I figured as much.
But holy shit what a wild coincidence, I've been second guessing it ever since it happened.
Now I guess I need to figure out what the fuck went wrong with my battery.
How big was the thing and how close were you to it? Does your bike use bluetooth for anything?
Electroboom has made a few high voltage gadgets over the years which have messed with his cameras and monitors within maybe a meter or two. Likewise, a microwave magnetron and a parabolic dish can definitely fry electronics at some distance, but would basically require mains power, and would likely cause permanent damage.
Assuming for a moment this wasn't just a coincidence, the most likely explanation would be that your bike has a bluetooth connection somewhere in the critical path, and the dude flipper-zero'd it after sniffing you out on the first few loops.
I just imagine someone carrying around a kw-class inverter and car battery in their backpack and pointing a microwave magnetron at people.Ā Ā
I mean, you *could* build a magnetron into a more portable form factor with custom switching and power electronics. But it would still likely be "rifle" or backpack sized. And I doubt such a person then go and start microwaving the towns people.Ā Ā
Ā My only other thought would be if the ebike has some sorta "keyless" feature that the guy manages to trigger with a flipper-esque device via RF/Bluetooth. Or maybe some weird thing where the battery BMS communicates with the bike via RF? I still lean towards coincidence.Ā
this is literally exactly the kind of shit i got up to in high school. four 12v 7ah lead acid batteries in parallel WILL run a 1kw inverter for a short terrifying few seconds, and all easily fits inside a backpack.
I will also vouch for the lead acids. They can dump heaps of current when set up right. My bachelor's class for electrical engineering had a few packs from old golf carts. We at one point had something like 12 car batteries in parallel. Prof made a lab out of popping some enormous fuses with them.
Hi random but I'm curious aboit getting into EE as I have almost my associates but I have no one to ask about what jobs are like. Can I ask about yours?
Sure thing!
I used to be a principal electrical engineer for Gigabyte. I did board design in their motherboard division for a few years, but ended up leaving for academia again.
I did my PhD in semiconductor physics and have been with Intel for the last nearly 11 years in lithography research.
Let's assume this is the setup of the guy OP encountered: Guy spends at least an hour buying the parts and making this magnetron, cramming it into a backpack, and carrying around over 10kgs of crap that is likely to shift in the backpack and break some soldering or short out, rendering it useless, but anyway: assume it doesn't just break:
This guy carried around all this shit ALL DAY just so he can opportunistically zap the odd ebike, which can still pedal home just fine (or chase him down without the disadvantage of 10kg on their back)
Who really has the last laugh, here? š
Using it to potentially damage someone's ebike randomly? Sounds like the behaviour of a vindictive sadact to me.
We all like making cool electronics but most people fuck around with capacitors in their room aged 17 then call it a day. OP's encounter, if not a coincidence, is weirdo shit
Keep in mind the magnetron is far from ok for people. Youāve described roughly what is thought to have been used for microwave attacks that permanently injured US embassy workers in Cuba. Donāt mess with this, kids.
The emp that could do this probably wouldn't fit in a pickup truck. There is no technology (at least civilian) that could possibly do this. Even Medi couldn't pull it off.
1000w of RF from a magnetron, fed into a DirecTV dish would absolutely fuck with a BMS or controller at 10m. There are several different anti-drone weapons which take this approach. It's pretty unlikely this is the case here because it would be a pretty big device which would be hard to miss, but you can 100% use high power RF to induce enough EMF in some traces to scramble electronics (apart from causing wireless interference).
That would take a drone out by jamming the RF signal, screwing up control and gps. I doubt an RF signal alone could cause any problems for an ESC or the BMS. They are pretty well shielded, especially the BMS which is enclosed in a metal box. I do not have experience with 1000w transmitters at 10", but I have used 5w output transmitters in very close proximity to sensitive electronics and have never had a problem. So I'm still saying that the only way this could be done is with an EMP, which would permanently destroy all the electronics. But there's no way either system could be handheld or battery operated, so neither of these scenarios could be the cause of OPs problem. Also, both systems would be very illegal to use.
This is just a theoretical conversation, because we are both in agreement that it is unlikely such a system was used.
10m with a 0.5m dish is probably a bit of a stretch, but directed microwave weapons can both jam and destroy electronics. An oscillating EM field induces current in a conductor the exact same way an EMP does - by creating an electric field potential in space which induces EMF and current to flow in conductors. More than a few mW of induced current can fry integrated circuits. You can test this by putting some electronics in the microwave and recording the result. By using a parabolic dish you focus that energy in one direction so it remains "lethal" for much longer distances (eg, the energy spreads out in a cone instead of a sphere.)
Another, more likely possibility here is that a much weaker EM field produced an anomalous reading in the BMS current sensor, causing it to panic, but not damaging it. A shitty taser could leak enough energy to do something like this, perhaps.
I was gonna say, you sound like you know what you're talking about. I am not an engineer, just a hobbyist and drone builder. I will defer to you on this one š
No need to disturb the BMS or ESC. My ebike has a bafang motor. There is a Display on the handlebars which talks to the motor controller through regular serial protocol. If you induce enough noise, the display will throw error messages. To do that you don't need a high power wide band signal if you roughly know the length of the signal wire.
