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

[SternWake]

I think Fiona has turned the corner, and the new antibiotics are doing their thing.

I am sitting on the floor next to her soundly sleeping form, having just flushed the area of the incision, and dried it…I hand washed the recovery suit, and have a hair drier and fan aimed at it.

The animal hospital washed it, and machine dried it, and it shrunk a bit, and it now fits her even worse.

The incision is not pretty looking, or smelling, by any means, but not as bad as 10 hours ago.

There is nothing wrong with her appetite, and she was pulling hard on a walk, and can see through walls, to where her treats reside.

I have another recovery suit arriving each of the next three days, and might visit a dog speciality store in walking distance for another, depending on when tomorrow’s delivery arrives. Hopefully more than one of them fits well, and cradles and protects her big old loose belly better.

She is built like a fire hydrant with stubby legs, and the chest and neck girth and backlength charts, can fall under large, Xl, and XXL sizes all on the same model suit. So trial and error and compromise is necessary.

Vet wants to see her again Thursday.

While she was at the Hospital, I went for a roll, and allowed a 240lb guy to ride my board briefly, a short distance. I used to ride the snot out of this deck as an analog, several years ago, when weighing close to 220lbs/100kilos, and figured this deck could handle his weight. I put remote on speed level one(4mph max) and did ask him to take a wide stance with feet closer to trucks, and he stepped in the middle, then moved his feet.
Holy board flex batman!

It survived no issues, but the enclosure looked so damn close to the road.

Glad the enclosure is so overbuilt and rigid and there is some give on the velcro cinch straps, as I was envisioning broken welds.

Went to the CST afterward. A lot of new shells have been laid down. Uncrushed, uncompacted, soft, dusty.

Areas without new shells are soft from the tracked machine used to transport them.

I could feel my 8x3 turf tires, at 9psi, plowing trails, the 83mm hub motors tried, but failed to maintain momentum and the black paint on the hanger is now coated with calcium carbonate.

Gonna take the hub motors apart tomorrow. The noisy one is not happy. These were prone to sand infiltration, before I ever rode the crushed shell trail.
I’ve not opened them in a long time.

[SternWake]

Emailed a good photo of the freshly rinsed stinky infected incision to the vet this AM, and she wants to clean it out and and suture it shut first thing tomorrow, for free.

Her new recovery suit is bit big, and not convenient for going #1 or #2. but oh well, its clean for a few more hours.

Fiona pulled me to the kayak launch just now. I was not in the mood to walk 2.5 miles round trip, but she will get what she wants.

I disassembled a hub motor, and got a look at the interior bearing. I pulled the rubber seals they looked good and clean inside. I added a bit of grease and reassembled.

Still some motor noise.
Will do the other motor later.

[SternWake]

The inner hub motor bearings are 6902 RS

15x28x7mm

I did not try and remove it from the axleshaft, as I have no new ones to replace them, as I had no idea what size bearings they were, and am not sure how to get them off anyway.

I just popped off the outer rubber seal, expecting to see grey sludge, not clear clean grease.

Also, these 83mm motors came with the tiny MR30 phase wire connector. Which will fit through the 15mm center of these bearings. I put MR60’s on them which will not.

No big deal, but I also used some gorilla grip clear goop under the cap before seating it on the mr60, so basically will need to cut it off to replace the bearing, and the phase leads are already shorter than I’d like.

The outer cap bearing is a 16000 2rs.

10x26x7mm

I replaced this one already, and it too looked and felt fine with a similar amount of clear factory grease inside. I have one more new one, somewhere.

I had issues with this specific hub motor making weird interference noises in the past, then got the 90mm Puaidas and then tabled these.

One issue previously noted, was that on reassembly of these hub motors, one has to attach and tighten the inside 6 m3 screws first, then seat the outer cap. and its six screws.
The reverse order had the an internal interference sound occur.

Thanks to @Pecos for that helpful tidbit of knowledge.

The other hub motor did not seem to care about this order of operations, IIRC.

I speculate now this might be because the 6902 rs bearing was not seated to full depth inside the inner cap, and maybe why these motors seemed to allow sand to get inside as the caps were not fully seated against core.

I found no sand inside today though, but it was not sterile in there either. The photos were taken after cleaning.

These hub motor sleeves seem to be unobtanium, so putting new bearings in them might be a waste of time and effort, especially as the bearing cages and grease looked fine, on this motor anyway.

The prebuilt junk I bought these motors with claimed they are 350 watts each, but all the 83mm hub motors I see for sale, claim 450.

These get hotter than the ‘400’ watt 90mm Puaida motors did, but the hanger on the Puaidas got hotter than these 83mm.

