Sharing a bicycle key is more than just a smart lock

Sharing a bicycle key is more than just a Smart Lock

According to the Trustdata mobile big data monitoring platform, as of the end of the second quarter of 2017, the top ten shared bicycles were: Mobai, ofo, Cool, Xiaolan, Yonganxing, Haro, Xiaoming, Youbai, Jiqi, Riding a donkey.

Sharing bicycles as the capital of the current stage, the media's interest in and sharing of bicycles has gradually increased. Students who are concerned may have seen these articles early on to introduce the smart locks on bicycles. : Adding sensors, GPS, 3G networks and chips to electric car locks..." Is it really "important" as described in many reports?

First of all, figure out: Is it necessary to share a bicycle with a smart lock?

In the "hundred car wars" that appear in the market today, OFO and Mobai are undoubtedly a pair of competitors in many markets competing for the competition. The Mobike bicycle is equipped with a smart lock of “GPRS unlocking + GPS positioning”, which has high development and production costs, while the OFO takes the ordinary bicycle code lock and the strategy of barbaric spreading.

In this market-occupied competition, the shortcomings of simply using mechanical locks to reduce the cost of bicycles have become prominent in operations. Fantasy using mechanical locks to operate shared bicycles has gradually proved impossible in specific practice. There is no advantage in setting the smart lock on the shared bike, from the user experience level to the offline maintenance cost.

In contrast, the smart lock of the Mobike bicycle is embedded in the GPS and the independent SIM card, which is not only convenient for users to use, but also the platform may quantify the demand of the vehicle for dynamic matching. The most important thing is to accumulate short-distance big data. In addition to the volume of the core of the shared bicycle competition, the most significant is the collection of information on the short-distance big data of the user, which has strategic significance for the operation of the distribution location and quantity.

Let’s take a look at the current mainstream shared bicycle locks.

Moby 1

Car lock solution: using 2G network, SIMCOM800L module, ST's main control MCU, Ublox 7020 single GPS chip, self-made module, TI's BQ25895 charging chip, up to 5A fast charge, can support high-voltage input of power generation hub.

Car lock situation: LA type - the first smart lock for mass production: the motor is used as the power source for unlocking. The lock tongue lock structure is cleverly designed, and the stable operation of unlocking and closing can be realized by using a simple sensor combination. This lock adds GPS function design and produces 200 units in small batches. It is hand-built and successfully tested on the streets of Shanghai. It has laid a solid design foundation for the next generation of production locks.

Unlocking principle: SIM unlocks the mobile phone to send vehicle information and unlock request to the server through scan code. The server sends the unlock command to the designated vehicle (all this is done through SIM, SIM of the mobile phone and SIM of the vehicle). Currently, the telecom module uses cdmax1. Mobile and China Unicom use GSM and GPRS, and want to try NB-IOT in the recently signed order, because 2g may be gradually retired in the future.

Mobai 2/3 generation

Car lock solution: Bluetooth smart lock (using ST17H30QFN20pinBLE4.0 chip?)

Car lock situation: LB type - seamless with the whole car: This lock has GPS positioning, GSM communication, Bluetooth unlock function, can be anti-theft, fireproof, waterproof, dustproof, shockproof, anti-mite, anti-cut, locked in the previous generation Based on the summary of all the defects, and improved on this lock, it has the possibility of mass production.

LC type - quickly captures the market for Moby: This lock is matched with the lite version, and the internal structure uses a common design, enabling it to be mass-produced in just one month. The clever shared structure design is solid. So that it can quickly enter the market and quickly capture the market for Mobai.

The principle of unlocking: Bluetooth unlocking is also built in the Mobike lock. After scanning the code, the phone reads the Bluetooth information of the vehicle and tries to pair. And send the information to the server side, the server side sends an unlock command to the vehicle and the mobile phone at the same time, if the vehicle first receives the instruction to directly unlock. If the phone receives the command first, then the command is sent to the vehicle for unlocking via Bluetooth. (This is because the SIM transmission rate of the vehicle is not as good as the SIM of the mobile phone), the built-in SIM, Bluetooth, GPS module of the car lock, the cost is not high, just like many smart bracelets now. "

OfO Little Yellow Car

Car lock program: mechanical code lock, no technical point, pure traditional manual password lock, the password of each car is fixed, if someone remembers the password can be enjoyed for free. The cost is within 15RMB.

Sharing a bicycle key is more than just a smart lock

Unlocking principle: After the APP scan code, the system will send you the unlock code of the car, just need to unlock according to the password. Because it is a mechanical lock, the password change is fixed, you can go cycling repeatedly, the loophole is bigger!

Harrow Bicycle Hellobike

Car lock solution: embedded in the lock GPS module, SIM card and six-axis gyroscope and other hardware.

