Unlimited hub stealth Hummie build - 12S4P P42A, DV4S, Cal III

[Dinnye]

A bit of backstory first.

I originally didn’t plan on making a build thread for this one, but I have to because it rides so nice and I am also very happy with how clean the inside looks.

It all started when I saw this skinned and reinforced Hummie deck half complete for sale about 2-3 months ago, back then the plan was to build it out with a 3ds gear drive and 7" pneumatics. However that setup wasn’t that great in my opinion due to having too much motor bite and not much deck lean.

Then @AlexB asked in the makerx thread how the DV4S behaves with unlimited hubs, and thus the build was inspired to happen in it’s current form.

Now onto some teaser pics

So naturally as I am a battery builder I took the opportunity to build the battery pack for this thing.

First taping / insulating the cells

The cutout was enlarged by the previous owner, so the configuration is not quite the conventional hummie config, the P groups are rotated 90°.

Then onto the nickel

Next up series connections, went with 2x 12AWG. Overkill, but if the board gets a more powerful drivetrain it will be still sufficient.

Then the balance wires, crossed before entering the pack. And 10AWG terminals. With the nickel being folded onto the side of the cells and quick soldering work with a hot iron it wasn’t that much heat put into the cells, but usually I prefer to do this before welding. I wasn’t sure which way I want the cables to face before welding in this layout, as this is my first pack with a layout like this.

Rest of the wiring. Way too simple, no sensors, no switch (I use exclusively push to start), no Bluetooth module for now. Had one but just found out it doesn’t work.

Overview of the whole belly

Then onto heatshrinking the pack. It’s a shame but I didn’t have clear heatshrink on hand and couldn’t find it on amazon with a less than 2 week delivery time.

LP16 charge port on the rear anti sink plate

Now let’s talk about drivetrain a bit. The deck was cutout by the previous owner so that the 3ds adjustable baseplate sits flush once dropped through, so I ended up going with that baseplate. The ride height is okay. I would prefer slightly lower but then there’s the tradeoff of clearance which is about right at the moment.

The unlimited hubs were mounted on 10" raked caliber III hangers, and 3ds adjustable baseplates at around 43° front 36° back. These caliber III hangers are really really good. Feel much better then cal II and it’s derivatives.

In the back using Venom HPF 90A bushing, with the plug for cal III. In the front blood orange stock caliber II bushings, and a plug bushing to remove the slop. All around flat washers. It’s feels really good and lively, while getting bonus points for keeping to the orange/ red/ black theme.

And the weight is decent as well at 11.5kg or 25lbs

Regarding the VESC setup I am running 50A per motor and the moment and they feel really punchy compared to hubs, will have to see how much they heat up like this. VSS ended up working best for me, but it’s quite stuttery at 0 speed. Also I am running a VX1 with a brand new potentiometer which I’ll change out soon for something else as I don’t trust it.

Maybe VX4 with 3ds hall sensor or just plain old GT2B with a 3d printed case. I haven’t decided yet.

[trancejunkie]

any idea what enclosure that is?
very nice build btw

[Venom121212]

Looks like @BigBen’s sexiness to me.

That enclosure and deck combo alone made me build a whole new board

[BigBen]

Yep. Single stack Hummie enclosure.
Nicely executed.

[Pecos]

Hot, nice build. Really a shame about the clear shrink - your battery looks amazing. So low too with hubs on those adjustables . That thing is going to go forever on 4p.

Im running vss on my loaded unlimited hubs too with a dv6. I only notice the chugging pretty rarely so i think its a good solution for me.

I just bumped my settings to 40/-40a a side and 20/-40a battery to try and stiffen up the breaks to no detectable improvement but still super fun and rideable. Seeing some real heat after 10-12 miles if the pavement is hot for sure. I wish there was a way to sneak a temp sensor in there as i love the ride so much i want it to last forever . Every wheel chunk i take personally

[hatman]

What’s the difference with vss and hfi? Or just a personal preference?

[Pecos]

Hfi and shfi need a ld/lq inductance to be a good big change as the wheels rotate. Afaik or understand it is the difference in the magnetic field as the rotor magnets cross the stator windings - i.e it needs to see a big change and it uses that to guess the motor position and rotation. The unlimited hubs have a more motor poles and (i think) because it’s more smaller magnets the differences are smaller and it doesn’t work well (or at all in my case). The vss works some other way i also only barely understand that seems ok with that.

