Getting your scooter online
A new SIM, one SSH command, and your unu is back on the grid. Here is the whole path.
Contents
The short version
Your unu still rides perfectly. What it lost when unu shut down was the connection to the outside world. Getting that back takes two steps:
- Give it a working SIM. The factory SIM was switched off and will not come back. This is the hardware part, and the only part that takes real effort.
- Install Radio Gaga. A small service that connects the scooter to Sunshine. One command over SSH, about five minutes.
Almost everyone gets stuck on the SIM, 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 thing, jump straight to letting someone else do it.
Why the SIM is dead
The unu Scooter Pro carries a 4G modem on its MDB. The SIM feeding it is an MFF2 chip, roughly 5 by 6 millimetres, soldered straight onto the board. It came as part of unu's cloud subscription, so when unu went insolvent and the cloud went off, the SIMs went with it.
There is no reactivating them. The only way forward is to give the modem a SIM that has its own data plan.
The good news: the scooter is undemanding. It sends roughly 50 MB a month, needs no fixed IP, and is happy on any cheap prepaid or IoT data SIM as long as there is 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 shape that.
Swap it yourself
Comfortable with a soldering iron and SMD work? You have two routes, both starting with the same job: open the scooter, pull the MDB, and remove the old MFF2.
Option A: A new MFF2 SIM
Solder a fresh MFF2 chip into the old one's place. It is the tidiest result, and nothing about the board changes. The catch is sourcing one as an individual, since MFF2 SIMs are mostly sold to manufacturers. ThingsMobile is one place that sells them.
You will want: 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 bit more fiddly up front, but then you can change SIMs by hand forever after, no iron required. This is what most people pick.
You will want: soldering gear (hot air preferred), an adapter board, and any nano SIM with a data plan.
A word of caution
Both routes mean soldering close to other components on a board you cannot easily replace. If you have never done SMD work, this is not the place to learn it. A slip can kill the modem, and the MDB is not cheap. When in doubt, the options below exist for exactly this reason.
Or let someone else do it
No iron, no problem. Pick whichever of these fits how hands-on you want to be.
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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
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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.
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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.
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.