MEEPO V5 electric skateboard review – Unboxing, teardown, features and performance testing

I’ve just received an electric skateboard for review: the MEEPO V5. I initially thought I would skip that one since it’s not super relevant to the usual topics covered on CNX Software, but seeing bolts on the photos, I figured out it might still be interesting to do a teardown of the skateboard to see how it works. So here I am. I’ll also go through an unboxing first, and check its features and performance.

MEEPO V5 unboxing

The package was quite larger and longer than I expected.

That’s partially because there were two packages: one for the electric skateboard itself, and the other for a helmet. The skateboard is also quite bigger and heavier (8kg)  than the skateboards I tried to use when I was a child. The build quality looks excellent. There are some marks and dust on the wheels and deck because I tried it before taking the photo.

Accessories include a 42V/1.5A charger with its power cord, an M6C remote controller, a USB-C cable for charging the remote control, and a T-tool for maintenance tasks such as accessing the battery compartment. There’s also a warning sticker and user manual in English with safety instructions, riding basics, skateboard description, and a guide for the remote control.

The bottom side has two compartments, one for the electronic speed controller (left) and the other for the battery (right). Each wheel pair is attached to a 45° truck.

Here are the specifications from the manufacturers:

• Range – 18 km
• Top Speed – 45 kph (28 mph)
• Motor Power – 2x 500 Watts
• Deck – 8 Ply Canadian Maple
• Hill Climbing – 18% / 10°
• Trucks – 5th Gen Shredder 45° Truck
• Wheels – 90x60mm, 78A
• Electronic Speed Controller (ESC) – LY-FOC 24H
• Max Load – 150kg
• Battery
  • 144Wh capacity
  • Charging Time – 2.8 hours
• Dimensions – 968 x 282 x 144 mm
• Weight – 8kg
• IP Rating – IPX5

MEEPO V5 electric skateboard teardown

Let’s start the teardown. It should not be too hard since there are bolts and screws.

I used the provided T-tool for the teardown as shown in the photo below. With a tool similar to an Allen key at the top, and the T-shaped part of the skate tool at the bottom.

This reveals the ESC marked “FOC Sinusoidal Wave ESC suitable for V5/MINI5 Series” with 10S/36V voltage and 2x 12A current. That would be 432W x2, but let’s say it’s close enough to the advertised 500W x2.

We can remove a few more screws to take out the cover.

The ESC appears to be potted with black resin, so we won’t be able to check out the circuit board. However, we can see the yellow battery connector, the wires going to the two rear wheels, two 470uF capacitors, the black antenna wire, and a 4-pin connector that might be used for debugging/firmware flashing.

Time to check the battery compartment.

There’s just the battery inside and the associated cable, and nothing else.

The model is C540-A1-10S2P. Specifications include a 36V nominal voltage, a 4,000 mAh capacity (144Wh), 154 x 101 x 42 mm dimensions, and a weight of 980 grams.

We can disassemble the front wheels, but those are just passive wheels, and there’s not much to see here.

The driving wheels on the rear are secured to the skateboard with a similar mechanism.

I attempted to remove one of the motorized wheels by loosening the central bolt and five screws, and this removed the outer part of the wheel.

However, I could not fully disassemble them, as they are secured with special screws for which I don’t have a suitable screwdriver.

So I’ve reassembled the skateboard after that. The important parts are to properly align the waterproofing pads for the battery and ESC compartments and stop tightnening the bolt when you start feeling resistance, or the screw may penetrate the deck.

Let’s now do a teardown of the MEEPO M6C remote. We’ll need to loosen five screws here.

There’s a 3.7V/800mAh battery here, and we can also see the PCB antenna, the USB-C charging port, and the thumbwheel with its spring. The thumbwheel is not attached to the board at all, and instead relies on two magnets to indicate its position.

The silkscreen reads “SZ01–TFT00147-M6C-V2.2”, and the board is made by a company called LINGYITECH, or LY TECH for short. The company made the ESC for the MEEPO V5 as noted in the specifications.

We can have look of the top of the board by removing a few more screws.

From left to right, we have a PCB antenna-like design for the magnets of the thumbwheel, the color display, two buttons, and a vibration motor. The microcontroller is labeled “XCKJ3632E”, but there is no public information about it on the web.

MEEPO V5 features and performance testing

Let’s power on the skateboard by pressing the power button. The first time, we are supposed to press it for 7 seconds to enter pairing mode, press the POWER button on the remote for 3 seconds, then press the FUNCTION and POWER buttons at the same time for pairing. My remote was already paired, so I didn’t have to perform that step.

We can switch between the four gears by double-pressing the FUNCTION button.  The gear number and color will change. The first time, the user should try the skateboard with gear 1 for his/her own safety…

Pushing the thumbwheel forward will brake, and when the skateboard is immobilized, a parking icon will show.

Moving the thumbwheel backward will drive the skateboard forward or backward, depending on the selected direction. I place the stakeboard on a chair to test the maximum speed for each gear without a load. That would be 7 mph (11 km/h) in first gear, 11 mph (18 km/h) in second gear, 20 mph (32 km/h) in third gear, and 29 mph (46 km/h) in fourth gear.

There’s also a cruise control mode, which can be triggered by pressing the power button while you accelerate.

Here’s a quick demo of the cruise control mode in first gear.

I did all tests in mph mode, but at the end of the review, I noticed an “adjustable parameter” mode that allows the user to switch to kph and adjust various settings for the gears and more. To access this mode, we need to turn off the remote, long-press the FUNCTION button, and press the POWER button to turn the remote on. I could switch to kph mode.

You can see all other parameters below. The radio frequency is set to 2402 MHz by default.

After saving and restarting the remote control, I was indeed shown kph values.

I also tested the MEEPO V5 electric skateboard on the road. At first, I did not use any load, but in higher gears (3/4), there would be plenty of wheelpin and the skateboard would end up in a Hollywood-style, uncontrolled spin minus the explosion at the end. So I used a load of about 14 kg as shown in the photo below.

I then accelerated from a full stop in all four gears and recorded the action in the video below.

I could also switch between forward and reverse mode by double-pressing the POWER button on the remote. In theory, the user can also change the brake mode by holding the brake and pressing the FUNCTION button once, but this did not work for me. I’m not sure what I did wrong here.

Since I’m useless when it comes to sports where balance is required, I asked somebody who could. Kuljira can already skate with rollerblades well, so she gave the MEEPO V5 electric skateboard a try.

Within a couple of minutes, she could ride the skateboard in a straight line in first gear at about 5 km/h, and it took a few more minutes to properly make turns. More practice will be needed to feel more comfortable with the skateboard and increase the speed, but we had to stop when it started raining.

I’d like to thank MEEPO for sending the V5 electric skateboard for review. It can be purchased on Amazon for $379 and on the company’s store for the same price, but under the name “MEEPO M1”.

Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)

Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.

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