Somewhat stealth ex-mountainboard, now longboard build

[galp]

Hi!

I got tired of my local forest paths and decided to buy longboard wheels, mount them on mountainboard deck and trucks and see what happens. I was quite happy with the setup and super wide trucks are really awesome for cruising.

After some days spent planning and modeling all required stuff I went shopping. I bought some hardcore paint and wood putty and repaired my worn deck. Mountaingboard was MBS Atom 85.


Before:

After:

Don't even ask how much sanding and painting is required for a good long lasting result. About 5 layers of water based wood paint, few layers with red paint and three layers of clear lack for parquet on top. Took a bit less than two weeks.

Then I machined motor mounts, pulleys and pulley mount for wheels. This part was somewhat easier because it didn't involve sanding on hot summer days. I machined all of the parts with my diy mini cnc.

Wheel with pulley:

My machine in the background (another on the far left). Yes I have Nintendo controller for jog.

I had an used 10S 5000mAh lipo pack at home. There was no way of mounting it anywhere under the board. So I had to disassemble the pack and rearrange the cells. Cell arrangement on board:

Then I built a hardcase for the batteries. Two 15x20mm plastic rods on each end connected with 2mm flat aluminum profiles had the job done. I used DB25 connectro for charging and balancing. It has 25 pins and each pin has 2A current capacity. So I used 16 pins for main charging wires (which gives me 10A of charging current capacity with some reserve) and 9 for balancing. 1 pin is left unused. Cells are Turnigy 5000mAh.

Cells inside the new pack:

Charging connector:

Top view (bottom of board)

And bolted on the deck:

Motors mounted. I'm using HTD 5M 12 and 32 tooth pulleys.

This is how far I am at the moment. I still need some kind of remote and ESCs. I already have VESC PCBs and I'm still waiting for components. I hope I get them soon. I have pretty much everything figured out or at least I hope so except for the remote. Should I get a cheap one form hobbyking and maybe save me some frustration on should I do something DIY? Thanks.


Specs:
SK3 6463 245kv motors
VESC
10A 5Ah

I hope I could get around 50kph with this thing and I'm really optimistic about it.

So much for now, I'll keep this thread updated.

 

[made_in_the_alps_legacy]

I guess you mean 10s 5Ah ? That's very original, thxs for sharing - I know some don't like it but what about the Wii nunchuck ?
can you tell us more about the wide truck <=> small wheels feeling ?

 

[mccloed]

I would suggest the gt2b and the Badwolf 3D printed encloser. I have had issues with the nun-chuck lately.

 

[torqueboards]

Sweet build!

 

[galp]

@made_in_the_alps_legacy
Yes I meant 10S, it is a typo. I have very little experience with longboarding. I can only compare it to mountainboard. I can say the board is now much more stable and is a confidence booster because cruising is a piece of cake. It tuns smoothly and steadily. The only cons is that you have to keep your legs somewhat wide or your foot hits a rear wheel and you get catapulted. I didn't bother with it too much because this is going to be electric board anyway, I'm mean who even pushes their longboard anyway... :lol:

May I ask where are you from? I'm from the sunny side of the Alps.


@mccloed
I don't really know much about nunchucks. Is it just on/off for throttle/braking or does it have proportional throttle/braking?


@torqueboards
Thank you! Your tutorial really helped me with my first mountainboard build and I never had a chance to say thanks.

 

[Vulthor]

Wow, I like the way you painted your board, and the battery enclosure is really nice.
Very impressive work.

 

[okp]

congrats, such thread keep my moto alive! this is just awesome.

 

[galp]

Big thanks to you all. It keep my motivation pumped up.

It took me 12 days to sand and paint the deck so it better be nice!

 

[sl33py]

Great build so far and beautiful craftsmanship! You'll love the VESC's and good luck getting them built!

Can i send my old deck to you for a re-fresh?!? :wink:

Will follow this build and keep up the awesome work!

 

[made_in_the_alps_legacy]

your ground clearance makes me think of my Onda Vibe, such a low height is for sure helpfull for stability

May I ask where are you from? I'm from the sunny side of the Alps.

