Roadster E-Board Build (videos added 15/06/14)

[furp]

What a bummer, disaster always strikes once you start thinking something like 'wow, this is amazing, it finally works!'. Well, at least you get the joy of trying a new setup. Once you got it running, make sure to tell us how the deference between your old pneumatic and the onda wheels feels. Good luck on fitting the new setup!

 

[made_in_the_alps_legacy]

sorry to hear your ABS cover cooking receipt failed... now I have a reason to use "microwave boxes" as enclosures..

[...] the new wheels and seeing how they perform

Thxs for the picture, it's clear that they are not as wide as mine - the red rims look lovely, give a "hot rod" touch
for sure, you won't have weld failure or tyre puncture with those ones :lol:

 

[daverobson08]

furp - thanks, I'm hoping I should be up and running again before too long

made_in_the_alps - Yeah, I think they will do the job nicely Very happy with them on first inspection. Do your wider wheels take up more room on the truck or do they extend outwards past the axle bolts? I've started mounting the wheel pulley, I just drilled straight through the wheel spokes and the pulley, I can't see any reason to over complicate this part. Did you use the same method? I may need to space the pulley out a little bit but it could be fine as it is - it protrudes about 14mm from the wheel.

Excuse the horrible holes from where I mounted the pulley to my previous wheel! I may replace the entire pulley with a polycarbonate one with less teeth. Should increase the top speed and reduce the weight (and it will have less holes in it :wink: )

 

[torqueboards]

Nice... Onda wheels. That pulley must of been pricey lol. $38.57 for those wheels shipped to me - not bad.

 

[daverobson08]

$86.99 to me Yeah the pulley was pricey, I made the mistake of ordering it from the US too, I didn't realise they were available in the UK at the time

 

[made_in_the_alps_legacy]

Do your wider wheels take up more room on the truck or do they extend outwards past the axle bolts? [...] I can't see any reason to over complicate this part. Did you use the same method?

My wider wheels extend outwards past the axle bolts. The method I used is 1/5th of a turn rotated compared to you : My screws are going in between the spokes, as close as possible to the "hub" (I have a disk plate with 5 holes on the outside and the sprocket on the other side is threaded) :wink:

Special care to have the wheel pulley perfectly centered to the wheel axle might be welcome

 

[LEVer]

Hmm, are those even lock nuts? I assure you if those are not lock nuts, they will become loose and come off easily. Especially now that you have harder wheels.

I'd still put a metal ring around them, just to keep them still. Well done so far though.

I can't wait to see it on your deck since I have one like yours. If it looks nice, I'll probably get me self some Onda wheels too.

 

[daverobson08]

The method I used is 1/5th of a turn rotated compared to you : My screws are going in between the spokes, as close as possible to the "hub" (I have a disk plate with 5 holes on the outside and the sprocket on the other side is threaded) :wink:

I see, I never have that much confidence in tapping things, always manage to ruin the thread in some way :? Hopefully I haven't put too much strain on the remaining material in the spokes. I think it should be fine, don't want another wheel falling apart while I'm riding it!

You have a keen eye Pediglide! Yeah I will be using lock nuts of course, I just used standard nuts for test fitting because I can put them on without a spanner
What do you mean by metal rings? Like washers? I did think about adding washers yes, also some split ring washers between the wider flat washers and then nuts like this:

Yeah I'm looking forward to seeing how it rides, I'll should be able to get chance on Saturday I'll be sure to get a couple of pictures.

 

[LEVer]

Not washer but a big ring like the one on made_in_the_alps Onda drive wheel.

 

[daverobson08]

Might add one of those if I need it but I don't think the bolts are gonna move, it's pretty solid

Got the wheels mounted today, it's looking good. The wheels spin nicely and everything is nice and tight.

Here's a quick look at how I strap my batteries to the board. Four pieces of aluminium are screwed down to threaded inserts in the deck. Velcro straps are passed under the aluminium and they strap around the batteries. It works well:

Here's a little video showing the drive train and the response on 6s with an SK3 6374 and Toro 150A ESC (Quanum tx/rx):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIj0ONI7uCo&feature=youtu.be

Soon I'll be moving up to 9s with the FlyFun 100A HV ESC but I never really shared my thoughts on the Toro ESC so I probably should. Basically it's great. The bluetooth programming module is pretty handy, changing settings on the go is as easy as pie. It haven't noticed it getting hot at all (I have had the fan on all the time which is pretty noisy actually - maybe I should try it without). It has an integrated on/off button on a little lead which is very useful. No need to unplug connectors at all. I'd say if you are running a 6s setup then it is a good option

I still haven't redrilled the holes for the rear truck so it is still at an angle. No idea when I will get around to fixing this :? It's still rideable though so I'm just about to take it out to see how the Onda wheels compares to the pneumatics...

