Revel at the "brand" new competitor in the direct drive Esk8 race!

Vendor Corner (SERIOUS)
#639

What bushings do you guys use and why? And what would you recommend I try?

My favorite bushings were a pair of (unknown) tall red cone/barrel bushings. I still use these today although they are a few years old and very worn. They are noisy and deformed and don’t fully debounce. They tilt slightly left… I need a new pair, and I don’t like it.

I did not enjoy the bushings installed default on the kit. I found them too soft. I purchased independent 94a bushings (cone and barrel) found them too shallow and and made my board too unstable.

I am a light rider, but I am also nimble and comfortable on the board. I prefer leaning and tick-tacking to having loose trucks. So I think I need large, hard bushings. I find it difficult to research because it is a matter of preference. I hope I have said enough for someone more knowledgeable than me to give a recommendation.

4 Likes
#640

@RipTideSports Brad to the rescue

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#641

@BearBoi can you give me the dimensions of the bushings that work in your trucks? Pictures of the trucks would also help and the effective base plate angles when mounted to the board. Please excuse me not searching the 623 messages if this information is mentioned above.

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#642

I see @RipTideSports already to the rescue. For future reference hop on into this thread give it a read. Useful information throughout.

Bushing and Truck Setup Help Offered

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#643

That shouldn’t make a difference.
Each cell is rated to be discharged to 3v.
On heavy load (fast accelerating on mode 4, hill, etc) there is voltage sag.

Say your battery is low at 3.2v/cell. When you throttle hard, it drops to 3.1v and vibrates. If you ignore it and keep going hard, it will hit 3.0v and “cut off” immediately. The cell will now bounce back to 3.15v because the load is gone. If you then change to mode 1 and go easy on the throttle, the board will sag to maybe 3.1v and continue to work until it is depleted.

Even after it hits 3.0v on mode 1 going slowly. After you stop it’ll bounce back to 3.05v. if you wanted to, you can still run the motors with no load on a bench until it doesn’t bounce back anymore and stays at the 3.0v cutoff.

This is still within the rated discharge of the cell and it’d work perfectly fine the next time you use it. Your electric chainsaw probably had a crappy BMS cutoff settings.

This isn’t even going to the technically rated 2.8v/cell but not recommended to do that often because the last 15% and the top 15% of the cell degrades, etc.

And I am assuming the revel kit esc cuts off at 3.0v/cell (at least) and not 2.8v.

2 Likes
#644

The barrel is 1,45cm tall with a diameter of 2,5cm

The cone is 1,4cm tall with a diameter of 2,4cm/1.8cm

I think they were slightly taller from factory, they are visibly warped.

IMG_20200403_214425
IMG_20200403_2144254048×3036 2.75 MB
IMG_20200403_215450
IMG_20200403_2154504048×3036 4.29 MB
IMG_20200403_215454
IMG_20200403_2154544048×3036 4.3 MB

I always overtightened the bushings. I wonder if 2x barrels are better for me, at the same time I like the characteristics of these when they were new and tight. Perhaps higher hardness, or larger size? You are the expert.

Bushing and Truck Setup Help Offered
#645

on my revel i used first a combo cone and barrel but i ended up with a double barrel 97a riptide.

2 Likes
#646

It does. You will wreck any battery if you ignore the critical voltage warning, slow down, wait for the voltage to recover and keep riding. Drill, chainsaw, skateboard, etc. You can destroy the battery on a single “long range test” ride. Remember that if you damage even a single cell, the enitre battery is compromised. A compromised battery can loose voltage very fast in ways that can be dangerous.

A critical voltage alarm is a warning that riders should not ignore. Automated power downs are an even more important warning. Never restart and continue to ride a board that has powered itself down due to low voltage.

1 Like
#649

If you find yourself overtightening the cone/barrel combination then switching to two barrels is probably a good idea. I’m in the exact same boat as you. I have 95a cone/barrels. I can’t get them stiff enough for my tastes so now I want double barrel bushings and perhaps 97a or even harder.

#650

For anyone interested, this is what the inside of a 216wh revel kit battery looks like.
I saw discussions back and forth earlier about the type of batteries. This has more or less been confirmed since then, but I have seen no one take the time to disect one. I can confirm that they are Samsung 30Q cells in 10s2p configuration.

IMG_20200402_122052
IMG_20200402_1220523036×4048 3.99 MB

The white goo is an insulator used both in the batteries and inside the kit itself. (The little bit of goo on top of one of the batteries is not a leak… Just more of the same insulator)

I do NOT recommend opening your own batteries… Simply because revelboard do not recommend this. But if you do, I’m curious if you have the same/different wear. And perhaps we can learn from each other.

As you can maybe tell, there is dust and some light corrosion starting to form on/around some of the terminals. This is a big no no, and I wish I caught it earlier. This is not something I blame the batteries for. I live in Sweden, I rode in winter conditions. This means salted roads and mud…

Overall this battery still works fine, some lost range from harsh conditions but no sudden shutdowns or issues.
I have cleaned off the outer corrosion to the best of my abilities.