I am somehow at the same latitude than slovenia, just go straight west to geneva's lake area via grand saint bernard path :lol:
I don't know much about slovenia, I was told that bears and wolves coming back to swiss mountains are often from slovenia,
so I assume slovenian alps are a wilderness paradise

 

[Wayno]

Very nice! I love the battery enclosure but am wondering how flexible the deck is and whether you'll have an issue with the differences in flex between the deck and the battery enclosure. Would love something like this for my Onda Longa build but the deck on that board is very flexy.

I second going with the inexpensive RC car controller-to-3d printed enclosure route... I have the GT2 and it's been working great. I still need to put the guts into something smaller though. Not happy with the large size and the fact that it looks a little like a gun.

 

[galp]

your ground clearance makes me think of my Onda Vibe, such a low height is for sure helpfull for stability

May I ask where are you from? I'm from the sunny side of the Alps.

I am somehow at the same latitude than slovenia, just go straight west to geneva's lake area via grand saint bernard path :lol:
I don't know much about slovenia, I was told that bears and wolves coming back to swiss mountains are often from slovenia,
so I assume slovenian alps are a wilderness paradise

I didn't even know that Alps are that wide. That's amazing.

Very nice! I love the battery enclosure but am wondering how flexible the deck is and whether you'll have an issue with the differences in flex between the deck and the battery enclosure. Would love something like this for my Onda Longa build but the deck on that board is very flexy.

I second going with the inexpensive RC car controller-to-3d printed enclosure route... I have the GT2 and it's been working great. I still need to put the guts into something smaller though. Not happy with the large size and the fact that it looks a little like a gun.

Deck was very flexible, but it isn't any more now because battery enclosure is very stiff. However there is still a good amount of flex present if I jump on the board. I designed battery pack and enclosure to be flexible in that direction.

I searched hobbyking for some RC car controllers but they are all huge so I decided to develop something new. It will probably be a long journey but I might come up with something useful.

 

[galp]

I've made some progress in the last few days. All required components for VESCs arrived and soldering began. After a day or so of assembling, soldering and programming I came up with a working VESC. Setting it up was easy and I was impressed how good everything worked.

Here is a video of me testing it:
[youtube]iZKc47Ecbgw[/youtube]


I was afraid I'll have problems with binding quanum pistol grip but I was able to bind it in the second try. Lucky me I guess. I also 3D printed enclosure for VESC and big capacitor. I'll add downloadable design files soon.

 

[galp]

After few hours of work I had some fun riding my new board. It's super fun and powerful. Haven't pushed it to the max yet because I don't have the required guts. Here is a short video of testing the powertrain. At this point battery current is limited to 100A and at 10S that's ~4kW of power on the motors.

[youtube]FAlyYveR_18[/youtube]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAlyYveR_18

 

[galp]

I've made a video of todays morning ride. Didn't have the guts to push it to the max without some protective gear. Speed tops at about 40kph in this video. Everything seem to run perfectly. Vedder's VESC is awesome!

[youtube]K8vNHAACmCA[/youtube]

 

[Vulthor]

Awsome, your board look's really good as I already mentionned.

The road looks crappy unfortunately, but if I remember well you are in mountain location, so with the snow it's always hard to have good roads; even if the pedestran side looks better, but damn always cars park on it.

 

[made_in_the_alps_legacy]

guts and powa, that's all we need ...impressed by the accelaration, well done

 

[galp]

I'm not really in the mountain location but you can't really expect good roads from low GDP country.
Thank you all for good responses and keeping my motivation up!


I find it interesting when I put a full-face helmet on, my balls instantly grow to 400% their size and the fear is gone.

 

[vlaca2]

you can't really expect good roads from low GDP country.

Agree

 

[galp]

How to have fun:
[youtube]DkGm6DvGBwI[/youtube]

All you have to do is sit on your board. 8)

 

[sl33py]

That is sooo awesome! I was laughing. Too much fun and great to have a sense of humor! It's already pretty funny being an "adult" and riding around on a motorized board. Kind of think i look like this guy sometimes:

 

[galp]

I think we are all just a bunch of kids as long as e-boards are in the game. Except we kinda look older.

 

[galp]

One vesc poofed, soldered another one and also made some changes. ESCs are now better protected and riding on a wet asphalt is no longer a problem. Here is today's video:

[youtube]EE-nUGcLqi0[/youtube]