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Communications Hardware Hacking It's funny. Laugh. Transportation Build

A Scooter With Everything (For Certain Values of Everything) 74

Posted by timothy from the next-year-these-will-be-everywhere dept.
An anonymous reader writes "The folks over at Thought Lab have produced an extremely high-density mobile computing platform in a scooter and have been kind enough to teach us all how to make our own! The end result was a rolling system capable of long-distance war driving, GPS navigation, Skype calls on the road, serving as an Internet hot spot or a low-power pir8 radio station, as well as recording your favorite TV program so you don't miss Lost because you are lost. If that's not over the top enough, you can actually drive your scooter to, say, the Grand Canyon, plug in your electric guitar and perform live over the Web at a whim!"
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A Scooter With Everything (For Certain Values of Everything) More

A Scooter With Everything (For Certain Values of Everything)

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  • Water Proof? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Dancindan84 ( 1056246 ) on Thursday May 08, 2008 @10:54AM (#23338572)

    If that's not over the top enough, you can actually drive your scooter to, say, the Grand Canyon...
    Just hope it doesn't rain on the way there.
    • Is the pole on the back so you can pick up chicks and have them dance? At least you'd know why the guy behind you was following so close. Big screen plus being in traffic... I bet officers handing out tickets would get some very interesting excuses.

  • It's like that guy with the bike (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Animats ( 122034 ) on Thursday May 08, 2008 @10:55AM (#23338586) Homepage

    There was some guy who had a bicycle with all sorts of electronics on it about twenty years ago. He had an Internet connection using VHF amateur radio. He kept adding on more stuff, and ended up with a trailer on the bike and pedaling in low gear all the time.

    Today, it's kind of silly. Devices in the iPhone size class can do almost everything, so building all this gear into a vehicle is kind of pointless.

    • Re:It's like that guy with the bike (Score:4, Funny)

      by somersault ( 912633 ) on Thursday May 08, 2008 @10:57AM (#23338602) Homepage Journal

      Today, it's kind of silly. Devices in the iPhone size class can do almost everything, so building all this gear into a vehicle is kind of pointless.
      Time to start turning your iPhone into a scooter then? Or how about a surfboard made entirely of iPhones..

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      > Today, it's kind of silly.

      Plus it's a scooter.

      • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

        by Anonymous Coward
        They haven't quite figured out how to put WiFi in a fat chick yet. Just you wait.
    • Scooters get better gas mileage than a car but if you are war driving maybe you need more privacy since some people still get tagged for war driving. Usually vibration is less in a car. I wonder how far they can drive before the connections become loose and the whole apparatus stops working?
      • If you're just logging access points you can wardrive with a laptop in a backpack plus a GPS w/ serial interface. Who needs the huge screen? You can set up an audio alert when it finds one.

        • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

          by adaviel ( 1189751 )
          Who needs a serial interface ? Newer GPS come with Bluetooth. Or just use something like the Nokia N810. I mounted one on my motorcycle, with a 12V adaptor to let me run the backlight full-time. Primarily for the GPS, but war-driving would be easy. Or playing MP3s via B/T headphones, or getting email via GPRS in my cellphone. Slip it in your pocket when it rains, or you grab a coffee. 2.7 litres/100km, BTW.
          • Sure a smaller device like that internet tablet works too. I just figured you could get more power or put a better antenna on a laptop wireless adapter.
            • True. And of course one needs a Bluetooth antenna to hijack all those BMW sound systems ... if you can keep up on a scooter. http://youtube.com/watch?v=1c-jzYAH2gw [youtube.com] Back to the scooter; the camera's facing the wrong way. I am quasi-seriously thinking of a rearview camera on my bike; the forward view is 100% and superior to any car, the rear view not so hot - my shoulders block the mirrors and there's a blind spot right behind...
          • 2.7 L per 100km = 87.12 miles per gallon
    • Steve Roberts. Eventually the bike became too heavy to pedal (more or less), and he switched to a small boat. Eventually his small boat became to heavy to get around (more or less) so Steve got a big 44 foot sailboat. Sellout :-) But I think it beats sleeping in a wet sleeping bag every night.

      http://microship.com/ [microship.com]

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by PopeRatzo ( 965947 ) *

      so building all this gear into a vehicle is kind of pointless.
      It might be, for those of you who have lives.

  • wattache? (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Clearly it does not include a spelling checker.

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by somersault ( 912633 )
      I noticed that too. I'm thinking a wattache must be some kind of electronic personal assistant.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by jkua ( 1159581 )

      The spelling is painful, certainly, but some of the word choices are particularly terrible as well:

      The first major step in assembling this project is the tear down. We latterly (sic) striped (sic) this scooter down to the frame. Almost every major body part had some custom work done to it to facilitate all the gadgets in this project.

      Emphasis mine, of course.

  • This seems to be impractical to leave on the street while you run into your local coffee shop or 7-11 for a drink. I also suspect that it wouldn't hold up to an accident very well.
    • Not to mention very distracting while you're riding it!
    • Yeah first thing I thought was how well will it hold up when the bike is dumped.

      Also how distracting and interfering with your field of vision is that big ass screen? Distraction is a lethal thing on 2 wheels.
      • I have never met anyone who has dumped a scooter.
        A few people who have been hit by a car, one who was hit by a dog, but never anyone who dumped the scooter on their own.

