I made a Custom Gotway Monster!

[WI_Hedgehog]

Really glad to see you suffered only minimal damage! A few scrapes and bruises and being stiff for a few days is excellent for splatting at that speed! That says a lot about your gear choices and skills! Also glad your custom wheel took the crash without being smashed! It's unfortunate this happened, though the good thing is the damage is limited to minor cosmetics for you and the wheel.

I ride in the city for transportation because it's faster than a car during high traffic hours. Yesterday I slowed way down due to fatigue and not feeling sure of my skills while tired, even stopping to rest a few times. What happens if we're riding alone and crash? If the PEV is damaged? If we get a flat? If the battery overheats? You have a reliable wheel and gear--smart, very smart. 

[Kekafuch]

Awesome thread! Any comment of 84v vs 100V monster? In particular the V3 ... is the board the same updates on both voltage versions?

[Arbolest]

1 hour ago, Kekafuch said:

Awesome thread! Any comment of 84v vs 100V monster? In particular the V3 ... is the board the same updates on both voltage versions?

As far as I know the board is mostly the same for 84v and 100v versions. The biggest difference is that the 100v board uses differently rated main capacitors (to deal with the higher voltage).

[NYCegor]

Would you be willing to make me one? Please message me 

[Daley1]

wheres the video footage of the crash????

[meepmeepmayer]

A video about this mod!

[uCmeEUC]

I loved learning about your wheel from Jimmy Chang and discovering this post. My favorite features are definitely the dash cams and massive speakers. I've always been a bit underwhelmed by the speakers in my Gotway wheels.

As a FYI, I shared out your content here as well:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/pimpmypev

[Fox]

@ArbolestDo you still recommend the control board swap for gen 1 monsters? My control board looks so different in shape, does it usually mount up similarly, without the severe redesign you made? Also my motor wires are soldiered to the board, did you just soldier on new 4.5mm bullet connectors to hook that up? Interested if it helps a lot, my monster actually has a lot of motor/powered on whine. Thanks, and love your custom monster!

[Arbolest]

4 hours ago, Fox said:

@ArbolestDo you still recommend the control board swap for gen 1 monsters? My control board looks so different in shape, does it usually mount up similarly, without the severe redesign you made? Also my motor wires are soldiered to the board, did you just soldier on new 4.5mm bullet connectors to hook that up? Interested if it helps a lot, my monster actually has a lot of motor/powered on whine. Thanks, and love your custom monster!

Hey there! I do indeed still recommend a control board swap! I notice from your picture that your Monster is apparently using an HB motor, which is good because that will be compatible with the V2 and V3 boards! Just to be sure however, check the motor code (small printing around the rim of the black metal cover plate on the motor itself, right side I think...) and make sure that it mentions "HB" as either a prefix or a suffix.

As to the motor whine/noise, the newer generation boards will diminish it, but will not completely eliminate it from a V1 motor. 

The new boards will almost certainly come with a new heat-sink already attached, and the mounting holes on the new heat-sink probably will NOT match up with the holes on the old one, but that shouldn't matter much. In V1 Monsters (that I have seen) Gotway used small wood screws to just screw straight into the flat plastic beneath the board and depended on the rubber gasket behind the heat-sink to deal with sealing it to the shell. As long as you're comfortable with traditional Gotway Quality, you can do basically the same thing here with your new board, even reusing the same hardware.

For the motor wire connections, are the wires actually run straight from the motor and soldered directly to the board?!?! Are you sure there aren't connectors partway along the wire? That style board usually had roughly 6-inch wires soldered to the board and terminated in the bullet connectors... If there are and they happen to be the right size (4.5mm) then you will be able to just plug the motor wires directly into the connectors on the new board. In your picture it looks like the connectors might be just at the bottom of the fiberglass sleeving. They should be individually wrapped in red and black heat-shrink tubing, and you will need to remove that in order to pull them apart. A word of caution though, make sure you have unplugged your main battery connection and discharged your control board before you get any metal tools near it! Also, be aware that you will probably need to put a sharp/hard 90-degree bend in the motor wires near the connector. This is because the connectors on the new board are a bit shallow and the motor wires stick straight up out of them, which can cause clearance issues with the shell.

 

One final note... The pair of cooling fans used in a V1 Monster are 5-volt fans, which are not compatible with the V3 boards which use 12-volt fans! If you do the swap, make sure to grab a pair of 12-volt 40mm fans off of Amazon or eBay or something so you can have proper air movement within the control board compartment! When I modded my Monster V2, I just bought a 4-pack of cheap ball bearing fans off of Amazon and used outdoor mounting tape to stick 2 of them to the inside of the shell aimed at the board. However, if I remember correctly the Monster V1 might have a reusable plastic frame that the fans attach to that is mounted to the shell directly, so you might be able to reuse that for mounting the new ones... Maybe xD

 

In summary, I do totally suggest upgrading your control board to an 84v version V3 board! The performance is great and will make it feel like a new wheel! Just be prepared to poke/drill some new screw holes in your case and spend an extra few bucks on a new 12v fan or two!