[HELP] Need Help Upgrading Board

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I don’t know if I am posting this in the right category but I need some help.

I made my first electric skateboard back in 2020 and I used it pretty heavily for 4 years but now is the time to replace the hub motors (and maybe ESC) as it can’t climb hills well anymore.

Original esk8 specs:

  • 10s5p samsung 30Q @ 540Wh @ 75 amps continuous
  • diyeboard.com 10568mm Airless All Terrain Wheels Dual HUB Motor Truck Kit @ 1000W(500W2) 64KV
  • diyeboard.com 10s Dual HUB Motor ESC Speed Control Kit @ 50A continuous

I probably went a bit overboard on my battery but with that extra power I want to upgrade to something more powerful motor wise.

I know that belt driven systems are better for performance but I am dead set on going with hubs again as I loved the low maintenance, low noise and plug and play aspect.

What I am trying to figure out is which hub motors are the best nowadays and if I need to upgrade my ESC to handle the more powerful hubs. The ones I’ve been looking at are:

From what I’ve read Hobbywing 5230 hubs can handle 1500w per motor. Not sure if this is true.

I will almost definitely put all terrain wheels on like I have now or cloudwheels. So having the option to interchange sleeves is a must.

ESC:
As for the ESC, my current one is okay, my current motors run kind of loud because they are not sensored and if I kept my current ESC I would be looking for hub motors that fit the 5-pin sensor connector on the ESC.

I have been looking around for other ESCs but all the hobbywing ones for 10s (model no: 9005) I’ve found only do around 12-14 amps per motor which is very low.

I found 12s hobbywing ESCs (9028) from Exway, Meepo and Wowgo that do 25 amps per motor but I don’t know if they would work with my 10s battery.

This is the hobbywing ESC chart I am going off of

So yeah that was a lot, I figured I have a 75amp continuous battery so why not upgrade the board a bit. Any advice on hub motors or ESCs or both would be greatly appreciated. This is my first post on this forum so apologies if I posted this in the wrong section.

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Welcome to the forum, and I think you’re okay posting here. I’m not the most familiar with hub motors but I’ll give the rest a shot.

One thing I am a little concerned about is battery health, since it is weaker after years of use it could be the battery aging rather than the esc or motors which I think work at 100% then fail unless maybe if the motor magnets are damaged or the esc isn’t cooling properly.

A 12S controller is absolutely capable of running on 10S voltages but unless there is an option to configure it possibly through the remote it will only discharge to what would be empty on 12S not empty 10S voltage. Instead optionally a MakerX DV4S VESC would be massively more powerful and completely configurable for different batteries and motors. It is more expensive but you could also look on the forum for used options.

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I think if your board can’t climb hills like it used to, with a 5 year old 30q 10s5p battery that has also seen lots of cycles, battery degradation and thus voltage sag at high load is likely the issue, rather than the hub motors, or the ESC.

The claimed amp ratings of your Esc, could be phase amps rather than battery amps. My understanding is motor phase amps can be way higher at low rpm, and battery amps is high speed and they advertise phase amps, the larger number.

All I see were Lingyi ESC’s in your link. I had one that looked identical.

It had less power than a different newer ESC made by Lingyi for Puaida, that claims 2 x 12 amps and instructs to use no less than a 30amp battery.

The older design Lingyi had at least 15% more torque on a 10s1p of new molicel p42a, than it did on a 1500+ mile 1 year old 10s2p of some low cost 18650s.

I have found ultimate frustration on finding out information on available hub motors, as I love their silence and form factor, and ignorance is still bliss concerning both belt drive and Vesc, for me, so far.

I was looking at the Backfire hub motors too. They seem to have 6pin JST connectors which likely indicates temperature sensors in the motors.

One of their offerings are 96mm with 620watt rating each.

I have little experience with hub motors. The first a 72mm single drive, on 7s. then diagonal single 72mm’s on 7s. super thin sleeves. non replaceable as far as i can determine.

Then a dual drive 83mm hubs claiming 350 watts

I then bought a 90mm Puaida truck, claiming 400 watts per motor. These have replaceable sleeves, which also fit some meepo 90mm hubs.

