Virgin to DP in 20 hours - First Build

Redeye · October 19, 2019, 9:19pm

That’s right folks, I popped my board-building-cherry last week after about 20 hours of research on this forum and would like to introduce you to my DP board. DP stands for @dickyho & @pjotr47 of course, as you will see that their components make up the board along with the much appreciated technical support from them when I had questions.

Deck: 34” amazon longboard collecting dust
Motor: (2) 6374 170KV Dickyho motors
ESC & Remote: Dickyho
Wheels/Trucks/Mounts/Drive: Dickyho 145 airless AT Wheel Kit
Battery & BMS: Pjotr47 built 10s3p single stack 30Q + 60A smart BMS
3D Printed parts: PETG ESC Enclosure, PETG Pulley cover and motor cover/brace, PETG Front tunnel riser & light attachment, TPU Rear Tunnel Riser, TPU Battery Enclosure. PETG Deck Saver.

I will admit that once I ordered the products for this build, most of my ongoing hours of forum reading and research is focused on my 2nd build, but that is for another post. Dickyho’s prices kept my total build cost around 700 Euros (including shipping and this damn German VAT I’m finding hard to swallow). Some would call this a budget build, but I feel it is more of a gateway drug that opens up my wallet to a new found way to spend money. The goal was to build an entry level board with my son to give him something to play on while I’m on my OW. I’ve owned an Inboard M1 and have had a OW+ for over three years, so I’m not new to eBoards, but now know that another board will be built in the near future.

Here is what I have done so far with this build:

Cut and sanded the board to accommodate the new wheels and wire path

I designed the ESC enclosure and printed it with PETG. I wanted it to also act as a kicktail/foot support.

Had the motors rear mounted, but decided to mount the motors forward to protect them and keep the board more compact, I’m good either way and open to feedback on advantages/disadvantages of what experience has shown to be the best.

Dickyho shipped these motor pully covers with his motor mounts, which work fine, but don’t cover my aesthetic requirements

The Dickyho motor pully cover file here must be for an older motor mount as the holes are not aligned with the holes for the motor mount I have, so I modified the file to align the holes

@VykkuF made a nice motor cover, which also aligned the motors, but this file also must have been for different motor mounts without mounting holes at end. So I adapted the length and hole location on his design.

I created a 8mm riser with a 6mm tunnel. Printed in TPU with 30% infill so far feels strong enough to wrench down on, but also does a good job with vibration dampening.

Front tunnel riser was just a simple way to mount an existing bike light that my boy moves between his scooter and bike I added a tunnel as well for a future wire runs.

I first printed the battery enclosure in PETG, and started with someone else’s design, but ended up with designing my own, which cracked on the first ride with PETG, so now it is TPU and working awesome as the three-piece enclosure flexes with the deck while the battery is velcroed to just the middle piece, so doesn’t experience any flex.

I was wondering if the TPU enclosure would act as its own gasket, and though it has a nice flex to it, there is still too much gap between the screw inserts for comfort. I am currently thinking I’m just going to run silicone caulking around the lip and between the overlaps, so change my mind if you have a better idea for less than $10 bucks.

I’m really satisfied with how this first build turned out, but the board is just too small for me to be comfortable going over 30 km/h and I have not looked into it, but assume the speed controller from Dickyho can not be adjusted for a smoother acceleration compared to its current punchy starts in the fast mode. With that said, the board is the perfect size for me son who mostly rides in slow mode that taps out at 12 km/h while he learns how to control it.

For my next build, I got one of the B-stock Manta decks from @MarkOneBoards for a longer and wider deck. The drop deck gives a nice 25 inch spread for a wider stance, and I like how it can handle my size 12 feet.

Still to do on this build:

Better grip tape
Make enclosures water resistant
Change front tunnel riser from PETG to TPU
Figure out how to make the pre-programmed fast mode have a smooth acceleration, if possible with this speed controller
Have my deck saver cut in aluminum

I tried uploading a short clip of my boy riding the board, but either the mp4 format or my permission level did not allow it.

BillGordon · October 19, 2019, 10:13pm

Now that’s a build thread title! Fun read and cool build!

VykkuF · October 19, 2019, 11:19pm

Sweet build. Do the rims on the wheels come red from dickyho or did you repaint them?

Also glad you were able to make the motor cover work. I ended up removing it as it broke quite quickly for me, and I’m using a metal one I got from dickyho which doesn’t really cover the motors as well.

You can’t change the acceleration, or any other settings, on that ESC. At least there aren’t any guides in english, as it definitely should have some way to edit the parameters. The RC7 remote does help a lot to make it much smoother.

Also be careful with those wheels when the road surface is damp. They are quite grippy on dry ground (pretty much half way between PU and pneumatic wheels), but on even slightly wet ground they lose a lot of the grip.