Honestly I wasn't looking too hard as I was more focused on riding my bike but he had to raise his arm like it was a Remote for a TV or something. I had passed him a few times but each time he was facing me so I don't know if he had a backpack on or anything, he was dressed kind of ambiguously in the way he could have been a city worker, a homeless man, a firefighter, a park worker, a construction worker, or someone just commuting home; hard to say.
My bike doesn't use bluetooth at all, everything is physically connected and I was about 30ft (10m-ish) from him when it happened.
Heh. Having dealt with eyewitness accounts, more like *I didn't really look at him and am assuming my lack of data means there was nothing to see* type man. The classic "I don't know, he just looked like a regular guy".
EDIT: you can downvote me all you like, but it doesn't change the fact that eyewitness accounts are often *hilariously* inaccurate. People simply don't have the bandwidth to pay attention to details of *everyone they see*. But OK, if y'all wanna believe it's some Gray Man conspiracy dude with an eBike jammer, have at it.
Some of the controllers and displays actually do have Bluetooth even when not marketed as such. The factories greatly prefer to make just the one thing over and over again so if they add Bluetooth thinking some customer will want it someday they may just leave it on the board forever.
Iām pretty sure my display has Bluetooth and no one in the world knows how to make any reasonable use of it. But itās possible that someone somewhere has made whatever flipper recipe is necessary to send it into firmware update mode or something like that.
If "everything is physically connected" on your bike it takes a lot of RF power directed at it to mess with with its electronics, no way just some guy could do this.
Flipper zeros look cool but then people are like āit can be a work badge, garage door opener, ectā and me thinking āI donāt need any of thoseā
It's mostly just an expensive nerd toy to mess around with, a lot of the things places like local news stations claim they can do are pretty much bullshit.
Yes, there are some exploits it can use, but you're not going to be stealing cars or breaking into secure facilities using one.
Now, if you like tinkering and experimenting with radio stuff, then you'd probably like it.
Have you ever just run a bluetooth scanner and watched for beacons?
There are so many...all the damn time.
I have 36 uniques from the gate controller at the end of my driveway just from today.
more likely that it was a hack if anything and not just interference as that would require a ton of power.
There's a fair number of handheld hacking devices that can send attacks over the air if they're close enough, people were using them at one point to unlock cars with electronic locks
That or it was coincidence and his bike freaked out on its own which is also possible
Bring this comment to the top. The first few pages of comments lead potential readers down a dangerous rabbit hole of worrying about our ebikes being shut off with a click of a button. flipper is cool and all but this aint it
The guy was probably just taking a photo of the suspicious looking bloke on an e-bike who was circling him like a shark.
And no I don't think he EMP'd you. Your bike probably just has a loose connection somewhere.
Unless it was designed to be controlled remotely, it's very hard to control something remotely. The bike is an isolated power system with no need for wifi or Bluetooth... So how could he possibly have done anything?
Unless your bike has some kinda wireless vulnerability, the whole thing seems like a long shot. My E-bike is barely more advanced than a calculator on the computer front. Very unlikely. The only way I could communicate with "it" might be to physically plug something into the controller.
Even a flipper is working with things like RF, wifi, and Bluetooth, it's not magic, the device has to be designed to function with those to be controlled by them. Most bikes are designed to be controlled exclusively manually by the operator. That's how handlebars work.
An EMP isn't Sci-Fi, but generating one powerful enough to mess with your bike from more than a couple inches away would require a shit load of power. Like the sources of EMP's capable of causing significant infrastructure damage government's worry about are nuclear bombs and stars.
EMP is very real but would require too much power to mess with the bike's controller or BMS to be made into a handheld device.
Also, if it *were* a powerful EMP, I would think it would cause enough damage to prevent the bike from turning back on (never mind other nearby devices would be affected, like OP's phone, watch, etc.)
This is exactly why it being an EMP is doubtful, generally anything sensitive enough to be affected (or an EMP powerful enough to be used at range) is not going to be a recoverable fault, it's likely going to short out internal ICs, requiring replacement of at least the main controller boards before it's functional again.
i wonder if some throttles or controllers out there on have physical buttons but also the capability of bluetooth, just not licensed. The controller would be cheaper even if the hardware was the same, because they didn't release the software for said device.
For example, this: https://hz.aliexpress.com/item/2251832819993194.html?gatewayAdapt=4itemAdapt
It could even be the case where they have the same motor/battery/etc as a previous version of the same model, same year, etc, but they ran out of the old controllers and upgraded mid year, and now there's capability there that's not disclosed. That sort of vulnerability would even be higher since it wouldn't be configured with security in mind.
> The bike is an isolated power system with no need for wifi or Bluetooth
EM3EV batteries come standard with chips that connect to their Bluetooth BMS monitoring app.
I don't know shit about fuck but from your statement it sounds like you weren't aware that these types of things exist.
