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

[SternWake]

I removed rear truck baseplate wedge riser for inspection, and the baseplate and wedge riser gaskets made from a fat bike innertube, looked to be in perfect condition. I stretched them and held them up to strong light and they are fine diddly dandy.

I then noticed the kingpin was quite loose in the baseplate, and the boardside cupwasher that rests on baseplate was kind of tore up, and the hanger Pivot was way too loose inside the pivot cup, which was able to fall out of baseplate on its own.

These trucks came with soft taller bushings and I hated their twitchyness at speed, and the bump steer.

I made a JBweld dam on the hanger to contain the boardside bushing, which basically eliminated the bump steer, but it was the shorter bushings and the dewedging riser which removed the high speed twitch, and had me very satisfied with the overall handling at high and low speed..

The 105mm hub sleeves and the new Bubinga wedge riser, combined with the perimeter roving width of the deck, actually allow some wheelbite at full lean which was absent previously, and I knew the roadside cup washer was hitting hanger, but it was also limiting wheelbite so it was draggy at full lean but would not lock up the wheel and throw me.

This cup washer limiter obviously caused the kingpin to loosen and wobble in the baseplate, and seems most likely to be the cause of my rattle.

I have a new baseplate with a tight kingpin, and am going to play with bushing height and see if I can still get the low speed turning radius I desire without wheelbite.

I don’t want to have to grind into the deck for clearance, but will If I have to.

I really liked the handling as it was, but the cup washer lean limiter to prevent wheelbite streetface, was a bad Idea, but no streetface occurred.

Perhaps the Kingpin or baseplate holding it was on the way to breaking and then causing streetface, So good thing I cant stand rattles. The rattle sounds more like metal on plastic, but I guess could be Steel cup washer on aluminum baseplate and just altered by Bubinga wedge riser.

I keep my trucks super loose, basically just tight enough to keep roadside cup washer from rattling on the nut. With the Kingpin nut compressing the bushings I am not sure how it is even rattling, and perhaps the rattle is something else entirely. I guess I’ll find out on our evening roll when we hit the rattle road which is a fair distance away.

[SternWake]

I knew using a shorter boardside bushing than what my truck came with, was throwing off the Pivot geometry, but it basically eliminated the high speed twitch.

I returned the original bushings to the new baseplate with tight kingpin..

I am pretty sure the rattle is gone, as is the wheelbite as hard as I can slow speed turn.

I didn’t yet get to the rattle road to 100% confirm, but did hit some pavers which could also cause the rattle and it was smoother, softer, and quiet.

However, with the correct height boardside bushing, the high speed twitch is back, and cranking down the Nut to attenuate that, has my low speed turn radius suffer into the unacceptable range, and it does not reduce the high speed twitch enough to be worth the loss of low speed turn radius.

The Incorrect height boardside bushing has to be partly responsible for the wobbly kingpin, but it makes the board handle great at low and high speed.

The correct height boardside bushing just has it twitchy AF at high speed. Great low speed turn radius and rides over bumps smoother, and no Wheelbite, but that high speed twitch is awful.

I don’t want to dewedge rear truck any further, It is about 10 degrees now, and the nuts are already digging little C’s into the baseplate.

If I had a harder tall bushing I’d try it, but it seems the boardside height of the bushing is making or breaking the handling, and the happy medium is elusive.

[SternWake]

I lived on / from 12vDC nominal for many years, and still have issues thinking in terms of powering things from ~115vAC. Voltage drop on 12vdc and lead acid batteries Crap cycle life when not truly fully charged promptly after any discharge, made me oversize wires, a habit which has continued even at higher voltages.

When I first got my Junky 7s esk8, I found the 29.4v 40 watt power supply / charger provided, was actually as high as 30.32volts, and I wired up a buck converter to limit this to 29.4v. I also saw when the red light turned green on said charger, it did not cut off output, it only meant the amperage declined from 0.33 to 0.32. It would never shut off, and would happily overcharge, and depend on the battery BMS to prevent this.

I have good 12vdc infrastructure in my garage workshop, and some old but healthy AGMS on my garage floor and decided to just use voltage boosters to charge my ESK8 battery from these AGM’s which I can hold at their ideal float voltage with a manually adjustable 100 amp power supply.

I now basically own almost every 150 watt+ rated booster sold on Amazon or Ebay, with the latest acquisition being Big Red 40 amp/ 1800 watt on the bottom.

The ratings are kind of marketing BS. Some will say maximum output amperage, some will give input amperage limits, some will say maximum wattage. and there are all sorts of dis and mis information regarding their actual capability.

First off is Boosting from 12v nominal to 10S liion charging voltages is a big limiting factor.