The principle of unlocking: the core is to use Bluetooth to unlock the operation. The network only performs a secondary check in a relatively large environment of the vehicle. The problem of Bluetooth unlocking may be that the mobile phone Bluetooth itself may also be a Bluetooth problem of the vehicle, such as the previous user. After the car has been locked, but the system has not completed the order, the next user can not use the bicycle.

Little Blue Bluegogo

Car lock program: MTK2503 program, the main 2G material networking solution in 2016, Beidou + GPS, the set supports WIFI and Bluetooth 3.0. WIFI chips are not posted, in order to save costs, that is, WIFI is not supported.

Power generation: Solar panels generate electricity, just like the second generation.

Cool cycling COOLQI

Car lock solution: Bluetooth smart lock, embedded in the lock GPS module, SIM card and six-axis gyroscope and other hardware.

Unlocking principle: The whole operation process is realized by the connection between the mobile phone and the cool cycling bicycle smart lock, and the cycle between the mobile phone APP and the server connection, wherein the mobile phone APP is a step in which the transfer station participates. The mobile phone opens the Bluetooth through the APP, connects with the bicycle lock, scans the code to obtain the body information, and the two-dimensional code includes the body number and the positioning information.

After the APP obtains the vehicle information, it sends the information to the server and sends an unlock request. After receiving the mobile phone request information, the server confirms whether the bicycle information meets the usable conditions, and sends an execution unlock command after confirmation. The mobile APP receives the server command, and transmits the command to the cool cycling bicycle smart lock chip through the Bluetooth, and the chip executes the command to realize the unlocking action.

Among them, the Bluetooth lock chip is the key, including the Bluetooth connection module, equipped with a GPS positioning module, which can number and position the body, and execute commands to control the car lock.

Xiaoming bicycle

Car lock solution: Bluetooth smart lock (using ST17H30QFN20pinBLE4.0 chip?), simple Bluetooth, no network, no GPS positioning. The user's mobile phone is connected via Bluetooth, and data transmission and positioning are realized by means of the user's mobile phone network and GPS. The mechanical part is the same as the worship program.

The principle of unlocking: The mobile APP connects to the car lock chip via Bluetooth, and can transmit data commands. Therefore, the small ring bicycle needs to be turned on to use the Bluetooth, and the Bluetooth acts as a connection medium. The mobile phone scans the QR code to obtain the number information, sends an unlock request to the server, the server receives the information confirmation, sends a command to the mobile phone, and the mobile phone transmits the server command to the Xiaoming bicycle smart lock through the Bluetooth, and finally the smart lock chip controls the car lock to open.

Throughout the process, the chip of Xiaoming bicycle is not directly connected to the server, but is realized by the mobile station. The main reason is that the Bluetooth connection data needs to consume power and there is no consumption of the GPRS communication module. Therefore, the power consumption of Xiaoming cycling smart lock is quite low. Therefore, Xiaoming bicycle can be powered by battery, no need to charge, can be used for 1-2 years, and the battery needs to be manually replaced when it ends its service life.

It is not difficult to find that the smart lock on the shared bicycle has gone through three optimizations from the on-line to the present. From SMS unlocking to GPRS unlocking to GPRS+Bluetooth unlocking, finally to the current narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) unlock.

Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) is an emerging technology in the IoT field. With the gradual maturity of the industry chain, especially the chip technology, and the widespread support of operators, it has been increasingly used in the field of shared bicycles. More consensus. As early as last year, China Mobile and Mobai Technology completed end-to-end testing based on the narrow-band IoT existing network in Shanghai. This year, ofo also signed a narrow-band IoT shared bicycle application cooperation agreement with China Telecom.

Compared with 2G, narrowband Internet of Things has many features such as wide coverage, multiple connections, low power consumption, and low cost. The low-bandwidth IoT low-power feature makes it unnecessary to install a human-powered device for shared bicycles. It can meet the electricity demand of vehicles only with solar panels or self-contained batteries. The narrow-band IoT has a wider coverage, making the underground garage, Bicycles in remote locations such as the basement can receive signals to ensure that the vehicle continues to be online; the narrow-band IoT solution has the advantage of low cost, which can greatly reduce the design cost of the vehicle.

If smart lock is the key to sharing a bicycle, then the cloud platform behind it for managing operations is the soul of shared bicycles.

A smart lock from mold opening to supply chain coordination to production of finished products is indeed a problem for small shared bicycle startups, but in such a subdivided market competition environment, there is no need to target entrepreneurs who share bicycles. solve. If you don't believe it, you can go to Baidu and Taobao to search for "shared bicycle lock" and "smart horseshoe lock". Such locks have long been produced in many smart hardware factories, and entrepreneurs can quickly get smart locks by purchasing directly or in cooperation with supporting factories.

The core of the problem lies in the cloud platform behind the lock. After all, the real essence of shared bicycles is to effectively connect the needs of the car and people, and to build the IoT data of the car and the car. In order to realize the intelligent and self-operated bicycle, the development and production of the smart lock is only the first step. More important is the back-end server and cloud platform behind it.

Editor in charge: Chen Caixia