I have finally decided to enter the 3D printing bandwagon. Having room for more hardware have always been the main inhibiting factor for not having done it longer ago. But with a little tidying up of the available space the impossible eventually became a reality. At least that was my reasoning, and the selection of a small resin printer seemed like an interesting choice in that respect, at least in what concerns the space occupied by the device itself.
In the previous post I had the chance of discovering and documenting most of what there is to learn about the communication between the LCD unit and the master ESC (speed controller) that drives the e-Scooter rear motor.
Most e-Scooters and other Electric Vehicles have some form of Electronic Speed Controller (ESC) which is responsible for delivering a power signal that will spin motors at the desired speed. The most common type of motors today are of the BLDC type (Brushless DC motors), which are typically driven by a 3-phase current.
One thing about these types of electric vehicles is that there is very limited care for normalisation, when it comes to allow different components to interoperate. Especially in respect to the digital communication between the parts of the system, one cannot expect any baseline currently.
I just went on holidays and did a road trip. Because Murphy is always lurking, I was taken by surprise with runaway window wipers. No matter what position of the wiper stalk, these would run in intermittent mode all the time, as long as the ignition would be on.
In these days where the exhausting of natural resources is an ever increasing concern, and the release of non-recyclable waste (which includes many electronic products) is a problem with no general solution in sight, being able to re-purpose devices that would otherwise be thrown to the garbage, can only be at all levels a welcomed idea. If we add to that the fact that in the current state of affairs, the semiconductor industry is experiencing a generalized production crisis, then re-purposing should have all the legitimacy it is entitled to have.
The Laotie Ti30 (and other similar chinese scooters) comes with a basic alarm device that is capable of locking the scooter via a remote control. These alarm boxes are usually dirt cheap and can be bought separately for 5 € on Aliexpress or similar seller.
Moving along with the range of improvements that this scooter requires - of which some are practically essential, the parts I needed for doing a few more improvements have conveniently arrived.
For those who know me, it is nothing new that among other things I am somewhat of a radio technologies enthusiast as well.
In the current state of affairs, it is an even more interesting field, considering how much it can be done without a significant financial investment. Radio technologies have evolved tremendously in a short time span. Some of that evolution can be directly attributed to the large demand caused by the mobile communications industry, but also by the computer and digital broadcast industry. All of these called for the development of highly integrated semiconductors capable of many functions, from the analog frontend and digital processing, to applications.
For some time I've felt the need to have a piece of equipment allowing me to measure inductance, impedance and a broader range of capacitance values. For the rest of the relevant types of measurements I've already had a digital multimeter and an oscilloscope, which have proven sufficient so far.
Some time ago I obtained from eBay a transponder control head. You may start asking what is such thing, and what does it have to do with a blog where most frequently, home automation topics are discussed.
When you decide to setup your own infrastructure in order to depend less on cloud providers, whether it be for saving money (depending on what you will be doing) or just for the sake of improving the technical knowledge, having more control, or both, you know you will be flying solo, at least to some extent.
