Hey Endless Sphere,
So I discovered these forums when looking for e-skateboard reviews. In the end I went with a Yuneec E-go. However, I've never been fully satisfied with it and after browsing this board endlessly (hah) I had a bit of a DIY itch that needed scratching. Jacob's post here http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=46809&start=100 gave me a lot of confidence to start taking the E-Go apart, so thats where this all began.
My main beef with the E-go is that it's too heavy. My commute involves travelling via train and climbing/going down stairs. So I need to pick the E-Go up a lot, and whilst it's light, it's just not light enough to be convenient for me. The other thing is that I ride over some pretty rough pavements during a section of my commute, so I wanted to replace the deck with something a little more suitable.
With that in mind, I took the E-go apart and weighed all the components using my body weight and a bathroom weighing scale in the most casual manner possible. The breakdown came out as follows:
Front truck ~1kg
Rear truck + motor ~2kg
Deck + Screws + Foam 2kg
ESC ~200g
Battery pack ~1.1kg (battery itself is supposedly 900g)
Which gives us the 6.3kg total weight.
The easiest thing to replace would be the board. I chose a Loaded Vanguard because of the flex and the lightness. I was considering a Hi5ber board as well, but eventually the flex considerations won out. I went with a flex 4 despite the Boosted Boards FAQ saying that everyone preferred the flex 3 since the I simply don't ride the E-Go that fast. According to an email correspondence with Dane Weber the flex 4 is approx 2.8 pounds, so about 1.2kg.
Since my commute is a mere 3-4km a day, I also wanted to replace the battery. I really don't need the extra range, and I can charge it daily so for now I've gone with a DIY 7s1p battery pack. I used Efest IMR 18650s rated at 20A with 3100mAh capacity. There were some reviews online that said the rating should have been more like 10A continuous, but since Jacob's post approximated the E-Go's battery drain at something between 10-15A I decided it would be good enough. For now I'm gonna charge them with an Efest charger, so over charging won't be an issue I need to solve yet. The much smaller battery pack also means the batteries don't interfere with the flex. I'm hoping to get about 5-8km out of the batteries, but only time will tell if they live up to that.
With the new parts, the weight was as follows:
E-go trucks, Motor, ESC - 3.2kg
Vanguard - 1.2kg
Batteries + Holder ~500g
Roughly 5kg, which is not far off the Marbel!
The E-Go battery comes with 2 connectors:
The blue one is an EC3 connector, the red one a JST connector. Both are available on HobbyKing. Jacob suggested that the JST connector is 5v to activate the mosfets on the BMS, but it's actually the connector for a temperature sensor in the battery pack. Leaving this unconnected doesn't affect whether the E-Go runs and just sets the battery temps to 0 degrees, which can be seen in the mobile app.
After some inspiration from the Kickr pack, I also decided to leave the Vanguard unmodified and to secure the battery pack to the board via velcro strap. I got a couple of acrylic sheets cut to shape. The first is bolted inbetween the trucks and the deck, the second is bolted to the first sheet, the ESC, and the battery pack. After soldering all the wires and switches, the result is here:
To keep the batteries in place I put on a battery cover with some foam underneath. Right now it's just held on via velcro, but eventually it'll be bolted together to be more secure:
And I'm happy to say, the board works! No issues with it indoors so far, and I'm gonna take it out for a first test run tomorrow evening to confirm that the batteries will be able to hold up under normal use.
Here's what it looks like from the top:
In the end it really does weigh around 5kg (based on my super casual weighing scale test). I'm not happy with the switch construction, which is super sketchy. I'll need to figure out a better way to do that. I'm also considering redoing the battery pack with those expandable 18650 frames I've seen around these forums. And lastly, I really need to figure out a way to waterproof the whole ESC and battery section. But for now I'm just happy it works
Tomorrow I shall find out if the batteries will hold up to their specifications and if the flex deck is going to be stable enough at E-Go speeds.
