my wife would skin me alive
Haha, yeah…
Fortunately, with ten eboards lying around, fifty or so salvaged e-scooter batteries, a bunch of loose cells, tins of acetone, resins, oils, chainsaw petrol etc… mines pretty used to it! Worse is that it’s all coming into the house to allow for knocking down the old garage.
Fuses, fibreglass, and substantial airtight enclosures and I’m just hoping nothing ever bad happens. I am careful with my builds.
I’ve not had a battery fire at least, unlike some I know who didn’t respect that a zero volt Li-ion means recycling time, despite being warned.
1 Like
I was looking to buy Arctic Silver thermal epoxy a while back. But didnt.
Cant remember exactly why.
But just now used JBWeld, filling in the copper grid, and SS screws to align and pull finned aluminum heatsink tight.
1 Like
I wired up my male 11 pin JST 2.0, to a 7Pin and 5 Pin JST2.54mm females, and cut and peeled back my shrinkwrap and some kapton tape, in order to unplug the balance connector from Daly dumb BMS
Now I can plug in my balance lead into two 7 cell ‘Capacity Controllers’ and scroll easily through Pgroup voltages.
Cells 1 through 6 on one meter, 7 through 10 on the other meter.
The two meters disagree slightly, but after about 600 miles on this 10s2p battery since January, there is a max 32mV disparity.
I have not done many 4.18v+ charges, and only a few were holding 42v for a few hours. But there was a 12 hour unintended overnight 42v hold a few weeks back.
This BMS supposedly only balances above 4.18v per cell.
I was not able to detect any BMS heating when holding it above 4.18v, back in January, and just injected 4.2v into the then 300MV low cells.(8&9), and they stayed incredibly well balanced through first desktop discharge before shrinkwrapping.
The remote’s odometer had about 500 miles on it when ESC randomly began shutting down requiring a power cycling to continue. I suspect I put close to 200 miles on the other Lingyi. 90% of miles are accumulated towing Fiona in her land or water chariots.
So 32mV difference after somewhere between 600 and 700 miles of towing on flatlands with hub motors, seems pretty good to me.
Both meters agree Pgroup 5 is the ~30mV low one, So I’ll likely bring it upto 4.075, inline with the others, Kapton it closed, and return this battery to the enclosure.
2 Likes
The 12mph max 7S Diagonal Mini, with its dual145mm wide single drive hub trucks, has been doing no less than 10 miles per day for 8+ days now.
Since it is so slow, but nimble, when no cars are around, I take the whole road, and push the ~70mm urethane to its hissing limits with high amplitude, high frequency carving sessions, until my legs turn to rubber, and Fiona is barked out, or the battery is done.
I was hoping to put 80mm m1 inboard hub motors on this board, powered by a 10s1p P42a, but the narrow deck needs narrow trucks, and the calibers trucks I have which fit the M1 hubs have a significantly wider track width.
Too wide.
I want to keep this board, light and nimble, ans semi stealthy, with narrow trucks.
I am not sure how to proceed.
My copper heatsink which has secured three different ESC’s now, has a lot more surface area than before, with deep aluminum fins reaching deep, for airflow.
It is still nearly a perfect seal, without using a sealant.
One of these days, the volan green enclosure, will be painted flat black.
2 Likes
Mor heatsink mo betta. I have a tendency to go a little overboard with my heatsinks and this is just good 
2 Likes
I hope it is overkill.
When the copper was first exposed to airflow I was surprised how hot it was getting via finger test.
Getting a reading with IR temp gun was not happening on shiny surface.
When I sharpied the grid black, it made little difference, but when the copper that she sharpie couldnt reach oxidized, it started almost reading accurately. It would say 127f when flat black hub motors were 147f, and fingers said they were about the same.
I think the hundreds of miles accumulated when heatsink was not exposed to exterior airflow, was a major contributing factor to the ESC’s demise
Eager to go fast again, I reassembled enclosure with the cockroach Lingyi attached to enhanced heatsink, and a new 1/8" full sized closed cell foam gasket was compressed inbetween.
Was kind of surprised how hot the new deep aluminum fins were getting, to the touch.