 

[torqueboards]

Setup looks good. Those battery packs should be fine against the metal piece but I would probably put a little padding around it.

Velcro straps work wonders Those Onda's look nice may have to try those my next round.

 

[daverobson08]

torqueboards: I may look into some padding, I filed and sanded the aluminium's edges so they are pretty smooth though

The Onda wheels - wow!

SPEED:
Fast. These things just want to roll! My pneumatic wheels may have just been extremely inefficient but by comparison the Onda wheels are incredible! I was going down a small gradient hill and I had to jump off, the wheels just make you pick up speed like nothing I've ridden before - It's scary! I have a feeling that my range is going to increase dramatically. It doesn't feel like the drive train is fighting against the weight of the rider anymore, it just goes

QUALITY OF RIDE:
I feel a lot more bumps than I did with my pneumatic wheels but they still roll over pretty much anything. Definitely still happy with it.

PRICE:
An absolute bargain. At $15 if you live in the US, you owe it to yourself to try these out. It cost me £50 ($87) to get them to the UK but I think it was worth it.

EASE OF INTEGRATION:
For me it was fairly easy. To get them on my 10mm MBS Vectors I just swapped out the bearings for Bear ABEC7 10mm axle bearings and I was away. I guess to use normal 8mm trucks you would have to have a deck that wouldn't get in the way but that's up to you. Fitting the pulley was easy too, five bolts straight through - done.

All in all, the Onda wheels are amazing and I'm so glad I decided to try them!

 

[LEVer]

It doesn't feel like the drive train is fighting against the weight of the rider anymore, it just goes

Can you start smoothly now without kicking first? Are these the the 5 or 7 inches? What is the width? I'm about to place an order and I just want to make sure I order the right one. Thanks.

BTW, nice weather.

 

[daverobson08]

They are the 5 inches (also sold as 140mm) with the narrow profile. Not sure of the exact measurement but I think they only do narrow or wide. The wider one are more expensive.

To be honest I didn't try starting without pushing. My instinct would be to say that it probably won't do but I'm not sure about that.

Yes we have had a nice weekend in the UK. Hopefully it will start that way for my wedding in two weeks!

 

[LEVer]

WHOA!...your wedding? Congratulations mate...cheers to the soon-to-be bride and groom!

CHEERS!

 

[made_in_the_alps_legacy]

Glad you like those wheels, i think I know what you mean
http://shop.ondamotion.com/5-5-polymer-wheels-set-of-4/
now I feel jealous of your ABEC 7 bearing since the original ones for those wheels are less rated (ABEC 5)

I am not sure if those wheels have a flat profile (mines are not) If you could double check,
because it seems to me that the "left front wheel" is mounted in the opposite direction of the right one in this picture :

Congrats for the wedding :wink:

 

[Hummina Shadeeba]

- I went down the 8s road mostly because people were saying 6s was perfect for longboard/skateboard assemblies while I was going for a MTB with the ability to go off road (and yes, dual setup played a part in my decision as well). However, I thought the 8s ESC from Alien could handle fully charged 8s batteries, but this isn't the case, so I rewired my batteries to 7s.
- In essence, more cells don't give you more power, but more top speed. I'm not looking for more top speed, so I could change my gearing to get more torque and the same top speed. So in practice, yes, more cells can result in more torque.
- I didn't compare to a 6s setup, so I don't know how much better it is, but I do know this: I can't go much higher in gearing ratio, because the sprockets will be larger than my wheels... so there's my limit. I'm currently using 45/8 teeth, so 5.625:1 reduction.
- I also wanted a much higher range than most builds on here. My single commuting distance is 12km. I used 3 5800mAh packs, but it's overkill! I could ride back and forth to work on a single charge (I can charge at work so that's not needed).

-To answer your first question: I was impressed by the amount of exploded-lipo-experiences shared online and by how tender they are, so I invested in a good quality 8s charger (only up to 8s). It cost me 118$ (iCharger 208b form Hobbyking).

It might have been overkill, but it works as expected. In your case, I would try 6S first and see from there. 8s is more expensive, but 9s is yet another ball park.

Thanks for the feedback on my mounts! ^^

What happened with the 8s alien esc? I'm planning in getting one from Torqueboard and I thought it would do 8? I also got that charger.