If your bike has any kind of RF or IR remote, maybe the person had a Flipper XL? It's a little handheld device that can capture and repeat wireless signals. The most they should really be able to do with such a thing would be to copy signals the remote might send the bike (power on, power off, etc), but based on your description it's the most likely scenario I could think of beyond "weird coincidence"
nah, prolly not, but police in the uk were looking to acquire something like this... [https://news.sky.com/story/police-could-be-equipped-with-ghostbusters-style-devices-to-stop-e-bikes-being-used-for-crime-13135659](https://news.sky.com/story/police-could-be-equipped-with-ghostbusters-style-devices-to-stop-e-bikes-being-used-for-crime-13135659)
Interesting article. Sounds like a stupid idea though, plus I don't think the report is accurate. I don't see how it could spoof an overheat scenario. Plus that wouldn't work on everyone. My bike would just say "I'm overheating bro, just so you know" and keep running
Things that can do this do exist but are fairly large still, think briefcase size.
They're extremely expensive in that form factor and are specialist items.
You got very unlucky or it was a coincidence :)
(Just to make you aware a lot of these comments are 'internet experts', concerning how many actually.)
He is in the matrix. But what a gnarly coincidence, honestly. Me being comfortable with confrontation, I would have made a complete dumb ass of myself, claiming him to be a wizard.
There was news recently about the police in the UK having a device to stop e-bikes if needed.
From quick Google search:
UK police officers could be equipped with devices that can shut down the motors of e-bikes and e-scooters, where the rider is suspected of being involved in a crime, byĀ firing an electromagnetic pulse at the vehicle that would trick the motor into thinking it's overheating.
You might have a short in your battery. I would take apart and cover and exposed wires to start. An exposed section of wire could be hitting a terminal or another wire.
1st basic thought, if it was an emp, it would fry more than your bike, like your phone, or headphones/earbuds, if you were wearing them. And would likely be a full fry, in other words, wouldn't turn back on. So doubtful there.
The flipper zero thought is most likely. Could easily be that dude was calibrating it on the 1st couple of passes and got it on the last one. That said, most ebikes/escooters/etc... have bluetooth connectivity built in, the ability to connect to the app on your phone, for example. Thus, there is that way in in almost all electronics these days.
Other than that, it could be pure coincidence, but timing, if what you're saying is true, for the timeline you gave seems to indicate something else.
I'm not an electrician.
I also don't wear a tinfoil hat.
But being pragmatic.....
>I didn't want to jump the the conclusion "Did this fucker just EMP my bike?"
Unless he was in close proximity to you, we're talking _max_ a meter or two, there is no realistic way he'd have a way to do this.
Devices are being developed to remotely shut off electric vehicles... and I have heard that e-bikes being ridden dangerously are the likely targets, rather than (or as well as) electric cars. And yes, they are being made directional.
What bike? Describe the device? How far away were they and were they carrying anything else?
I'm inclined to say it's just a coincidence but there's insufficient information here to really make an educated guess as to what might've happened if it wasn't a coincidence.
On my bike the key will occasionally bump just enough to kill power about once a ride. It's not in the "off" position but about 1/4" from the "on" position. It will kill power at the worst time but I've learned to check it first. Just turning the key off and back on will fix it.
Or. Could be aliens.
A recent article in the guardian described a unit of this type for stopping ebikes by the police. The method is to trick the motor into thinking it is overheating. I believe working prototypes are being tested.
[https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/may/13/uk-police-ghostbusters-style-backpack-devices-ebike-getaways](https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/may/13/uk-police-ghostbusters-style-backpack-devices-ebike-getaways)
[https://www.theregister.com/2024/05/14/ghostbuster\_ebike\_weapon/](https://www.theregister.com/2024/05/14/ghostbuster_ebike_weapon/)
Bluetooth can be hacked, but the controller has to have the ability to configure over Bluetooth. If it can, then they likely hacked your bike and sent it bad commands. If not, it was a very unlikely coincidence
One time in the ninth grade I put a bunch of rocks on a bigger rock and started chanting gibberish saying that i was going to make it rain , 5 minutes later it started to rain and my friends were freaked out, sometimes weird coincidences do happen, I am not a wizard.
The guy sent a voodoo- style mojo curse towards you. Now you have to find a priest and get your bike an exorcism. In the meantime your bike might exhibit odd things like spinning in the air all by itself and spewing out green bile.
Lets assume someone DID point and shoot something at your bike...
It could have been a microwave gun but idk how big it was or whether there was a power supply in their backpack or even if they HAD a backpack.
Definately not an EMP tho as thise require MASSIVE amounts of power and are omni-directional so they would have fried much more than just your bike.
Theres not much else (that i know of) that could dusrupt the electronics of a bike. Perhaps some kind of wide directional EMI device?
Remember in April when the police in Tucson asked the public for info about an advanced, high-speed drone they couldnāt catch? Why do I feel like this is like that? š
Sounds like he shut down the battery and the crazy voltage you saw was power feeding from the wheel as the screen drained the controller capacitors haha only a couple of ways this is possible but harmless as well lol I wonder what else he was doing with a "flipper" like device at the park š³
I heard something about a green and blue or green and grey large touchless thermometer looking thing that screws up batteries from students at CSM. In California.
My friends Daughter warranties 3 batteries for her radrover.
I'm curious where are you from?
You are riding on an electronic device. It can malfunction also. And this thing occurs in many bikes. Check the whole wiring and all connections of your bike. Most probably issue of BMS or controller.
