I won't say this has been super hard. I've had some experience with virtual servers and poking linux in a terminal before but running a platform for others to use 24/7 is a change of pace.
All that said this forum would be nothing if not for you all choosing to:
-- A. Trust me to run the place.
-- B. Continue to make the forum a welcoming and friendly platform.
-- C. Support and help along the way.
I'm grateful to you all for keeping the place alive and allowing it to flourish from the ashes of it's former self. To those that are still here, those that no longer visit and the newer members I look forward to keeping the place running another year so you have a safe space to share your Onewheel adventures, builds and friendships.
No idea what's coming this year but I'm hopeful we all get an amazing year of floating in no matter what you're riding.
I just wanted to say a massive thank you for keeping this place as nice as it is. Consider this an appreciation post to everyone :)
I've noticed a lot of negativity within the overall community yet here remains nice, helpful and above all enjoyable to browse and be a part of. This feels more like a community and I'm grateful for seeing it survive as such without a need for any intervention.
@cheppy44 , Me and Kyle outside the office. 2 XS's and a freshy XR
Huge shoutout to Kyle, Joey, Jack and the team for actually taking the time to see our little creations and show us about a little.
Not to mention Andy, Lisa and Joaquin who enabled the visit. Drove us from SF to Santa Cruz. They were super cool and we spent the rest of the day and evening exploring SF ^-^
They were heading to Santa Cruz to drop off a red truck they used at their exhibit which actually happened to be the same one FM used in some promotional material (you can still see the decals used to say onewheel).
Seeing the XS's lined up in their office was great.
Shame there wasn't one we could leave with them but we gave Kyle one of the 2 rails we made extra so they have something from the XS to keep ahold of. Wren has the other :3
Something I was super stoked to see was old Ironsides. The OG that started it all. It's quite the thing in person!
It did work but they had to connect some bits 😅 Didn't get to ride it though. Kinda forgot to ask.
Ironsides, the XS MK1 and the Mk2. I sort of want to do a half scale of it too but I think a GT-S is more appropriate. especially since I plan to make one of these actually move under me.
After a bit the guys took us through parts of the office. I won't share those pics since that's probably not something we should share in case there were secrets I didn't notice. However we did get to take the Onewheel barrow for a spin.
After our visit Joey had lunch with us at a nearby oceanside café.
Was a fun little area to chill and chat. Got to hear some cool inside deets about RFTR.
I'm glossing over bits but I'm still sort of trying to relax after everything that happened last week 😅 Got a bunch of things to still share but like no time to share D: Need to take a day to just unwind.
Was working on something else and got a little worn out doing all the tedious ground work.
The new piece isn't me (gasp) but it's a biggy like my last one "Night Float" So will likely be a while till I'm done with that.
To try and loosen up and chill I did a round of doodling and decided to recreate an event that happened last year where I nearly ran over a little froggo D:
Here's the end result~
Tried a few new things, thought adding visible emotion to the helmet helped with the vibe while giving some cartoonish linework to emphasise the motion and reaction.
The frog came out cute too although I have to admit the crude sketch version felt cuter.
Here's the initial idea sketch... yes it's super crude.
Then a followup linework to flesh out the drawing.
Getting some test prints from RB to see if it comes out nicely. Some stickers and a 40x40 pillow to go with the other one :)
A handful of pics from my trip to the US. I have a bunch but trying not to spam. If you want more of these or keep up visually with what I'm doing I've been using Instagram more. https://www.instagram.com/comikzink/
First up was this beautiful pic I took of @Crow_OW , mine, @cheppy44 and @Demimoto boards on our first ride together towards the end of the day. That night riding back in the complete darkness was a time I will not forget.
@cheppy44 Being the amazing boyfriend he is managed to get this entire bridges lights redone to show our fave colours as a surprise for me when we rode by it on a ride he planned well in advance.
During our time together we rode around an Arboretum which was really pretty and only slightly sullied by some meanie in golfcart telling us we can't ride around here... even though other modes of transport not too dissimilar were allowed. Jobsworth type guy so we didn't fight it.
Another groupride with Nick, Josh, Adam and Alyssa this time
Before leaving me and Nick followed up on the stickers we placed on one of my regular rides by adding a matching pair on his.
(I'm such a criminal, vandalising signs like that)
To finish it up on our last ride together I got one clip for an upcoming video in a picturesque area.
