Modifying prebuilt junk, in stages, to be less junk like.

at least your getting things going :+1:

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Fiona did not witness the esk8 retouch the ground, or my brief test roll on damp pavement this evening.

She will likely go absolutely apeshit when I pull out the chariot tomorrow morning, and tilt it as the command for her royal goofy highness to enter, and roll us to the crushed shell trail for the first time in too long.

Gotta set up the phone clamp to record her joy, and return her back rest.

My concerns, esk8 wise, at the moment are random remote disconnects this ESC suffered when I took it out of service last June.

More torque, and stronger brakes, and more range and more comfort, and customisable throttle, not important right now.

We just need to roll, and Dopplerify the hood with our barking, safely and sedately.

Her chariot needs more shaping, and sanding, and some fiberglass and Epoxy, but it is fully functional, and sturdier than ever.

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Nice day for a roll.

No remote disconnects.

First cruise, 41 to 36v.

Second, 42v to 34.3v, returned to a heatsink much cooler than expected, barely warm . Hotter hub motors than expected, and a 45c battery.

83 mm hub motors have no issues on crushed shell trail, but need bearings.

Figure 8’s in driveway were not as easy with Puaida truck and 90mm hub motors, Turning radius to spare.

Fiona Needs better traction in Chariot.

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These 83mm hub motors do not transfer their heat to the hanger nearly as well as the 90mm Puaida motors did, but I very much prefer the way this truck turns. Less twitchy, yet a tighter turning radius.

The bearings are noisy though. Not sure how to access inside ones.

Leaving the crushed shell trail, there is a small short hill, say 3’ above sea level to 7’ above, over a distance 15 feet.

With 90mm Puaida motors, and Ebay lingyi esc and good momentum, absolutely no chance of making it up the ‘hill.’

The 83mm motors and the Puaida esc made it.
Surprised me.
Was the only time the chariot stressed my shoulder, as I expected to slow and step off, yet it kept pushing and i was not braced for the 85lbs.

Got an evening cruise in. Kinda chilly. Hit 19mph towing, on slight uphill with headwind. Remote agreed with radar sign.

So nice to be able to roll again.
Too easy to not be extra careful.

Didn’t really lose much functionality with these smaller hub motors. Midrange Torque is better, but top speed is down. Bumps felt more.through thinner harder sleeves

If there are no more remote disconnects, I will be surprised. I have no power button installed. Just using push to start, and auto off, or pull loopkey.

Maybe Momentary power switch was cause of remote disconnects. I did swap a different switch in, from Ebay Lingyi, but that made no difference to the disconnects last June.

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We’re riding on solid water up here. What’s your definition of chilly? Just curious.

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Well, I was still wearing boardshorts.

I’ve got a body type optimized for cold, but have had to acclimate to this hot humid hellhole.

It was about 62f/16.7c

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10 miles or so today so far, and no remote disconnects.

8 months ago, Florida summer, when I took this ESC out of service, because of those disconnections, I had recently exposed the copper heatsink to exterior airflow, but had not yet JBwelded and screwed the deep finned aluminum heatsink to the copper.

I installed a different power switch, but the disconnects continued, and I figured i cooked the ESC.

So I took it out, then tried and failed with the Flipsky 6.6mini, then installed the ebay lingyi cockroach, and later on added the finned heatsink, which is now painted flat black.

Since this ESC does not require a power button, has roll to start, Auto OFF, and a Loopkey, I see no point in even having the switch installed, which might be the cause, or a contributing cause to the disconnects.

So I put another 5.5 x 2.5 charge port receptacle into the power switch hole, unwired, next to the one which is.

I like these 90 degree DIY charge port plugs. 16 AWG is a tight fit.

The phase wire holders are convenient too. Meant to be screwed down, but they stay put as is.

Previously, I had XT-90 panel mounted with Flange on exterior. I didn’t like how far out loopkey stuck, so this time I put it on inside.

The 4mm flange head screws have rubber washers,and cut their own threads in the panel mount.

I used the rubber gasket and flip cover inside, though the cover has no function.

These 5.5x2.5 charge port covers fit really tightly, but the hinge side still needs to face forwards.