So I discovered these forums when looking for e-skateboard reviews. In the end I went with a Yuneec E-go. However, I've never been fully satisfied with it and after browsing this board endlessly (hah) I had a bit of a DIY itch that needed scratching. Jacob's post here http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=46809&start=100 gave me a lot of confidence to start taking the E-Go apart, so thats where this all began.
My main beef with the E-go is that it's too heavy. My commute involves travelling via train and climbing/going down stairs. So I need to pick the E-Go up a lot, and whilst it's light, it's just not light enough to be convenient for me. The other thing is that I ride over some pretty rough pavements during a section of my commute, so I wanted to replace the deck with something a little more suitable.
With that in mind, I took the E-go apart and weighed all the components using my body weight and a bathroom weighing scale in the most casual manner possible. The breakdown came out as follows:
Front truck ~1kg
Rear truck + motor ~2kg
Deck + Screws + Foam 2kg
ESC ~200g
Battery pack ~1.1kg (battery itself is supposedly 900g)
Which gives us the 6.3kg total weight.
The easiest thing to replace would be the board. I chose a Loaded Vanguard because of the flex and the lightness. I was considering a Hi5ber board as well, but eventually the flex considerations won out. I went with a flex 4 despite the Boosted Boards FAQ saying that everyone preferred the flex 3 since the I simply don't ride the E-Go that fast. According to an email correspondence with Dane Weber the flex 4 is approx 2.8 pounds, so about 1.2kg.
Since my commute is a mere 3-4km a day, I also wanted to replace the battery. I really don't need the extra range, and I can charge it daily so for now I've gone with a DIY 7s1p battery pack. I used Efest IMR 18650s rated at 20A with 3100mAh capacity. There were some reviews online that said the rating should have been more like 10A continuous, but since Jacob's post approximated the E-Go's battery drain at something between 10-15A I decided it would be good enough. For now I'm gonna charge them with an Efest charger, so over charging won't be an issue I need to solve yet. The much smaller battery pack also means the batteries don't interfere with the flex. I'm hoping to get about 5-8km out of the batteries, but only time will tell if they live up to that.
With the new parts, the weight was as follows:
E-go trucks, Motor, ESC - 3.2kg
Vanguard - 1.2kg
Batteries + Holder ~500g
Roughly 5kg, which is not far off the Marbel!
The E-Go battery comes with 2 connectors:
The blue one is an EC3 connector, the red one a JST connector. Both are available on HobbyKing. Jacob suggested that the JST connector is 5v to activate the mosfets on the BMS, but it's actually the connector for a temperature sensor in the battery pack. Leaving this unconnected doesn't affect whether the E-Go runs and just sets the battery temps to 0 degrees, which can be seen in the mobile app.
After some inspiration from the Kickr pack, I also decided to leave the Vanguard unmodified and to secure the battery pack to the board via velcro strap. I got a couple of acrylic sheets cut to shape. The first is bolted inbetween the trucks and the deck, the second is bolted to the first sheet, the ESC, and the battery pack. After soldering all the wires and switches, the result is here:
To keep the batteries in place I put on a battery cover with some foam underneath. Right now it's just held on via velcro, but eventually it'll be bolted together to be more secure:
And I'm happy to say, the board works! No issues with it indoors so far, and I'm gonna take it out for a first test run tomorrow evening to confirm that the batteries will be able to hold up under normal use.
Here's what it looks like from the top:
In the end it really does weigh around 5kg (based on my super casual weighing scale test). I'm not happy with the switch construction, which is super sketchy. I'll need to figure out a better way to do that. I'm also considering redoing the battery pack with those expandable 18650 frames I've seen around these forums. And lastly, I really need to figure out a way to waterproof the whole ESC and battery section. But for now I'm just happy it works
Tomorrow I shall find out if the batteries will hold up to their specifications and if the flex deck is going to be stable enough at E-Go speeds.
