Hacking a mobility scooter for features and lights - EMF 2026

So, yes, this is hacking a mobility scooter. That is the mobility scooter. Um, this one is phenomenally dusty because I've been driving around EMF um for since since I arrived. Um, who am I? I am an amateur hacker. Uh, I'm not part of Hackspace. Um, I did a degree in computer science about 20 years ago. And I decided after turning up to um remote controlled chaos cart last time they were doing a lot of work with motors and um getting the thing moving. So, I own a device that already moves. It does it quite well. um it doesn't like the hills around EMF, but it does it quite well. I have well I can take all the other features they've got and work on this. So um yeah, I am not qualified, not in the slightest. Um anyone who gets to see my code will know this, but it's a it's a project. It's been a project for the last couple of years. Um, on a side note, when I'm showing up photos, there will be a fair number of photos of the red scooter on the left, which is not the one that's on stage. Um, that's because that one failed uh back in April. Uh, and I replaced it with this one, which is now uh here. The original list of um plans um had a few interesting twists to it. It turns out a fair number of those things are not as trivial as they seem and some of them are more trivial than they seem. Um so locks mobility scooters um all have a key on them which turns them on and off. And one of my initial thoughts was well I own three scooters. Let's make them all use the same key. The sen key turned out to be a terrible idea. Not least because you can buy them on Amazon for a couple of pounds. This is not secure. I'm fairly certain the um key that the more distinct keys that come with scooters are probably more secure. So, good idea. No. No, it wasn't. The next thing I looked at was fixed fixed speed traveling. Scooters are absolutely fine at going a decent speed, providing you've got your hand on the wigwag. The wigwag is, uh, the standard control levers that go around the middle of a scooter. Um, it's a fantastic technical term. Um, and actually with a very small amount of wiring, they are just a variable resistor on the inside. You can just wire a switch. Uh, the original switch is uh up there. That one took about quarter of a mile before it broke because that's uh that's where my foot goes and it wasn't sturdy enough. Uh replaced it with a much better quality switch. Um and I've just shorted out the wigwag. So when you press it down, whatever speed the speed dial is set at, you go full pelt, but it means you get both your hands. Um the um previous scooter had no useful voltage display. In fact, most scooters have no useful voltage display. They have a little needle that goes from red to orange to green that tells you absolutely nothing. And as someone with autism, I'd like to know what voltage I'm actually getting because that tells me how flat my scooter is. Um, so, um, I stuck up a This is designed for a a car system that just has voltage and three USB ports, um, on it and it's quite deep and the frame for this scooter isn't. So, I've had to set it off. Um, which has its own little set of problems. I own a 3D printer. I am very grateful I own a 3D printer because as is uh evidenced on the middle here, this little knob goes around with a notch on it. It goes around and it hits the um the USB supply. So, I 3D printed a solution and then I 3D printed a solution and then I 3D printed a solution where it didn't hit and then I did the same again. Um, a lot of the things I've designed and done have been benefited by a 3D printer cuz it allows me to design something, change it, or fit it, find out it doesn't work, change it, and do the same over the course of a weekend. I didn't quite touch um on the beginning side. I have me so I have very very limited energy levels which means that yeah I don't have time to send things off get them back send things off get them back I just don't have the energy for it so yeah a selection of things I've uh 3D printed um a control box um the frame for the USBs box it those were the prototypes for that box uh this is the prototype for the uh top of the scooter I've got on stage, which turns out to be a blindingly complex uh shape. I taught myself how to use Fusion 360. I'm not any good at it, but it's good enough. And it has now printed out as an actual item. Horns. Anyone who's used a Yeah, thank you. Thank you. Because the the original electron horn on this one does not work because the first thing I did was unplug it because it makes a horrible horrible tiny sound that makes your that one. Yep. >> Yep. Yep. They are pathetic. Um, the key phrase here is clown horn because Amazon will sell you something that goes honk for £850. Uh, likewise, bottle holder um, originally designed for a bicycle um, with a couple of large straps for attaching on a bicycle goes around the middle. Um, I've owned about four, [laughter] in fact, I think it probably says I've purchased three times. um for the number of those I've bought for various scooters over the years. Um but sometimes you