The Prince | 12s10p flight-safe Idea deck build

[rusins]

Progress update, 1 week until Carve PDX

Motors arrived, got the cans swapped, and drive-train re-assembled.

@rusins

Also finished off the last battery packs. Just need to buy more bolts to close all the cases.

Plan for tomorrow is to buy more solder, and make the series connection harness. Then Saturday is for assembling everything onto the deck

[Evwan]

this is an awfully last minute setup

[rusins]

Progress update:

Didn’t do shit over the weekend because of an event I had to organize. My local hardware store did not have the bolts I need.

I probably have some sleepless nights ahead of me

[itsrow]

You can sleep when you’re dead I guess?

[poastoast]

looks like i bet you to the all nighter

[BillGordon]

Eric Clapton - Cocaine + lyrics

[rusins]

Fuck, I keep melting through my XT-90 connectors despite having them plugged together. I think I’ll need to start trimming some of the strands away so that I can fit the pre-tinned wire inside the cup fully before I start blasting it with heat. Or switch to 12AWG. This sucks.

Also I just realized a solder melting pot would have made my entire battery building process much faster.

Also the solder I bought at the store might not have flux in it. It’s way worse, and needs a higher temperature to melt it seems. Aaaaaaaah

[rusins]

Bought some good solder. Paid my little brother to go buy the bolts I needed.

Thanks to the help of our forum’s battery builders, I got some good tips and how-to videos on soldering XT-90s. Here are the things I’m doing differently now:

• using a bigger tip with more thermal mass
• tinning only the end of the wire while insulation is still on. I do this by adding some thermal paste / flux so that it soaks in well. This keeps the wire thin after I strip the insulation off, allowing me to place it in the cup
• tinning only the back of the cup, and soldering sideways so that the wire naturally falls into the cup

Also, learned that my Pinecil is only drawing 2.1A at 20V. So it’s not being used to its full potential. Quick research tells me I might need to upload custom firmware to allow it to use more power. But that’s an adventure for another day.

Plan is to finish the board by tomorrow to go on a group ride with the local folk and test the board out. Got a day off work too, so I think I’ll manage to finish this

Also, look what just arrived!

[BillGordon]

Looks like you’re pulling victory from the jaws of defeat. Onward to Oregon!

[Evwan]

@rusins

custom firmware

wait this is a thing?!?!?!?!?! I was fine with that 2.5ish amps that mine pulls, but I can do more!??!?! hell yeah

[rusins]

Here we have the finished wire harness:

12 XT-90s in series, with balance wires and charge wires. I foresee this getting tangled while traveling, so there are XT-30s to disconnect the positive charge lead from the XT-60 used for charging. This also is good if I accidentally trigger the fuse and need to bypass it.

The main terminals use 6mm bullet connectors (because I can route those through an existing hole in the box, so that I don’t have to modify it, but for antispark purposes I have an XT-90S wired for the positive side, so that’ll be my “loopkey”

Gonna setup the BMS now and see how it fits in the box.

[rusins]

Probably shouldn’t have shorted the balance cables, they end up everywhere in a mess. I wanted to mount the BMS on the lid, oh well.

I think I’ll use velcro to hold the packs together. I don’t really have better ideas for keeping them from moving at the time being.

[BenjaminF]

@rusins

a mess

Some small zip-ties would go a long way to cleaning that harness up

[rusins]

I did not make it to the local groupride on time unfortunately. Was busy building.

We got a Sabre Dynamics gopro claw mount at the front. Will be using this for my SL-1000 I think.

Lacroix QC be like

This was a tight fit, you need to put the nut first, then the XT-90, then the power button. lol.

I cut up the griptape in the middle of the board to route the wires. Didn’t drill any new holes in the enclosure box either. In fact, I didn’t even unpin the motor sensor wires to route them through the gromets, just going to glue the holes shut with hot-glue.

The motor bullets are on the outside for “easy inspection and maintenance”. Totally not because I’m lazy and wanted to keep the wires sleaved and this box has no space in it.

Need to find some rubber sheet to put below the box, but here she is, ready for the first & final test-ride:

And the ride went well! Top speed is where I want it to be, and the trucks are still behaving the same way. I don’t think Krank bushings are the best for them, and I leaned back by accident once and got wobbles pretty fast, but I think it’ll work.

Some other random thoughts because I’m in a rush to pack things before my flight in a few hours:

• 80 motor amps feel pretty weak with these 190kv motors. But I think I’ll leave it that way for reliability + safety.
• These 6384 flipsky motors SCREAM really loud, and from like 50% duty cycle already
• My back foot is going to hurt from standing on those battery wires. I wonder if I could get some dopegrip or something lmao
• Weight on top of the board feels odd. This whole build feels a bit odd to be honest. That’s what you get when you experiment I guess. Will be interesting to see what other people think when they try it out at Carve.
• Really gotta keep your weight up front with these trucks. I’m surprised they’re actually stable, even if they don’t feel like it
• 6.5" wheels are too small for comfort on bad roads
• I wanted to velcro the battery packs to the case, but the round shape prevents me from doing that. Just have foam on the top and bottom, hopefully it doesn’t shake too much. Might pack some foam sheets between the batteries
• I can’t wait to see what challenges regarding this build await me
• I feel tired, haven’t slept the usual 9-12h I’m used to. At least the stress about not having my build ready is gone.

[jack.luis]

@rusins

6.5" wheels are too small for comfort on bad roads

Want some 8in tires from Metroboard?

[poastoast]

@rusins

6.5" wheels are too small for comfort on bad roads

try me

[rusins]

I need wider trucks first

[ShutterShock]

@rusins

slept the usual 9-12h I’m used to

WHAT? LMAO that’s so much

[rusins]

Biggest reason why I’m so busy all the time – I have less time than others

[rusins]

Added the finishing touch

And I’m writing this already from the airport!
I had to explain to airport security what the limit on lithium ion batteries is, and they let me through without a fuss. Hopefully I won’t have to go through security again when I transfer in Minneapolis.