The ‘400 watt’ red booster on top, is the least expensive and my least favorite, mainly as the voltage potentiometer is Clock wise to decrease output voltage, CCW to increase, opposite, but the current pot is normal.

The potentiometers are also located on PCB where if one bridges the heatsinks, with a 50MM fan, they become inaccessible with the fan running. I always change output voltage depending on whether I want to charge to 4.1 or 4.2 volts per cell, and always change the amperage depending on if I need to ride ASAP, or in 6 hours. Charge as fast as necessary, as slowly as possible.

I did burn out one 400Red one, asking it for too much juice too, the wire around the toroid turned purple despite a powerful fan blowing over it.

The Blue booster below it became my favorite, even though it just says 150 watts max output. All three potentiometers are normal, and it has a light which one can adjust when it turns from red to green, such as when amperage tapers to less than 0.2, the red light can turn green and it is easy to see at a distance when I need to unplug it. I added a 24vDC fan to it, and when fed 12vdc nominal. It is basically silent, but not enough on its own to keep the booster cool, at 150 watts output

I was using this booster from a 5s power tool battery to portable recharge in the park, and also from my 7s2p premade battery, but the 150 watts maximum rating was the limiting factor whether fed 5s or 7S voltages, and while adequate, I wanted the ability to charge faster. the 24v fan at these higher input voltages was quite effective in keeping it cool.

The White booster claims 600 watts, but this is only possible if boosting from a much higher voltage. From 12v Nominal, I can get about 170 watts without it getting too hot which for me is about 75C, even though electronicas can likely handle more.

One needs to attach it to a heatsink, and drilling and tapping the heatsink is a pain in the keester. I used my 7s2p enclosure and battery to make a portable charger setup using this booster, attached to a thick plate of aluminum which was attached to a finned heatsink. I can reliably charge at 250 watts, but my 7s2p premade battery is only 104 watt hours.

The white booster will have a big old spark when connecting it even to 12vdc, So I put an XT90S on its input.( use an Antispark switch in 7s enclosure) It has a 15 amp fuse on the input, which I blew when testing it on 12vdc input.

It refused to be removed and replaced with a wire, So I bridged it with solid 14AWG and added an Inline ATC fuse on the 10AWG input wire.

Both potentiometers are backwards, and at 42v, are super difficult to dial in say 41.8v, or 41.12, or 42v precisely. At 170 watts with a nearby fan blowing over and under the heatsink it was still getting quite warm at 12v nominal input so was kind of bummed at the effort spent to turn this booster into my new benchtop from 12vdc nominal booster.

I honestly do not need to charge above 150 watts very often, but when I do, I am impatient. My charge port and BMS are rated for 10 amps and I wanted to be able to approach this, on the bench, from 12vdc nominal.

So I ordered Big red 1800. Last night I tried to find its maximum, assuming the heating would be the limiting factor. It has a temp sensor resting on heatsink, and a fan. I first tried it using a 6S1P 50E battery that I made for my TS101. Long story short I kept having to reduce the current potentiometer to keep the cells below 9.8 amps output, and they still reached 58.8C well before the BMS would have cut them off. Big red’s fan was just starting to cycle on and off, and felt only warm to my touch.

i then tried it with 12v nominal input. Big red has a third potentiometer, that is supposed to allow one to set a minimum voltage for protecting input battery. i had to fiddle with this pot in order to get more than 165 watts out of the booster. I did manage to get 9 amps output, which was about 36 amps input, and the input wattmeter was saying 12.22v. I could not get more than 9 amps from this no matter how much more I dialed up the current potentiometer, and output voltage was set to 42v. It did get quite warm and the fan was running continuously.

9 Amps is a 1 C charge rate for my BAK45D 10s2P, and close enough to the 10 amp max of my charge port and BMS that I find it acceptable.

It was turning 50 to 60 watts of power into heat though, at that output level.

I don’t expect to often dial up the charge rate to this level, and the unit itself is big enough that I doubt it will ever find its way into a backpack or Fiona’s chariot to be part of a portable charger.

Since I made the BAK45D 10s2P I rarely have needed more range, so the portable charger factor is not as necessary as it was with my old DMEGC102P.

That battery would just get way too hot, So portable charging at 150 watts in hot Florida was a bad idea, but it was nice to leave the park at near full charge and have more torque on hand.

I am infected with range brain, even though I don’t need more range.

I would however explore further a field if I knew I could easily make it home.

The DMEGC 10s2p in my mini’s enclosure connected in parallel to BAK45D10s2P through charge port is likely the best method of range extension, as opposed to a portable charging source, but I like to have the ‘what if’s’ covered.

