Hello everybody! I hope my question is not trivial and not been discussed yet.
I’m wing foiler with some years of experience. I already have a few boards and north sonar foil with different front wings e stabs
My aim is to (TRY TO) build a foil assist system in a backpack, something similar to the new Duotone foil assist system:
[YouTube Search: “Duotone Foil Assist 2026”]
and I also saw this video about using the 6384 cheap flipsky motor:
[YouTube Search: “Building a Cheap eFoil that Works! | With 6384 FlipSky Motor 140kv”]
So I have a few questions:
First of all: the backpack solution, hosting battery and ESC, is something that can be realized in DIY, or too complicated, unhandy? Every point of view is welcome!
The 6384 flipsky motor is something I should avoid? I see post of people changing bearings… is it too make waterproof? it’s not waterproof by design? I’still pretty confused about the hardware…
Search for other threads regarding this matter. Many have built with success backpack assists and most of the information is in this forum.
I am building one at the moment, I put out the specs in a thread a few weeks ago (search for backpack assist or assist on the back, and you will find relevant info).
I can also answer to your questions, but have in mind that I am still on the building process of my first assist and my experience is limited:
Yes, totally possible. Find a waterproof (IP67) box small enough to fit your battery and controller (I went for a camdenboss).
I have ordered the saite 6384, others use FS or cheaper aliexpress. Others should answer on waterproofing.
Others told me that FS foldable propeller is not good. The one from foildrive is recommended. I will try one made by a member in this forums (@Jordi).
Thanks so much, I’m now browsing the other posts and look for a simple backpack project I can follow… just a question about the propellers, it seems not possible to buy just the propeller on the foil drive website… where is it available? does it fit with all the motora out there? or do I need an adaptor from Flipsky??
Thanks again for the help!!
In europe you can buy just the prop from foil drive, not sure how it is in the other continents. But then you might need an adapter, this can easily be 3d printed.
Thanks a lot guys, do you know a good post here with “The shopping list” for a basic kit?
I’m not really able to find a shop to buy 1 single saite, as Alibaba requires me a minimum of 2 units…
I was going with those flipsky modules but I’m not even sure they fits togheter or if I’m missing somthing:
Flipsky motor 6384
Controller VX3
Mini Vesc
As my first diy e-foil didn’t want to spend too much as I’m pretty sure I’m gonna make lots of errors, at the same time didn’t want to completely waste money on the wrong hardware…
Thanks again to everybody! And Good Flight to all!
You can buy single motors on Aliexpress.
The Flipsky handset VX3 is a total disaster, they ALL fail eventually. We have had more than 10, probably closer to 20 and even with additional waterproofing they are all dead. The Maytech is not perfect but far superior to the VX3
In the end I swicthed to the VX5 as it seems it hasn’t many problem so far.
Then I’ve ordered the Flipsky DC 6384 (with foldable propeller) and the FSESC 75200.
I also need a motor mount for the mast and a dry box to store the battery and esc: any suggestion about those components?
Am I missing any other components?
For istance, is the antispark swicth kind of mandatory?
Cheers to every suggestion here!! Peace & Foil
I would have a look at full builds people have posted, ones with confirmed working results. You can also have a look on Youtube. My build is Flipsky waterproof 6384 motor, VX5 remote, non-folding 3 blade prop from flipsky (so far works fine), and an old slingshot hoverglide setup with an infinity 84 front wing. I think my slingshot setup is my biggest barrier now. The motor and vesc are working fine ATM it seems. I’m using gear 13 to get planing but need gear 14 to fly. But when I fly, I seem to accelerate uncontrollably. This didn’t happen when I took an efoil lesson on vacation recently, so I’m guessing the power delivery is ramping up once the friction of the board leaves the water and maybe I have to do something with the throttle curve. Not sure, but I suspect my slingshot hoverglide foil setup from 2017 is also holding me back (with a huge front wing - infinity 84). I went for the 75200 pro vesc and it took a lot of reading in the forum and a lot of great help in troubleshooting my issues (and dumb mistakes). A note on the VX5 vs VX3, I think it’s a way better remote with the gears option (like most efoils on the market these days). I bought the one with the clear plastic and I do notice some micro water droplets in the casing after a session. I always try and hold the remote up and out of the water when I bail, but am not 100% successful. So I wonder where the water is entering and if these remotes will have the same issues as the VX3’s in the ling run. Hopefully not
Thank you Tolson. So far I went for:
Flipsky DC 6384 (with 2 blades foldable propeller)
Flipsky FSESC 75200 (with aluminium case)
Flipsky VX5 controller
I’m now diving into the battery building process…
I have a question and a tip
QUESTION: I’m struggling to pair the remote with the VESC,
did you go with UART connection?