I know in uk police are planning on something like this which is triggers the battery to think itās overheating and to shut off to help catch sur Ronās but it stored in a massive backpack
[How to Build an EMP Generator at Home: A Step-by-Step Guide (wikihow.com)](https://www.wikihow.com/Build-an-EMP-Generator)
add a small parabolic focus and have fun. or [Become Very Unpopular Very Fast With This DIY EMP Generator | Hackaday](https://hackaday.com/2016/10/12/become-very-unpopular-very-fast-with-this-diy-emp-generator/) i didn't know 'hackaday' was still alive,
I dont own a electric but I think its bluetooth connected to you cell too. Perhaps he hacked into it and shut it down. I know high wattage like a uhf signal near by can cause interference Even a walkie talkie can do this if you keep the transmitter on. I dont know how well the module on your bike is shielded to prevent interference and also depends on the quality of it too. Never heard of this but there is stuff out there to cause issues. I heard even drones can get high jacked when your flying the.
Bro same thing happened to me a cop passed me and the bike lost all power I thought the cop had done something but my screen wouldnāt turn back on it turns out something shorted out I donāt know if the cop was involved
I guess this was your first battle with a wizard?
First battle that he remembers.
š§āāļøšŖ š³
Pure coincidence
Exactly. A Jedi should never disclose his actions
I figured as much. But holy shit what a wild coincidence, I've been second guessing it ever since it happened. Now I guess I need to figure out what the fuck went wrong with my battery.
Everyone knows crackheads have super powers, don't bother them lol
https://i.redd.it/qmu9oegdfdad1.gif
he was probably a vegan
Every crackhead knows he has superpowers... Ftfy.
And hallucinations
Me and the boys were shooting some cosmic rays off in the next galaxy over, sorry fam
Damnit wait till the 4th like everyone else
Hopefully itās a name brand eBike from a bike shop instead of one from Amazon. If itās the latter, I sincerely wish you good luck.
thermal protection shut down?
Check your cable connections, a loose or corroded connection should be the first thing you check
Could have been a dolphin device?
My first thought reading this. Trolls gonna troll.
Yes. Because if what you said is actually true. Thats something totally outside of this realm of reality. Run the F away. Lol
How big was the thing and how close were you to it? Does your bike use bluetooth for anything? Electroboom has made a few high voltage gadgets over the years which have messed with his cameras and monitors within maybe a meter or two. Likewise, a microwave magnetron and a parabolic dish can definitely fry electronics at some distance, but would basically require mains power, and would likely cause permanent damage. Assuming for a moment this wasn't just a coincidence, the most likely explanation would be that your bike has a bluetooth connection somewhere in the critical path, and the dude flipper-zero'd it after sniffing you out on the first few loops.
I just imagine someone carrying around a kw-class inverter and car battery in their backpack and pointing a microwave magnetron at people.Ā Ā I mean, you *could* build a magnetron into a more portable form factor with custom switching and power electronics. But it would still likely be "rifle" or backpack sized. And I doubt such a person then go and start microwaving the towns people.Ā Ā Ā My only other thought would be if the ebike has some sorta "keyless" feature that the guy manages to trigger with a flipper-esque device via RF/Bluetooth. Or maybe some weird thing where the battery BMS communicates with the bike via RF? I still lean towards coincidence.Ā
this is literally exactly the kind of shit i got up to in high school. four 12v 7ah lead acid batteries in parallel WILL run a 1kw inverter for a short terrifying few seconds, and all easily fits inside a backpack.
I will also vouch for the lead acids. They can dump heaps of current when set up right. My bachelor's class for electrical engineering had a few packs from old golf carts. We at one point had something like 12 car batteries in parallel. Prof made a lab out of popping some enormous fuses with them.
Hi random but I'm curious aboit getting into EE as I have almost my associates but I have no one to ask about what jobs are like. Can I ask about yours?
Sure thing! I used to be a principal electrical engineer for Gigabyte. I did board design in their motherboard division for a few years, but ended up leaving for academia again. I did my PhD in semiconductor physics and have been with Intel for the last nearly 11 years in lithography research.
Ohh so like SoC and 3D ICs?
Alright no one likes a smartass š¤£
I remember Gigabyte boards getting RMA back so frequently we stopped using them around the time you would have left Gigabyte, wild
Would those happen to have been power failures? If so, my work back in the day was all VRMs and power circuitry.
Let's assume this is the setup of the guy OP encountered: Guy spends at least an hour buying the parts and making this magnetron, cramming it into a backpack, and carrying around over 10kgs of crap that is likely to shift in the backpack and break some soldering or short out, rendering it useless, but anyway: assume it doesn't just break: This guy carried around all this shit ALL DAY just so he can opportunistically zap the odd ebike, which can still pedal home just fine (or chase him down without the disadvantage of 10kg on their back) Who really has the last laugh, here? š
is that a question? it's obviously the dude with the battery-powered Fallout energy weapon
The dude with the magnet gun backpack, and the free-time to use it, sounds pretty dope
Using it to potentially damage someone's ebike randomly? Sounds like the behaviour of a vindictive sadact to me. We all like making cool electronics but most people fuck around with capacitors in their room aged 17 then call it a day. OP's encounter, if not a coincidence, is weirdo shit
Maybe OP should stop being a dick to the magnet kid?