Last evening on our evening cruise we left with a sub 50% battery, but I had a few beers in me and was gonna go slow and only a short run.
Felt some alarming lack of torque and speed barely a mile in.
At two miles I jammed throttle and it responded but then stuttered and refused.
1/4 mile later lost all power, and one light on remote was flashing red.
Coasted to stop, cycled power button, and two battery bars, all expected torque and speed available. Ran the battery down to 3.3v per cell over a few more miles, lowest ever, trying to repeat weirdness, but never did.
Just came back from another run this evening. Same issues, but noticed weak but unpleasant sounds emanating from usually silent motors at higher throttle when performance sagged.
It shut itself off and restarted while I was still coasting, and all power was back and motor noise gone.
F, I just want to ride, not troubleshoot and stress.
I have no faith in my ability to get my vesc powering my hub motors, which is why I put the reviled Lingyi cockroach back in.
Wish my workbench was not 95f/35c
1 Like
The cockroach lingyi ESC had a trouble-free 15+ miles accumulated yesterday, and 6 miles earlier today, but on a run just now, felt an abrupt power loss at full throttle when approaching top speed, with half a battery left.
Got off throttle and reapplied, and only 50% power available.
I slowed to some shade, then hit the brakes, only 50% brakes. I stopped, lifted rear truck, and hit throttle, both wheels spun equally.
Neither heatsink, or hub motors felt ridiculously hot. Ordered Fiona back in her chariot, and full expected torque and speed was back, and stayed for the mile return home.
I wonder if hitting the low voltage soft limiter just freaks the ESC out. I noticed similar with the ‘Puaida’ esc, which is also a Lingyi, just not the ebay cockroach lingyi of 5 years ago. Had to come to complete stop before full juice returned.
Also wonder if I have a broken weld that intermittently only shows sometimes.
I’ll recheck p groups via balance leadat 36v next time I open enclosure
Was watching the weather Radar closely, and decided screw it.
Were going.
Towed the FionaYak to the Kayak launch, despite likelihood of Thundershowers.
Paddled hard Northbound, 8.5 out of 10, non stop, to the exposed sandbar in the pass, 2.25 miles/3.62 KM away.
I didn’t notice when Fiona let her ball roll overboard en route, but a woman on a beached boat saw Fiona staring at me, willing me to throw a non existent ball, and from her boat, threw a tennis ball to her, so she got to Frolick and amuse all onlookers until exhaustion.
The southern Horizon had turned black
as the storm’s upper level cirrus outflow spread directly overhead, and blocked the sun.
Everybody pulled anchor, and motored off. Fiona and I started back, southbound, toward the growing storm.
I checked the radar from under a low bridge, and the expanse of red and purple had grown, as the rumbling flashing horizon got even darker, but i thought we could perhaps make it back before it hit, and I laid hard into the paddle.
There is a small uninhabited island in the bay, about midway, where some in the past have set up firepits and left garbage and torn tarps, and such, and as soon as we got close to this, the cold wind hit us in the face, 25 mph steady, 35 mph gusts.
I sliced my foot on some oyster shells pulling the kayak out, and checked the radar again which said it was as bad as it looked.
i then accessed the strewn garbage for making some shelter.
Some pretty good wind chop was rolling in.
There was a pretty big straw like woven floor mat left behind, that I draped over a fallen tree, which served as a roof and a floor, and we waited it out.
Most lightning was well to our East, but one super bright flash was quickly followed by an amazingly loud ‘Crack!’ that Freaked Fiona out badly.
She was shaking hard, sitting on my foot, leaning hard against me while it was raining at an 35.1mm an hour rate Deep red/purplish on the radar.
After about 15 minutes, it let off, and the radar showed the bulk was now north of us.
I stepped from the shelter, and saw there was a 20mph North wind in the bay to assist us the last leg home.
So we left the Island and joined the windchop and tide marching Southward, with bright flashes and loud rumbling at our backs, and all sorts of fish action going on.
Fiona was still shaking with fear, until a cormorant popped up next to us, and stayed alongside, diving and chasing the fish disturbed by our bow wake.
Then it was barkathon and screw the memory of the scary storm.