This is my other battery…

IMG_20200401_200012
IMG_20200401_2000123036×4048 4.31 MB

It is in worse shape…
Here there is no corrosion on the terminals which is good! (Still dust, but no corrosion) but two other problems. First off the shielding tape is missing on one side. I did NOT take this off. It was never put on from the factory.
More importantly, the soldering to a critical wire has snapped off. It was only held on by a thin layer of tin at the top.

Both battery packs have burned holes through the protective tape. I assume I am not the only one with this problem?

If someone decides to open their batteries I take no responsibility. But if you do, it is important to know that the wires connecting the USB-port are thin and fragile, be careful and lift slowly. Also make sure they are out of the way when screwing back together. Don’t make the same mistakes the guys at the factory did with my broken battery… The screws graced the wires and they are frayed. (Not my fault) but it still works.
The screws are Philips #1. You will need a long thin screwdriver for the deep holes, an even thinner screwdriver for the corner screws.
I am not an expert at all, I am not sure how dangerous this is, so treat it with caution. I used gloves and tweezers when touching wires. I cleaned battery corrosion and the BMS with isopropyl alcohol. I had no issues.

4 Likes
#651

I am reluctant to hijack this thread into a bushing thread so please post your questions here: Bushing and Truck Setup Help Offered and I will answer them there also so everyone can benefit.

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#652

So I deleted and re-posted to your thread.

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#653

This is correct. Any voltage “recovered” after voltage sag can be used until voltage at rest is at the minimum (2.5v for 30Q). No BMS will allow resting voltage of a cell to go below that and turn back on.

1 Like
#654

@murdomeek
If you follow that advice you will almost certainly damage your batteries and/or greatly reduce your range. Following the advice of BP, you would also be doing the exact opposite as is recommended by respected esk8 manufacturers including Boostedboards and Onewheel. They both say to promptly come to a safe stop as soon as possible after a low battery warning (Beep or kickup). The Revel kit manual does not include these instructions but it should.

BP is a troll who visits different threads pretending to know stuff. He recently accused the owner of metroboards of not knowing how to tighten axle nuts. BP is often wrong and typically turns to insulting people when he is found out. I’m sure the pattern of insults will be confirmed in his next post to this thread. He is currently trolling me and others in other threads.

I’m giving you the benefit of my experience using lithium battries. Most of my lithium batteries are in peak condition up to five years after purchase. This includes Boosted boards, my original Onewheel and all but one of my Ego power tool batteries.

The only damaged batteries are the ones that I over depeleted by ignoring battery warnings, waiting for the voltage to recover and then running on recovered voltage. This was before I knew any better.

I don’t want to repeat all the information in my previous post but i have real experience with batteries malfunctioning the next day after running past battery alerts. These experienced include an Ego chainsaw battery and a long range test that I did with my first two L3-x batteries. Since revising the way that I use lithium batteries, I have had no other failures. I have eight L3-x battereis that are in perfet condition. Also have 10 ego batteries that are in perfect conditon. These are each three to five years old.

Batteries are expensive. They can last for five to ten years if you use them right. But they usually only have a six month warranty. So stay well above critical voltage and you will have more fun and spend less.

Here is an excerpts from the EGO battery manual. Notice that they suggest immediate charging after a low battery warning. The flashing red light usually happens long before the power cut-off.

image

If you ignore the warnings, you risk damaging your battery.

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#655

image

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#656

Nice, vague user manual. What is the cutoff of that BMS? What cells are they and what is their voltage sag at what amp draw? Wtf is “recovered voltage”? Cells don’t recover voltage, they sag under load then go back to a resting voltage when not under load. Have you ever looked at a discharge curve of any battery? A cell reaches cutoff sooner at a higher amp draw. Lower the amps and you can keep using it for a bit more. Evolves drop to to eco mode on low battery for this very reason. Just because the battery voltage is too low to sustain high power output does not mean it’s dead, just means you need to lower the power draw.

But nah course I’m just trolling, you seem like you know it all, go ask some other battery builder what they think of your analysis then. Apparently you are expert on everything, jump to conclusion right away “definitely wrong material, definitely don’t do this because my chainsaw user manual says this”. I’m gonna call and get a refund on my mech-e degree because apparently I don’t know shit. Thanks.

4 Likes
#657

So if we use it as advertised then damaged batteries should be covered under some warranty by revel boards. Otherwise they need to update their documentation.

This would’ve swayed my purchase if this recommended use was advertised.

#658

@jxslepton

If you like to ride long distances then the best way to do that with a Revel Kit is to have spare batteries. In my opinion, the worst way is to have only one battery and ignore multiple low battery alerts until you come to a hard stop. This is not a criticism of the revel kit. Regardless of what brand you ride, critical battery alarms are there to protect your battery and should not be ignored.

Edit:
I deleted most of this post because it is redundant with this one:

1 Like
#659

Did you mean one bar consumed or one bar remaining. I assumed you meant one bar remaining.

1 Like
#660

One bar remaining.

If you’re saying it’s not “safe” to keep riding the board at one bar left when I get the buzz notification then I would’ve liked to have known this since with one bar left I’m not even close to the advertised range. This is something customers should know.