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For any fellow sufferers of shoulder issues, I can recommend looking into ‘rotator relief’
It is a simple system where one swings a ball on a string in circles cw then ccw, with the arm, elbow locked in various positions to isolate and strengthen the 4 rotator cuff muscles.

It also has a nighttime system, basically a strap on wrist connected to one below knee, that keeps one from sleeping on that shoulder, impinging the tendon’s healing bloodflow, but also opening the sub acrominal space, reducing impingement.

I made my my own rotator device with an angle grinder handle and a nut and washer, a string and a block of wood.

Super light weight wood to start with, and that was uncomfortable on first try, but already upped the weight of the wood to about 1.3 oz, and no major discomfort anymore in just a week, once a day.

Just gotta remind myself to suck lower shoulder blades tight against rib cage for posterior scapular tilt during the rotation. Serratus anterior muscles need to fire correctly to do this ‘centration’ of humeral head in glenoid capsule.

The first time i tried the nighttime wrist knee thing I awoke with it missing, but later tried again and managed a few hours of it, awoke with significantly less pain.

Ive increased the weight of the wood block, and find that using that arm now, lifting it to shoulder height in day to day activities, when expecting to struggle to do so, through pain, find now tha it’s easier, and nearly painless.
Still noisy crunchy, but far better than 2 weeks ago.

My wrist knee device is just 2 unpadded velcro cinch straps with a 5 lb band joining them, that is only stretching with legs straight, and feels pretty good to open up the sub acrominal space, and the longer I sleep with it the better.

I wish I started this wrist knee and ball on a string thing earlier.

The kit sold, is ridiculously expensive for what it is, but i want send the inventor a few bucks for coming up with it.

I’m doing the exercises on my good shoulder too, and am surprised at the fatigue that the dynamic stabilization causes.

Fiona has a Vet appt on Tuesday regarding the angry cyst on her mammary.
I’m fearing the worst.

She will try and lick it, but has great appetite, and afternoon energy. Rolling to the pavillion in her chariot behind esk8, gets her super excited.

So nice to have it to ourselves, and the weather is awesome today.

Cormorants and pelicans beware.

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Towing 12+ miles yesterday made for an unhappy shoulder afterwards, but seemed no worse for wear this morning.

Been cruising far slower than before injury, and even putting remote on speed 3 of 4, which is still enough torque for the crushed shell trail, even on a ~50% battery.

The 83mm hub motors actually seem superior to the 90mm on the trail, like they have both better grip, and torque.

But it could be the shells are more compacted, and more crushed and colder since I last rode it 2.5 months ago, but it could be the Puaida ESC too.

An ESC which has yet to suffer any remote disconnects, to my surprise.

So I am thinking no funds need be expended on a new Esc anytime soon.

I got a new tabless 10s2p battery on the brain, but no funds, and enough range with what I have.
Its exterior was 45c at the end of an ~8 mile run yesterday, when it was 55C+ last November in hotter ambients and riding much faster.

So it is good enough, for the time being, and no funds need to be expended on 20 new cells at this time. I think i have everything else needed to build and bms a new 10s2p, except heatshrink.

These 83mm hub motors need new bearings. I am not sure how to get to that inside bearing.
I’ve replaced one outside bearing on one motor, and have one more new one, somewhere.

I assume the inside bearing has a larger inner diameter and slides over the square mounting shaft. This hanger has one of the 4 bolts holding the steel plate down on one side, drilled and tapped incorrectly, at a slight angle. I kind of fear schmemmification of the aluminum threads removing and returning it, so am putting it off.

I salvaged the Puaida hanger, but for whatever reason I never liked the turning geometry of the Puaida truck, and this 83mm hub’d truck has a tighter turning radius, and feels more natural and stable.

I have the used M1 inboard hubs Arza sent me, and new sleeves for them.
Need to add mr60 and 5 pin jst-ph to the 9 pin Julet extension cables in order to even test these.

i bottomed out the rear edge of my enclosure unexpectedly yesterday, scratching it slightly. The phase wire length on these 83mm motors does not allow me to strap enclosure farther forward, towards the 8x3" turf tires.

