$170 -20%? That’s nuts. Madwheels V2 are the same price and better
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Hmm, it’s $80 for me. I guess amazon price depends on your location.
Oh wtf
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The range on new wheels and belt drive dropped to 16km from 23km. Also could be that the old VTC5A pack is tired after 300 cycles, and the weather is colder. Also I got more comfortable with riding, so I pretty much go full throttle all the time on acceleration and in turns.
2 fresh packs!
VTC5 this time. I bought the cells on a sale about a year ago. But making batteries is so much work, only got around to it now.
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She’s a climber.
15 km uphill at full chooch, +18C ambient - no overheating, all systems barely warm.
Spent both packs down to 3.4V
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Got my htd5m-290 belts today. 15:45 gear ratio.
Yes, this feels better, can highly recommend.
15:40 feels anemic sometimes, when trying to start from 0, or on kick-turns. 15:45 is more predictable, and feels like it puts motor into proper RPM range, it even sounds more quiet for some reason.
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Need some action shots please? Im living vicariously through those who aren’t living in temperate rainforests as I wait for the dry season. enjoying this steady progress build
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I need to learn how to selfie stick while riding.
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After few tries figured out how to film riding.
Here’s some ripping around the block
It rained today, can’t carve much.
I figured I needed at least 120cm on my back hand, also I wanted to have free front hand, so the idea was to attach the remote to the stick:
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.
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This is easily my favorite DIY build I’ve seen in the last year. Love the innovation and problem solving around your constraints- keep it up!
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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
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The footage you got looks so much better than edited 360 footage! 
I gotta try your method! 
Love the video!
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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.
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Can we still nominate this for boty? Ive been enjoying this thread too. I enjoy ingenuity over a lot of things.
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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.
Haha, yea the power is addictive.
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I’m new to the forum. Didn’t even know about BOTY
This thread? https://forum.esk8.news/t/build-of-the-year-2023-official-nominations-serious
Awesome boards
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Started dumping 3d print designs, in case someone needs them -
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Some updates.
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:
I’ve cracked both pulleys while doing some offroading, they were only 4 preimeters though:
Reprinted with 7, and 2mm bottom layer:
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:
Also found the exact spare pots on ali:
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:
Wh/km needs to be doubled tho
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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.
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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?