Made it to the launch and the rain was pretty light, but radar showed more coming. I put the 8" pneumatics back on the kayak cart, and returned hanger to front truck,and slid board into plastic bag for the 1/4 mile walk to asphalt.
Roads super wet and in a cloud of mosquitos, I pulled remote from waterproof smartphone pouch, and esk8 from plastic bag, lifted Fiona into kayak rear well, smeared bloody mosquitoes along my calves, jumped aboard and set off, trying to avoid puddles, as the rain picked up again.
There was one brief powerloss about half way back that freaked me out, but it kept going and got us home.
I pulled loopkey, towelled off the board and aimed fans at it, showered myself and Fiona, and ate a pound of cold pasta.
My shoulders are on Fire.
Feels great, almost.
1 Like
So nice having the pavillion to ourselves.
I saw a 5’ bull shark swim by the other day which freaked me out.
Still running the Lingyi cockroach, and it has suffered a few disconnects, requiring stopping and cycling of the power button to continue.
There is some halfpower weirdness that occurs before a disconnect. I can tell when braking to a stop, that only one motor is braking. When I stop completely, all returns to normal, and this has not yet repeated during that discharge cycle.
If I don’t stop when I notice power loss, it will usually disconnect within a quarter mile.
Not sure if this is a known Lingyi cockroach Esc behavior, but i can deal with it as is, for now. I do want the Vesc operating but no time and confidence in my ability to set it up, and my backup board is too slow, and a long ways away from becoming faster.
Range while towing at 16 to 20mph, with 10s2p of 2600mah cells has been outstanding on smooth flat Florida no hill asphalt, with right calf burning by the time I’m down to 36v.
I put a slightly narrower caliber front truck on, that Arza sent me, as it appears to be far better built than the Junking one I had been using.
Am considering dewedging back truck.
I thought a less tall barrel boardside bushing would help reduce oversteer, but between the crap throttle response and weird tight turn characteristics, I don’t have much confidence when trying to ride more aggressively.
4 Likes
Struggling to find both time, and desire to improve this board with vesc or a better ESC, compared to the reviled ebay lingyi.
Well, the desire is there, but not at the mental and functional expense of not having a fast enough back up board on hand to tow Fiona here daily.
Or miss our on our evening cruise, weather permitting, now that afternoon thunderstorm are the norm.
The lingyi cockroach seems reliable, and predictable, if I occasionally brake to a stop. If I just cruise 14 to 22 mph, it will act up, seemingly deciding to ignore one motor, then disconnect from remote if I dont brake to a full stop when i notice the power loss.
So it’sfunctional, but far from ideal.
The finned heatsink continues to get super hot, and will often feel hotter than the motors.
I Cant get a good read on it with IR temp gun, but hub urethane will read 122f, passive urethane 116f, and hub motor ends 137f, and the heatsink feels as hot as the hub covers.
I wonder about underboard airflow at speed, and think about ways to improve flow over the fins, and then wonder if 140f Florida summer asphalt is perhaps contributing more heat, than the mosfets.
But then I say F it, it works, and don’t take it apart without a fast enough backup board ready to ride.
The diagonal mini is just too slow, though i could strap its 7s enclosure and 83mm 350 watt hubs to my analog cruiser and perhaps hit 16mph with it.
2 Likes
Tropical Storm Debbie has delivered several inches of rain and some pretty good gusts today, so far.
There have been all sorts of flood, and tornado watches and warnings for the last few hours, and My old man’s phone just told him to go hide in an interior closet .
With a sub 85f garage workbench earlier today, and a nice breeze circulating the garage, I decided I would remove and replace a remote battery, and make sure the slow 7s backup diagonal mini was still a viable, semi reliable back up board, its been a few weeks since I’ve ridden it, and transfer the 7s enclosure to my long cruiser.
Its remote has been suffering a significant parasitic draw or excessive self discharge since I got it wet a few months back.
This area was growing a bunch of white fuzz a while back which I cleaned off, and the remote worked, but the battery drain continued.
Some white fuzz grew back and one of the 3 legs seems to have half dissolved.