don't have to go particularly hacky to solve these problems. Disconnecting the original horn and adding one on the side. Um likewise the little rubber clip is from Amazon so that it just it just not that well attached. Pulls off frequently falls off in the car but recips. Um there you went. So work out where I am in my talk. Um I have in fact I might be able to demonstrate this depending on the lighting in here. No, not visible. There is a set of LED lights that are underneath this scooter. Um, and I learned taught myself how to um program an Arduino. Uh, this is the uh original version. There is no wiring uh in that uh box. The second photo is after the spiders mess that was my wiring. I'm no good at this and it's fine. Um, yes, the Arduino is missing out its holder on this uh picture. I don't know quite what happened, but I fitted it in um later. And this box just has linear controls on the fact I think the previous photo is probably better. Not really. Linear controls on the front. Red, green, blue, white, which is intensity. And you just turn the turn the knobs and it turns the lights up and down. In this process, I discovered what happens when you put 24 volts through an Arduino. Um, it blows a hole off its case. It lets out magic smoke. Um, and luckily Arduinos are cheap. But I can't wire. Uh, this is evidenced. Um, and it doesn't matter when doing something like this. Blow things up, make a mess, be happy, because I learned way more from this mistake than I did from the few things that work first time. Um, likewise, AliExpress. AliExpress is a great place for getting everything. This is just a selection of the um bits I've been buying from AliExpress. Um anything that's designed for a car will typically work at 12 to 24 vol. The majority of scooters are 24 volts. Um which means you can just plug uh a lot of things straight in. Um and with a buck regulator switching it down to five volts um in the control panel or in the bottom of the control. It is not visible in that photo is it? Yeah. Bottom of the control box. Just uh any voltage in 5 volts out and then you can buy Arduino accessories. Um and add on whatever you like. Um the story on what happened with the two scooters. Um I am not an engineer. I'm barely a computer scientist at the best of times. Um so when the motor on the original scooter failed, I went to um eBay and I bought a replacement. I fitted it in. I discovered that the plus and minus wiring on the new one were backwards from the previous one. So first time I pulled the throttle, it went backwards. Always entertaining when you've then wired it in. So red goes to black, black goes to red, and you have to remind yourself, no, this is fine. The motor is wired backwards for a reason. Um, and that was Christmas roughly. Um, and last April the motor went again. Went just dead short circuit. Nothing's powered. I can't get these motors a second time. I tried. So, um, at this point, what I actually achieved was a new scooter. Um, scooters are surprisingly inexpensive. Um, especially if you buy them secondhand, especially if you have a local friendly um, scooter place that does tradeins, uh, which is where this one's come from, um, in Norwich. Uh, if anyone really wants to know what it is, TJ Zest Plus. Um, and this was April. Um, it turns out that a between April and EMF is not enough time to get it all fully working. Um, and [sighs] I have no idea what the second half of that sentence was going to be. Um, so I started modifying this one and lessons were learned. The control panel from the previous slide was down at my feet. It wasn't that accessible. It wasn't that easy to operate. And I had, well, why not? Why not do something better second time around? I've learned some lessons. Apparently, not enough. Um, and we come to this lovely device. This is a photo stolen off the internet, unlike everything else. Uh, because I'd wired it in before I remember to photograph it. Um, this is a cheap yellow display. It was about 10 or 12 from AliExpress. It is cheap. It is horrible. Um, and it has an ESP32 on the back that doesn't talk nice with an Arduino. It talks, but it doesn't talk nice. Um, didn't have enough inputs and outputs for the various sensors I wanted. So, I currently have both of them barely talking the same language. Um, both sat in the control box. But again, we can make failures. Um, in fact, the next slide shows the inside of the uh control box of that one. Um, and I 3D printed uh in increasing number of layers the um top piece that would end up on there to make sure that it fitted. It's not a straight. It's not parallel in any direction. It's curved at both ends. Um, and I learned way more about Fusion from this than I had anything from the previous scooter. But by failing, by trying, um, it can work. Um, the if I go through to the, uh, halfway produced one on the left there, um, a slightly taller one because it turns out that there's not enough volume in that. and a slightly taller one again, which I think Oh, no. That's me tearing it apart. Let's move that back. But I've torn this scooter apart dozen times. And every time I do, I learn something. The key the excuse me, the thing I learned most at the beginning is it starts off as a perfectly useful drivable device and I should not touch that. I'm not an engineer. I do not want this thing reclassed by DVLA as a car because as a class 2 scooter, it's fine. The moment it becomes a car, I need to get it I need to get it certified. I need to get it licensed. I need indicators, which this one doesn't have. Uh other scooters do. Um and I need to get a V5 for it and tax. