COMPONENTS
an electric skateboard consists of the following components:
battery ESC motor Trucks Board wheels
Before you buy an electric skateboard you should inform yourself about how the components interact with each other.
we will go through the first three components which are directly connected with each other by using our CS1 board as an example.
Example
12s4p battery pack
Samsung 50E 21700 Li-ion cells
continous discharge: 15A
capacity per cell: 5000mAh = 5Ah
nominal voltage per cell: 3,6V
30A ESC
(able to handle a maximum of
30A in total = 15A per motor)
2x 3000W Motors
The motors could each run on 3000W due to their specifications so 6000W in total. The battery would be able to deliver 2592W in total but because of the 30A ESC the motors only run on 1296W in total, so each motor runs on 648W
Well, this is not quite correct. Since the engine does not have an efficiency of 100% and therefore some energy is lost due to heat loss, the actual value is still quite a bit below that.
12s4p: 12 cells connected in series; 4 cells connected parallel
seriell cells increase voltage:
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12x3,6V=43,2V
parallel cells increase capacity and continous discharge:
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4x5Ah=20Ah
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4x15A=60A
maximum watt this battery pack could provide:
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43,2Vx60A= 2592W
maximum watt that will actually reach the motors:
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43,2Vx30A=1296W
Sometimes manufacturers advertise with huge performance figures. However, these huge numbers often refer to only one component of the overall product, which is usually the motor. Please inform yourself about the battery cells and the ESC that is used to find out how much power your board really has..
Different kinds of motors:
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Hub motors : completely stealth, quiet, not much torque, poor damping because of the thin wheels around the motors
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Belt motors : obvious, loud, much torque (torque can be adjusted by using different gears), good damping because the full wheel can be used, ability to switch to AT wheels
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Direct Drive : stealther than belt, not as stealth as the hub motor, quiet, mostly more torque then hub motors but less than belt, good damping because the full wheel can be used
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Gear Drive: powerful, very much torque, normally pretty loud
Different kinds of trucks:
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DKP : Double King Pin, very nice steering, getting dangerous on speeds above 50km/h
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TKP : Traditional King Pin, less flexible steering than DKP , stable on speeds above 50km/h
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RKP : Reverse Kingpin, more flexible steering than TKP, dangerous on speeds above 50km/h
Generally you can say the bigger the wheels the more energy and torque will be lost because the motor needs more power to spin a bigger wheel than a smaller one, but you can reach higher speeds with bigger wheels.
The shape of a wheel can be flat or rounded. A flat wheel has a bigger contact surface to the ground which is increasing the amount of grip. A rounded wheel can be dangerous on higher speeds but it is the better choice if you have streets with bad pavements.
Different kinds of wheels:
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Air filled: much grip (depends on how much air is in the wheel), big (usually 150mm+), good for offroad and street, good damping
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Polyurethane: good grip (depends on hardness, hard wheels usually have less grip), size between 80-120mm, goes with Kegel or ABEC adapter
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Rubber: much grip, size usually between 100-115mm, higher battery consumption because of higher rolling resistance, ..............good damping, wears off faster than Polyurethane, goes with Kegel or ABEC adapter
Carbon Boards:
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Pretty much stiff which gives you more control but less damping
Wooden boards:
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These boards usually have flex
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The more flex it has the better the damping will be but it will also get more unstable on higher speeds