Normally, it’s very hard to control the throttle and hold the stick with one hand, but this hook allows the thumb to be free. And it worked surprisingly well:
This it just a cane plant (no idea what it is, looks like bamboo, but not as strong, grows everywhere here). I’m thinking about getting a short fishing rod and turning it into a selfie stick with TPU 3d printed seat where the remote could go.
Clever. Man you get a ton of work out of that kicktail! I ride inside my wheel base and it nothing like riding a short board. Now i need to find a pig nose kick tail deck to mess with XD
Even if my Kicktail could keep up with the impressive torque and speeds shown, and even if I were familiar with that area and its drivers, and had larger softer wheels, No way could I keep up with you.
I’m still mostly afraid to use my kicktail, having ridden only passive longboards since '94 until about 2.5 months ago.
My back foot goes maybe 2 inches max behind back truck, and I still pull wheelies unintentionally with 7S, and hub motors when accelerating to the pitiful top speed.
You just inspired me to go work on my 10s battery and enclosure.
I’ve skated tailless longboards for a year when I started, then moved to cruisers (non electric). I only got confident using kicktail after constant commuting for about another year.
The stock Avenue bushings are 90a, and I find them too soft for rear truck. The generic DKP trucks came with a bunch of 100a bushings, I cut them to size, feels awesome:
Another super weird issue that I’ve been having was occasional power losses for fractions of a second on acceleration. I think it started after a crash when I ripped off the hub motor truck, and it got worse over time. It was rare and hard to catch at first, but recently it became consistent on almost every acceleration from 0. Apparently the issue was the radio link, either the remote or the receiver.(I’ve smashed the remote in that crash pretty hard) I’ve changed to fresh VX1 and fresh receiver and the problem is gone.
Flipsky never changes, still needs pot wires changed straight out of the box:
Finished the info screen, SSD1306 oled running on stm32f103c8. I tried arduino nano, but it can only reliably work with 1 serial, when trying to use i2c oled and vesc UART at the same time it was glitching. And I’m a sucker for orange glow:
After 20km ride on new remote today - what a difference, new VX1 feels totally different, more predictable. It’s like the old one was dropping most of packets.
No idea what was going on with the old one, the pcbs look intact, no visible damage. The antenna is in its’ place. It just gradually got worse over long period of time.
One of my suspicions is that the pcb flexes when you press the power button, made a simple brace today just in case:
And another thing - I’ve realised that motor current can be higher than battery current. I’ve lowered the battery current to 25A and increased motor current to 27A for now.
I’ve noticed that about the vx1 as well. I wonder if the battery has anything to do with it. I need to check my old one and see what it looks like inside. Could be the pot as well?
The old one starts to drop while new one is solid.
I’ve replaced the pot not long ago just before the belt drive rebuild.
I’ve also replaced the battery for a better one.
So in the end it is radio signal.
Good test, i might take my vx1 apart and reflow it to see if that makes any improvement. I have a vx1 and an old mini remote that i want to keep working, the smaller miniature remote is not replaceable but is showing signs of needing to be replaced…
Still haven’t figured out what was up with radio link on the old one (few times it wouldn’t even connect on power up).
New remote started acting up after a small low speed crash. Turns out it was the potentiometer, they are really easy to damage, if you press too hard they can develop play in the axle. Replaced the pot with aliexpress one - https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006047150333.html?spm=a2g0o.order_list.order_list_main.22.3c911802MOyoF3
And finally it feels right, no dead zone, easy to manual/wheelie while applying throttle. I’ve tested these pots for a couple of weeks and can recommend them, so I’m posting a link.
I’ve been contemplating making my own remote, based on ELRS and STM32. ELRS receivers can be flashed with TX module firmware, so far they’ve been super reliable and provide super low latency. And I already know how to talk to VESC and ELRS through STM32.
Throttle needs to be redesigned from the ground up, I’ve gotten some Alps RDC9010006 resistors (10m cycles rated) and 678 Zz bearings.
Moved to Serbia - Novi Sad.
Antalya was great for 2 years, but we’re not allowed to stay anymore. Was busy with the move.
Managed to get my good batteries on a flight (and the cat, and a 3d printer, and the drones, and 3 skateboards, and a bunch of electronics, that was not easy):
(yes, I made fake label stickers to make them look less suspicious)
VX1 is a piece of trash. New one worked well, but in last month I had about 5 disconnects, where I had to reboot the remote to regain connection. So making my own remote is a must.
Remote power supply situation: charging module + 5v step up, step up works down to 2.5V:
Doesn’t look like much, but here are 2 elrs modules connected. Bottom one is flashed with “RX as TX”, both have binding phrase set. It doesn’t just connect after flashing, TX needs to be initialized by sending config with controller. Again I’m using stm32f103c8 flashed with bluepill bootloader. Stm32f103 should fit in the remote perfectly and it has 3 hardware serials, unlike arduino that only has 1 HW serial.
I’ll probably start with replacing guts of VX1 with stm+elrs. And then move to completely custom case with custom throttle. If I get it working, I might make a separate thread about it.
Love the video!