        THAT takes talent.
        • Day one after getting my endorsement. Ahh spring in Seattle when the nice color matching black sand from the winter snow is still in abundance on the road and i was already on the brakes. It was on the ground before I had a chance to even think OH FU...

  • Disappointed - not knightrider (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    if it can't talk with pulsing red lights, i don't want to know about it.

    High density mobile computing platform rolls right off the tongue. puts the geek in geek scooter.

    if you get the grand canyon, don't stop at the ledge, keep going!

  • The Horror (Score:5, Funny)

    by explosivejared ( 1186049 ) <hagan.jared@g m a i l . c om> on Thursday May 08, 2008 @10:59AM (#23338652)
    Here we have the USB Camera pointing out of the front of the scooter where the horn normally would be.

    I suppose this is so you can capture the final expressions of horror from your victims as you crush them under the weight of your super-accessorized, all-powerful scooter from hell.

    In all seriousness, this is a pretty neat build. Convergence to the point of absurdity is always fun.

  • pir8? (Score:5, Funny)

    by randyest ( 589159 ) on Thursday May 08, 2008 @11:05AM (#23338712) Homepage
    Really, "pir8" -- not "pirate?" Wow, /. is so 1337 (rolleyes).
    • Don't worry, the signal won't get far enough to be "pir8" with that optimally-bad FM broadcast antenna placement. It should be placed on top of the WiFi high-gain antenna when pir8ing. Then it would have a range greater than the radius of the bike and not blow out the WiFi receiver's front end when turned on. (I'm assuming you turn off WiFi when transmitting,since an FM broadcast signal emitted from right there will wipe out any chance of receiving anything else.)

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by rasman1978 ( 1158339 )
      No need 2 get so ir8 about it.
    • take a chill pill and eat some t8r tots
  • Though range and speed would have been decreased greatly, the geekness factor could have been increased by putting all this equipment on a segway.
  • If it doesn't get as least 100 miles to the gallon, it shouldn't be allowed on the streets. Think fuel economy!

  • Am I allowed.. (Score:5, Funny)

    by wattrlz ( 1162603 ) on Thursday May 08, 2008 @11:14AM (#23338852)
    To imagine a beowolf cluster of these?
  • cook my hot pockets?
  • before all of that crap is stolen!
  • ..if it starts raining? That screen would get pretty messed up.
    • That's definitely something to worry about. I was shopping for a GPS to use in the car and motorcycle. While car GPS units have dropped to $150 or less, motorcycle GPS units are still $500+. The only other waterproof nav units are the Magellan Crossover or Magellan 2200T (now discontinued). Or you could put it away when it rains, but that's easy to do for a tiny GPS unit.
  • Well, this would be an interesting theft magnet. On the other hand, if you could set up the GPS with a script that would call home to a Web server with a location whenever it was able to get on wifi, it make recovery a bit easier.

    Of course, it's not much help if the thing gets gutted, and it requires the computer to be powered up, but it could be an interesting idea.
  • The ability to regain your self respect, dignity and your masculinity....because I'm sure riding that thing would really scream "PANSY".
    • Well scooters are like Big Women.. Fun to ride but you don't want your friends to see you.
    • The pansy factor aside, scooters like this are just plain nasty to ride for any distance. Put this into a real motorcycle of at least 750cc or greater and you have something that you can ride all day. I've often wanted to have a direct feed from the GPS or movie camera into a hard drive so I don't lose data or need to worry about changing memory cards. (We use the GPS data to plan rides, it's as important to know how far you are going as well as change of altitude when you are on a bike. Cagers (i.e. peopl
  • They should have chosen a better vehicle. Perhaps something like this [honda.com] they could have integrated the screen into the console and made it a really sweet ride. Somebody want to gift one to me so I can build it and post the results?
  • or at least a Gold Wing, I might be tempted. There's throughput and then there's speed....
  • I applied for a programming job there once. A couple of years later, a bunch of them jumped ship and wound up working for the company I work for now. I swear some of the guys over there make normal geeks look like hormone-enraged jocks.
  • ..is to make you look like such a nerd that women will avoid you like the plague.
  • The mount on the LCD looks like it was made out of tin and I guarantee you that the LCD vibrates enough to be unreadable even on idle, let alone moving. Not to mention the LCD is going to act as a great sail to catch wind and crank your bars to the right in a wind gust.

    What an ugly, slipshod project. Look, you can bolt a bunch of consumer shit to a piece of Plexi. Is that power regulated or are you just praying that the + line sits somewhere around 12V with no spikes?

    Also, due to the inappropriate 10-15 deg
  • Let me know & I'll tear all the gear off. Plus the Yamaha Vino 125 is one of the most expensive similar sized scooters out there @ $2700 base price. Adding what appears to be another $1000 bucks to that and making it useless in the rain coupled with an inability to park it anywhere, well I'm left wondering WTF good it is.
  • I use a scooter as my primary means of transport. I actually own 4 right now. I can see some value in the radio or repeator type things but most of it isn't needed. What I could use on a scooter is a cig lighter. That direct access to the scooters power system would be nice and with it you could plug any of the things on their list into it and go.

    Though I have thought about installing an amp and a guitar jack in the past. It just seems so perfect for getting away so you can jam where people won't get
  • I would also add a satellite data link [hughesnet.com] for those times when you are out in the wilderness with no wifi signals...

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