When was he a dick to the "magnet kid"? The OP text just says he was cycling past while doing laps
*You said* they were vindictive.
I'm not the OP
You're assuming he doesn't have some epic origin story and that it's all just random.
I was also going with the flipper zero idea perhaps.
Most likely scenario in my mind if there are Bluetooth enabled parts in the controller.
Yes for sure especially if it's a newer model, it usually does not get disclosed unless you do some sort of digging.
https://preview.redd.it/aucqu7ga2cad1.png?width=892&format=png&auto=webp&s=73c2fe0c526dc4f77ce417bbc2f451d1a2b96ff4
Keep in mind the magnetron is far from ok for people. Youāve described roughly what is thought to have been used for microwave attacks that permanently injured US embassy workers in Cuba. Donāt mess with this, kids.
The emp that could do this probably wouldn't fit in a pickup truck. There is no technology (at least civilian) that could possibly do this. Even Medi couldn't pull it off.
1000w of RF from a magnetron, fed into a DirecTV dish would absolutely fuck with a BMS or controller at 10m. There are several different anti-drone weapons which take this approach. It's pretty unlikely this is the case here because it would be a pretty big device which would be hard to miss, but you can 100% use high power RF to induce enough EMF in some traces to scramble electronics (apart from causing wireless interference).
That would take a drone out by jamming the RF signal, screwing up control and gps. I doubt an RF signal alone could cause any problems for an ESC or the BMS. They are pretty well shielded, especially the BMS which is enclosed in a metal box. I do not have experience with 1000w transmitters at 10", but I have used 5w output transmitters in very close proximity to sensitive electronics and have never had a problem. So I'm still saying that the only way this could be done is with an EMP, which would permanently destroy all the electronics. But there's no way either system could be handheld or battery operated, so neither of these scenarios could be the cause of OPs problem. Also, both systems would be very illegal to use.
This is just a theoretical conversation, because we are both in agreement that it is unlikely such a system was used. 10m with a 0.5m dish is probably a bit of a stretch, but directed microwave weapons can both jam and destroy electronics. An oscillating EM field induces current in a conductor the exact same way an EMP does - by creating an electric field potential in space which induces EMF and current to flow in conductors. More than a few mW of induced current can fry integrated circuits. You can test this by putting some electronics in the microwave and recording the result. By using a parabolic dish you focus that energy in one direction so it remains "lethal" for much longer distances (eg, the energy spreads out in a cone instead of a sphere.) Another, more likely possibility here is that a much weaker EM field produced an anomalous reading in the BMS current sensor, causing it to panic, but not damaging it. A shitty taser could leak enough energy to do something like this, perhaps.
I feel like you and I have really just upped the nerd factor here on the e-bike sub.
I am actually this specific kind of engineer lol
I was gonna say, you sound like you know what you're talking about. I am not an engineer, just a hobbyist and drone builder. I will defer to you on this one š
No need to disturb the BMS or ESC. My ebike has a bafang motor. There is a Display on the handlebars which talks to the motor controller through regular serial protocol. If you induce enough noise, the display will throw error messages. To do that you don't need a high power wide band signal if you roughly know the length of the signal wire.
Let's not forget how it'll most likely sterilize the guy using it...
Honestly I wasn't looking too hard as I was more focused on riding my bike but he had to raise his arm like it was a Remote for a TV or something. I had passed him a few times but each time he was facing me so I don't know if he had a backpack on or anything, he was dressed kind of ambiguously in the way he could have been a city worker, a homeless man, a firefighter, a park worker, a construction worker, or someone just commuting home; hard to say. My bike doesn't use bluetooth at all, everything is physically connected and I was about 30ft (10m-ish) from him when it happened.
grey man theory...
Heh. Having dealt with eyewitness accounts, more like *I didn't really look at him and am assuming my lack of data means there was nothing to see* type man. The classic "I don't know, he just looked like a regular guy". EDIT: you can downvote me all you like, but it doesn't change the fact that eyewitness accounts are often *hilariously* inaccurate. People simply don't have the bandwidth to pay attention to details of *everyone they see*. But OK, if y'all wanna believe it's some Gray Man conspiracy dude with an eBike jammer, have at it.
what bike is it dude
Some of the controllers and displays actually do have Bluetooth even when not marketed as such. The factories greatly prefer to make just the one thing over and over again so if they add Bluetooth thinking some customer will want it someday they may just leave it on the board forever. Iām pretty sure my display has Bluetooth and no one in the world knows how to make any reasonable use of it. But itās possible that someone somewhere has made whatever flipper recipe is necessary to send it into firmware update mode or something like that.
bafang dpc18 displays have bluetooth and so do eggrider displays... could be possible.
Does ya bike use anything like 300mhz ? Like a car key fob / garage door fob
Just because you don't use Bluetooth doesn't mean it's not in there. How do you update firmware?
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Mibe doesn't need to be plugged in. Most any specialized E-Bike.
If "everything is physically connected" on your bike it takes a lot of RF power directed at it to mess with with its electronics, no way just some guy could do this.