The Samsung 50E 6s1P flatpack, and the white booster can fit in my cargo short pocket and should be good for 160 watt rate of charging and return me about 3 miles of range towing Fiona at 18 - 20MPH.

I can load her chariot with all sorts of emergency range 2, 5 and 7S batteries for portable charging if needed, but will I ever need?

I hope her health holds. Rolling with my best friend ever is basically my only Joy these days.

Should take her out on the Kayak soon too.

Gonna go hit up the park right now with her.

[fessyfoo]

@SternWake

The ratings are kind of marketing BS. Some will say maximum output amperage, some will give input amperage limits, some will say maximum wattage

yeah they all have a maximum in/out current and maximum in/out voltage, only sometimes specified. and they mostly advertise max current * max voltage as the wattage of the device.
but you only get that driving max input current and voltage at max output voltage.

would be better to just have the individual limits specified.

[SternWake]

I wish I were more aware initially.

Got to check other product listings as some have more details listed on the specs than others.

At least my Blue booster says 150 watts output max, and since I always have a wattmeter on the output this is pretty easy to respect.

The only thing is, as battery voltage climbs in response to charging, so does the wattage. at constant output amperage. Luckily the 150 watt booster seems Ok at 165 watts, it just makes a high pitched whine saying it is not happy above 150.

Likewise on the input side, if there is an amperage limit, with constant current output, as input battery voltage falls the amperage increases, so when I was trying to max out the 6s1P of Samsung 50E cells at no more than 9.8 amps, I kept having to turn down output amperage to keep input amperage below 9.8, and the cell ends, with their 0.2mm copper, 0.1mm stainless, got to 58.8C well before full discharge.

That reading was with an IR temp gun on top of 1 layer of Tesa tape, 1 layer of Kapton tape, and one layer of thinner clear heatshrink. The Fishpapered body of the cells was still reading in the mid to high 40’s, but I figure that is the cell ends using 0.2mm thick 10mm + wide copper is more representative of actual internal battery temp.

Right now that 6S battery is resting at 20.91v, so 3.485 volts per cell. It had more to give, if I discharged it at a lower rate.

My 6s1p 50E has 40 amp BMS has an empty NTC port, so no temperature sensor, but I only ever intended it to power my TS101 at 82 watts max.

The portable charger test using it as the source was just a ‘what if’ potential future scenario.

If I just dialed in 150 watts output initially, it would likely not overheat and and be able to deliver most of its available capacity down to 2.5 vpc, and be an OK portable, pocket sized ‘get me home’ charging source. I started from full charge at 25.2v and as high as 215 watts output, but kept dialing it down in respect to that 9.8 amp CDR rating of 50E cells, which seems to be quite a generous rating.

Anyway I am basically ready to strap the 10s2P DMEGC battery enclosure to the deck and have 187 watt hours to add to the BAK45d’s 324 through the charge port and have added range without the need for portable charging. I have a 10S1P Eve 40PL fishpapered and glued together, and also have 10 more BAK 45D I could make into another 10S1P.

My Puaida / Lingyi 10S 24 battery amp ESC is sometimes behaving oddly. When returning throttle after coasting, sometimes, it applies full power, even when I am rolling the throttle in smoothly. it will do this abrupt thing 2 or 3 times in a row, but then behave normal. I have grown to expect it and on the longer rolling guppy deck, and the limited hub motor torque available, it is not overtly dangerous, but on my midsize kicktail with 90mm sleeves, I almost fell on my ass a few times because of it, it even happens on speed level 3 which has much less torque.

Kind of thinking of ordering the newer version of this ESC for 100$, at which point I can add a parallel xt90 input to enclosure, and bypass charge port parallel shenanigans . I know I should go Vesc but honestly I am getting my hub motors to 155F as is, can exceed 30MPH solo, ( 25 towing Fiona) , the brakes are now strong enough, and I don’t want to deal with a pricier Vesc and remote shennagins.

The plug and play of a prebuilt ESC and remote combo just works, and I don’t know what I am missing so all hail ignorance.

I know the newer model Puaida/Lingyi will easily attach to my heatsink, and it supposedly has even stronger brakes than the one I am using now, and with the 540 watt meepo motors the brakes are actually good right now. The 400 watt Puaida hub motors with 105mm sleeves the brakes were dangerously weak and not really tolerable with 90mm sleeves either, but better than no brakes.

If I have a backup puaida ESC I could fairly easily and quickly get my lightweight mini backup board rolling, far easier than trying to deal with figuring out how to set up Dual OG focboxes, a remote, and being confronted with my Inaptitude on the computer.

