Electric Motorcycle Gets New Features Thanks to Arduino Upgrade
Redditor Sichroteph purchased a Super Soco TC Max electric motorcycle and used an Arduino to add some new features.
Due in large part to the success and popularity of companies like Tesla, electric vehicles are finally becoming commonplace. That is fantastic news, because electric vehicles offer many benefits over their dinosaur fossil-burning counterparts. While cars are currently the most common electric vehicles, electric scooters and motorcycles have started to flood the market. Unlike the car market, which is dominated by Tesla, the two-wheel electric vehicle market is crowded with competitors. Many of those manufacturers are selling vehicles that are lacking in features. Redditor Sichroteph purchased an electric motorcycle that was missing features they wanted, so they added them by outfitting their bike with an Arduino upgrade.
The bike in question is a Super Soco TC Max electric motorcycle. It has a 3900W powerplant, a range of 110 Km (68.4 miles), and a top speed of 95 Km/h (59 mph). The TC Max’s MSRP is $5,100, which is a little bit pricey when you consider that you can buy a Kawasaki Ninja 400, which offers far better performance, for about $100 less. Still, that price is pretty good for a well-reviewed electric motorcycle. For reference, Harley-Davidson’s new LiveWire electric motorcycle costs about $30,000. Regardless, Sichroteph felt that their Super Soco TC Max needed some more features and they implemented them by adding an Arduino and an old Samsung Galaxy S6 smartphone
The Arduino is connected to key parts of the bike’s electrical system and communicates with the Galaxy S6 through an HC-05 Bluetooth module. The Arduino can, for example, monitor the Super Soco TC Max’s battery pack voltage to determine how much battery life is remaining. Additional features include an alarm system, turn signal gauge indicators, a digital speedometer, and gate opener (through a 433 Mhz radio module). Many of those features, including the speedometer and indicators, are shown on the Galaxy S9. As much of the phone’s software as possible was disabled and it now runs a custom UI app instead. The speedometer works by monitoring movement speed using GPS, though there is a short lag. The other features are handled by the Arduino through the Bluetooth connection. This kept Sichroteph from needing to make a lot of modifications to the bike, while giving them a lot of new features.
Car and motorcycle enthusiasts often decry electric vehicles, because they feel like they’re just big computers and therefore can’t be customized. But Sichroteph’s work proves that there is plenty of hacking and tinkering that people can do on their electric vehicles.
