External Battery Mod for Onewheel XR (Hardware 4212)

LOAFFETTE

~~Oh god, not another project!~~

So this isn't something that I will be doing any time soon due to money constraints, but this is something I'm considering. I want to do an external battery mod for the Onewheel XR, but with an ungodly amount of range and power. The plan is simple:

Buy/build (I hope to god I don't have to build one) an external battery bank with enough juice to give the XR way more range than a CBXR, hopefully more speed and power for the motor. I've heard that the limiting factor of speed for the onewheel is the Battery itself, not the controller or the motor. Imagine taking grandma's electric scooter, and then you throw in a Tesla Battery from a Model X/Y. That's the entire idea.

Two issues:
1: I'm running an XR with hardware REvision 4212, meaning that I'd have to use a JWFFM or an Owie chip thing, or get an aftermarketd BMS. This also leads to the issue of running two batteries at once and hoping that no weird voltage stuff happens. This may lead to a situation where I would either run the board off of only the external battery or the internal battery.

2: The only two products that do this are the VnR, the Sonny or Wren from Corridor Digital. I like what Wren did since all he had to do was get a large battery, a solar controller and wire up his own XLR cable. I am CONSIDERING trying to get into contact with him (or watch the damn video) and figuring out if it could work on the XR.
why is this a problem? It means that finding the solution that works is going to be difficult. I can test Wrens plan out easily by just getting an XLR to XLR and removing the third pin like he did. If the board rides while plugged in with the third pin removed, we're cooking with gas!

If not, we've got some planning to do.
I'm hoping the Lemur could provide some insight since he seems to be the guy who knows every square inch of the board.

Lia

I've used the solar charge controller method in the past with some eBike batteries to charge while taking a break before moving to VnR (4208).

For me adding the extra battery actually made pushback more pronounced. Probably because with the extra power there is less voltage sag and more available current to draw from. I didn't notice any speed improvements though which for me scooting around at 15mph usually isn't an issue.

S. Leon

@loaffette -- Still dreaming of SPEED on a Onewheel? Plan to build a VESC -- higher voltage with many variables to control in the app -- 30+mph possible.
Of course, with higher speed comes more risk of personal injury or disablement.

LOAFFETTE

Guess who's been thinking about this again!

Oh god, so I've given it some thought.

Thought 1: This mod probably will involve me running the onewheel without a battery box if I ever do it. Maybe I would build or make a custom battery box that's just emtpy space or designed to house important tools or eqquipment inside instead of a battery.

Thought 2: Falling off the wheel or having to suddenly step off is common for me. I ride pretty rough and I sometimes do some dumb stuff on it. However, with the external battery, this means that if I crash, the board is tethered to me. Not good. I have two ideas for this nightmare:

One: A custom cable plug designed to shear off and cut the connection if I fall off. Not good since it means I need a new cable plug everytime i step off suddenly or fall.
Two: A huge magsafe-type charger. Not the wireless charger kind, but the ones used on the old macbooks before they switched to type-C. Essentially two large contacts, one for (+) and the other for (-). Normal riding, the plug stays fixed to the board and I don't have to worry about it. When I fall off, the power is cut and the cable comes off.

Now, I may go for number Two, since it's basically the safer and less costly one. Problem:
this may be challenging. I need to find the right magnets for this and figure out how I would make the contacts work. Would it be just a large slab of copper split into two connecting to another bit of copper, would it be push-pins or something else? I don't know, this requires further research.

During the summer I'm gonna work a job and do some things on the side, and I will probably put some money into making my own largescale mag-safe plug.
Think I may call it Mag-OPI, or M-OPI. (Magnetic Onewheel Plug for Insane people)

cheppy44

@loaffette Haha i like the naming scheme