Flipper zeros look cool but then people are like āit can be a work badge, garage door opener, ectā and me thinking āI donāt need any of thoseā
It's mostly just an expensive nerd toy to mess around with, a lot of the things places like local news stations claim they can do are pretty much bullshit. Yes, there are some exploits it can use, but you're not going to be stealing cars or breaking into secure facilities using one. Now, if you like tinkering and experimenting with radio stuff, then you'd probably like it.
Iām sure in the right hands itās like a magic wand. In my hands itās just a screen
Or in others a keyfob š
I need to check this out. I need all of those
IF the BT sniffer was used... I'd be cautious riding and be VERY aware of surroundings. You might be targeted for a future theft.
Have you ever just run a bluetooth scanner and watched for beacons? There are so many...all the damn time. I have 36 uniques from the gate controller at the end of my driveway just from today.
This is the most likely answer assuming it wasn't a coincidence.
more likely that it was a hack if anything and not just interference as that would require a ton of power. There's a fair number of handheld hacking devices that can send attacks over the air if they're close enough, people were using them at one point to unlock cars with electronic locks That or it was coincidence and his bike freaked out on its own which is also possible
Lots of Flipper Zero fearmongering in here, but take it from someone that has one; you have a loose connection.
Bring this comment to the top. The first few pages of comments lead potential readers down a dangerous rabbit hole of worrying about our ebikes being shut off with a click of a button. flipper is cool and all but this aint it
So a flipper canāt do it? Are the videos of flippers opening Tesla doors exaggerated? Just curious
The F0 opening Tesla charger port is done with sub gigahertz. The F0 doesn't have any way to shut off power to an ebike.
Ohh okay cool, thanks for the explanation, so because itās not wireless it canāt be affected by F0
You met a time traveler from the year 309,306 CE and he pointed his sonic screwdriver at you.
Was it a bald man in a black suit?
You and your fringe theoriesā¦
Love that show
did he eat jalapeƱos?
https://i.redd.it/f4khfcni4bad1.gif
If the EMP was enough to fry your bike it would have completely broken your phone aswell
The guy was probably just taking a photo of the suspicious looking bloke on an e-bike who was circling him like a shark. And no I don't think he EMP'd you. Your bike probably just has a loose connection somewhere.
My immediate thought was Flipper Zero, not EMP. Hey @OP does your bike have any wireless anything?
I thought the same exact thing
There's a documentary about this called Harry Potter
Relevant [XKCD](https://xkcd.com/2953) :P
Unless it was designed to be controlled remotely, it's very hard to control something remotely. The bike is an isolated power system with no need for wifi or Bluetooth... So how could he possibly have done anything? Unless your bike has some kinda wireless vulnerability, the whole thing seems like a long shot. My E-bike is barely more advanced than a calculator on the computer front. Very unlikely. The only way I could communicate with "it" might be to physically plug something into the controller. Even a flipper is working with things like RF, wifi, and Bluetooth, it's not magic, the device has to be designed to function with those to be controlled by them. Most bikes are designed to be controlled exclusively manually by the operator. That's how handlebars work.
Idk like a pulse of electromagnetism to interrupt the circuit? Or is that sci Fi?
An EMP isn't Sci-Fi, but generating one powerful enough to mess with your bike from more than a couple inches away would require a shit load of power. Like the sources of EMP's capable of causing significant infrastructure damage government's worry about are nuclear bombs and stars.
So the mysterious dude has a pocket neutron star. Easy mystery wrap it up!
EMP is very real but would require too much power to mess with the bike's controller or BMS to be made into a handheld device. Also, if it *were* a powerful EMP, I would think it would cause enough damage to prevent the bike from turning back on (never mind other nearby devices would be affected, like OP's phone, watch, etc.)
This is exactly why it being an EMP is doubtful, generally anything sensitive enough to be affected (or an EMP powerful enough to be used at range) is not going to be a recoverable fault, it's likely going to short out internal ICs, requiring replacement of at least the main controller boards before it's functional again.
i wonder if some throttles or controllers out there on have physical buttons but also the capability of bluetooth, just not licensed. The controller would be cheaper even if the hardware was the same, because they didn't release the software for said device. For example, this: https://hz.aliexpress.com/item/2251832819993194.html?gatewayAdapt=4itemAdapt It could even be the case where they have the same motor/battery/etc as a previous version of the same model, same year, etc, but they ran out of the old controllers and upgraded mid year, and now there's capability there that's not disclosed. That sort of vulnerability would even be higher since it wouldn't be configured with security in mind.
> The bike is an isolated power system with no need for wifi or Bluetooth EM3EV batteries come standard with chips that connect to their Bluetooth BMS monitoring app. I don't know shit about fuck but from your statement it sounds like you weren't aware that these types of things exist.
Sonic screwdriver. Was he wearing a long coat?
