Xiaomi Scooter Firmware Hacking Gets Hands-On

A Xiaomi 3 Lite dashboard with the panel taken off and the PCB visible, four wires connected to the SWD header.

Scooter hacking is wonderful – you get to create a better scooter from a pre-made scooter platform, and sometimes you can do that purely through firmware modifications. Typically, hackers have …read more Continue reading Xiaomi Scooter Firmware Hacking Gets Hands-On

Xiaomi Cryptographically Signs Scooter Firmware – What’s Next?

The dash of Xiaomi Mi 1S scooter, with the top panel taken off and an USB-UART adapter connected to the dashboard, sniffing the firmware update process

[Daljeet Nandha] from [RoboCoffee] writes to us, sharing his research on cryptographic signature-based firmware authenticity checks recently added to the Xiaomi Mi scooter firmware. Those scooters use an OTA firmware …read more Continue reading Xiaomi Cryptographically Signs Scooter Firmware – What’s Next?

How To Make an Electric Scooter Chain Sprocket With Nothing But Hand Tools

Sometimes, mechanical parts can be supremely expensive, or totally unavailable. In those cases, there’s just one option — make it yourself. It was this very situation in which I found myself. My electric scooter had been ever so slightly bested by a faster competitor, and I needed redemption. A gearing …read more

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Indonesian Jungle Vespas

Typically, we associate Vespas with Italians, riding their posh scooters midday under the heat of the Mediterranean sun. In one community, however, the riders and vehicles are pretty different – and by that we mean a whole lot different. Think Mad Max: Fury Road meets The Jungle Book.

The …read more

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Liberating Birds For A Cheap Electric Scooter

A few months ago, several companies started deploying electric scooters on the sidewalks of cities around the United States. These scooters were standard, off-the-shelf electric scooters made in China, loaded up with battery packs, motors, and a ‘brain box’ that has a GPS unit, a cellular modem, and a few more electronics that turn this dumb electric scooter into something you can ride via an app. Dropping electronic waste on cities around the country was not looked upon kindly by these municipalities, and right now there are hundreds of Bird and Lime scooters in towing yards, just waiting to be …read more

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