I put about 1500 problem free miles on them before launching my board into the bay. The ebay62$ Lingyi and 10s1p P42a met their demise at same time.

I have returned the Puaida branded Lingyi esc, 83mm hub motors, and 10s2p DMEGC -26 pack back into service, for now.

I took the Puaida 10s 2x12 amp ESC out of service last June because the remote was disconnecting randomly.

I then failed(skill issues) getting a donated vesc to work properly with either 83 or 90 mm hub motors and gave up, and put in the 62$ ebay Lingyi.

Torque and top speed were down from the 24 amp Puaida ESC, but I was happy to just roll again.

I tried the Puaida ESC again recently, without a power switch, Roll to start, auto off, and a loopkey for complete disconnect, and have rolled about 120miles with no disconnects, yet, in the last 2 weeks or so.

I could also be wrong, but the wattage of any given motor is the amount of power it can handle being sent to it from the ESC, for X amount of time before overheating, and not directly related to its torque.

I also think that there is no hard fast rule on how that wattage number is to be determined, so that it can be compared across manufacturers.

I swear my 83mm 350 watt hub motors have more torque than my 90mm 400 watt hub motors did. Less top speed though, and the 350 watt motors get significantly hotter, going slower in cooler ambient temps over the same battery.

I hope some others can answer your questions, but most contributors here have left hub motors, and Non Vesc Esc’s behind, long ago.

The samsung 30q was a good 18650 5 years ago, but is only rated at 15 amps. continuous.
21700’s are cheaper than 18650’s with highrr cdr’s and capacity at the moment.

The molicel p45b a year ago was basically the best cell available and about 8$ per, and is now 4.35$.
There are new ‘tabless’ cells which can vastly outperform it.

I’d upgrade the battery first to something new, samsung 50s cells or molicel p42a at the minimum. You might find yiur hill climbing ability is better tha ever with them. Also construction methods and safety of esk8 batteries is better than 5 years ago.

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Thanks for your informative reply! Interesting to hear your experience with hubs and I can see why most of the community has moved on from them. I will definitely look into those new batteries you mentioned and see if that solves my issues. Though after doing a ton of research today I am also now considering going to a belt driven system even though the noise and maintenance might drive me insane. I realized that at my weight (180lbs) and with all my gear I probably weigh close to 200lbs and hubs just won’t cut it no matter which one I get for going up SF hills (20-30% grade). When I made my first board 5 years ago I only weighed 145lbs so makes sense I have seen degradation in hill climbing ability.

Do you think I should upgrade to a 12s or 14s pack?

And as far as motors go I am looking at getting 2 Flipsky 6354s. Is that a good choice? Will it get 200lbs up a 30% grade?

As far as ESC I am looking at the Flipsky FT85BD or FT60BD. They’re knockoff VESCs but seem to perform really well. Cost about 1/3 the price of a VESC.

What is the best budget motor mount/drive system I can get? Can I reuse my trucks from my current hub motor setup and just slap on some wheels with pulleys and a motor mount?

Thanks again for your response!

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Thanks for your response! For ESC was looking at Flipsky FT85BD or FT60BD. Any thoughts on those? And yes I think I may have to consider getting a battery upgrade. Although over the past 5 years I have probably only cycled the battery 120ish times. Do you think it still has life left in it? Is there anyway to test this?

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Flipsky doesn’t have a great reputation here but the newer stuff might be better and the low current should help. For hubs FT60BD can likely take plenty current and the FT85BD is a higher voltage ESC so it would make heat inefficiently on 10S. If you are upgrading a lot and want more power you should avoid a flipsky or at least get the FT85BD.

You can get an idea for battery health if you can manage to tell with a multimeter how much voltage drops under load and you should also test the voltage of each group through the balance lead I think it sounds like you might have one dead group.

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Hub motors, and SF hills, and 200 lbs rider, are an unlikely happy match.

Perhaps a 4wd hub motor system might work for you.

Here is one kit, basically double the esc and hub motor of what I have ridden.

I am using the ESC right now, but with smaller 83mm hub motors.

They also have a 110mm hub motor truck on airless rubber. No idea of its quality or function. I thought they had a 4wd kit with these, but cant find it to link it.

They also have belt drive trucks, but again no idea of the quality or function.

