Another successful Fyak mission with the dual diagonal drive mini tow board.
The radar speed sign was up.
11 MPH towing the Fionayak into a headwind.
It showed 12 the other day when I was
alone.
The remote, wrapped in paper towels inside a ziplock baggie, got damp.
I got to go pry it apart and make sure it is dry inside.
My long cruiser, when I laid the saturated roving diagonal grid on the deck, and applied a thick weave fill coat over it, I sprinkled the whole deck with coarse granulated brown sugar, and applied light pressure to the crystals to force them shallowly into thickening epoxy.
Once cured, rinse with water, the sugar dissolves, leaves behind a rough transparent surface.
Pretty easy to clean with more water and a bristle brush.
I found some coarse ‘Turbinado’ sugar recently.
Sometime during the sprlinking of the sugar, a short while ago, my Uncle Finally passed.
RIP.
Every time I recharge anything, I have an amp hour counting wattmeter inline.
Yesterday’s kayak outing with diagonal drive mini, required the least amount of amp hours to recharge fully, at 1.3 amp hours. The worst round trip was 2.31ah, When I had the soft flatspotable squishy kayak wheels. Average has been 1.8Ah on 7s voltage.
Today, I took it solo for a head clear, and it felt a bit off when carving harder. I found all the hub motor m3 screws needed at least 1/4 turn, a few needed 1/2 turn.
The diagonal 70mm wheeled mini, proving to be a capable Fionayak tow vehicle has been detrimental to previous plans. It’s far lighter, and the Fyak is nose heavy already with Fiona on her bow platform.
But it can only achieve 11mph on 7s, which causes more interaction with traffic in same direction.
My 83mm hub motors can hold 14mph towing on 7s
Speed limit is 15 and 20 mph.
Few exceed 25, but old people will pass us so slowly, it is annoying as fuck. Go!!! Going same speed as traffic means less chance old beehive hairdo fereaks out, and is likely safer in long run.
The midsize kicktail that I built the 10s enclosure for, is now being treated like the diagonal drive mini 7s dual diagonal is only a back up tow vehicle.
The deck is now fully encased in fiberglass and laminating epoxy, the edges covered in roving… 18inserts every 62mm will hold the thick stiff strong enclosure to it. It should be quite resistant to salt water ingress. Its 83mm hub urethane now measures 82mm. Claims 700 watts. I measured 538 watts max on 7s.
Here are the 82mm hubs on the linasquat cruiser.
With metroboard Flipsky 6.6 housing, and my 10 p42as.
10s5p of p42a will easily fit a segmented flexi enclosure
I’ll probably order a VX1 pro tomorrow.
50 p42a or some other 21700 cell are still a ways off, finances wise.
I think a new hub motor truck comes first, so I can swap only the new 10s2p enclosure from Midsize kicktaik to the Linasquat cruiser, until linasquat has its own enclosure ready to have a battery built inside it.
Ideal, i think is the backfire 9" rubber wheel hub motors, or the 6.5" rubber wheel hubs
But Backfire has 96mm urethane hubs in dual 4O0 and 600 watt flavors. Got to be tons better than my dual 350watt 83mm hubs, and has swappable sleeves.
Then Meepo has the 105mm cloudwheel knockoff dual 540 watt hub motors, replaceable sleeves.
Then the cheapest acceptable option is Puaida 90mm 400 watt hubs which can use the 105mm glow wheel sleeves. They claim 30 mph possible with ‘their’ special 10s esc, which I have, but my 83mm hubs can only do 22mph on it.
I think I have to call 30mph excessive and accept it, and not go to 12s.
Also staying 10s allows potential use of Makita 18v range extender pack.
I remember the sugar dissolving faster the last time I did this.
Perhaps the hose was in the sun back then.
But it came out super coarse grit, but not really sharp.
Plenty grippy.
Didn’t lose too much clarity.
I prefer it to clear grip tape.
My fiberglass enclosure is functionally done, so I reinstalled charge port, power switch, ESC, and velcro cinch strapped it to the Linasquat, and explored all the new local asphalt, and with a tailwind, hit 24mph, according to the remote.
I can definitely feel the one wobbly pneumatic tire, and the 82mm urethane in the back feels the parallel seams in the new asphalt that the pneumatics do not.
I don’t think I want to go such speeds on the short wheelbase kicktail, but on the Linasquat, I’d go faster if the hub motors allowed.
The kicktail is basicLly done too.
I drilled the hardware holes for the trucks wider and filled them with epoxy, as a sort of antisink, and more waterproofedness. Still need to drill 8 holes through the center of the epoxy columns.
