#Workshop
Designed and printed a boardstand (so my freshly built ride never launches off the workbench again)
Pretty happy with v2, although I will make a few minor tweaks. It’s super strong. I’m sure it can support the entire board’s weight if not 2x-3x.
#Footpads
Made some adjustments to the fastener hole placement on the tunnel footpad design, but otherwise no major changes.
Designed a front pad with a single tunnel, mirrored from the rear. Rear pad has dual tunnels fit for phase & sensor wires.
Ran out of black TPU mid-print, so I ended up with a happy accident. I like this colorway much better than black or blue exclusively.
Install update:
Cleaning is a breeze
Fit confirmed 
Note: new hardware required is M6x25mm
#Footpads
Based on Mr @PixelatedPolyeurthan’s interesting suggested, I’ve got some threaded track shoe spikes on order (no additional thickness required):
1/8" long pyramid studs, 12-32 thread, stainless steel (they also come in zinc plated steel, case-hardened steel, and aluminum)
Who’s ready for spiked footpads? 
#Tuning
Might need that heat sink after all…
This was on a pretty chilly night too - couldn’t feel my ungloved hand after awhile.
Time to get started on the laser cut aluminum plate design.
#Tuning
Took the board out for it’s first official mud run in jumper config (12s2p pack only). The settings adjustment from full range to jump isn’t smooth, and I can see messing this up by accident if I’m not vigilant. 
Change VESC settings via Freesk8:
- Battery Capacity: 21 Ah → 8.4 Ah
- Battery Current Max: 62.5 A → 25 A
- Battery Current Max Regen: -16 A → -8 A
- Save to both sides
Change battery settings in Davega:
- Battery Capacity: 21 Ah → 8.4 Ah
That said…
I’m still running with an 80% scale factor, but even then this thing rips! I had the throttle pinned as often as I dared, and it started raining, but what a blast. Shedding 7+ lbs (3.25 kg) in battery makes a noticeable difference. No problem popping the front end up over bumps and off curbs. Not quite ready for full bunny hops, but we’ll get there. Carving at 25mph like nobody’s watching 
. Hit some grass, some mud, some puddles, some dirt. My clothes are covered in spray
I’ve got those 150mm sunmate tires waiting on the bench, but I’m really really starting to like these knobby 200mm jawns…
The good
No esc faults 
Good braking power
Solid acceleration
Respectable ~10 mile range
Tires conquer everything
Rain posed no problems
12s2p is perfect for its intended use
The bad
Serious voltage sag during the hill climb at the end (as expected)
Heat! (bad bad bad)
Need more ride time to learn this board
Need headlights
Maybe it’s obvious now, but trapping a beefy esc in a sealed, airtight case with a bunch of other electronics and batteries basically created an oven. The esc more or less only got hotter from the start of the ride. Even the NESE battery pack was noticeable warm to the touch.
That’s confirmation enough - the DV6 needs airflow (or it’s own case).
Bonus - I got to wash the board off with the hose! Wild. I know the reasons, but casually hosing off a $2k+ electric machine still blows my mind a little. Footpad holes made it very easy to clean most of the mud off. Ran the motors immediately after to dry. Good as new.
#Footpads
Spiked footpad side project continues. I figured out a first crack at the hardware & design. I think i looked through the dimensions of every single nut and washer McMaster carries in order to settle on these.
1/8" black steel track spike
12-32 nut (tapped from a 10-32 nut by hand)
Oversized #10 washer
TPU test print
Dropped a couple washers in mid print at the color change, into cavities.
Gotta see if can find 12-32 nuts in stock somewhere. Rethreading ~40 nuts by hand is not going to be fun.
Grub screws for spikes?!
Genius 
#Loopkey
Despite my best intentions at minimizing complexity, I added a loopkey. It was just a bit too cumbersome to open the case, fish around for the right xt90, and unplug in order to power down.
Hole’s made. No going back now. Dremel + drill bit for dogbone cut took no time at all.
Chopped the existing parallel harness to add the panel mount loopkey.
Slightly tricky to solder in place, with the harness through the hole.
Hot glue & heatshrink to ensure no unintended shorts
Even a tiny bit of butyl tape goes everywhere! This stuff is devil tar. But it works a treat for waterproofing.
Repurposed the old lightning key and we’re ready to ride again
#Footpads
Here you go @PixelatedPolyeurthan - spiked footpads for snow, ice, & rain!