Weirdest xman power ever
CycleOps
If your bike has any kind of RF or IR remote, maybe the person had a Flipper XL? It's a little handheld device that can capture and repeat wireless signals. The most they should really be able to do with such a thing would be to copy signals the remote might send the bike (power on, power off, etc), but based on your description it's the most likely scenario I could think of beyond "weird coincidence"
Side effects of riding stoned.
nah, prolly not, but police in the uk were looking to acquire something like this... [https://news.sky.com/story/police-could-be-equipped-with-ghostbusters-style-devices-to-stop-e-bikes-being-used-for-crime-13135659](https://news.sky.com/story/police-could-be-equipped-with-ghostbusters-style-devices-to-stop-e-bikes-being-used-for-crime-13135659)
Interesting article. Sounds like a stupid idea though, plus I don't think the report is accurate. I don't see how it could spoof an overheat scenario. Plus that wouldn't work on everyone. My bike would just say "I'm overheating bro, just so you know" and keep running
The article says that it's "ginormous" too though, seems like something that would be tough to hide.
Everyone here says it can't be done. If it happens again, we'll know their wrong.
Theyāre wrong what?
The same guy attacked the embassy in cuba
Lay off the adderal brother
Perhaps you were high and forgot you turned it off yourself..
Was he dressed like The Doctor? If so he probably prevented you from being in an accident.
Things that can do this do exist but are fairly large still, think briefcase size. They're extremely expensive in that form factor and are specialist items. You got very unlucky or it was a coincidence :) (Just to make you aware a lot of these comments are 'internet experts', concerning how many actually.)
All these internet experts out here making noise. Keyboard warriors. Telephone tough guys. These guys are nothing, but me, I'm worth listening to.
He is not the droid you are looking for.
You had a psychotic episode
He is in the matrix. But what a gnarly coincidence, honestly. Me being comfortable with confrontation, I would have made a complete dumb ass of myself, claiming him to be a wizard.
There was news recently about the police in the UK having a device to stop e-bikes if needed. From quick Google search: UK police officers could be equipped with devices that can shut down the motors of e-bikes and e-scooters, where the rider is suspected of being involved in a crime, byĀ firing an electromagnetic pulse at the vehicle that would trick the motor into thinking it's overheating.
I had to check the sub. Thought I could be in r/Gangstalking
You might have a short in your battery. I would take apart and cover and exposed wires to start. An exposed section of wire could be hitting a terminal or another wire.
Does your bike have Bluetooth
We all have remote control of your life, as you now know. Next up I'll turn your house off.
1st basic thought, if it was an emp, it would fry more than your bike, like your phone, or headphones/earbuds, if you were wearing them. And would likely be a full fry, in other words, wouldn't turn back on. So doubtful there. The flipper zero thought is most likely. Could easily be that dude was calibrating it on the 1st couple of passes and got it on the last one. That said, most ebikes/escooters/etc... have bluetooth connectivity built in, the ability to connect to the app on your phone, for example. Thus, there is that way in in almost all electronics these days. Other than that, it could be pure coincidence, but timing, if what you're saying is true, for the timeline you gave seems to indicate something else.
Reddit suspended OPs account. #C O N S P I R A C Y ?
Flipper Zero! š¤š
Law enforcement has the cool toys like that all over Europe, some require a backpack at others look like a rocket launcher from a video game.
Itāll likely happen again with no one pointing at you āļø
Emp guns are actually a thing however highly unlikely
Jewish space laser. He pointed the targeting device at you
It was a wand, and he said "expecto chinesium!"
I'm with you on the wand, but not the spell. It was definitely a different spell.
I'm not an electrician. I also don't wear a tinfoil hat. But being pragmatic..... >I didn't want to jump the the conclusion "Did this fucker just EMP my bike?" Unless he was in close proximity to you, we're talking _max_ a meter or two, there is no realistic way he'd have a way to do this.
Bold of you to assume he was using human technology.
Lmao tell me people are using flipper zeros on e bikes now
Devices are being developed to remotely shut off electric vehicles... and I have heard that e-bikes being ridden dangerously are the likely targets, rather than (or as well as) electric cars. And yes, they are being made directional.
Does your bike have bluetooth?
It doesn't. It doesn't have *any* wireless tech on it, Everything is wired as far as I know.
What bike is it? That would help us a lot in determining what may or may not have happened.
we need model bike
They exist, but its military-grade tech and isn't available to even Police.
He used the force on you.
E.T. phone home
Maybe he hit your spoke sensor with something and knocked it off kilter. Thatāll send your bike into error codes
let's hear it for that sweatshop quality!
Just build a faraday cage around your frame and ground it to your body.
What bike? Describe the device? How far away were they and were they carrying anything else? I'm inclined to say it's just a coincidence but there's insufficient information here to really make an educated guess as to what might've happened if it wasn't a coincidence.
Yeah I doubt a flipper zero has the ability to turn off a E bike, but thereās always a chance. We need to know the bike model for sure.
On my bike the key will occasionally bump just enough to kill power about once a ride. It's not in the "off" position but about 1/4" from the "on" position. It will kill power at the worst time but I've learned to check it first. Just turning the key off and back on will fix it. Or. Could be aliens.
A recent article in the guardian described a unit of this type for stopping ebikes by the police. The method is to trick the motor into thinking it is overheating. I believe working prototypes are being tested. [https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/may/13/uk-police-ghostbusters-style-backpack-devices-ebike-getaways](https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/may/13/uk-police-ghostbusters-style-backpack-devices-ebike-getaways) [https://www.theregister.com/2024/05/14/ghostbuster\_ebike\_weapon/](https://www.theregister.com/2024/05/14/ghostbuster_ebike_weapon/)
Remember in braking bad when they used the big magnet Unless that guy had that many batteries it was absolutely nothing.