The Julet extension cables are long enough i could butt enclosure up against front baseplate and have huge clearance. I had intended to have them only just long enough for the mini, but the mini is on indefinite hold, so I will make them long, and can always shorten them later if the mini build is ever restarted.

I started my van for the first time in 3 months, and took Fiona to the dog beach.

Water quality looked OK, and she got to play in the shore pound, and Didn’t want to leave.

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Just got back from vet. The C word was mentioned.

An intravenous antibiotic was given, reassess in 2 weeks.
Vet says likely the mammary and the one adjacent should be removed.

Fiona in good spirits. We rolled to pavillion, stopped at footbridge. She pooped 3 times in 100 meters, and is now barking at turkey vultures facing into the cool Northwesterly wind.

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hows the water?

I used to be a pretty well calibrated human thermometer, before I moved to Florida.
Temp wise in Gulf of Mexico at dog beach, felt about 64f. Windydot com says 67f.
Water color greenish, about 1 meter visibility.

Didn’t feel water temp at Kayak launch. Kind of scummy at water’s edge.

It has about 2.5 feet of visibility on incoming tide. A bit browner. No idea of bacteria count.
I dont let Fiona swim at kayak launch, but she certainly wants to.

Red tide threatens. There’s a huge dense patch of it just offshore, and here is kills fish, and can make those with respiratory issues cough incessantly, even well inland, when the wind is onshore.

If shoulder and Fiona’s mammary were good, I’d probaly paddle the kayak. I could transfer enclosure and motored hanger to kayakable midsize deck in a few minutes. But cant, so wont.

Non switchfoot, chariot handle in left hand, remote in right, works fine. More wind drag with shoulders square to direction of travel, but were just cruising slowly, appeciative of the ability to do so again.
Ran red scotch brite pad over old yacht enamel Van paint today.

Right Shoulder is on fire, and not happy, even though left arm did most of the work.

First beers in a month, second time this year drinking beer.

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Wired up a voltmeter, to plug into my charge port, that can reach my left hand, when not towing the chariot.

I want to see how much voltage sag there is under load, and how much is raises when braking.

Not much data collection yet, but the ESC is beeping constantly at 32 volts under load, and IIRC, the voltage rebounded to 33.7v soon after I let off throttle.

This10s2p battery is still behaving well. I want to see what 41.97v drops to under max acceleration. They are just cheap 15amp CDR 18650 cells with ~2000miles on them, but I did use 0.1mm copper, 0.1 Nickel plated steel, and 10awg to xt90s.

I swear that I can cruise the crushed shell trail faster with this Puaida ESC, and 83mm ‘350’ watt hub motors, and this 10s2p Dmegc battery, than I could with 62$ Ebay Lingyi, 90mm Puaida ‘400’ watt hub motors, and the now deceased 10s1p p42a.

There is one left turn on the crushed shells, and I approached it fast enough today that I was like, nope, not gonna risk fishtailing and falling or skidding into the mangroves, and actually hit the brakes before getting there.

I Was never able to attain that speed with ebay esc and larger hub motors, preinjury.

After the turn, was able to reaccelerate across a few usually softer slower sections, and get going uncomfortably fast again.

The P42a battery outtorqued the Dmegc battery by no less the 15% on the ebay Lingyi but this Puaida esc and 83mm hub motors and dmegc battery seem to have 10% more on tap than that, which makes me.wonder about the amount of voltage sag I have, and how much less would occur with P45b, or JP40, or 40Pl,.or Bak45d.

So I guess the motor wattage is more or less a measure of heat dissipation ability, rather than torque, and 82mm hubs are just giving me more torque than 90mm, but less top speed, and they certainly get significantly hotter, and I’ve not been exploring the top speed anyway, but I think 23 is about the max.

This Puaida ESC says 12 amps x 2, and use no less than a 30amp battery

I was thinking of making a LoopKey with a big loop, to reach my deck, so I could strap my DC clamp ammeter to it, and actually measure battery amps, but wonder if the magnetic fields of motors would mess with its accuracy and if it is worth the effort.

We cruised the far park, and neighborhood this arvo, but skipped the one area where I destroyed my shoulder by water’s edge.