I never got a look inside the Puaida’s. I tried after they were submerged in salt water, and then sat on garage floor for 2 months, but my #2 phillips head bit on impact driver sheared off and I expended no more effort.

I did use some thermal grease on square axle shaft on reassembly, but likely not enough to increase thermaL transfer. The IR temp gun should tell.

The 4 screws holding the flat steel plate to hanger, looked, at first, to have taken some cast aluminum with them, but it was some sort of grey threadlocker I dug out with a pick. I used some Loctite blue to return them.

The other motor, one of the four screws was tapped at a slight angle.

I am leery of taking this screw out. But if it strips the hanger, I have the Puaida hanger and assume the square axleshaft is the same dimensions.

I wish I had the funds to order the meepo hanger with 105mm 540watt hub motors, and 20 tabless cells. I assume significantly lesser voltage drop of tabless 21700’s compared to high mileage, well baked, low quality 18650’s will somewhat make up for the loss of torque going from 83 to 105mm. I have good condition 90mm sleeves which should fit those Meepo motors, too.

Hopefully these hub motors hang on until I can justify buying esk8 stuff again.

I’m actually kind of impressed with them, with a warm fully charged battery.

Been having fun on my ‘Racetrack’

Start slow and warm up the turf tires and hub motor urethane and bushings, and can then start pushing the board harder, get some flow going, some head clearing bliss. a little risk reward adrenaline.

I kind of forgot the Puaida ESC used to suffer random disconnects. The remote’s odometer has clocked 325 additional miles since its return to service.

[SternWake]

Felt like cheating, visiting our spot while she is in the hospital.

The cleaning of the starboard hub motor and its greasing of bearings, definitely produces a noticeable improvement in noise and vibration.

I had drilled two small holes in outer bearing cap to extract bearing.

I forgot to cover these holes with masking tape sharpied black.

They oozed some extra grease.

I took off sleeve of port motor while motor was still hot, and measured bearing caps, and stator body and sleeve interior temperature.

Hottest parts…Bearing caps, by 12 to 15f.

Pick up my girl at 4:30

[SternWake]

Got Fiona back. She’s all doped up and snoring lightly peacefully.

They removed some infected fatty tissue below the removed mammaries and sutured, instead of stapled, her back up. No charge, but would have been 1700$.

Got to take her in for a bandage change or removal tomorrow.

Still awaiting culture results for possible antibiotic change. Have sterilized everywhere she might choose to sit or lay down.
Have to be extra vigilant.

Have a longer cone of shame, but the itching should not start for a few days, so donut, for now.

Hopefully we’ll be barking up the hood in 2 weeks with her finished chariot, and hopefully she beats the statistics, and this is not the big C, soon to return.

Awesome souls should be allowed to grace this fucked up world with their awesome presence, not be taken prematurely, while vile, contemptible, malignant lying sack of shit narcissists get to consolidate their greed and power and try to assfvck the world.

–

The starboard hub motor was cleaner inside than the port, but not pristine by any means.

There is ample room through the stator axleshaft, for the phase sensor wire combo cable. I gave it a blow, and zero restriction to airflow.
Definite potential for being sand and debris entry point. I put a bit of gorilla grip clear to block it off.

The bearings have no slop, no roughness when spun, and the grease under the seals was clean and clear. I just added a smidge more and reassembled.

The squared axleshaft on this side was not a friction fit in the hanger, like the other side I think some aluminum foil as a shim might take up any slop.

Hopefully can get a few hundred more miles outta these hub motors.

The battery exterior was 56.8C after todays solo run. I didnt reLky draw it much below 3.6v per cell amd ambient temp was hardly close to what it will be, so perhaps a new tabless battery before new hub motors is the call.

[trancejunkie]

God bless those animal doctors. They sound like amazing people

[glyphiks]

Thats great news about Fiona and kudos to the vet, that’s really considerate to have done that for free.

[SternWake]

Few years back, Fiona had scratched had cornea diving into a bush after a rodent, and then refused the cone of shame violently.

I never saw her scratch at it, but it was not getting better, and we, the California vet and I decided she is smart enough to only scratch and rub at it when my back is turned.

I demonstrated the level of freak.out wearing the cone, and the vet was like holy crap! …here is trazadone, let’s keep her doped up for a week.

Also recommnded other cytopoint anti itch shot even though she had one two weeks prior.

It worked.

I related this story to this vet and now have a bottle.of trazadone, and she got another cytopoint shot, The traz was free, the cytopoint 134$

She is supposed to not run or be her usual self, but took off after cats and squirrels and herons after the initial surgery.