I also want to try spot welding 0.3mm copper before finishing my 10s1p EVE 40PL. I know I can weld 0.2mm copper layered with 0.15mm copper under 0.1mm stainless steel using flux at near max power of my AwithZp20B welder. I am not sure how different one layer of 0.3mm copper will be.

I know with my limited power demands I do not need 0.3mm copper even with a 1p pack, but I like the idea of minimal electrical resistance whenever possible, within reason.

[SternWake]

I charged my DMEGC10s2P and Bak45D 10s2p both to 42 volts, velcro cinch strapped the DMEGC enclosure to my deck between my feet, connected Dmegc to BAK through my 5.5x2.5 charge port via my XT90 to 90 degree 5.5x2.5 male plug adapter into Bak45D charge port female.

No inline wattmeter this time, and went for a solo test ride, which went fine.

I put board on bench and decided to top both batteries again to full in anticipation of my longest evening cruise yet, and found my Dmegc pack was not charging.

The LP mini charge port fuse was not seated properly, a known issue with the fuse holder, I’d forgotten about. No big deal. I was reassembling padding to enclosure, with barrel plug flopping carelessly near some tools in the area, and POP!!!.

Male 5.5x 2.5 plug goes flying in an Arc on its 14awg leads and smacks into my arm with some impressive velocity..

Perfectly bridging a 90 degree conductive inside corner and closing the circuit, is a bit of an unlikely occurrence.

[SternWake]

I got my Range extender system working well, but have yet to explore my new potential range.

The parallel through charge port is Unideal.

My ESC can pull 24 amps, my BMS and charge port and charge port fuse are only 10 amps rated. The BAK battery feeding my ESC is a much lower resistance battery with a more direct connection, So exceeding 10 amps when both batteries are paralleled at similar voltage is unlikely, but not impossible.

A direct parallel feed to ESC would be best.

I have not wanted to do this as I basically need to disassemble enclosure to cut the hole for another XT90 panel mount and to splice the ESC feed.

The pre 2022 Puaida/lingyi ESC itself still works fine, a little jerky when returning throttle sometimes, but I am used to it. Extra alert of the possibility.

This is the 2024 model.

It claims to have better acceleration and stronger brakes.

I wont be able to confirm that for a little while yet. It arrived sooner than expected via amazon. 99$.

Some good news is that my old ESC can now power the lightweight Mini grocery getter, and I can put off trying, and failing, to get Vesc to succumb to my desires again.

I prepped my 0.2mm Copper, 0.1mm Stainless sandwich for my 10S1P EVE 40PL last night.

[glyphiks]

@SternWake

direct parallel feed to ESC

[SternWake]

I have put way too much effort into this deck and enclosure to not return it to full function.

So it is back on the workbench.

I pushed it around the driveway a bunch with 80mm urethane up front and the Junkking 83mm hub motors, worn to 76mm in the rear, and was trying to get used to it, and see how loose I could keep the trucks before wheelbite became a possibility. I have another set of hub motors with 90mm sleeves, and which can fit the 105mm sleeves as well, and a pair of 105mm wheels too.

I’d like to the least try it on enough risers to fit the 105’s without wheelbite, and maybe just up front, run 90mm sleeves in rear. I am used to the asymmetry already, and like it.

Took quite a while to get used to pushing and using the kicktail and such a short turning radius before the muscle memory kicked back in and I felt confidence begin to return.

Really missed that throttle though.

This used to be the 7S diagonal mini, with 73mm hub motors on narrow TKP trucks, and it was super fun for high amplitude carving on new perfect asphalt, but it could only do 12mph, and the brakes were dangerous as they were basically all, or nothing. Those super thin sleeves are toast now, as is the 7s dual ESC, but those small hub motors were still working fine but some bearing noise had begin.

The Enclosure I overbuilt for this deck is a great fit, but I made a huge mistake, and cut out the heatsink on the wrong end of the enclosure, and then committed to it, and glassed the heatsink in place, up front.

So I am basically committed to running the phase and sensor wires along sides of the enclosure, or over the top of, or Under, the 10s1P 40PL flexible battery which will be nestled in some pretty thick squishy foam.

I know this is far from ideal, so am thinking about shielding both. I also need to extend phase and sensor wires to reach across the enclosure.

And Finish the 10s1P Eve 40PL. I got it All welded with 0.2mm copper under 0.1mm stainless, but for the Main + and -, and have half of the dual 14 Series connections soldered.

