I’ll start by saying I went in blind. I starting assembling parts before I knew how deep the rabbit hole was. It was a father son project so I convinced myself it was better than buying so worth the effort. It was but it was also frustrating as hell. Its taken 6 weeks to get everything I need and I would go to start and need a different bolt or washer or connector and its all mail order no nipping to screwfix!
I had a lot of advice and help from some very patient and nice guys:
@Anubis - made the battery - sold me the deck and enclosure, lending me a charger! @Savage1 - designed and made some of the nicest pieces of CNC aluminium trucks I have seen. Gave advice and pointed me in the right direction regarding a few other bits.
Genuinely Top blokes.
Issues I Had:
While swapping from 8mm ID bearings to 10mm ID bearings for the axles I decided it would be a good idea to use the Nylon Nut and some washers to press the new bearing in. I used my Milwaukee 12v ratchet to save time… This caused the nyloc to Get stuck and would not budge, no heat nor force of man would budge it. Had to be cut off and then I had to rethread the axle. Sorry @Savage1! I have a new one on order…
My soldering Iron is not a cheapy eBay special but still massively struggled to put enough heat into the pre tinned power wires to melt to solder, Even using my own solder I struggled with the XT90 soldering.
I need toward out VESC tool writing to both ESC’s Limited the duty cycle for the kids to 25% but it only wrote to one of the VESC on the dual board.
Left to do:
–Repair a Hole in the deck where I drilled to far putting the inserts in for the enclosure.
– Grip tape
– Install Bluetooth module to the VESC
– Change out my washers on the wheels as they are to big and rubbing (new thinner speed washers on order)
–swap the wheels around so the tyre tread pattern is pointing the right way!
– Decals and hydrodip the enclosure (back to the future 2 Biff Tannen Pitbull hoverboard theme)
– 3d Print a XT30 charger port mount and install it.
Pictures are the build process, mess it left my living room and a few misc pics and vids.
The battery and components are mounted with velcro command strips to the fire proof foam pad the is self adhered to the recess in the deck. I was hoping this might help with vibration damping and save the board if the battery goes fizz.
Great build thus far bro! @Eethon sent me some pics and videos of his kids riding this build before this post.
Not gonna lie, I actually got tears in my eyes. This is an example of the greatest thing DIY Esk8 building can possibly bring in our lives. He built this for his young kids, and to my knowledge, they where included in the process. How much better does it get, than to include your children in actually building and learning from something that is rewarding and fun??? There are so many great life skills gained in this!!
(There will be challenges in this hobby, but, such is life)
Nice build dude! I have an extremely similar build planned for the off season 'cept a bigger pack. Loving the @Savage1 trucks and hope I can get my hands on a set. How r u liking them so far?
I only got 10 mins on the grass to make sure it was safe (it hit 20mins and I chickened out) then I had to limit the duty cycle for the kids to 25%
And they were in it all afternoon. I think we did about 11miles. Started at 70% battery finished with 20%
I don’t have a lot of reference to give a well versed opinion but they seem really stable at the speeds we were at and before I screws with the VESC and caused it to have torque steer they were turning really smoothly and tight.
Sorry I am all that is Newb although I did hit 22MPH this eve on a ride! so im getting there. What does bottom mount mean? I attached the trucks in the way that seemed most obvious. Is there a better way?
No worries man, you didn’t do anything wrong. Most people will mount the trucks like this with the hummie deck (just grabbed a random photo):
This mounting style will lower your center of gravity and will help make the board more stable. A lot of people don’t do this with urethane wheels, simply because the motors and enclosure end up being so low to the ground. But with your pneumatic wheels, seems like it would be the perfect set up for a bottom mounted truck.
Oh yes ill see if they will fit. I did get a little wobble when I was pushing it this eve, but I did have the bushings not too tight so I could turn better to get though gates and stuff. I have a top plate being delivered soon so will attempt to then.
Good advice. Might be able to have it even more table and turn tighter.
I gave it a go but looks like it would need a bit of trimming the board to fit and even if it were in it would stop the trucks range of movement when turning.
I’ve made a few upgrades today, Bluetooth VESC, aluminium anti-sink bracing plates, better fitting drive belts and anti-puncture slime and grip tape finally. Very nerve wracking feeling your feet slipping on one of these things!
