Episode 48: See Ben Heck's Motorized Wheelchair Episode

As a safety FYI for you, involving stray RF causing problems to controls parts

I recently was given a electric "scooter" to assist me in getting out of the house due to a accident I had several years ago which left me with limited mobility. Unfortunately it failed a couple hours after I bought new batteries for it (Murphy's law I guess) and of course this was made by a company now out of business. I had failed in locating any service info on it other than the controller was made in NZ. (no response to my emails to them, I think as the device is a proprietary one)

But the point of all this, is, in my research I discovered a big safety problem that has occurred in home brew motorized wheelchairs and scooters. involving stray RF causing the controls to be overridden, (police radios, cabbies, CB's and what not) which in the past has apparently caused a few incidents of the motorized chairs to suddenly dart out into the streets by themselves causing injury to the riders (or is it sitters?)

I have no idea how to test the devices for this occurrence, but did locate several incidents posted online about the unfortunate folks involved. Anyone have feedback or ideas on this? As I watched the episode on my Tivo, I once again had even more admiration for Ben for his humane efforts to help out a couple nice folks, and would hate to see anything go wrong for any of them, and felt I should risk being a "bummer" by posting this info, but better safe than sorry I hope.

PS: No disrespect meant at all to anyone who has been involved in this project! I am sure you all have forgotten far more than I know about current electronics, as I am a dinosaur who learned from repairing Attwater Kents, Crosleys, & Philcos, (Note: I love the fact none of the previous names appear in spell check!)  in the 60's, who had a very enjoyable carrier in repairing (professionally) electronic devices until 1996 when a car accident ended my career, but I still remember when it was so enjoyable to be one of the first tech's to get to repair a defective new home entertainment electronic (or Pro, or mobile, whatever) device, quite often before the service information was released by the manufacture! Discovering something new, and to have had a career that got to ride the wave of electronics from the days before (tape) walkmans, continuing  past the days of CD walkmans ( I have no doubts these items were in use before some here were even born! lol) But is the reason I enjoy so much the Ben Heck Show, as he is able to do things I had only dreamed about "back in the day" which makes me so envious of his abilities, as well as so glad he shares himself with all of us in the community.

As a safety FYI for you, involving stray RF causing problems to controls parts

I recently was given a electric "scooter" to assist me in getting out of the house due to a accident I had several years ago which left me with limited mobility. Unfortunately it failed a couple hours after I bought new batteries for it (Murphy's law I guess) and of course this was made by a company now out of business. I had failed in locating any service info on it other than the controller was made in NZ. (no response to my emails to them, I think as the device is a proprietary one)

But the point of all this, is, in my research I discovered a big safety problem that has occurred in home brew motorized wheelchairs and scooters. involving stray RF causing the controls to be overridden, (police radios, cabbies, CB's and what not) which in the past has apparently caused a few incidents of the motorized chairs to suddenly dart out into the streets by themselves causing injury to the riders (or is it sitters?)

I have no idea how to test the devices for this occurrence, but did locate several incidents posted online about the unfortunate folks involved. Anyone have feedback or ideas on this? As I watched the episode on my Tivo, I once again had even more admiration for Ben for his humane efforts to help out a couple nice folks, and would hate to see anything go wrong for any of them, and felt I should risk being a "bummer" by posting this info, but better safe than sorry I hope.

PS: No disrespect meant at all to anyone who has been involved in this project! I am sure you all have forgotten far more than I know about current electronics, as I am a dinosaur who learned from repairing Attwater Kents, Crosleys, & Philcos, (Note: I love the fact none of the previous names appear in spell check!)  in the 60's, who had a very enjoyable carrier in repairing (professionally) electronic devices until 1996 when a car accident ended my career, but I still remember when it was so enjoyable to be one of the first tech's to get to repair a defective new home entertainment electronic (or Pro, or mobile, whatever) device, quite often before the service information was released by the manufacture! Discovering something new, and to have had a career that got to ride the wave of electronics from the days before (tape) walkmans, continuing  past the days of CD walkmans ( I have no doubts these items were in use before some here were even born! lol) But is the reason I enjoy so much the Ben Heck Show, as he is able to do things I had only dreamed about "back in the day" which makes me so envious of his abilities, as well as so glad he shares himself with all of us in the community.