Anyway, more trazadone, and she is definitely subdued and moving slowly. and sleeps in the cone.

She ate her food this morning, but has refused treats since, which unusual.

The recovery suit she is in now is an XXL, perfect in the chest, but a little loose elsewhere, but covers the incision area better. Wish I knew a seamstress.

The vet tech who removed the bandage yesterday said it looked good. They installed the suit. There is no discharge or odor. I got to swap out the suit for another RN, and wash it.

It was great the vet went back in for free. Was it because they messed up, not taking enough ugly tissue out, or me messing up when she was able to access it licking, or some. combo of both.

The statistics say this is more.likely than not the big C. I don’t know how.much, if any time these 2 surgeries have bought her, but doing nothing was not an option.

A third surgery is not gonna happen…It will be palliative care , then taking her to our spot, at end of crushed shell trail, for a final chariot ride, and hopefully this occurs no time soon.

My sister’s dog is nearly 15 and has stopped eating and is withering away.

She is Gonna have an at home euthanasia, fairly soon I Imagine.

[glyphiks]

I’ve done at home euthanasia and at the vets, it is so worth the extra money to do it at home. The vet is cold and sterile and scary for the animal. So much more peaceful at home.

But hopefully you won’t have to worry about that for some time yet!

[SternWake]

I guess ll be swapping our and washing her recovery suits multiple times a day, and cleaning the incision and surrounding areas.

She’s got some Serosanguineous drainage going on. No foul odor.

We drove the car, and slowly walked the CST.

Hoping…

–
I pulled out the Puaida hanger, and tested the motor fit, and it was exactly as loose as the Hanger it came in. The square stator axleshaft is a bit small on the outside, and there is a tiny bit of slop before steel plate and 4 hex bolts returned.

i should probably just have JB Welded it. Used 1 layer of aluminum foil as a shim on outside, and thermal grease.

The bolts got loctite blue.

One bolt was factory drilled and tapped at a slight angle, so underside of bolt hit plate on one edge. I tried to dremel the plate so that full underside of this bolt head was in contact.
Imperfect result.

Quite different boardside bushing seat on the 2 different hangers.

I rounded the corners of the steel plate, and added a smidge of thermal mass and maybe some redundancy, with a ‘Clamptite’ tool cinching some stainless wire tight…Wish i had made 3, maybee 4 full wraps, not two.

Motors were nice and smooth on a short test run, and no bushing creak.

[SternWake]

Fiona is holding on. Still a fair amount of serosanguinous drainage, but it does not look, or smell infected.
Keeping incision clean and dry as much as possible and swapping recovery suits 3 times a day.

Keeping her doped up on trazadone and some gabapentin, so that if she sees a cat or squirrel or a giant egret, she does not go tearing off after it.

Am trying to get her to lay down only on clean bath towels, and trying to keep mom from driving dad crazy. Gotta enjoy the semi mild weather as soon it will be too hot, all the time.

Ran many laps on my racetrack today.
Tuned truck bushings, lowered 8x3 turf tire psi to 7.8.
Some carving zen occurred. Board is running well.

I tapped the 7S2p enclosure’s ESC heatsink for the M3 screws and the 10amp white voltage booster. I want to use the antispark switch TJ gave me rather than plug and unplug xt60’s. Kind of tight inside, so i wanted to lock down the booster and then work on the layout of the AS, and the 7s charging input

I had JB welded 6 small finned heatsinks to underside of the aluminum ESC plate in November 2023 when it was new. I decided it would be better to remove these and add a bigger deeper finned heatsink, that I have on hand.

I got a 1 inch wide sharp chisel, to pop the 6 small thin heatsinks off, and tapped once firmly with a hammer on joint to separate. No chance they are coming off. I recall going nuts on the surface prep. Cross hatching at opposing angles with razor. No fasteners, but might as well be one piece of aluminum.

I then tested booster on 24.5v 7s2p 104wh battery, boosting to 42v. Dialed it upto 165 watts output and was waiting for things to heat up, and then ran out of patience.

Pretty sure I can dial it to close to 240 watts with it without forced ventilation and not overheat, but could be wrong

My other 2 boosters get as hot as I am comfortable with, at 80 and 120 watts output, on 5s input, without forced ventilation.

This white CCCV booster is odd, as both the voltage and current pots are CCW to increase, CW to decrease, but I intend to just set it to 41.9v and output as high as 5.2amps or so, and leave it. My other boosters I change voltage and amperage frequently.

The 7s2p battery has unknown 2000mah cells. Ill assume 10 amp CDR.

