E-Longboard Questions

BushCow

1 µW
Joined
Jul 11, 2016
Messages
3
Hi!
I have been reading through the different forums of this site, and am wanting to take on the challenge of making my own longboards. I live in a very hilly place, so I was leaning towards a dual motor set up, with a motor powering both the back wheels. During my research into a build like this, I came up witha few questions.
1-Would I need 1 or 2 ESCs for this build, and are there any schematics available of the entire layour of something like this? Best kind of ESC to get?
2-What size motor should I get. (i.e. 5055 or 6354) if I want them to fit side by side. (desired speed around 20-25) I am 185
3-What kind of batteries do I get?
4-Where could I buy a motor from. Hobbykings is on backorder for most of them.
 
1) you need an esc dedicated to each motor. This can be 2 separate esc's for flexibility, or dual esc unit. The vesc is top of the range and available from members here, or cheap ones that are proven are the 6s 150A FVT esc's, like those on diyelectricskateboard.com. A bunch of others work, but I would say these are the 2 most popular.

2) Hobbyking.com is the go-to place for generic motors, they are the manufacturer of almost all of them. The enertion motor lineup for example is the SK3 version of motors, with the original plates. There are a few hub motor manufacturers that make the ones developed by Hummina. Again, these are all made in the same factory. I am 99% sure the boosted use a custom wound SK motor from hobbyking - I've tried those motors myself.

3) If you want lipo, I would recommend hobbyking hands down. Lipo can be a bit of a pain for beginners, but you can get lifepo4 cells or li-ion cells loose from various places, or pre-made battery packs. There is a few threads by white pony and others where they shows the making of the packs, a work of art they are.

4)Hobbyking gets stocked regularly, so keep an eye on it as well as the different warehouses they have around the globe. Postage is very fast and reasonable imo. A user here (hummina) makes hub motors, you could also message him if you are after some of those. Otherwise from whatever store you want to get the mounting system from I guess, most that sell the mounts sell motors to fit.
 
for a dual rear setup you will need at least 180 trucks (caliber II 50's are my choice), but i've also run dual rear paris 195's - using dual 5065 (longer - had to use some 5mm spacers to fit motors). Was a great setup and i'm a lot heavier than you (265).

Any of the dual 63mm will work in dual diagonal. If you are able to source some SK3 motors from HK - you might not be able to find motors that will fit dual rear, but will work dual diagonal. If you start looking online (aliexpress or similar) be aware of 10mm shaft motors - a PITA to get your motor gears for (i had 2 - one on my GF's board i will not re-gear).

Motors - besides the SK3's i would consider Enertions R-Spec, DIYes 63mm motors, and Ollin's new 50mm offerings (Chaka's).

And further on motors - two things to consider - KV and ESC compatibility. Depending on what ESC you get (and maximum voltage (6s/8s/12s)), and especially if you go with VESC you will be limited to 10s for higher kv motors (>200kv), or get <200kv motors and you should be able to go to 12s. I personally would target 8-10s for flexibility (and *Plenty* of power) as long as the ESC you get can handle 8-10s. Over 6s on hobby ESC's - it starts to get really expensive. So on a budget i would go w/ max 6s and a hobbyking or similar (FVT/XERUN/EZRUN ESC's), or you can look also at DIYes 12s ESC.

So i might work backwards from your ESC first - as it will largely help determine your motor and voltage batteries in series you want.

as for specific batteries - i like the thinnest batteries i can find to keep it low profile. Both for increased ground clearance, but also to make it more stealth and not have a huge box under my deck. I go into Hobbyking and set my search for 3/4s batteries (in series for 6/9/12s or 8/12s) that i order by their "C" width/thickness in mm. I can usually find some really nice thin ones that are around 25-30mm. mAh vary, but i don't mind swapping packs if i need additional range. Easier to carry a set in my bag or pocket than to have the extra weight on the board all the time. IMO.

What motor mounts are you looking at?

how bad are your roads or where you expect to ride? larger wheels help if your streets are super bumpy. I personally start out w/ 83mm wheels and go larger when possible (fit on deck w/o wheelbite). I've run 76mm as well, and prefer Flywheels for the number of wheel gear options. You can get wheel gears also for kegels and others if you have your heart set on a specific set of wheels. You can drill through solid wheels too - it's mostly limited by your ingenuity and time willing to spend getting it to work. I even have a set of electric flywheels (107mm monsters)... if i can get some sort of adapter to fit these i might use them on my replacement e-GBomb.

A lot of info, but it also looks like you've done a fair bit of research. Let us know more detail and we can help you sort it out!

HTH & GL!
 
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