How should one ride when things fail? Disconnect esc wire? Unplug loop key? Leave everything on?

#1

I was wondering, if let’s say, you run out of battery or the remote stops working for whatever reason, to get home, how should one do it?

Unplug the motor wires from the esc and power the rest off?

Leave the motor connected and unplug the loop key?

Leave everything powered and setup the failsafe to roll/not brake?

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#2

Pull the loop key and wheel your board home

#3
  1. Highly recommend against fail safe braking unless you have it set so it ramps up very slowly. Otherwise it’s called automatic ejection.
  2. If your remote stops working, just shut down the board and kick it home.
  3. If you run out of battery, fail safe should not kick in anyway, should just shut down.
  4. Unplugging the motor would not give you any less resistance unless the ESC blew and shorted open.
  5. If the ESC blew then pull loop key and unplug motors assuming it did not eject you.
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#4

The energy created by pushing the board does not harm the vesc if it’s shut down? Does it dissipate somewhere?

1 Like
#5

leave board on and push… or remove belts and turn off board

3 Likes
#6

I was always told the VESC need to be powered to safely push an esk8 (if you run out of battery for example)

Edit : Or no belt if unpowered, as Titoxd just said ! :+1:

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#7

From what I understood the motor creates a back EMF voltage that can exceed the breakdown voltage of the components of the ESC. Since its not a closed circuit it shouldn’t really generate any current. Therefore if you are slowly pushing the board, its okay to keep it plugged in. I’d rather leave the loop key if pushing with the motors still in so the small amount of power that might be generated can dissipate into the battery.

Personally I keep a skate tool with me (its a 3d printed pendant with a 9/16" for fixing the kingpin and 1/2" for removing the wheels) so I can pop the belts off (doesn’t do any good with gear drives, enclosed belt drives, chain drives, direct drives, or hub motors…although the hubs and direct drives usually back drive pretty easily)

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#8

I would just unplug phase leads and push.

#9

Someone explain this concept to me - assuming that the ESC/VESC fails how are you braking at this point? My understanding is that if the motor control dies (battery, BMS[discharge], ESC/VESC, or motors themselves) you have no other possible option to stop beside a mechanical brake, which as I understand no one has done that has been adopted as a standard feature.

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#10

Fail safe braking is only for disconnection. If receiver loses com with remote, automatically apply brakes. (imo as dumb as it sounds)

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#11

Gotcha, so the “RC approach” for a run away vehicle makes sense in theory.

I’ve been dragging my feet trying to design a possible MTB gear-drive with remote integration and manual override for a physical brake. But most of the possible options aren’t great :smiley: so I keep hitting walls of theory and practicality that stop progression.

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#12

And if it did eject you at full speed, the nice men in the ambulance could maybe take you home.

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#13

Not totally accurate, at least for GT2B remotes (the only ones I own) : you have to choose what is applied when there is a disconnection. My failsafe is set on neutral as unexpected brakings lead to fall most of the time :wink: I prefer freeroll in this case

Edit : I’m interested to know if we can set the behaviour on others remotes as well or not (hope we can).

#14

I was only explaining what it is. lol. I agree, automatic braking is generally a bad idea.

#15

Now that i’m reading this i realized i don’t have a failsafe. If my remote dies the board just freerolls. I once got on my board and started rolling, wanted to break i realized i didn’t turn the remote on.

#16

Sorry im late but we didnt seem to clarify or maybe i misunderstood.

Where can the power generated go, if phase wires are not plugged in?

Wouldnt best method be to disconnect phase wires?