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Getting your scooter online

A working SIM and one SSH command are all it takes to get your unu back on the grid.

The short version

Your unu still rides. What it lost when unu shut down was its connection to the outside world, and getting that back takes two steps:

  1. Give it a working SIM. If the factory SIM is still in place, you may be able to keep it and reactivate its connection through Sunshine. Otherwise you fit your own SIM, which is the hardware part, and the only part that takes real effort.
  2. Install Radio Gaga. A small service that connects the scooter to Sunshine. One command over SSH, about five minutes.

The SIM is where nearly everyone gets stuck, not the software, so that is where most of this page lives.

The SIM swap means soldering on the MDB (Middle Driver Board). If that is not your idea of a good afternoon, jump straight to having someone else do it.

The factory SIM

The unu Scooter Pro has a 4G modem on its MDB, fed by an MFF2 SIM: a chip roughly 5 by 6 millimetres, soldered straight to the board. It was part of unu's cloud subscription, so when unu went insolvent, its connection went with it.

If your factory SIM is still in place, it is not necessarily lost. Sunshine offers connectivity plans for compatible original SIMs: link the scooter, have the connection verified, and reactivate it from the scooter's page. Nothing gets soldered.

If you would rather run your own SIM, or the factory one is gone, you need an MFF2 chip or a nano SIM adapter board. That is the soldering part, and the rest of this page is about it. Either way, the scooter is undemanding: around 50 MB a month, no fixed IP, and happy on any cheap prepaid or IoT data SIM with coverage where you ride.

Rather not solder at all?

We are working on ways to bring connectivity back without opening the scooter up. It is early, and how far we take it depends on how many people want it. Two minutes telling us about your scooter helps us judge that.

Take the survey

Swap it yourself

Comfortable with a soldering iron and SMD work? There are two routes, and both start the same way: open the scooter, pull the MDB, and remove the old MFF2.

Option A: a new MFF2 SIM

Solder a fresh MFF2 into the old one's place. It is the tidiest result and leaves the board unchanged. The catch is getting one as an individual: MFF2 SIMs are mostly sold to manufacturers. ThingsMobile is one supplier that will sell to you.

You will need a hot air station, fine soldering tools, and magnification. Not a first soldering project.

Option B: a nano SIM adapter board

Solder in a small adapter board with a nano SIM slot instead. It is a little more fiddly up front, but afterwards you can change SIMs by hand for good, no iron required. Most people pick this one.

You will need soldering gear (hot air preferred), an adapter board, and any nano SIM with a data plan.

Before you start

Both routes mean soldering close to other components, on a board that is not easy to replace. If you have never done SMD work, this is not the place to learn. A slip can kill the modem, and the MDB is not cheap. That is exactly why the options below exist.

Or have someone else do it

No iron, no problem. Pick whichever of these fits how hands-on you want to be.

  • Drop it off (Berlin)

    Bring the scooter to Fa. Wilhelm Zweiradtechnik and they handle the swap, while you wait or while you leave it with them.

    Contact: e.rollerberlin@gmail.com

  • Mail in the board

    Pull the MDB yourself (a few screws, no soldering) and post just the board to Fa. Wilhelm Zweiradtechnik or Starsong GmbH. Far cheaper than shipping a whole scooter, and it works from anywhere.

  • Buy a ready-made board

    Order an MDB that already has the nano SIM adapter fitted (from Starsong GmbH or Fa. Wilhelm), drop it into your scooter, and trade your old board back in for a discount. The least fuss, if you are happy unplugging and reseating the board.

Not sure which fits?

Send us a note and we will work it out with you.

Contact form

Install Radio Gaga

SIM sorted and the scooter online? The rest is quick.

1. Create a Sunshine account

Sign up at sunshine.rescoot.org. Accounts are free and open, just bring an email address.

2. Register your scooter

Add the scooter by its VIN: 17 characters starting with WUN, stamped on a riveted plaque on the left rear of the frame. Give it a name and a colour.

3. Generate a token and run the installer

On the scooter's page, hit "Generate New Token". You get back a one-line command:

curl -kLSs https://sunshine.rescoot.org/install/<OTP> | bash

SSH into the scooter, paste it, done. The installer does the rest: detects the platform, downloads the binary, verifies the checksum, writes the config, and sets up the systemd service. Call it 30 seconds.

The link expires after five minutes. If it lapses, just generate a fresh token. The short window is deliberate, since the token grants full access to your scooter.

4. Confirm it took

systemctl status radio-gaga

You want to see active (running). Within a minute or two the scooter shows up online in Sunshine, and battery, location, and state begin updating on their own.

What you get afterwards

With Radio Gaga running, you can:

  • Watch state, battery levels, and location update in real time
  • Lock, unlock, open the seatbox, and honk from anywhere
  • Have trips logged automatically, start to finish
  • Share the scooter with other Sunshine users
  • Get an alert the moment it moves while parked

Updates land on their own. You can also trigger one from the scooter page, or just re-run the installer.

Want to change how often it reports, wire up Telegram alerts, or turn a command off? That all lives in the Radio Gaga configuration reference. Curious before you commit to any of this? Try the live demo first.

Stuck?

The FAQ covers the usual snags. For everything else, Discord is your best bet.

Contact Discord