This ESC has still not suffered a remote disconnect since I returned it to service.

I can’t stop thinking about upgrades, like a P45b or better 10s2p, or the Meepo 105mm donut wheel hub ‘540 watt’ motors, but all funds are spoken for l, and I honestly do not require any more performance, or range, at this point.

All I wanted, as of 2 weeks ago, was a board to be able to Tow Fiona the mile to the crushed shell trailhead, not necessarily roll the quarter mile trail there and back, and have 5 more miles of range after that.

Being able to roll the CST full length both ways, faster than before, is a surprise. Got enough range to goto the far park afterwards too.

I assume come summertime I’ll be back to cooking the battery and motors, but that’s a few months off.

So it is good enough, for now.
I don’t need to go faster, or further.

I wonder if my shoulder can handle paddling the kayak yet.

I am sure I could not one arm curl Fiona’s 54.6/25 KG back onto the kayak. That was struggle pre injury.

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the ammeter shouldnt cause any issues but fixing it in place might be difficult. :grinning:

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The hall effect sensor in the DC claMpmeter might not like the magnetic fields of the motors or ESC or other wiring nearby, and stymie the attempts to get a somewhat accurate reading.

Mine drifts and needs rezeroing kind of frequently anyway, and has no surge or peak amp recording.

A little velcro on its backside would mate with my velcro.cinch straps holding enclosure to deck.

Anyway soldering up a long loopkey just to attempt to read max amperage between my feet, likely at or near top speed, is unlikely to occur.

We know there is very little usable battery below 3.2volts per cell, and I’ve determined this ESC will not use ANY of it.

Cells with significant mah left below 3.2, like the $$ Molicel P50b, would be a poor choice, if one were trying to get max range.

I know I dont need tabless cells for my use, with the possible exception of battery heating in summertime Florida towing duty.

This dmegc pack has a 60C limitation and i was measuring 56c on outside of pack, on slightly cooler days when i was not pushing it as hard as the months previously, and yet it still behaves well.

Im not even really using all the torque i have available, with this high mile low quality cell dmegc pack, but I will assume a 10s2p of tabless cells will have far less sag and thus more torque.

Im still amazed how the 10s1p of p42a significantly outtorqued this 10s2p of Dmegc-26 with the ebay lingyi, may both the 10 p42a’s and Lingyi cockroach esc rest in salt water corroded peace.

Im really trying to to remember my age, and skate slower and more carefully, and take as few chances as possible. If i fell at speed i am sure i would have more natural hesitancy, but i was an idiot, who dove to try and save my esk8 from a watery death, dislocated my shoulder, and failed to save the board.

Im just happy to be rolling again. How fast i get there is no longer a concern, but it’s too easy to mash the throttle and even with weakass hub motors, go too fast.

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Fiona’s chariot was used this last week as a wheelbarrow, to move hundreds of pounds of garden soil and mulch, and some 5 gallon Podocarpus shrubs.

The max weight that I loaded into the chariot basket, was likely about 150 lbs/68kg, or nearly 3 times Fiona’s weight, and it handled it without issue, and is not yet really as sturdy as I intend on making it. No creaks or groans or any indication it was unhappy with the load.

Surprisingly, my shoulder was ok with moving each bag 4 times or more, from store floor to cart, cart to van, van to chariot, chariot to ground.

Pulling, or pushing it over the deep lumpy ground grass and some other obstacles, it had plenty of clearance, and the 4.10-3.50-4 tires laughed. I think they are in the 23psi range.

The subscalpularis rotator cuff muscle seems to be coming back a little. The belly press, and the gerber lift off test, and one other test reveal a tiny amount of strength coming back.

Also got 10 shrubs planted, and towed Fiona about 6 to 12 miles each day as well. I can square shoulders to direction of travel, and tow with left hand, but don’t feel i have the same control where the chariot’s wheels are, and often put remote in teeth at speed, and transfer the handle back to my right hand.

With full battery, and max acceleration, I have to really clench entire shoulder to prevent discomfort, and sometimes forget, hear/feel something crunch and clunk inside of it, then revert to speed 3 of 4 and just take it slower, and just appreciate being able to roll the hood with my best buddy again.