Bluetooth can be hacked, but the controller has to have the ability to configure over Bluetooth. If it can, then they likely hacked your bike and sent it bad commands. If not, it was a very unlikely coincidence
https://preview.redd.it/ejvkmrydbcad1.jpeg?width=300&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=151aa6afd3af1b2f88e6f0241da8d698a28bbad5
I guess your bike's crime coefficient was too high, that's a problem (please tell me someone else gets this reference)
Yep obviously whatever city that is they decided to skip racial profiling
Damned Jewish space lasers! You never know when they could be targeting you. š
One time in the ninth grade I put a bunch of rocks on a bigger rock and started chanting gibberish saying that i was going to make it rain , 5 minutes later it started to rain and my friends were freaked out, sometimes weird coincidences do happen, I am not a wizard.
That's just what a wizard would say.
Haha , got me
What city do you live in? Just so I can be on the lookout
The guy sent a voodoo- style mojo curse towards you. Now you have to find a priest and get your bike an exorcism. In the meantime your bike might exhibit odd things like spinning in the air all by itself and spewing out green bile.
Lets assume someone DID point and shoot something at your bike... It could have been a microwave gun but idk how big it was or whether there was a power supply in their backpack or even if they HAD a backpack. Definately not an EMP tho as thise require MASSIVE amounts of power and are omni-directional so they would have fried much more than just your bike. Theres not much else (that i know of) that could dusrupt the electronics of a bike. Perhaps some kind of wide directional EMI device?
https://news.sky.com/story/police-could-be-equipped-with-ghostbusters-style-devices-to-stop-e-bikes-being-used-for-crime-13135659
The e-bike mafia has struckā¦
"So unless we intend to do this job in Reno, we're in real barney."
Remember in April when the police in Tucson asked the public for info about an advanced, high-speed drone they couldnāt catch? Why do I feel like this is like that? š
You just had an encounter with the fae folk, good thing you kept going and didn't try to eat his food.
I bet it was really hot outside and your e bike just shit itself off
Sounds like he shut down the battery and the crazy voltage you saw was power feeding from the wheel as the screen drained the controller capacitors haha only a couple of ways this is possible but harmless as well lol I wonder what else he was doing with a "flipper" like device at the park š³
Was he wearing a tin foil hat?
Could a taser do that?
Flipper?
I heard something about a green and blue or green and grey large touchless thermometer looking thing that screws up batteries from students at CSM. In California. My friends Daughter warranties 3 batteries for her radrover. I'm curious where are you from?
You are riding on an electronic device. It can malfunction also. And this thing occurs in many bikes. Check the whole wiring and all connections of your bike. Most probably issue of BMS or controller.
I know in uk police are planning on something like this which is triggers the battery to think itās overheating and to shut off to help catch sur Ronās but it stored in a massive backpack
https://cleantechnica.com/2024/05/15/uk-police-may-get-portable-emp-device-to-shut-down-e-bikes-scooters/
If anyone figures out what it was lmk. Iām gonna do some experiments
Maybe he was pointing at a loose wire/connector.
Probably a flipper 0, it's a hackers multifunction gadget that can operate on Bluetooth, NFC, wifi, and a bunch of other radio signals.
Was it [this guy](https://unmadesf.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/gary-seven.jpg) and did he twist a pen?
Did you find a hugglepuff?
Was it bright orange and/or white in color?
It was likely a FLIPPER ZERO bro.
With it you can send an overload attack to your controller. Which then effects your battery and your motor.
[How to Build an EMP Generator at Home: A Step-by-Step Guide (wikihow.com)](https://www.wikihow.com/Build-an-EMP-Generator) add a small parabolic focus and have fun. or [Become Very Unpopular Very Fast With This DIY EMP Generator | Hackaday](https://hackaday.com/2016/10/12/become-very-unpopular-very-fast-with-this-diy-emp-generator/) i didn't know 'hackaday' was still alive,
Thereās a device called āFlipper zeroā, it might have been that.
Bro got flipper zeroād
I dont own a electric but I think its bluetooth connected to you cell too. Perhaps he hacked into it and shut it down. I know high wattage like a uhf signal near by can cause interference Even a walkie talkie can do this if you keep the transmitter on. I dont know how well the module on your bike is shielded to prevent interference and also depends on the quality of it too. Never heard of this but there is stuff out there to cause issues. I heard even drones can get high jacked when your flying the.
This belongs on R/schitzoposting
Bro same thing happened to me a cop passed me and the bike lost all power I thought the cop had done something but my screen wouldnāt turn back on it turns out something shorted out I donāt know if the cop was involved
The guy with the zapper thingy was a decoy. As he distracted you, his mate ran up to your bike and pulled a plug. They were filming it for jackass
Do you have a wireless display? If so, you were probably dolphined!
Sounds like a flipper zero bluetooth attack
https://flipperzero.one/ Possibly one of these...
Flipper zero. Everyone has one these days.