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Uh let's leave that very much in its original configuration. But that doesn't mean I can't tear it apart. It just means I shouldn't touch the motor assembly. No, really. Um, so I touched everything else. Um, this one has a weird or wonderful quirk. The original screen that came with the uh, came with it that looks like it's just displaying a four LEDs for how much power it has or not. Um, turns out if you remove that, the whole thing won't power up. I have no idea why, but hiding in the middle of the control panel is the original screen still plugged in, hacked into everything else because if it's not in there, it doesn't work. No idea why. Don't think I care to know either because again, it's not necessary. How am I doing on time? Cool. Um, you don't have to be any good at this to do this work. I strapped I got some cheap I have no idea where I got this LED tape. I bought it for another project 10 years ago. Got some cheap LED tape uh rubber coated so I'm less likely to damage it unlike the screen which uh does come up in a second. Um, and I've just hot glued it to the bottom of the scooter. Um, as I say, I was hoping this might work for uh visibility. In fact, I might ask the lighting team if they can try turning the central light off and I'll see if I can get the uh LED strip tape to be visible. >> Yep. Changing colors slowly down there. It's got a couple of preset patterns on it. Thank you, text. Um, and that runs up through the Arduino, which is actually got the inputs and outputs for it. Um, up to the screen, which doesn't it has a single available input and output pin. [sighs] Um, and then I've just I've programmed the touchcreen for a variety of little controls. Um, if I'm out after dark, which is not a guarantee I have me, you will see this wandering around with its light display up because it's a bit of fun and it's just more interesting and more unique as as a as something that looks different. You don't see that many LEDs on scooters. And I've just hacked it together. the wiring that's connecting it's two sets of uh strips which means the RGB white or RGB power more accurately on both sides turns out to be exactly the same number of connectors as is in a network cable. So this is cat six. It's cat 6 cuz I didn't have any cat 5 lying around uh network which runs up through the through a bunch of wiring. I've just cable tied to the middle. Um runs up through here and all into the unit at the top. The where are we? Last couple of slides. Um my workspace has been a little challenging. I'm not part of a hackspace. Um this is my hallway. Um both my husband and my dog are terribly upset that I keep blocking the front door uh with it. Um, but I've learned um way more about connectors when doing this than I've ever liked because getting the thin LED tape to connect with thin wiring requires small connectors and small connectors are an absolute bugger to crimp. Um, and I've got through hundreds of them. There is a plastic tray of them visible on my desk. Yes, there. because I got through a lot and again I failed and I tried again and I succeeded. Um, and that's what this project is about. It's about proving that someone who works retail can take a device and can edit it and we can get something more interesting. Um, [sighs] I've got more than a few pages of Arduino code, half of which works, most of which currently doesn't. Uh, I have aspirations. There is in there a time module, a temperature module. I'm rather grateful the temperature module isn't working, otherwise I had to find out how hot it's been this weekend. Um, there is a clock. Um, my challenge, my challenge just before I left was I could either get the clock transmitting to the screen or the screen transmitting to the LED tape. So, currently the time says it's midnight and it's been saying midnight for the last 10 hours despite how hot it's been. Um, [sighs] and there will be more coding. I've discovered I do not know the correct way to code in Arduino. And that's fine. Um, and that's I I know I've said this once already, that is the takeaway is it's fine. You can do these things. I, as someone with little to no training, can do this. Um, and so can everyone else. My next steps are to finish the last bits of wiring. Um, it's not actually all quite plugged in, but it works. The scooter I've been driving Grand EMF all weekend. Um, so the scooter still works. And I will get the time working. I will get the temperature working because that's just code. And with enough time and enough effort, if I can do this, absolutely anyone can. Thank you. [applause]