Venom121212 · October 20, 2019, 1:42am

Oh I thought you totally got double penetrated at some point during this build. Glad I still stuck around and read through.

Good work man. I normally hate 3d printed stuff on boards but that kick stop enclosure blends in really nicely. I hope it holds up well to all the abuse you’re gonna give it

If you have issues with it breaking, try spraying it with a truck liner for reinforcement or coating it with an epoxy.

glyphiks · October 20, 2019, 2:06am

Dude what a sweet build! Well done!

onebluesummer · October 20, 2019, 2:14am

This makes me want a 3dprinter but then I wouldnt know how to cad anything lol this is cool love all the printed stuff !

glyphiks · October 20, 2019, 2:23am

Tinkercad is a nice easy online cad program. Takes ages to build anything tho

ryansinatra · October 20, 2019, 2:52am

Yeah I just gotta say… That enclosure/kickstop combo is hella awesome. Such a cool idea.

I’ve started to really realize the benefit of having a 3d printer with custom esk8 stuff.

I don’t have the capital or the opportunity to cnc parts out of metal or anything. But for $200 I now have the ability to make any parts I want that will generally hold up for most uses (excluding motor mounts and high stress parts obviously)

Pretty amazing

mishrasubhransu · October 20, 2019, 5:32am

Definitely get a printer. I recommend the cheapest ender3 you can find and make $50 worth of upgrade. Will print whatever your heart desires.

As for CAD, everyone should learn CAD. If you are already a builder, you have the skill sets to learn CAD very easily. Start with tinkercad and then learn Fusion 360.

mishrasubhransu · October 20, 2019, 5:34am

Love it! Smart for you to protect the motor and space the motor mounts simultaneously.

I have been meaning to print an enclosure in TPU but never got around to it. Looks awesome. I know it will take far more abuse than a rigid enclosure.

onebluesummer · October 20, 2019, 5:49am

Sorry for slight highjack of thread… I thought these were at least 2k that thing is only 200 rupes? Insane!
OP what printer do you have and what tpu did u use?

mishrasubhransu · October 20, 2019, 6:00am

I know you asked OP, but basically a dual drive bondtech(or clone) direct drive extruder can pretty much print any TPU. I have had no problem with the cheapest TPU on amazon.

Redeye · October 20, 2019, 10:05am

I agree about the bondtech drivegear extruder setup, but I won’t vouch for them in general as I was having difficulty printing TPU with the Prusa MK2 and MK3 printer models that used a single bontech gear. I was able to print some items at a very slow speed turning off retraction, but speed and time were a major handicap since the bontech gear was pushing against a smooth bearing in those designs, resulting in TPU to flex in the path of least resistance. Once I upgraded to the Prusa MK3S, it uses dual bondtech gears to keep the TPU aligned, and now I can print jobs in TPU for 24+ hour prints, like one of the 3 battery enclosure pieces in this build.

mishrasubhransu · October 20, 2019, 10:13am

That’s what I meant, dual bondtech. I didn’t know they had single. My link above also takes you to dual bondtech upgrade for ender 3.

Redeye · October 20, 2019, 10:14am

There are great printers at the 200 range, but something that needs to be factored in is customer support and community adoption. I have read good things about the Ender3, but I can vouch for for Prusa products and buying a kit vs a prebuilt printer is the way to go. Prusa kit directions are top notch and can be followed by anyone that can follow lego directions. Knowing how the printer is built really helps troubleshooting issues as they arise.

Redeye · October 20, 2019, 10:22am

A 3D printer should be in every school, just like shop class introduced kids not familiar with wood working and welding, this is no different. Part of my reason for owning a 3D printer was to introduce my boys to CAD, and then they get to play with the toys they designed in Tinkercad.

Redeye · October 20, 2019, 10:25am

Thanks for the tip. I’m curious how the PETG holds up against the abuse.

Redeye · October 20, 2019, 10:35am

Once I asked dickyho to buy the AT set, he told me he currently had blue and red in stock, but silver was another option and out of stock.

I read that on your thread and decided once my PETG print breaks, I’ll reprint it with TPU and use a higher infill to still act as a motor spacer.

That’s what I assumed when I bought it, but just wanted to check. I didn’t buy it for its configurability of course, as I wanted something that is simple to plug’n’play for my first build, so I got what I paid for and accept that.

Redeye · October 20, 2019, 10:37am

Regardless of an article being crap, a good title will get people to click the link and look at the pics.

Redeye · October 20, 2019, 10:45am

I agree with giving Tinkercad a try. No CAD experience needed and it is 100% web based, so nothing to download or install, just sign up for a free account and try out the guided tutorial.

When I moved to Germany last year, we had 3 months until our container arrived, so we took a road trip to Prague where we toured the Prusa factory and bought the MK3 kit. Then my 9 year old used Tinkercad to create a couple cars and a garage that we printed so he had toys to play with until our belongings arrived.