 

[daverobson08]

WHOA!...your wedding? Congratulations mate...cheers to the soon-to-be bride and groom!

CHEERS!

Thanks from both of us!

now I feel jealous of your ABEC 7 bearing since the original ones for those wheels are less rated (ABEC 5)

I am not sure if those wheels have a flat profile (mines are not) If you could double check,
because it seems to me that the "left front wheel" is mounted in the opposite direction of the right one in this picture :

Congrats for the wedding :wink:

Yes the ABEC7 bearings run fast for sure, can't compare them to the ABEC5s though. These wheels seem to have a flat profile, when they were stacked in the box they made a perfect cylinder. Don't think they have any polarity at all. I'll probably change the wheel around anyway though, just so it looks neater! And thanks again!

What happened with the 8s alien esc? I'm planning in getting one from Torqueboard and I thought it would do 8? I also got that charger.

I didn't buy the 8s Alien ESC, according to Bruno from Alien Power Systems it cannot handle eight fully charged LiPo cells :? I still don't fully understand why it is rated to 8s! I bought a FlyFun 100A HV ESC which should be able to handle up to 12s although I'll just be using 9s

 

[Murfix]

- I went down the 8s road mostly because people were saying 6s was perfect for longboard/skateboard assemblies while I was going for a MTB with the ability to go off road (and yes, dual setup played a part in my decision as well). However, I thought the 8s ESC from Alien could handle fully charged 8s batteries, but this isn't the case, so I rewired my batteries to 7s.
- In essence, more cells don't give you more power, but more top speed. I'm not looking for more top speed, so I could change my gearing to get more torque and the same top speed. So in practice, yes, more cells can result in more torque.
- I didn't compare to a 6s setup, so I don't know how much better it is, but I do know this: I can't go much higher in gearing ratio, because the sprockets will be larger than my wheels... so there's my limit. I'm currently using 45/8 teeth, so 5.625:1 reduction.
- I also wanted a much higher range than most builds on here. My single commuting distance is 12km. I used 3 5800mAh packs, but it's overkill! I could ride back and forth to work on a single charge (I can charge at work so that's not needed).

-To answer your first question: I was impressed by the amount of exploded-lipo-experiences shared online and by how tender they are, so I invested in a good quality 8s charger (only up to 8s). It cost me 118$ (iCharger 208b form Hobbyking).

It might have been overkill, but it works as expected. In your case, I would try 6S first and see from there. 8s is more expensive, but 9s is yet another ball park.

Thanks for the feedback on my mounts! ^^

What happened with the 8s alien esc? I'm planning in getting one from Torqueboard and I thought it would do 8? I also got that charger.

I've got the 12s ESC now. The other one is rated because it can handle 8s on nominal voltage (3.7V/cell), I think. As soon as I got the 12s version, I rewired my lipo's to 8s again.

You're getting an ESC from torqueboards??

 

[Hummina Shadeeba]

- I went down the 8s road mostly because people were saying 6s was perfect for longboard/skateboard assemblies while I was going for a MTB with the ability to go off road (and yes, dual setup played a part in my decision as well). However, I thought the 8s ESC from Alien could handle fully charged 8s batteries, but this isn't the case, so I rewired my batteries to 7s.
- In essence, more cells don't give you more power, but more top speed. I'm not looking for more top speed, so I could change my gearing to get more torque and the same top speed. So in practice, yes, more cells can result in more torque.
- I didn't compare to a 6s setup, so I don't know how much better it is, but I do know this: I can't go much higher in gearing ratio, because the sprockets will be larger than my wheels... so there's my limit. I'm currently using 45/8 teeth, so 5.625:1 reduction.
- I also wanted a much higher range than most builds on here. My single commuting distance is 12km. I used 3 5800mAh packs, but it's overkill! I could ride back and forth to work on a single charge (I can charge at work so that's not needed).

-To answer your first question: I was impressed by the amount of exploded-lipo-experiences shared online and by how tender they are, so I invested in a good quality 8s charger (only up to 8s). It cost me 118$ (iCharger 208b form Hobbyking).

It might have been overkill, but it works as expected. In your case, I would try 6S first and see from there. 8s is more expensive, but 9s is yet another ball park.

Thanks for the feedback on my mounts! ^^

What happened with the 8s alien esc? I'm planning in getting one from Torqueboard and I thought it would do 8? I also got that charger.

I've got the 12s ESC now. The other one is rated because it can handle 8s on nominal voltage (3.7V/cell), I think. As soon as I got the 12s version, I rewired my lipo's to 8s again.

You're getting an ESC from torqueboards??