Drilled the epoxy columns and countersunk the original screwheads, which need to be replaced. Not all the hex heads stripped like butter, but i decided to dremel a slot in all of them in anticipation of the inevitable.
Shows the texture of the brown sugared epoxy fairly well.
I sacrificed a extendable telescoping magnet wand, in order to cut out nice round holes through the hard neoprene gasket.
The bungs fit nicely into the inserts, to prevent the final layer of epoxy entering and corrupting the interior threads, on 16 of the 18 anyway.
I dremmelled a flute in a screw to clear the two which didn’t prevent epoxy seepage.
I’d waxed the internal threads so the epoxy wouldn’t adhere strongly, if it did get past the bungs, and a curse fest was avoided.
I ventured several miles outside the new asphalt zone today, and while nothing was ridiculously rough, I found myself putting 75% of my weight on the front truck’s pneumatics, and letting the 82mm urethane skitter twitch, and protest the unideal surface texture, noisily behind me.
The self centering aspect and 23mph limit was appreciated when the back truck would get all squirrelly.
Accelerating slower really makes a noticeable difference in how fast the battery gets chewed up range. I did get my first case of range anxiety today, about 2.5 mikes from home base, but came back to 35.67v. 1 bar was flashing when accellerating, but the solid one bar at speed held.
The 10s2p 187watt hour battery was not intended for long range, but as my first battery build, I am pretty happy with the 40$ worth of 2600mah 15 amp DMEGC cells.
I do wonder how much sag there is under full acceleration, and how much better 10s2p of 42a would compare.
I set my DC to DC booster to 41.51v , and upped the input amperage to a bit over 13 amps (13.22v input) and have a strong fan concentrated flow aimed at it. 117f/ 47.2C is the hottest spot I can find on it. Output is about 3.7amps. 1C would be 5.2 amps.
I’M not feeling much heat making it through enclosure over the ESC, but have no actual data. The rather extreme board flex is allowing plenty of airflow into the ass end of the enclosure, as is. I could remedy this easily enough, but this enclosure was not designed for this board, and removing it takes about 5 seconds, undoing the velcro cinch straps.
The 18 screws will take far longer.
Not unexpected, but a bit annoying to see light escaping between the hard gasket and board.
However, this is the only gap I can find, and it’s far from being impossible to remove.
The shiny spots on the gasket are where it was not yet in full contact with the underside of the deck.
I really thinned out the gasket enough to where the screws are almost bottoming out inside inserts, and the area behind front truck is still an issue, with a gap.
I decided to weigh up some 30 minute epoxy to fill the gap, rather than thin whole gasket even more by sliding tape re enforced sandpaper between deck and enclosure.
There are 3 different routes to the kayak trail head.
I avoided the main drag previously as it has the most, and the fastest traffic.
Today I took it, as I can now go the speed limit on it. A little over too, at 21mph on a slight decline.
The kayak feel super stable behind me as I rolled into the throttle, exceeding 15mph
towing for the first time.
Fiona loved it.
With a fiberglass roving perimeter on the deck , the board barely squeezes into the hatch, but with front hanger removed, and sliding it all the way under my legs, makes it far easier to store the kayak cart, than with the diagonal mini, and kind of negates its
extra weight.
I’ve also been plugging the scuppers in the rear well, and filling it with water as ballast, which helps it steer better, but makes me wish I had more paddle, to get upto speed easier.
Paddled close to 6 miles, and took the long way back, as there is plenty of battery capacity, the asphalt is new, and the 8" pneumatics on the kayak cart are so quiet and low drag, it is a joy to pull.
When we arrived home, she refused to get out of the kayak, growled at me when I went to lift her out, so we took another lap around the block.
I ordered some 3/16" ID 1/2" OD rubber washers to fit under my truss head enclosure screws.
I don’t know if the washer will slow, stop, or increase the rate at which the enclosure screws are currently loosening on their own. None yet required more than 1/4 turn in the ~35 miles accumulated so far.
However, the washers should greatly reduce the potential of water from entering the inserts/enclosure, and add some more vibration dampening to the enclosure itself, when they are torqued proper.
My 2017 tube of red VibratiteV3 shas become a rubber rock tube.
Am reluctant to use thread locker at this point anyway.
I’ve been pretty vigilant on their tension, and closer inspections of everything, after the ‘bearing exploded’ thread.
I have to face reality, in that ordering 50 new p42a cells, is not happening this month, or next, so the Linasquat segmented enclosure and 10s5p flexi battery will have to wait, and I will practice more enclosure design and fab skills, using the diagonal mini.