So I've been a bit busy... scratch that extremely busy so I haven't had time or funds to pour into this recently as much as I'd love too.
However earlier this month me and @cheppy44 went to OpenSauce. It's an event for makers by makers. Nick thought it would be a good idea to bring the XS. Unfortunately we didn't have time to get a booth but we walked around carrying the lil bebe.
Honestly it was an amazing idea because the dinky little guy got a lot of attention from a number of other event goers especially Wren, James and Ian from the Hacksmith and Cody Hovland.
It was a very fun event and extremely fun to meet dozens of people that wanted to ask questions about the board. After all of this I'm itching (again) to carry on. After the headlights and xr controller pcb swap I will likely begin this again ^-^ Especially since me and Nick might actually have a booth next year and will try to show off a few more finished versions among other things we've both worked on.
For the past few weeks between doing stuff for Fungineers I've been working on the XS but this time in Fusion360. It's not been as easy as I first thought since I wanted to make it all parametric.
So far I've nearly redone everything (from scratch, easier that converting it).
Probably going to alter the front bumper engravings but for now I just made dxf's of the current ones.
As some of the earlier posts mentioned, me and @cheppy44 attended last year as attendees but this year we've applied to hopefully have a lil stall to show it off and let people hold and use it. If not we'll bring it anyway and let other attendees enjoy it as we wander the event.
At the moment because I've rebuilt it from the ground up in parametric design I've had to re-prototype parts including the rails because those shall be CNC'd this time.
I've also redone how the motor housing and hub covers will work. The outer covers will be CNC'd too along with the axle blocks.
I'm redoing how the ESC works and include some new features. For one an actual way to power it on and off as the BMS mods didn't work on the MK1. Once those show up I can do some tests.
You know those pics of a human nervous system laid bare (if not don't look it's nightmare fuel). This sorta reminds me of it.
Didn't want to carve out space for pulldown resistors on the footpad so I managed to bake them onto the pins right off the VESC.
Defo not going over the top with detailing things you won't see. I just had to even if it's not 100% accurate. It's hard to appreciate how tiny this thing is. I had to use the macro zoom.
Was testing griptape and a printed footpad which worked great! Decided to tease it in this pic I put up on Insta the other day.
In preparation for casting some parts I got a vacuum chamber and pump. Managed to get the pair separate real cheap on eBay second hand ^-^
Also making some progress on the footpads. There are more jigs to make these than anything else on this iteration of the XS.
You must ruin a lot of material to get even a tiny bit of experience and skill using a scroll saw. Honestly these things are evil but a band saw is scary and I'm running out of space/money 😅
There are a bunch more processes needed to finish these so I made some spare in case something went wrong and I had to redo some. Learnt from last time :3
This morning though things really ramped up. I got my CNC parts delivered. These.... cost quite a bit but honestly they were worth it. Let it be known a board half the size is not half the price even at cost.
To end my 2 weeks off work here's what I've been trying to work on during the holiday.
Lots of guidance from @ed_co to keep it flowing well, thank you <3
Probably would have not been as fun if not for the suggestions to cut, alter or move clips :)
Going to need to learn how to edit more efficiently. This brought my PC to it's knees. Bluescreens, intermittent hardlocks, hour long renders... Ouch. That's what all those effects and layers will do I guess. Especially 4k60fps... poor compuper 😿 Might also need a drone that can shoot 4k60 and not the shockingly flat 4k30 that causes some wild issues when editing. One step at a time, got more important things at hand.
Anyway something something keep the forum warm for me while I find my way back out Tartarus k thnx byeeeee <3 (the signal down here is awful!!!)
Turns out the footprint for the 5050 LEDs were rotated 180 out of order compared to the actual footprint. The fab told me they couldn't just rotate the pick and place operation so I've had to re-submit it after making an amendment to the EasyEDA library for that component in hopes it doesn't trip anyone else up lol.
Just confirmed the pick and place pre-production file so ideally I should have these in a few weeks :)
Then it's a case of getting a set off to Ed and Maclak before looking to sell off the first batch. No idea on what I'll price these at yet, something sensible of course though.
I have 20 pairs manufactured currently since that made the most economical sense taking into consideration shipping costs balloon after you hit around 1.5kg total weight.
Look what we have here, a day early?
Must be feeling generous ;)
I finally finished the video. Soooo many countless nights staying up till like 6am to finish "just a little more" each time. I think it was worth it though :)
