Same design, schematic view:
It started with the bike
When I moved to California I bought this 2017 Ducati Scrambler (Cafe Racer) from facebook marketplace. It rides like a dream and I can't put into words how much fun I've had with it.
​
Naturally, I do my own maintenance and began tinkering with all it's systems.
​
I decided I wanted to add network connectivity so I could implement a security system and remote start.
That's my bike in the Joby Aviation offices...
... and my buddy, Richie Owens. The first step was to oscilloscope the Ducati electrical and security systems. We rolled the bike into the office and hooked up to the Ducati 'immobilizer' circuit.
And that's the Ducati security system at work
The oscilloscope is showing the Ducati key 'immobilizer' circuit. We quickly realized this was a 125 kHz frequency: it was a simple low frequency RFID system. In hindsight it's funny that we didn't think of that right off the bat.
Breadboarding!
Next I put together a breadboard powered off my bike's battery. This allowed me to develop a proof of concept, test some 'modules' I wanted to use, define the state machine/implementation requirements, and verify power consumption estimates.
Then some PCB design
Once the breadboard confirmed the basic functionality, I set to work designing a PCB. I used Eagle, and the board isn't perfect (notice no 'flyback diodes' on the relays), but it works well enough for a V1.
C++ Finite State Machine
I put together a finite state machine (that is always evolving).
The state machine is ~900 lines long- though it could likely be a good bit shorter.
​
Check out this link to see the lucid chart 'requirements'/functional block diagram of the state machine: Link
V1.0 of the "Motorcycle Starter"
This is what the first version of the PCB looks like. It's powered by an arduino nano, is on the cell network, has temperature sensing, an IMU, 12V battery monitoring, RFID communication, and GPS location.
Next up: testing and integration.
_edited_edited.jpg)
This part gets a bit crazy..
This next part is a bit crazy, so bear with me. There are implantable and programmable RFID & NFC devices (similar to the chips some household pets will get). The photo to the left is a 'NeXT' RFID + NFC chip, next to a grain of rice. Now that my bike has an RFID reader and start functionality, I bought one of these chips and had it implanted in my right hand.
​
I can now start my motorcycle without my phone or a key, simply by waving my hand over the RFID antenna (the red coil in the photo above).
​
And of course,
a demo:
Here's a demo video I took the other day.
The board has great functionality, and now the final steps are to 3D print some housings for waterproofing and integration. I'm pretty stoked.
​
By the way, the text to start also works like a dream but I couldn't record it since I needed my phone to send the text!