I need to test the new Lingyi/Puaida ESC before replacing its mr30s with mr60s, and xt 60 with 90, and add the parallel panelmount Direct feed to ESC

Got to solder an90 to 60 adapter just to test the esc with my 70mm hub motors which still have mr30’s

The new ESC should really go into the lightweight mini, but it claims to have stronger brakes, and I want those on the Guppy. The older Puaida sometimes has a harsh surge when gently rolling the throttle back in. Not so great for a short wheelbase, but maybe it wont do that on the puaida or Junkking motors.

[SternWake]

Nice coolish weather.

Hate to disassemble a well running rattle free board, but wanted a direct parallel ESC feed, and to try the new ESC. I did bench test it with the 70mm hub motors, and all was well.

The original ESC wiring is 16 awg. I was gonna use 12 but settled on 14 to extend to panel mount.

Gott hit the heat shrink with the heat gun, and reassemble.

Inevitable Human Error factor?

Stick the loopkey in the parallel port, or blow up the ESC with 20S.

The dustcover wont work with the xt90 panel mount attached to the interior. So will make a low profile dummy plug

[SternWake]

Spent too long buttoning up everything inside the enclosure with the new to me 99$ 2024 Puaida/Lingyi ESC installed.

The new XT90 Parallel ESC port is just blue masking taped over for now.

Nothing inside can move or vibrate, everything is ziptied to a roving bridge, often with some compressed foam in between. The Bak45D 10s2P battery itself is nestled in foam under about 10 half width velcro cinch straps.

First ride, the acceleration force felt the same, and so did the braking, but then I saw the brake level was on 1. I bumped it to 4 and the thing basically starts dragging urethane, nearly locking up briefly even when I put my foot close to rear truck and most of my weight on back foot.

I can basically stop from near full speed to Step off speed in less than half the distance as before.

This is a huge improvement.

I was happy with the significantly stronger brakes with Meepo hub motors, compared to Puaida motors, same ESC and sleeves, and this new ESC significantly increases the braking force enough, to the point I might even turn it down to level three, if not towing Fiona, and certainly if using worn 90mm sleeves.

Engaging the throttle is smoother and returning it after coasting is also as it should be, not abrupt.

The voltage display on the remote is nice, but the characters are so small I can barely discern them. Have to take off sunglasses and bring it perfect distance to my aged eyeballs, and seeing the difference between 39.4 and 38.4v is not very easy.

Also, it seems to read about 0.2v low. I did not take the battery low enough to see where the soft cut starts.

I didn’t change the wheel size setting. It says it is set to 100mm wheels from factory, and mine are somewhat worn 105’s, and the Speedo seems accurate enough, but I need to calibrate against a radar sign, and will have to remember to bring reading glasses, as on the set up menu the characters are even smaller.

There is a trip odometer with 0.1 mile precision and a lifetime odometer with no tenths. I like having a trip odometer.
I am not using the power button, just using roll to start, and Auto off. Not sure how long it takes for Auto off but that resets the trip odometer for sure, Didn’t think to check to see if turning off the remote resets it too.

For 99$, it is a significant improvement over the old ESC, and having telemetry on the remote is Nice too. It was almost plug and play. I did have to switch Xt60 to 90 and MR30 to MR60 to fit loopkey harness and motors.

I am likely going to splice the ESC wiring on the Old Lingyi and adapt the same parallel ESC feed for the Mini.

When I was close to finishing buttoning up the enclosure, I was on my lower height workbench, where my charger is not located. Fiona was itching to roll and the battery was about 70%, and i wanted to bring it to about 41 volts .

I knew my portable 7s2P charger was close to fully charged, and used it instead, and charged at 250 watts, then opened it up and raised output voltage from 41.06 to 41.8v and let it rip at 260 watts again until the 7S BMS LVD kicked in. The portable charger’s heatsink at 250 watts output does get pretty dang hot, but takes a while as the heatsink has a lot of mass.

This 7s BMS does not let me read voltage on its charge port, so not knowing the state of charge of the 7s battery is a bit of an inconvenience. I don’t trust this premade 7s2p very much. It likely has 10 amp 2000 mah cells, claims 103.7 wH.

I have considered rebuilding it with EVE 35v that have the same CDR but 75% more capacity, but honestly I have not even used it yet as I built it to be used…. Charging in a park more than half way back from home base. Now with parallel ESC port and my old 10S2p battery ready to be strapped to deck as range extender…..

I can parallel from the start of the ride, or pull the loopkey and plug in another 10S battery. I actually have 10 more BAK45D, and should make another 10S1P, after I finish the mini’s EVE 40Pl 10s1P

[SternWake]

Knowing I can stop in half the distance as before with this new ESC, I find myself riding faster.

I had also gotten used to the brakes getting weaker at step off speeds, that I would just step off at a fast walking speed. Today I was surprised when the strong brakes continued to a full stop, and there appears to be a parking brake. The remote buzzes in my hand when at a full stop and still holding the brake down, and there is no hip flicking it into motion.