The weather has been super nice.

Lots of pedestrians in the hood remark they are glad to see us rolling again. One or two hate us though, either their dogs just go batcrap crazy, or they are just ornery grumpy fuckers.

Fiona’s mammary cyst is not responding to the antibiotics.
I think it has got to come out. It does seem to bother her some, but is not slowing her down. She still is a ball chasing lunatic with a great appetite.

When I make eye contact with her when towing, her joy at rolling in her chariot, is just so obvious.

The esk8 itself is running well.
No remote disconnects, I wonder if that issue is gone for good, and if so, why?

Better than expected range, and acceleration. We can roll the crushed shell trail faster than ever before, but do not, usually.
The bearings in hub motors when cold, are kind of noisy, I can feel the vibrations from them in my feet, but once warmed up, it is much better.

I could try and get the 80 mm M1 inboard hub motors going. Their softer sleeves should be more comfortable, and I have a back up pair of sleeves as well.

I could wire up my second 5.5x2.5 charge port, hook it to my battery’s Anderson powerpole, with a soldered LP mini fuse inline. But i don’t really need a second charge port. I rarely have ever charged at 1C, 5.2 amps or higher.

Rarely dial CCCV V booster up past 4.5 amps, and the single 5.5x2.5 port , and plug, felt cool to the touch at that rate.

I would have to parallel ‘chargers’ to do so, and am not sure they would be happy in parallel, and the dumb daly BMS is only rated at 10 amps charge anyway.

My junking 7s2p enclosure and battery have a voltage booster resting on the ESC’s heatsink. It could become a charge and ride, strapped to deck between feet, or just a portable charger with ~ 104 watt hours kept in Chariot. My dmegc 10s2p is only 187wh, so it is a fair amount of extra, even though I don’t really need it at this point.

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I would feel happy paralleling two basic, small chargers, 2A for example, together if it saved me money and made my life better. I would use a couple resistors though and take the output from the centre-tap. I was once going to do this with old evolve chargers, but as I’ve started accumulating 4A chargers I’ve also stopped using 10s boards.

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I put ‘chargers’ in quotes, as I exclusively use 150 watt voltage boosters off my 12v lead acid battery systems, off my van, or garage floor.

The AGM lead acid batteries in garage are kept charged by an adjustable voltage power supply, usually dialed to 13.6v.

I always use an inline wattmeter on the output, and sometimes input too, and a fan blows over the unit.

I am often changing the target voltage, and the max amperage to get there. Like dial it to 41v after dinner, unloaded, plug in, dial in about 1 amp, then before bed disconnect it, dial in 42v unloaded, then disconnect everything. After pouring coffee, I plug everything back in and get up near 42v before our first roll of the day.

I do have 3 ac/dc 60 watt power bricks for 7s, which should be 29.4v max, but all 3 will go over 30v, closer to 31, so I was using a voltage bucker to tame them to 29.4v.

I did buy a 10s Ac/dc charger that advertised 2 amps/84 watts. It maxed out at 34 watts.
It measured 42.06vOC before using, and the one time i used it, I found my wattmeter reading 42.46v and 0.0amps.

The battery was 41.26v, so the bms did its thing when one p group got above 4.25v.

I gave the ebay seller a ton of shit, and a bad review. They offered a full refund if i would retract my review.
I declined.

Not long ago I got an email from ebay warning me about using that specific product.

I do have ‘400’ watt voltage boosters, but the ‘150’ seems to stay cooler, and have more precise voltage control.

I burnt out one 400 watter. The enamel on the wire wound toriod turned purple.

Parallelling these voltage boosters is not something i have tried. Perhaps when i make a 10s2p of tabless cells i will explore that, but that can be pretty far off.

I dont see me personally requiring higher than 10s voltages, anytime soon, if ever.

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Thought I had new 5pin JST-ph pigtails.
I was wrong. They were all 6’s. I have 5’s, in 2.54mm spacing, and these do not have the plastic locking tabs one can lift for easy removal.

Pulled the wires from the salt water dunked Puaida motor’s JST-ph 5 contact housings.

The housing interiors were caked with green corrosion too.