Id rather cycle it, than my 5s powertool batteries. In theory I could make a 7s2p of EVE 35v for a 7 ah pack instead of 4ah. I do have another 7s bms, not sure why.

[trancejunkie]

the gaba is really good stuff but gotta keep em eating it makes em super drowsy and loss of appetite

[SternWake]

Drowsy is good. She needs to take it easy.

I have the chariot disassembled, but when I put the esk8 on the ground she stands up, shakes and says let’s get outta this nuthouse, and looks.pissed off.when I point at the towel on the ground , but complies.
Better that she sleeps and snores.

Appetite loss not an issue so far.

I hope the culture results are in tomorrow and we can get her on more ideal antibiotics. I only have 1 pill of Enrofloxacin left. Half every 8 hours, just gave her a half after a gaba and a belly wash, fresh gauze, and a recovery suit change and swapped inflatable collar for overnight Cone of shame.

The incision is still draining light pink watery fluid. Non stinky thankfully.

[SternWake]

Fiona had her incision looked at by a different vet today, in same hospital, different location, who said it looked as good as can be expected, and the serosanguinal discharge isn’t abnormal. Got a second antibiotic and refill on the first. She chilled all day, and took me for a 3 solid poop walk after woofing down her dinner, so here hoping the mending accelerates without further complication.

Here is half the guts of my favorite 12v 120mmx 36mm axial fan.

Delta FFB1212EHE. 4000 rpm@ 12v. It can handle 14.5v, perhaps higher, but no need.
It responds wonderfully to a 5 amp xl4005 voltage bucker as a speed controller from whisper quiet to screaming banshee Not all fans do.

I have had corrosion issues when they are sucking in fog on the regular.

This one I potted the circuit board with Karfuter k105. it self levels nicely, and cures into gummy bear like consistency.

My new Favorite voltage booster got turned upto 10.19 amps input for a while today. A depleted 7s2p charging a 10s2p, 5.2ah, at nearly 230 watts, 5.66 amps faster than this 10s2p battery should be charged. I rarely exceed half that on the workbench.

The booster didn’t seem to heat up as fast as my others do at half that output, but the 7s2p BMS LVD kicked in before a lot of time passed.
I ordered a second.

I hand sanded the chariot’s Cedar today, ‘hourglassing’ the vertical stiles, more for the visual and wind slippery factor, not the weight, as cedar is so light already.

Ways to go still.

[glyphiks]

Chariot is looking fiiiiine!!

[SternWake]

Fiona wanted to lay in the garage, door open, first thing today.

I set up some tables and shade .out side of garage, and used the sunlight’s shadows to further hourglass away some air resistance, and weight, all day, where I could keep an eye on her and stand in the shade, in front of high rpm 92mm fan, blowing dust away, Thc’d, listening to my favs.

Mindless sanding and shaping of cedar and fir, standing in front of a powerful fan, in the shade.
Perfect.
Contract serratus anterior, centrate humeral head, and call it shoulder and mental therapy, while creating dust.

Rotary rasp in Dremel doesnt really make dust. More like small chips.

Fiona was changing locations in garage often, snoring in between.

She is feeling much better right now. The incision looks far less angry, and is not seeping nearly as much serosanguineous fluid.

We were just patrolling back fence, tail high, snorting, grunting, and slathering, hound of Baskerville style, no respect for the foliage.

Well, I was only slathering.

Trample grunt and snort, the inflatable donut collar and multicolor recovery suit adding to the goofy sweet absurdity of the moment.

Now snoring again.

The roadside of the chariot platform lost a lot of volume today. All the screws are.either CA glued or epoxied, so am.just removing all unnecessary wood around them, imagining an air molecule contacting leading edge.

Would do it differently if starting over, but this was intended to ride immediately at every stage, and right now I could drive 8 screws and it would be fully functional, and stronger, and lighter, than on every prior run.

The rims, axle and plywood base have to have 2K miles on them.

Still on 80 grit paper stage.

I switched to dremelling basket when i ran outta time, but thats where most remaining weight loss and aero slippy gains can hope to be made.

I am gonna be wrapping/lashing all joints with fiberglass roving, and maybe some paracord.

[SternWake]

I’ve yet to bust out the scale to quantify results, but I have been making huge amounts of wood dust and micro chips, all day every day this week, removing strength and weight from chariot base and basket, where it is overbuilt.

All hand sanding motions can basically be implemented as if one were using elastic bands, and doing rotator cuff exercises, and holding the heavy rotary sander at every precise angle imaginable, is also a workout.

