Hey everyone,
After months of tinkering, soldering, and plenty of trial-and-error, I finally finished my own DIY foil assist and got it out on the water this week. I’d built a Gen1 style FD before, and was contemplating an integrated board build. Midway, I changed my mind after I saw the first pics of the Duotone assist (and also seeing SkyRama’s vids).
Having the weight on the hips is a no brainer. You barely feel the weight at all and your board is light, and there’s no drag! Thought I’d share a few highlights for anyone going down the same rabbit hole. Special thanks to @nekitesurfing for passing on his knowledge.
Setup:
- Motor: Saite 6384 (140 KV)
- ESC: Flycolor X-Cross HV3 160A
- Battery: Two 6S3P packs in series (12S total) built from Molicel P45B 21700 cells
- Wiring: 0.2 mm copper busbars + QS8-S anti-spark connectors
- Prop: FD 3 Blade Prop
- Control: Maytech V3 remote
- Box: Alu box and custom 3D printed components
- Harness: RideEngine
Performance:
- Pulls cleanly to take-off
- Alu box acts as a mega heat sink
- Runs strong until ~20-25 % battery
- I’m getting roughly 1h30 min of mixed riding
- No shoulder/ back/ hip fatigue wearing the box on the hips, unlike a backpack. It’s amazing!
Learned the hard way that half-plugged QS8s = smoke 
Here’s some pics I clicked during the build. changed the name from Firefoil to Firefly midway too.
Cheers!