The remote has different colors for different speed levels, with red being speed 4. I can and will change this, as seeing the red numbers in full sunlight is difficult.

On our second park of the roll, two toddlers, I’ll guess ages 3 and 5, started squealing with glee when Fiona and I rolled into the park atop the grass. I don’t have enough power to keep going on the thick grass for long, but there is a shaded picnic table we can make it 2/3 of the way to.

I usually lift Fiona onto the table and fill her water bowl.

The kids came running over, and I was like: “sure you can pet Fiona if it is OK with your Dad, but they were completely disinterested in Fiona.

They were looking at my skateboard and the remote in my hand mystified them.

The older daughter wanted to try it, sitting on it, on the grass, and her dad said Ok, and soon she was leaning into turns as I controlled the throttle, gigantic smile on her face.

Then the younger son wanted in, but didn’t understand the leaning to turn part, and soon both of them were sitting on the board and doing figure 8s on the grass grinning from ear to ear, and very appreciative when their dad said time to go.

I continued my ride to run down the battery and see where the soft cut started.

My Old 10S ESC seemed to soft cut at about 33.5v, full hard cut at 32 volts. This was determined with a handheld wired voltmeter pugged into the charge port.

This new ESC started buzzing in my hands at 33 volts or so, but did not start cutting power until about 31 volts, and while it was buzzing insistently in my hand I saw its voltage display go under 30v accelerating slowly and pop back above 30 coasting. I stopped in my driveway and quickly benched board. I put my voltmeter in charge port and it measured 30.5v and was rising.

The BAK45D discharge curve does not fall off a cliff at 3.2v like a lot of cells, so this new ESC effectively increases my range by an as yet undetermined amount.

Somehow my biggest most capable boost converter which can do close to 400 watts from a 12v nominal source, then let out some magic sparks from the 3 parallel 20 amp fuses and is now NON operational. I had it set to 41.4v and ~ 3 amps, when I connected it to the well depleted battery.

The fuses are not blown, it does not have that distinctive stink of burnt electronics. I only got it about two weeks ago.

[SternWake]

Really enjoying the strong brakes, the trip odometer, and battery voltage on the new ESC and remote.

Second park of the beautiful day, so far.

[glyphiks]

Seems like a solid investment!!

[SternWake]

Sorry sweetie, for the leash.

You dont need it.

Thanks for being such a wonderful friend!!

[SternWake]

The Black battery on the right, is a 6S1P Samsung 50E(2) with a 40 amp BMS. I made it from Cells Nelvick gifted me, exclusively to power the Miniware TS101 soldering iron. It is being charged by my least favorite voltage booster from 12v nominal, through one of my Wattmeters that came factory with 8awg.

This 108 Wh battery can power my booster to charge my Esk8 battery too, but I have to be careful to not approach the cells’ 9.8 amp CDR as I found it hit 60C at well below this level when the cells were in the 3.3 v range. It has more capacity than my 72wh Ridgid 4.0AH 18v nominal pack and fits in my cargo short pocket better. When nearly fully charged at 25v my TS101 can draw as much as 82 watts from it. I don’t like to use the booster to power the soldering iron directly, I am afraid of it’s voltage ripple hurting the iron.

These imperfect wattmeters with 8AWg leads and 45 amp Anderson powerpole connectors are what I used to run on 12vdc items and the voltage drop with the standard 12 or 14 awg cabling was not just too much resistance for many circuits, but the induced voltage drop and heating of the shunt within would throw off the Amperage significantly.

I’ve gone through many of these inline wattmeters over the years. There is no shortage of clones of these, but they are not all exactly the same inside, and some were much more accurate and precise than others.

This specific model is one of the better in terms of amperage and its ability to read mostly accurately at both 40 amps and 0.1 amps. It’s KWH figure is way out of whack, and one of the 3 that I own reads 0.2v low at 42 volts but reads perfect at 10.5 to 15 volts. I feel completely blind when charging, without them though.

Other versions I have owned had issues with accuracy under 0.5 amps and would not even register loads under 0.2. I bought some more recently that i put XT60 and XT90’s on, that will not record the Peak watts or Amp as they should and do not agree on the AH figures with my other wattmeters or with observation and math, which makes them a liability. I wish I had a specific clone brand name to recommend, I guess Tenergy first came out with these, but I have no Idea if they are the best, they certainly are the most expensive when I was shopping.

Below the Black battery, the blue is my first Esk8 battery, a DMEGC 26R 10S2P. Made with 0.1mm copper under 0.1 nickel plated steel parallel and series connections and is inflexible. I adhered the stack between 0.5mm G10 fiberglass.

