5 Wheel Electric Skateboard Build - Need help on Electronics

[johnny_261]

Hi Everyone,

I'm almost finished my 5 wheel electric skateboard build. I decided to go this route to save some costs as I could use an old skateboard setup that I had and not have to modify trucks for a motor mount. As well, I had some scrap steel lying around that I made all the mounts out of. Overall, I'm quite pleased with the way that it works. I designed it so that your weight has to be on the tail of the board for the 5th wheel to get traction. Therefore, you can still ride it like a normal skateboard without getting drag from the motor when you want to. It's a nice option if you run out of power (or in my case when a soldered connection came loose and I had to ride 4KM back home without power).

Anyways my question that I was hoping I could get some help with is that the throttle trigger seems to be reversed. When I squeeze the trigger towards me to accelerate, it drives the motor to move the board forward, HOWEVER when I program the ESC, the throttle limits for REVERSE is what limits the throttle to accelerate forward. Also what this means is that I don't have any brakes as when I push the trigger forward to brake, the motor goes directly into reverse. When I push the trigger forward to reverse and then bring it towards me to accelerate, then I get brakes and a pause before the motor changes direction. So things are definitely backwards. I've tried to switch the motor direction on the ESC using the program card, but this doesn't do anything.

If I rode the board in the other direction (5th wheel on the front) everything would be fine (as in I would then have brakes), except for the fact that I would be pushing the trigger away from me to accelerate.

I have a 150A Car ESC from HK and am using the HK GT2B transmitter/receiver. Is it something to do with the transmitter or ESC???? I'm completely new to the RC world so really have no clue at all about this stuff.

And for those curious, other than that the board works great! Way faster than I'm comfortable going with.

Thanks for the help!

 

[Rolling_Friction]

that's a great setup. I'm a fan of the idea that it can be used as a regular skateboard at will. As for the ESC, there was an option to disable the reverse direction with the programming card, does that make any difference?

 

[johnny_261]

that's a great setup. I'm a fan of the idea that it can be used as a regular skateboard at will. As for the ESC, there was an option to disable the reverse direction with the programming card, does that make any difference?

I tried changing the Reverse direction with the programming card, but it doesn't make a difference. Everything still works the exact same way. Do you think the ESC is defective??? Just throwing ideas out there. Really have no idea. Could it have something to do with the transmitter? I don't really know what the setting on the transmitter do...I tried flicking those two switches that say NOR and REV (i think that's what they say) and when they are certain directions it doesn't seem to connect to the receiver...What are these supposed to be set at?

 

[bandaro]

Should be a throttle reverse switch on the controller (TH.REV), flip this and see what happens. If that doesn't work, change any two wires to the motor over. Simply unplug them from the esc, flip them around, and replug them. Given that there is more throttle travel than brake travel on the trigger, you would be better with the switch.

 

[dirkdiggler]

Swap out two of the three motor wires and the motor will reverse.

 

[Vanarian]

Brilliant, you must post a video of how this works! It has a Steampunk look You could have a mad design with some copper on this!

 

[johnny_261]

Thanks for the help guys! I resolved the issue. It was a combination of switching the motor wires and resetting the ESC and transmitter connection.

I will post some videos soon of how this bad boy works!