Actually doesn’t even feel bad on bare feet, but holds my shoe real tight.
You should make a thread dedicated to this. This is the best thing I’ve seen in a while and I wholeheartedly love how swiftly it evolved and the result looks damn great.
Bravo 
It needs an official name now, but I won’t honour you one because I’m terrible at naming 
Looking cool, I have to imagine if you made the mistake of wearing a soft-soled shoe, that it could end badly lol
#Motors
I used some downtime to investigate this “cricket-chirp” sound I’ve been hearing from one motor. It started on my last build, before its untimely death, and continues after the move to this build. It wasn’t so bad that it was concerning, but more an issue that it masks any other noises that might end in worse problems.
At one point I slammed that motor into a rock, so it doesn’t surprise me that there’s an issue. After some investigation, there seems to be some shaft misalignment - I can see the gap between stator and rotor bell increasing and decreasing as I hand spin the bell. I figured it was rubbing somewhere.
Time to disassemble! Lucky me, found a broken winding in the process (or caused it).
I used the aspirin trick to remove the winding lacquer:
Get one tab of full strength aspirin (not tylenol, advil, etc). Get soldering iron hot and tin the tip. Press end of winding and iron tip into aspirin at the same time. Make sure to use a real fume extractor (or hold your breath) - fumes are super toxic, more than usual. After 10-20 seconds, the lacquer has melted off and the wire will come out tinned!
Worked like a charm.
Solder wire ends together, apply much too large heat shrink, and tuck into stator.
While I was at it, I figured I’d do a full battle harden with epoxy (and colloidal silica to thicken). Some of the other windings were loose and did not inspire confidence.
Isopropyl alcohol on a shop rag does a nice job of cleaning up epoxy while still wet. This was actually a lot easier and quicker than I expected, and I only had a popsicle stick and gloved fingers to apply. Maybe not entirely necessary, but the peace of mind knowing the motor is more waterproof (including sensor) is great.
After a 24hr cure, I went to work filing down the edge of the stator to solve the rubbing/noise issue. Medium file, fine file, 400 grit, 800 grit sandpaper, b/c why not.
Reassemble using the patented @b264 towel technique.
Fun fact - this wasn’t the problem and did nothing to solve my noise issue.
Plan B - blue all the things and look for contact.
I ended up blueing almost the entire stator and found nothing conclusive… but, silver lining, something happened after 3-4 rounds of reassembly that shook/smashed/moved the noise into silence. My best guess is that it may have been Flipsky’s “battle-hardening”/balancing epoxy that got dislodged and was rubbing. Either way, the noise is 90% gone.
And now I have one motor with a shiny raw aluminum “machined lip”.
A E S T H E T I C S
It was a fun learning opportunity anyway. Disassembling these motors is about as difficult as disassembling a truck. I won’t hesitate to inspect in the future.
A whole mishmash of updates:
Motor - Reinstalled the repaired motor. All good
Heatsink - Installed a @Savage1 stormcore heatsink, repurposed for my DV6 (thank you sir). Filled & waterproofed the holes with butyl tape for now.
Grip - Finished the full set of spiked footpads, and tested! (inserting hardware mid-print feels like hacking magic)
Wiring - B/c of ^ had to rewire the whole damn box, extend the phase & sensor wires further, and come up with some new mounting brackets for the nese batteries.
Wiring - Played phase bullet whack-a-mole until I found the combination that didn’t make the motors sound like a garbage disposal (so I didn’t have to boot up VESC tool) 
AND color coded so future me wouldn’t have to play this game again
Wiring - New extensions worked the first time, even with some questionable sensor wire soldering… (so damn small)
Wiring - Slathered every connector in Kafuter K-704 Silicone Industrial Adhesive and I’m sold. So much better than silicone
Lights - Dry fit some T6 LED lights (idea I shamelessly stole from @Toughook) with the included ‘rubber band’ handlebar straps, then had one rip off on a group ride… my mistake.
Test - Threw some final fixes together at the last minute to make the board rideable and hit a Friday group ride (tape over old gland holes, no loopkey yet, etc) annnnd ate pavement 5 minutes from my house.
