossed a few small rivers and dipped its toes in salt water, part of me expect some stuff to be completely rusted
Also was washed with a hose more times than I can remember without any care at all angles
So let’s see how things turns out
The side I assemble correctly was spotless, the other the dumb here forgot to tighten the screws after adjusting everything and did all of the above with the case partially open not so much, won’t be sharing pic of that because it’s too much for the eyes, the gears would work, but a bit of rust and wear, so I will change them for a new pair
Unfortunately the gears are quite bit larger and have more surface area for the Loctite, so my stove method isn’t enough to get them out from the motor, will go after a big torch this week
And this is how it should be, with mud everywhere
Some long overdue update
I was waiting for a care package to arrive with gears, new motors and a few other stuff to continue the assembly, but Brazilian customs said “the hell you will”, so until that mess gets sorted, which probably wont, I’m putting it together with what I have
At first I thought of going back to belt for the time being, but that won’t work with the 9" tires, and I won’t give them up
Since I have longer axles, I even tried widening the MBS rims by 15 mm with no luck, motor and belt rubs the tire a lot
So back to the Falcon (Chewie), unfortunately it might be a bit louder than before, or make noise, because the gears themselves are almost dead quiet, most of the noise comes from the motors and their bearings. The profile of one pair is quite worn due to the dirt that got inside
This also means I need bearings for the motors since the multiple times it got wet ruined them. The small bearings are easy and cheap to find, the big ones cost a fortune and the one that seal the Falcon case simply doesn’t exist here, and ordering from China defeats the purpose of getting the board running asap
So lets give a try to opening them, cleaning and re greasing
Finally moving, got almost all the bearings needed, rebuilt the motors and sealed them really well, hope I don’t need to take it apart ever again(knocks on wood)
New light design, now with integrated mount so it hopefully won’t break again
And got to use the good stuff on it because it obviously means more light
If there one thing I would like to do is find a driver with thermal roll back, these LEDs can take at least 50% more current, but if I forget to turn it off while stopped with no airflow they will burn
Finally done, how I missed riding it
Went for a ride last night, so smooth with new bearings everywhere, I’m a bit biased to say, but the Falcon Drive is so quiet, just the motors humming along in the woods
Went for a nice ride in the woods, and then I found out they repaved a nearby road, so I have to go all the way in it, to the end and back, 16 km of smooth ass phalt
Didn’t end well, the combination of new bearings everywhere that are not broken in yet, today being windy as hell, lower tire pressure than what I usually ride and me going full throttle both ways, meant the board was dead long before getting home and I had to call the rescue
But I need to keep an eye on that consumption and see if it improves over time, even on the woods riding slowly it was 4Wh/km higher than what I usually get, so something might not be right
You should put a Davega on your board so that you have a remaining range indicator at all times 
I might to the poor man’s DaVeGa which is strapping my old phone to it with YoursTrully or FreeSK8 running
Or the lazy man which is to stop and look at my phone lol
Another one to close the weekend, tires at 50 psi, no wind and bearings seal broken in a bit more and the board feels way better
But there is something wrong with my range extender, only managed to get 120 Wh out of its pack, even considering the pack is old it should be at least over 200 Wh (6S4P made of NCR18650B)
In total 68 km in those two days between the two boards