I am looking forward to getting the western red cedar to drink epoxy, and highlight the incredible beauty of this wood. It has a bunch of pinks and purple hues, and every shade of brown. I love its smell and just get all zenn’d out working with it.

Still on the 220 grit stage, but most of the ‘hourglassing’ is done.

When shoulder pleads for mercy, I’ve been chewing through drum sanders on he dremel, on the chariot’s basket. A lot more air should now be able to flow through it, rather than be restricted, and choose to flow around it instead.

On more windy, days at 20 mph I was really able to feel the wind drag on the chariot handle. Hoping the slightly reduced weight and air resistance are worth all this effort.

Fiona is sleeping a lot, and her incision seems to be healing properly.

I hope this time next week we will be rolling, and barking up the hood again.

[SternWake]

Bunch of groundhog days lately.

I am imagining being an air molecule passing around and through the chariot base and basket at 20mph, then attacking restrictive areas with rotary burr, rasp and barrel sanders. Lather rinse repeat, holy shit how many days have i been doing this all day?

Fiona sleeping lots, always nearby. Incision looking good, no more drainage. No more trazadone or gabapentin, lots of appetite, wants to play ball. Follows me to end of driveway when I step on my board for some hypnotic carving. Board running well.

Said goodbye to my sister’s Male dog the other evening. Amazing how they just seem to know. Fiona usually ignored him, but was very kind and sweet, and she was like ‘OK, you can sniff my butt all you want’, and did not get all upset when I was chilling out next to him.

I hope Fiona’s day is far away.
We are itching to roll again, bark up the hood, roll to our spot, and to the parks, and bust out the Kayak, which means transferring hanger and enclosure to kayakable deck. Will just use the cinch straps rather than 22 10-32 screws.
Not sure how the shoulder will handle paddling the kayak, but can stay close to tth launch, and just cruise the mangrove edges.

The 7s2p battery charging 10s2p through the 10A ‘600 watt’ booster works very well. It stays cooler than expected.
The 7s’s unknownn BMS is weird, in that it will not read voltage on the charge port, and the xt60 output, which will disconnect at about 3volts per cell, always reads at least 0.2v lower, even when charging at very low rates where voltage drop should not be a huge factor.
Charge to 29.4v at charge port, 29.02 to 29.20v on XT60. I guess of the charge port reads no voltage when not connected to charge source, there has to be a voltage dropping Diode involved. I turn up the booster to 29.62 to get 29.39 on xt60. This battery came with an Acdc power brick that says 29.4v output, but is actually close to 31v unloaded. I almost always used it with a bucker set to 29.4v or less

It is down to 26lbs

[SternWake]

Whaddya want?

Woof.

Looks over my shoulder, in general direction of front door and garage.
Pause at front door…

. ? Nope, garage.

Open garage door attach leash, proceed to go for walk. Nope.

Whaddya want?
Goes to chariot basket.
Woof.

Dang these infernal riddles!

I attached basket to base, loaded the padding and water bottle. Skate at 40.8v.

Plenty.

What mastectomy?

[SternWake]

More rolling,
More block planing
More sandpapering, and dremelling, and more to go.

Fiona with her butt up against unpadded back wall of her chariot has the lightened teak handle push my hand up with about 5lbs of weight. It Handles funny. Can feel her bark through handle, every subtle shift of her weight.

20mph into a headwind also feels like reduced air resistance through and around, but it feels so different overall it is hard to tell for sure. There is certainly reduced frontal area, and weight.

Fiona is refusing to leave chariot when we return to garage.

Just performed experiment.

7s2p, charging 10s2p from 35.8v, through white CCCV Vbooster. 7s2p supposed to have 4 ah capacity.

Started at 5.2 amps output, lowered to 5.0 as input amperage rose towards 10a limit.

My wattmeters are imperfect, but it claims it delivered 3.945ah , 99wh and I was hovering watching when BMS cut out at 21.3v.
Got 10s2p to 39.9v and delivered 2.21AH.

Booster got as hot as 64.7C, this lowered to 56 with some light forced airflow.

The 7s2p got at hot as 42C. These are when hunting with IR gun, for hottest spots.

She is still in chariot, during this test and the time to write and post this.

I think the cells in the 103.6wh Chinese built 7s2p are more than 2000mah. They didn’t get very warm being discharged at ~4.8 amps each, and the BMS shut off at right around 3 volts per cell.

The Vbooster temp gets a bit high at 5.2 amps output. It is not attached very well to heatsink right now. no thermal grease, one stripped m3 corner screw.

All sorts of room for improvement.

Seems to be a Viable portable charger.