Receiver is powered, remote says it’s paired with the receiver, but I’m NOT able to accelerate the motor or get any informations, I only receive a ESC LOW VOLTAGE warning on the remote
I’m able to make the motor spin via the VESC TOOL (Motor FOC tests) so I think I’m missing something on connection/configuration…
Any idea?
TIP: I have quite a lot of experience in wing foiling: When you are learning the power you need to take off it’s way too much to fly, expecially with big front wings.
Here you basically have 2 options:
reduce the motor power as soon as you feel you are taking off, while pushing the front of the board down to keep control. It’s normal to have a “dolphin style” the first times. Better to retouch the water after take off then bend back, you will loose control and the foil will breach out the surface.
Another option is: when you feel you have some speed but not enough to take off, you can try some “flat pumping”: basically you are trying to engage the foil with the help of your body movements. If the foil enganges it will lift you up even a little bit, you will feel the speed increasing without increasing the motor power. Then, if the speed it’s enough and the pumps are effective, you will take off with control.
Also a combination of this 2 tecniques can be a good way!
Remember: you have control in flight only when you are able to push the nose of the board down towards the water. In that way you are feeling all the responsiveness of the foil.
I hope it helps
Good tips for sure. I am able to fly with the board level, it just feels so squirrely and fast that I bail after about 3 secs of riding. Front foot pressure us so harsh, my front foot is almost at the nose of the board (135L). I was going to try shimming the stab, but my bolts are seized, sigh. I will try backing down on the throttle or the other trick of pumping the board. I’ve tried pumping it before takeoff before and couldn’t get the knack of it, but my foiling experience is limited to a bit of kiteboarding and the efoil lesson.
As far as the remote… I had the esc low voltage warning on the remote as well when I was in PPM mode and it drove me nuts for at least a week. I believe that means the remote is not getting info from the battery. That’s what that blue pigtail is for - to attach to the battery to get the readout. But once I switched to UART mode (that the video doesn’t really explain so well, so I’m not surprised you fell into the same trap) the warning disappeared and I could get all readings on my remote. As far as not being able to get the prop to spin with the remote, did you go right for the gears settings instead of the L, M, H? If so, it won’t spin on gear 1 for me. I had the same frustration and finally found a video that fixed the issue. You need to start in gear 3 or higher to have it spin. It may even be a different number for you. I wonder if this is a safety thing so the prop won’t spin if you inadvertently hit the trigger
I’ll throw some pics up after my next session. They are pretty micro water droplets, but definitely not condensation as they are only in clusters. There were very few. But I wonder if it’s getting in at the trigger and I’m only seeing very little of the ingress
Thank you and good luck!
For anyone else struggling with the VX5 FSESC75200 UART connection this post from @janefoil helped me a lot:
In the end there are 2 simple things to be done:
in the VESC TOOL choose “UART” (only) as input option.
I was going with “PPM and UART” but then I read better and it’s expecting controls data over PPM and UART is used to give back info to the remote controller.
Use the “PERFETCT MATCHING CABLE”. I was using the cable (coming with the remote box) which has one pin less from the one coming from the ESC. I thought the wires were matching correctly by aligning the ground and the v5 pin, but it is not. (picture in the post above)
Using another cable (coming with the VESC box) which fits perfectly by the number of pins solved my issue right away. I had the hint from the Janefoil post linked above. Here is the picture:
I’ve been developing a backpack assist unit over the past few months using mainly Flipsky components.
The system runs on 6S battery packs, which means you can take up to 20 batteries on a flight without issues.
The backpack works extremely well and is a relatively straightforward build. Once you’re on the board, you hardly notice the 3.7 kg weight at all. I’ve also had zero connection problems, as the receiver is positioned on your back.
Amazing! That’s exactly what I wanted to build…
Can I ask you about the cable with the triple wires and the connector? is it self made?
Kudos for your build!