I have the Metroboard Vesc that Evwan gifted me, that I was planning on employing in the Linasquat, and I have the nuclear cockroach E bay Lingyi.
I want to gain experience with Vesc sooner than later, so the Lingyi will have to wait.
I meant to order A VX1 pro, but the limited telemetry displayed on my Puaida ESC, is kind of nice. I’d love to see amp draw and voltage, so the VX4 is potentially in the running.
Here Is what I am thinking on the diagonal mini:
An enclosure big enough to house this, and later, I can transfer the lingyi into it, and move the VESC into the LinaSquat.
But I’d like to have 4 8" pneumatics on linasquat, and then it wont be squatting anymore, but heck , can’t afford it anytime soon anyway.
Excluding the remote, I already have 95% of whats needed to vesc the Diagonal mini, and can transfer the midsize powertrain to the Linasquat easily enough.
I could Vesc the midsize, and Puaida ESC the diagonal mini too, but one thing at a time.
Can’t be without one functioning board
The diagonal mini with the 7s Aladdin ESC is dangerous with such horrible brakes, after getting used to the Puaida’s general comparitive smoothness.
Guaranteed nose wheelie almost every time I hit the brakes, unless I am fully backfooted and ready, and just slam brakes.
Then, and only then, I enjoy how strong the brakes are
Performed a little experiment today, using one 4.0 amp hour 18v 72 wh Makita battery, to power my DC boost converter, to charge my 10s2p 187wh Esk8 battery at around a hundred watt rate.
I dialed the output, unloaded to 41.98v, and dialed currnt way down, then hooked it up to the Esk8 battery, then dialed output current upto 2.53 amos. 2.6 would be 0.5C
The converter was turning about 6 watts into heat.
106.7 watts going into boost converter, 101.1 watts out.
Better than I expected.
I have the Makita ‘power wheels adapter’ into which i installed a voltmeter, and i basically keep it next to the charger, and check every battery after use and before charging, and after charging.
I tend to stop discharge as soon as i notice the blower or weed whacker slowing, and this is right around 15.3v, but Dad will use blower till it shuts off by itself.
I checked voltage, and it was under 12.5v, 10.7 iirc.
These batteries are 5s2p and thus shoukd never be discharged below 12.5, but really, there is so little juice left below 15v, I am annoyed the Makita BMS drains the cells so low before tripping the LVD.
Anyway, I was hovering over the battery when it crossed the 15v barrier, and started dropping fast. Within a minute it had fallen to 12.5v, and I pulled the plug.
The 4.0ah battery is lucky to deliver 3.0ah
I am considering range extension methods, but the Makita bms allowing overdischarge is alarming, and annoying.
I have 288wh of Makita battery, 216wh of Ridgid, 72wh of Dewalt.
I don’t really require range extension, at this point, but am building a Kayakless cart for
Fiona, and wish to start exploring farther and wider when it is ready.
I am looking at low voltage alarms, since the Makita BMS cannot be trusted.
Investigating more modern Makita batteries, it seems the low voltage cutoff is in the tool, not the battery, so it is all too easy to overdischarge their batteries when not used in their tools, which is something I feel ashamed for not investigating earlier.
Bad assumption.
But it seems the MaKita tools will also drain them to below 2.5 volts per cell too.
If some guy on the internet is right, Dewalt is the same, LVD in the tool, but Ridgid and Ryobi have the LVD in the battery.
I do have a Makita to Ridgid battery adapter, as well as Ridgid to Makita, and Dewalt to Ridgid, and Ridgid to Ryobi.
I’ll have to be more careful using Dewalt or Makita batteries in My Ridgid tools, which admittedly has rarely occured. The Ridgid baTteries powering the leaf blower, weed wacker or hedge trimmer has happened regularly.
I also modded a 12v NimMh vacuum cleaner, with a Ridgid adapter, and its now an amazingly powerful beast, but often use the Makita to ridgid adapter to power it.
The vaccuum will not turn on if battery voltage is over 19.6v, so it is easiest to use the Makita leaf blower to drain a Makita battery to 19.6v or below, to then go vacuum the house.
I have had it shut itself down on a Ridgid battery, but never on a Makita.
I always noticed it slowing and stopped it manually, and measured about 15v, 3volts per cell.
The hot swap/charge while riding/portable charger/ range extending plan, just earned another asterix, and an audible low voltage alarm is being researched.
I registered the Ridgid tools within the 90day window, so the batteries have a l’ifetime service agreement. Jump a few hoops and get a new battery free, even if they just wear out a decade later.