[erroct]

Major hotness in that carbon. Are those the raked calibers? Or rakeless

[mr.shiteside]

Raked

@Dinnye

The unlimited hubs were mounted on 10" raked caliber III hangers,

[exx]

Super nice build, I have a faible for stealthy hub boards.

[Dinnye]

Range test done

90km / 56mi

This is down to 3.0V, I reckon with a slightly lower cutoff and a bit slower riding in the beginning I could have made it over 100km / 62mi. Which is pretty crazy for a 12S4P P42A pack. Unfortunately I don’t have VESC logs but it’s probably like 7Wh/km, 11Wh/mi. This thing is super efficient!

I’m in love with this board so much. I really nailed the truck / bushing setup, it is a lot of fun to carve.

[Dinnye]

[Venom121212]

Tell me what you like about the new calibers vs the old. My loaded hubs are on cal 2s and are really nice but I’ve been curious about the 3s

[Dinnye]

The rake feels really nice. Makes the trucks feel more alive and fun for carving. The rakeless cal IIs and it’s derivatives just feel dead. Not all versions are raked so make sure you buy the right one.

Also the low angles I am running, around 43 front 36 rear feel really good, gives the setup some deck lean. To replicate you can buy 2x the 44 degree ones and dewedge the rear. Also stock cal iii bushings on flat washers are awesome in the rear. For the front I enjoy the stock cal ii bushings which feel pretty loose

[exx]

Oh you’re in Esbjerg?
Cool, I was on Fanø once for two weeks and it was great.
I’ve been to Sylt a number of times but Denmark somehow feel more comfortable.
It’s much more expensive, though.
Is eskate legal in Denmark or do you have the same problems as us Germans?

[Dinnye]

Oh that’s pretty cool! If you are in the area again and want to go for a ride let me know and we can probably figure something out

I am in Esbjerg for like 80% of the year, the rest of the time in Hungary.

Yup Denmark is pretty expensive. Sometimes I go to the german border for shopping, it’s so much cheaper lol. Especially if I want to buy beer, it’s like 3€ pisswater here that I usually regret drinking halfway through or 1€ for actually good beer across the border hahaha

Esk8 in general is technically legal but 99% of boards don’t meet the conditions for it. But they don’t know that most boards aren’t legal without closer look, so if you ride chill you are probably okay. The board needs a CE approval which most boards don’t have, plus it’s “designed maximum speed” has to be 20km/h max. So if you can toggle an exway flex or something to a higher speed mode it’s no longer legal technically. Also lights/ reflective tape/ helmet are mandatory at all times. And if they catch you over the alcohol limit they can take your license and probably the board as well. But the limit is pretty high.

In practice if you have a helmet and ride under like 25 km/h they aren’t going to bother probably. They’ve seen me go faster before and didn’t care but ymmv. They’ve stopped one of friends once and told him that he cannot ride the board he was on because it’s not CE approved, that was a DIY that looked very much DIY. But they let him go without a ticket. Good to have the board looking clean so that they can’t tell if it’s a diy or a prebuilt.

I personally haven’t been stopped yet but I try to keep to bike paths whenever possible to minimise the chance of seeing them.

[exx]

That’s good to know, thanks!

Who knows, maybe by the time I’m up there I may have finally fixed the strange issues I’m having with my stealthy hub board or I’m bringing the big MTB monster

I remember drinking Tuborg in Denmark and not getting drunk at all, like it was non-alcoholic or something.
Also, it was friggin expensive.

[Dinnye]

@exx

Who knows, maybe by the time I’m up there I may have finally fixed the strange issues I’m having with my stealthy hub board or I’m bringing the big MTB monster

Both are fun, the roads / bike paths are really smooth so the hubs work well. And there’s some offroad mountainbike trails where the MTB is a lot of fun, for many of those you need pretty loose trucks though

@exx

I remember drinking Tuborg in Dennark and not getting drunk at all, like it was non-alcoholic or something.
Also, it was friggin expensive.

For me it just tastes so bad that I get to the point of feeling sick from the taste after like 2-3 of their more neutral beers. The ones with more taste I can barely drink a single bottle it tastes so bad. German, Czech, Hungarian beer I can drink all day in comparison. If you go to actual breweries they also make some good stuff but then you are looking at more like 8-10€ per beer which is just way too much for me, I rather go to the border and buy just as nice german stuff for 1-1.5€

[exx]

So what you’re saying is bring both boards and beer

[Dinnye]

That would work