It has a few thousand miles on it and has decent capacity remaining, and is always pretty well balanced with a dumb Daly BMS, and does not have any significant self discharge, but it just gets way too hot by the time it is depleted. It has seen limited range extender duty but the plan is to use it more in the future, and explore further, faster. I have the direct parallel ESC feed, and can either run it in parallel, or pull the loopkey and plug this battery in.

The in progress Black battery top middle is the EVE 40PL 10S1P, intended to go into my Mini. Each cell is individually fishpapered with a second layer at the cathode, and then the cells are siliconed together, with a lot of silicone, nearly flush with the cell cans, to fill the gaps between cells, as even though it has poor thermal conductivity, it is better than dead air, and I know my enclosure acts like a heatsink to a small but not insignificant (imo) degree.

0.2mm copper under 0.1mm Stainless steel and dual 14 AWG series connects.

This battery is intended for my lightweight mini build.

I also have 10 more BAK45D which I will likely make another 10S1P from.

The blue bottle on the left is some liquid soldering flux. The tape is cause some spilled and it got sticky.

What looks like a blue pen next to the flux is actually a dedicated bourns potentiometer screwdriver, as I am always twiddling the potentiometers to change voltage and limit current when charging, and these are safer and easier to use than the regular jeweler’s screwdriver.

Sometimes Fiona surprises me and is content to just Stay in the Chariot when we stop, even after I tilt it forward for her to jump out and sniff and squat. Often She can’t wait to get out and lay some scent.

The new Puaida / Lingyi ESC has about 80 miles on it according to the odometer, but I suspect this is inaccurate. I have seen the trip odometer read 1.4miles one day and the next read 1.2, using the same exact route and without carving.

I have also seen it read 0.8 miles and then on Google earth plotted the route and it said exactly 1 mile.
There is a radar speed sign nearby, actually two and I have adjusted the wheel size to almost perfectly match the sig’s reading, although both have a slight delay after changing speed.

Anyway I now take the odometer, both trip and lifetime readings with a grain of salt.

I have also noted that the ESC on the bench spins up one motor faster than the other, and today when looking down on a sandy surface, accelerating from slow speed, that one motor is also throwing a much bigger rooster tail. On the loose stuff this is noticeable as a perceived loss of power compared to my old ESC, whose wheels spun up on the bench equally and threw equal rooster tails over the loose stuff.

I cannot feel any torque steer on asphalt accelerating or braking, and the brakes are awesome.

I had a 23mph full emergency stop today as a car backed out of their driveway without looking and parked cars squeezing the road down to one lane.

I stopped with plenty to spare, but my old ESC I would have had to take evasive maneuvers, and perhaps step off. Fiona has also gotten used to the new brake strength after a few face plants into the soft fannypack that runs across the front of the chariot basket.

The new remote battery life is noticeably shorter than the old ESC, at least when it falls to 3 bars from 4 is noticeably shorter, but the color screen is also at full brightness, and I have been keeping it on by hitting throttle when walking through the parks to save the trip odometer reading. It does charge at 0.49 amps where my old one charged at a max of 0.24.

The board is running well, and last evening we got the longest trip yet at 10.8 miles 42v down to 30.3 volts. The remote’s voltmeter continues to be 0.2 low at 36+ volts and at 31 volts reads 0.4 to 0.5v low, but can toggle up and down 0.2v at rest.

So the ESC is imperfect in many ways, but still an improvement over my old one. I like how it allows me to access charge below 32 volts where the old ESC just had the hard cutoff. This one has a soft cut out somewhere around 31.5 v and I have yet to hit the hard cutoff but can only do 11 mph max below ~30.6v, but seems I can go at least 3/4 of a mile when it is 30.6 or below.

The lightweight mini enclosure I have drilled and tapped the heatsink for m3 screws, but stripped one of them as the tap seems oversized. I then Skated to hardware store and got longer m3 screws and nuts top use as studs. Screw heads roadside and some Nuts JBwelded to heatsink.

I had previously drilled and tapped this heatsink for 2 Side by Side OG focboxes, and wound up filling those holes with JB weld too.

While I have the Junkking 83mm hub motors currently on the Mini, and 80MM inboard wheels up front, their sleeves are worn to about 75 and 76mm and they had begun to make bearing noises when I took them out of service. I have the 400 watt Puaida hub motors and plenty of sleeves for them, but the Puaida hanger has that weird twitchy bump steer nature. My other truck just encapsulating the boardside bushing within the hanger with a JB weld dam eliminated the bump steer, So I am doing the same to the other Puaida hanger that I have. The lightweight mini is destined for the Puaida motors and I have both 90MM and 105mm urethane for up front as well.