I found the interior 300 mah battery a bit swollen and down at 2.7v, and soldered in a 4.07v 200mah battery from another esc remote from a failed single drive 7s Lingyi esc, from the original 99$ junk which started this Esk8 insanity for me.
I put the 83mm Junkking 350 watt hub motors back on the long cruiser whose front truck has 200x50mm pneumatics, and swapped its 6 pin connectors back to 5 pin, after failing to get The FSesc6.6 mini to work with either set of hub motors a while back, and tabling that.
The remote still wont power on with healthy battery, unless I have it plugged into a USB, and while I could use a thrunite C2 source to power it, As I have done before, It is not an acceptable solution, nor worth any more effort, I don’t think.
I put a 10 ohm 100 watt resistor on the puffy remote battery till it read 0.02v, then clipped its terminals and covered the stubs, and set it with the other fully discharged cells destined to be recycled.
I had another remote from another Junking single drive ESC, but it would not pair with the other esc, so I expect 7s will never directly propel me again, even though the 7s batteries I have, still seem to have a good amount of their original capacity remaining.
The Cockroach Lingyi ESC now in use on my midsize, was my emergency backup ESC, and now I have no backup board at all, and should the cockroach ESC fail, so might my fragile sanity.
So I am perusing the options, I want something en route, soon.
Part of me is just like get another plug and play 24 amp hub motor ESC, and hope the additional heatsinking and airflow over it, that I now have, prevents it self destructing in 500 miles, like the last one.
I could likely just pair my existing remote ( with telemetry) and save 30 or 40$, buying the esc alone for 70$ish.
I will be sticking with 10s for the forseeable future, and wonder about plug and play hub motor friendly escs from Meepo or backfire or Hobbywing, but find far too little info to really make any informed decision.
I could try again to get the FSesc6.6 mini to reliably detect and repeatability detect motor resistance and inductance, with a relocated vx1 receiver, but I really really dont want to disassemble the fully functioning board again, to potentially fail again, and then have to hastily reinstall the cockroach.
I see Puaida has a newer generation 10S ESC, that claims to have better brakes, which was my chief complaint with the 500 mile failed esc, before its failure.
That’s 110$ish, but I could get a MakerX DV4s for 160$, …but If I can’t get my hub motors to work with the FSesc6.6 mini, could I get it to work with another brand Vesc?
I also get a bit confused about the difference between Vesc 4 vs 6 and what little I know about using vesctool.
The weather radar is showing a series of training of red blobs, headed right for me, and My dad’s phone keeps screaming at him to go take cover, so I’m gonna wrap this up and go do my LT. Dan impression in the driveway.
2 Likes
Stay safe man!
I’ve heard it’s supposed to get a little nasty.
Keep us out of towners updated on how it hits.
1 Like
i have some fam close to u i hear 4” lots of rain hoping floods dont get out of control
2 Likes
Been seeing somewhere between 5.9 and 6.84 inches of rain as of 1.5 hours ago on the two closest weather stations.
Debby seems far more potent here, than Hurricane Idalia was last year.
2 Likes
how is your project? did you stay dry?
I’ve not entered the garage yet today. But might later, and work a bit on my 10s1p battery, and design its enclosure.
Some landscaping is damaged from wind and oversaturated soil, and there are still some T-Storms rumbling nearby.
Trying to decide what my Future escs will be.
Im sticking with 10s and hub motors for the immediate future, and my failure at getting vesc to power my hubs has me dithering on a way forward.
I’d love a real board that might get some respect on this forum, but wants vs needs vs funds vs time.
I did order some female 9 pin Julet ebike cables for my Inboard M1 manta 80mm hub motors that Arza sent me.
When installed on the Caliber trucks he also sent, the track width is significantly wider than I desire for the intended build, so the plan forward is murky at best.
1 Like
Just skated to Fiona’s watering hole, slowly, as downed branches and wet leaves and puddles are everywhere.
The tide is supposed to be rising, and be flowing from N to S, but so much rain and inland flooding occurred, with a creek mouth to the south, that surface current is flowing opposite, against the fairly strong NW wind.
Looks like the edge of the mangroves took a pretty good beating.
1 Like