I'm planning to getting one he said is made by alien yes. 8s. So 8s is too much for the 8s esc I guess. I'd like to use more volts. People are saying 6s with the tacon 160 and 2:1 gearing will get me pretty fast anyway so maybe for another board...not that I'm even close to done this one.
The speed calculation I have been discouraged by and haven't been able to do myself. There were other variables in the one I saw that I didn't understand.
6s Volt x 245 kv x 2:1gearing x whatever 83mm wheels are... If ur a math wiz and like doing it. I'm not.

 

[turbobikekit.com]

Some questionsa and thank you in advance :
1. Is it better to purchase one motor with 1 ESC or 2 with 2 ESC? (As cheaper solution and strongest)
2. All the above discussion i saw that parts are really expensive to buy one by one, so i have decided to this mountainboard
http://www.powerkiteshop.com/scrub_psycho_2.htm
3. Or these trucks
http://www.powerkiteshop.com/accessories/scrubchanneltruck.htm
which i think is better? Your view?
4. Also would you suggest 2 motors to work with 2*ESC and 2* 6S batteries (at least) or 1 motor with more than 9S batteries with one ESC?
5. For the movement transmission you think is better a chain and more simple or the belt?

Thank you in advance for your answers

 

[daverobson08]

Hi!

1) This depends on what you want to do with your board really. Obviously one motor and one ESC is the cheapest solution and is enough for most people's needs. If you want to take your board (mountain board I assume) off road then you will probably want two motors. If you take this route you can buy one ESC for each motor or a 'twin' ESC which can handle both motors (this is basically two ESCs built into one).

2) Okay

3) I think the stock trucks with the Scrub Psycho should be fine for most purposes but again, it depends on what you want to do with the board. To me the Channel trucks look quite expensive so I'd just buy the Scrub Psycho and then upgrade the trucks if you need to. I don't have any experience with the high end trucks. They all have an M8 (or M10, I can't remember right now) threaded hole for attaching brake kits to. These are very useful for attaching a motor mount to.

4) For road use, I find 6s gives me plenty of power with one motor. I can't say whether a higher voltage on one motor is better or not but you can achieve impressive results with 6s for each motor+ESC. Have a read through this guy's thread: http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/...064&PN=1&SID=26fb5f595aa88d7f96228328cbff1c3b. This is one of the earliest and best electric mountain board builds IMHO. A lot of people learnt a lot from this guy. He used 4 motors/ESCs with 6s for each.

5) I use a belt drive and it is fine but you may find a chain is better for off road. Most mountain board builds use these. They are louder but they won't slip.

Hope this helps

 

[drmacgyver]

Hey daverobson08,
I just got 2 of the 3s 8000mah batteries today and I'm a little stumped on what to do about the connectors in regards to linking them in series. My esc already has 4mm bullets in housing from my 6s that I'm swapping out. What does your connector setup look like?

And congrats to you and your fiance!

 

[daverobson08]

Hey drmacgyver,

1) Wiring the batteries in series is easy peasy! My wiring is basically like this:

All of my connectors are 5.5mm bullets since that's what my batteries came with (I'm guessing your new batteries will be the same). You could solder some 4mm - 5.5mm adapters but I think swapping the 4mm for 5.5mm bullets would be better really. The 5.5mm bullet will handle the current much better

2) Thanks you from us both!

 

[Hummina Shadeeba]

WHOA!...your wedding? Congratulations mate...cheers to the soon-to-be bride and groom!

CHEERS!

Thanks from both of us!

now I feel jealous of your ABEC 7 bearing since the original ones for those wheels are less rated (ABEC 5)

I am not sure if those wheels have a flat profile (mines are not) If you could double check,
because it seems to me that the "left front wheel" is mounted in the opposite direction of the right one in this picture :

Congrats for the wedding :wink:

Yes the ABEC7 bearings run fast for sure, can't compare them to the ABEC5s though. These wheels seem to have a flat profile, when they were stacked in the box they made a perfect cylinder. Don't think they have any polarity at all. I'll probably change the wheel around anyway though, just so it looks neater! And thanks again!

What happened with the 8s alien esc? I'm planning in getting one from Torqueboard and I thought it would do 8? I also got that charger.

I didn't buy the 8s Alien ESC, according to Bruno from Alien Power Systems it cannot handle eight fully charged LiPo cells :? I still don't fully understand why it is rated to 8s! I bought a FlyFun 100A HV ESC which should be able to handle up to 12s although I'll just be using 9s

how's the flyfun 100A doing? i thought we'd have to use a car or possibly boat esc?
I