My 90 mm Puaida hub motors were reliable for 1500 miles, up until their dunking.
Why my Puaida esc started losing connection with the remote is a mystery, but since I ve returned it to service without using the power button, and having no more disconnects, yet, is hopeful.

I did initially have it mounted to a heatsink, but that heatsink was not exposed to exterior airflow. When I opened it to airflow i was surprised how hot it was to the touch, and then later after Puaida removal, added more deeper finned heatsink reaching for airflow, and was surprised how hot the ebay Lingyi was getting the expanded heatsink.

Now in these cooler months, I am surprised how cool the heatsink is with the Puaida back on it, powering the smaller 83mm hubs, but perhaps on a 93f day it will start the random disconnects again. IDK.

I am in Florida currently, which is basically hill less, and I love the silence of the hubs.
I tow my dog in her chariot basically every time I ride. i weigh 190, and she in her chariot are close to 80lbs, and battery and hub motor heating are my issue, in the warmer months.

I am sticking with 10s, but should switch to 12.

I wish I had the money to throw at my desires, but don’t, so temper those desires and am just happy to roll.

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$400 is a lot for hubs. If you’re on a budget and considering geared down motors (which is a huge upgrade) checkout build kit boards. They have 2x 6384s, pulleys and extended rkps all for $100. A set of thane wheels for $20. 40T wheel pulleys for $2, single calibre clone for $6. And at least used to have a longboard deck and enclosure for $40.

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Well I decided to bite the bullet and go with a dual belt driven setup for the extra torque.

Here’s what I ended up ordering:

Trucks - BKB Caliber II Style Trucks (amazon; insane deal ($14), I hope they’re good)
Motors - 2 Torqueboard 6355s 8mm shaft (TB site; mixed reviews about their DD motors but people seem to like these 6355s)
Motor Mounts - 2 Boardnamics Caliber II Motor Mount (BN site)
Motor Pulleys - 2 Flipsky 16T 15mm wide 8mm bore motor pulleys (amazon)
Wheels - ANTWHEEL 100mm AT Wheels set of 4 (some generic 100mm amazon wheels)
Wheel Pulleys - 2 Tynee 40T 15mm wide wheel pulleys (Tynee site; These are the ones that I am most worried about being compatible; I’ll explain later)
Belts - 4 Tynee 265mm 15mm wide belts (Tynee site)
ESC - Flipsky FT85BD ESC (pretty worried about the quality of this non-vesc esc but its priced so well on amazon that I had to go for it)
Remote - Flipsky VX4 ver 6 remote (amazon; this remote looks super cool and a big upgrade from my previous PPM remote)
MR60 connectors for ESC - amazon set of MR60s
Battery - 10s5p Samsung 30q pack. I am pretty confident after doing some load testing on my 5 year old battery that it’s still in good condition. Voltage sag is minimal and I was very good about not letting it go below 30V and rarely charged it to 100%. Around 120 ish cycles. Plus I was dumb and installed a BMS that has discharge protection which means I am limited to 40A continuous and 70A max but it also means I won’t be pushing the battery pack or the motors very hard and will cap the ESC at drawing 65A max from battery. Still wish I had thought to install a charge only BMS.

Here are my worries and hopefully someone can answer my questions:

  1. I read on another forum post that the BKB trucks that I ordered have issues supporting wheel pulleys from other brands besides BKB because BKB pulleys are 12mm and others are usually 15mm.

  2. I got kind of all terrain 100mm wheels, (I say kind of because they’re not typical aired AT wheels). I am concerned that the wheel pulley I got will not fit those wheels nicely. Or the pulley will go too far inside of the wheel. I’ve never made a belt board so I don’t really know if this is something to be concerned about.

  3. The TB 6355s I got have “Standard VESC Connector JST-PH 6pin 2.0mm pitch” and I don’t know if the Flipsky FT85BD ESC has hall female connection for 2.0mm pitch or 1.5mm pitch 6 pin. Does anyone know? Is there an adapter I can buy for 2.0mm female to 1.5mm male just in case I need it and return it otherwise?

  4. Do the BKB trucks I ordered have a 8mm axle or 10mm axle? I assume 8mm but you never know.

Any suggestions, advice or help answering my questions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.