My 10 p42a’s are now individully wrapped in fishpaper, and siliconed together in 2 groups of 5. Planning their enclosure. Today’s experiment with the maKita battery powering a booster, stymied that progress.
Also tested a new different style ideal diode. that claims a 60 amp, no voltage limit rating,
It drops 0.06v at 30 amps, but every 5 seconds, it drops 0.2v for a second.
I was thinking of using it to prevent braking regen juice from reaching range extender system, whether it be 2 18v power tool batteries in series, through charge port,.or two in parallel feeding a current limiting voltage booster.
At 13.6v and 3 amps, The ideal diode was dropping only 0.011v.
edit. I just went to check on my Lead acid AGM batteries, which were charging through the new idea diode at 14.2v, and dialed itback to 13.6v.
I saw the amp display on my adjuatable voltage power supply bouncing up and down from 0 to 0.65 amp.
I put my DMM across the terminals of the ideal diode and watched voltages drop go from zero upto 0.45v, then back to zero.
My other ideal diodes have less voltage drop, and no weird pulse type behavior, but the do require a - lead be soldered to pcb where the new one just goes inline on the +.
New Purple pcb ideal diode is waste of time and money.
Will likely order another red PCB 50 amp model that has proven itself to me.
LET’S GOOOOOOOO!
Sounds just like ‘Woof!’
Radar sign clocked us at 21mph, and there was a 15mph headwind.
Paddled close to 3.5 miles upwind up and against the tide, then back to our island to chill.
I deflated the 8" pneumatics to 22psi. Could tell no difference on asphalt, but on the 1/4 mile crushed shell trail, it was much easier, and quieter, to pull.
The 10mm axles seem to flash surface rust in minutes.
I’ve been removing cleaning and oiling soon after returning, but tonight waited too long.
Wiped them clean of flash rust with Phosphoric acid(Ospho).
Perhape the cloth buffer wheel and some polishing comoound would slow the amazingly fast surface rust formation.
If i was limited on budget, i’d be buying a cheaper remote and a bluetooth module. You wont have telemetry on your remote, but you will have it on your phone, as well as the ability to tinker with your settings
I love how enthusiastic she is in every photo, she really loves it
Evwan included a BT module with the Metroboard ESC.
My grasp of the possibilities is lacking…
Ill just get a cheap remote then.
Towing the kayak, I just hold its front handle in my right hand, remote in left.
I can feel when she shifts her weight, or when a wheel hits a branch, or the seams in the new asphalt.
When braking, I can put kayak nose into my hip and stop in a respectable distance.
I can offset the kayak to Port or Starboard, pull it close, or keep it at arms length.
Today, I slapped this together, to see if it was a viable plan.
This is the Kayak cart’s hanger, with its 8" pneumatic tires, adapted to become the base of Fiona’s Chariot.
I clamped a plastic bin to it, threw a rubber floor mat inside, and she jumped inside even before I told her to.
We took a tentative, slow speed lap around the block, returned, and I drove a half dozen more screws, then we tore up the fucking neighborhood for 7.5 miles.
It is stable, she stays low and centered, and never once tried to get out.
In fact, when we stopped in a spot she has never before sniffed, and I did a quick check of the mechanical vitals, she didn’t even try and jump out.
I’ll beef it up, make it more comfortable and sturdy and aerodynamic.
It’s way easier to tow than the Kayak, being ~60 lbs/27.3kg lighter.
All sorts of freedom has just been enabled.
Happy dog, happy master.
My battery accumulated 4 cycles yesterday, towing Fiona in her chariot around the hood. The radar sign clocked us at 22mph, with a good tailwind, but we generally keep it around 16mph.
After one of the longer trips and measuring the hub motor temps with IR gun, and spining them, one motor was making noise.
Opened it up to find sand had gotten inside through the outer cap.
Looks like the assembler used something like E6000 as a thread locker, and used too much, which prevented the cap from sitting at full depth, and allowed sand to sneak through.
I cleaned it up really well, polished it really, reassembled it, and now there is interference when spinning it, louder than before disassembly.
I tried rotating inner and outer caps 180 and 90 degrees, and was barely able to influence the noise of interference, before giving up for the night at 3am.
So right now have no head clearing vehicle to ride.
Will have to reassemble the diagonal mini, and then see if i can get the hub motor to not have an interference fit, but I am not hopeful.
i ran into this kind of issue when doing maintenance on v3 meepo hubs and replacing the stock bearings.
depending on if i tightened the truck side screws or the outside screws first would determine if it seated correctly or not. I don’t remember the exact procedure except that i had to seat the truck side fully before i put the outside cap on to get it aligning correctly. good luck