That pink line is me cruising along at 30mph (I thought it was more like 20). I was distracted and in a rush, trying to follow gps directions on my phone to the meetup point. That purple/blue/green section is me hitting a patch of rough road and the next thing I know I’m sprawled out superman style in the middle of the street and my board is spinning off down the road, enclosure side down like a turtle on its back. First esk8 crash.
I sat on the side of the road in a bit of a daze and chilled for a minute. I’ve unfortunately crashed cars and bikes before, so I wasn’t in much of a rush any longer. Checked myself and the board over. Board was still running like a champ, like nothing happened. Thank the PETG gods, my batteries didn’t move a mm. @Savage1 heatsink took the brunt of the slide - not so anodized any longer. But it too is still very secure in it’s spot. This is why I loctite & reinforce everything.
I suffered a little more wear. As always, I was wearing:
Stupidly, I left the jacket unzipped. Which allowed me to spring a small leak:
Jacket ripped on the right shoulder and all the pads got banged up. I 100% attribute my lack of hand injury to these Knox gloves I just picked up. I used to ride with summer weight textile gloves, with minimal padding, until I started reading up on how common wrist injuries are on all PEVs. The gloves performed flawlessly and have the scratch marks to prove it. Not even any pain in my hands, and I definitely hit the ground first with them, despite (usually) knowing how to fall.
I came away from what could’ve been really bad with only hip abrasion, a feeling like someone punched me hard in the chest, and a sore left shoulder. After a weekend, only the hip still hurts. It takes me longer than I’d like to get geared up to ride, but I’m quite glad I did. And all this happened before the group ride even started!
Of course, I couldn’t stop there. So I limped to the meetup point, borrowed some bandages, and rode a little more conservatively than usual. Ride ended when I got a flat without the right tools to replace. All in all, a good friday night.
Glad you’re not too bashed up dude! I think the ground look on the heatsink looks awesome. It’s like a hickey from the universe.
Glad you’re alright! It took me awhile to feel comfortable after my crash last year. I’m still kind of a puss, though. Great write up. I will send you a new one without those stormcore holes, ( when I get around to making some more). Also, very nice build.
#Lights
Finished my light mount design:
Wired these up to the battery via this LM2596hv buck (you win @b264 
) and they lit up first go!
Was pretty impressed, not only with the light output, but the fact they still work. When I had them strapped to the front hanger with their included bike rubber band mount, one popped off mid ride. It was dangling from its wires. Before I had a chance to secure it, the wire actually ripped off, the light hit the ground, bounced, and landed back on the deck next to my foot. I snagged it and put it in my pocket - all at ~20mph 
I cracked the light open to check damage, assuming I’d have to order another from Ali. Clean rip right at the board. I was able to disassemble the whole thing, suck the solder off, and reattach the + and - wires to their pads. Reassembled, coated the wire exit in silicone, loctited shut, and installed. Good as new.
#Tires
While I was at it, I decided I’d prefer to never get a flat tire again. Went all out - tire liner & slime.
21" length of Mr. Tuffy Bicycle tape covers the interior wall of an 8" knobby tire. I used the 20x1.95-2.5 size for the width, mainly. Fit well. Plenty left over.
Slimed all 4 tires. Used most of an 8oz bottle - although this was probably way too much.
How hot do these lights get, out of curiosity? I have a pretty neat set and they get to 60C+ within a couple minutes of running, when at full brightness
They’ve only been on for a total of about 60 seconds, haha, so no data to report yet.
That said, when I disassembled them (should’ve taken photos) I realized there’s very little to these lights. One circular pcb, with one CREE/COB LED mounted in the center, a few components on the back, the reflective cone and cover glass. That’s it. The pcb is mounted on an interior lip of the housing and the whole housing acts as a heatsink. The housing is massive compared to the pcb (and LED). If there were no heat concerns, the light could be much smaller. Without testing, the housing looks like it’ll dissipate a good amount of heat. And it’s exterior surface is ribbed/finned like a traditional heatsink for more surface area.
Hm yeah. I have a set of these on their way to me to test as well. The lights I currently have are three brightness settings but much smaller, with two diodes. I imagine yours won’t get tooooo hot
Also, aren’t you supposed to run straight diodes on an LED driver board, not right off a buck? I assume you set the current limit before plugging in?
It’s more than an led on a pcb. And it’s intended to be powered via USB, at least the ones I got.
No limits set anywhere. I’m not sure how you would - maybe within a smart BMS, using the discharge line?
I don’t have a BMS onboard.