I assume wheel bite will be an issue and have not seen tried to see how much baseplate spacer would be required to eliminate that issue.

Anyway I should be building, not typing.

[SternWake]

Been pushing the mini kicktail around the driveway, testing my available wheel, riser, bushing and hanger options.

Kinda digging the 105mm Meepo donut wheels up front with the offset, inset, to reduce track width.

This micro mini will be a grocery getter, and there’s a lot of paver creases to cross by the stores that I plan to visit with it. I am used to the asymmetry of bigger wheels up front and don’t much care about the opinion of aesthetics. Function rules.

It will also be for Kayak tow duty, and I have run the crushed shell trail towing the kayak with 90mm sleeves and 80mm wheels up front before, but it really digs in and chews the battery, and this will be just a 10S1P EVE 40PL, or a 10S1P BAK45D in the future, and potentially both in parallel with a top mounted range extender at some point too.

Put the 90MM Puaida motors on the rear, with both trucks and as loose as I like them, and it really takes both feet together over one wheel to achieve wheelbite, so Almost impossible in normal riding, and I’ll be going so slow turning so tightly, that wheelbite is not going to be so dangerous

They fit into the recesses. fender flares on underside of deck far better than the narrower TKP trucks and 70mm wheels this deck came with.

I could likely remove one rubber riser on each side. Will need to check with Gasketed enclosure actually attached.

it really takes a lot for me to get used to this tiny kicktail again, but pushing it is certainly good for appreciation of the thumbwheel, and just how much juice modern cells can deliver.

I have never ridden this board when powered with anything but the 70MM dual diagonal hub motors and wheels, on 7S. It could only do 12MPH, but it was so Nimble that high amplitude high frequency carving on fresh asphalt was a real joy inducing head clearer.

These Puaida 400 watt motors can take the 105mm donut sleeves, and I’d rather have comfort than a bit more acceleration. These motors have pushed me to 28mph in the past on 10S, same ESC as I will use, with 90mm sleeves and I have no intention of riding this tiny board that fast, or faster.

I do have the smaller JunKing hub motors whose originally 83mm unobtanium sleeves are now worn and chunked to the ~76 mm zone That I’d like to use up. Their inner cap bearings were getting noisy when I took them out of service. I have new bearings to install into them, but the Puaida motors likely have less than 350 miles and I have a new set of sleeves for them, So will just use these at first. Maybe later I will return the smaller junkings to milk their remaining life.

[SternWake]

Maxing out my charge port, Dumb Daly BMS, and charge port fuse for the first time.

My previous “1800” watt voltage booster failed.

On maybe its 8th use.

I had set it to 41.5 volts and the current limit trimpot was set to ~3 amps output, when I mated Anderson power pole connectors between wattmeter and well depleted battery. Sparks started shooting around the 3 parallel 20 amp fuses. These Fuses did not blow, and the booster did not have that distinctive burnt electronics smell, but there was no output voltage.

The seller was cool and sent me a return label and shipped out a replacement not long after I dropped it off to return.

The New Unit I made Input and output 10AWG cabling and used XT90 Antispark on the output and will feed the unit through a XT90S too,

The old unit which failed refused to go over 9 amps output when fed 12.23v, but this one will exceed 10 amps. It is not just the XT90’s as I am using Anderson powerpole to XT90 connectors inline to ffeed the booster.

The wattmeter below at close to 40 amps is near the input max amperage of the booster and I’d expect its 12AWG to get too hot eventually. This wattmeter also reads a bit high on the voltage and a bity low on the amperage, but the wattage figure is usually pretty darned close to other wattmeters that I trust far more

So roughly 460 watts input, and 390 watts output does not speak well for its efficiency boosting 12v nominal to 36v at 10 amps output, but at less than 4 amps it is more efficient than my other smaller boosters, and the voltage and current trimpots are more linear and easier to dial in precisely.

Good thing the large heatsink has a built in fan.

Add: I contacted seller saying this booster seems to be performing better than the unit which failed, all is well, thanks for replacing the failed unit quickly.

They responded quickly saying sorry, here’s a QR code to scan at USPS, well refund in full, when we receive it back.

[DIY500AMP.COM]

Be aware with those watt meters. There is a high voltage version and low voltage version. If you confuse them ….. will fry it.

[SternWake]

Mine work from 5-60v. I’m only charging to 42v.

I have used many of these wattmeters over the last 12 years, and only trust them so far. I currently have 5 of them. I trust 2 of them to be somewhat close to accurate.