I used Dentek mini bottle brushes and hot water to scrub them clean inside and out. The precrimped wires from the 6pin jst ph clicked and locked nicely into place.

I decided to undo the 3 screws holding the cap and urethane sleeve to one M1 hub motor. The used sleeve slid off the motor with surprisingly little effort. I busted out the new sleeves i have, and they were not going to slide over the motors knurling easily, so I didn’t bother, and returned the used ones, for now.

I wonder if these used sleeves basically spin on the motor’s knurling, which felt kind of slippery.

I have some Julet 9 pin extension cable pigtails to mate to these 80mm inboard hub motors. I decided to use check the wire colors matched this diagram:

The first one i checked was ok, but the arrow for aligning male and female was 180 degrees off. No big deal.
The colors were in order order.

The second one has a green sensor wire as 5v positive, so, I decided to roll to the 2 parks with Fiona instead.

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The first attempt using one completed Julet extension cable to MR60 and 5 pin JST to power an Inboard hub motor, was not a success.

I used a known OK single drive 7s esc and battery to test each inboard hub motor individually, rather than risk my sanity saving 10s ESC.

Had to swap blue and green sensor wires to get them to spin at all, but random brief cogging was commonplace, which would loosen up the axle nut, which was torqued about half as much as I would have torqued it to ride.

Arza did provide a long Wera allen key to torque them proper, but i didn’t use it for the bench testing. The C shaped cup on motor, does not mate tightly to the caliber truck, probably 15degrees of rotation before it locks.

I am not all that confident in the design.

Seems the axle nut itself has to lock the stator to truck and the C cup is just secondary rotation prevention, should the axle nut loosen.

As hot as the hangers get with my other hub motors, I am not seeing much mating surface area for thermal transfer from the inboard hub motors to hanger.

When the motor cogs, it sounds like a loose magnet hitting the stator, or some other physical obstruction inside.the motor.

When it does not cog, they are the smoothest quietest best balanced hub motor I have yet used, but then Clunk!, and the tiny single drive 7s esc starts beeping in protest and shuts down.

Mid curse fest hub test, Fiona dropped her ball between my feet, and barked at me, tail wagging with that goofy sweet grin, so we rolled to the Parks, and I have not bothered trying again.

The cyst on her mammary has not responded to the antibiotics, and is growing.

Looks like it needs to be cut out.

Vet appt Tuesday, for bloodwork, and to schedule its excision.

I can’t simply do nothing and watch it grow.

She is too awesome a soul.

Between my own medical bills, and her vet bills, there is no new Esk8 parts in my future, so I hope my 83mm hub motors keep on keeping on. But that 105mm Meepo hub motor hanger is likely the second cheapest way to keep the roll rolling, but I suspect I will lose considerable torque going from 82mm to 105mm diameter, on the same Puaida/lingyi ESC.

Maybe there is something unique about inboard hub motors phase and sensor wire order that i remain ignorant of, but perhaps they are not.worthy of more effort either.

With the slower cruise speeds, and smaller 83mm hub motors, the rangedelivered by the 2k mile 10s2p DMEGC battery has improved. We are cruising deeper into the far hood, riding some soft non paved trails in the park, instead of walking them, and returning close to home base with more battery than expected, so we keep rolling until the esc is beeping 3 times, then limp home at half throttle or less.

I would love to build a 10s2p of Jp40 or Eve 40pl, or Bak 45d, or P45b even though 24 battery amps appears to be my max. Its more about the heating than exploring the top end capabilities of tabless cells.

Fiona’s unfinished Chariot got a little tune up today.
More padding, paw traction, and furry butt support added, and I dropped 4.10/ 3.50-4 psi from 22 to 12 for her comfort.

These 2$ Dico hand truck tires have almost completely dewobbled themselves.

I had only added balancing weights to one of them previously, and today did the second, which required hakf the weight of the other.
Still have not added the sealant that I have to the tubes.

The psychotiller Sixshooter 6x2 spare tire got secured a bit better to chariot, and I could carry two easily enough.so that neither if us has to be at an odd angle with the undersized spare on one side only. Still need to get the correct width bearing spacers in them though.

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