How seeing father's bike getting stolen as a kid made Barak Valley's Samrat Nath invent a GPS attached e-bike

Did you too watch the technological startups and inventions on Shark Tank India and their pitch and were amazed by it? Did you ever dream of a cycle that can never get stolen or can be operated via your smartphone? Samrat Nath from a small village Anipur in Karimganj also had the same dream, but he has made it possible after 4 years of hardwork and perseverance. Not only is it an electric cycle, but it has a lot more. Call it lockdown tech or Make in India innovation, Samrat made the whole bike at an affordable price and with much better configuration than the available market standards. In a brief chat with Barak Bulletin, Samrat shared about his innovations and also his feature goals.

Here are the edited excerpts:

BB: Tell us a bit about you background.

Samrat: I started my education back home in Anipur Village which is almost 55 kilometers from the main Karimganj town. Later I went to Ramkrishna Nagar for higher secondary and completed my +2 from Ramkrishna Nagar Vidyapith with Arts. Later I came to Silchar to study technology from ITI Assam Rifles, Silchar.

BB: How did the process of building the cycle start?
Samrat: The process started in my mind when I was in the 8th Standard. My father’s bike was stolen at night from our home and we couldn’t do anything. It was a huge loss for us and I was deeply affected. That’s when I started to think only if we could place a GPS tracker, we probably could get the bike back. Later I started research on this and development only started when I was in higher secondary.

BB: Take us through the journey of this project?

Samrat: I had started the actual project first by learning coding from the Internet and mostly YouTube. Then I thought about developing an app and started working on that. After that I learned how to build circuits for an electric cycle, GPS and other connections. Later, I spent up all my savings to purchase a bicycle from the market and other electronics required for the cycle and that’s when my main project started.

BB: What are the technologies involved in this bike?

Samrat: First of all it’s a complete electric bike, powered by Lithium ion batteries recycled from Laptops. Other than that, I’ve given specific emphasis to security, where you can unlock the cycle with the fingerprint sensor installed in the cycle or with the app on the smartphone. In addition to that, the cycle can be locked with the app from anywhere in the world. There is also a burger alarm, which buzzes along with sending notification to the mobile via the app. In case of any robbery, the cycle can obviously be tracked via GPS and hopefully recovered.

BB: Tell us about the mileage and charging system installed.

Samrat: The cycle is powered by Lithium ion batteries which I procured from old laptops. On full charge it can give 60 kilometres of mileage, which takes only 3 hours. It can run at a high-speed of 40 kilometres per hour. It is quite different from the market standards.

BB: What is the total amount spent of the cycle so far?

Samrat: So far I’ve spent 25 thousand rupees on the cycle. Most of it went on buying the cycle from the market and rest on the electrical developments like circuit and GPS tracking. Going by the market standards, the cycle can cost you more than lakhs but surprisingly there’s no such model available in the Indian market as of now.

BB: What are the things that are self-made?

Samrat: The GPS tracker is self-made, all the circuits are self-made. The power circuit which runs the entire cycle was also made by me. I’ve also made the security system for the cycle and anti-burglary alarm plus pop-notification system. I’ve also developed the app through which you can track the cycle, lock and unlock it and detect if anyone touches the cycle.

BB: So is it only operational with the Internet? What happens when there’s no Internet?

Samrat: Not really, basically the internet is required for GPS and tracking, but in case there’s no Internet, I’ve placed another module into the GPS circuit which is Long Range (LoRa) Radio communication. Using the LoRa module, the cycle can be tracked for 15 kilometers radius even without the Internet.

BB: What are the issues you faced while helming the cycle?

Samrat: Money was a huge issue of course. All the money I spent was from my savings for which I worked really hard since class 8, from the time I had this dream. After HSLC exams, I learnt mobile repairing and that was the source of earning money for the project. Other than that, it was not easy to learn all the coding and circuit soldering. I had to make my own GPS circuit, so it was tough as well. Now patent is another issue for me, for this I’d need sixty thousand rupees and all my savings went up in just building the cycle.

BB: What’s the next step for Samrat?

Samrat: Patent is very important for me right now as from my information, no company is doing it as of now. I want to register “Sam Electron”, that’s the name I gave to my cycle. Next I want to make a small startup with a few people so that I can make more of these e-bikes and reduce the production cost. I’m looking forward to getting it registered and possibly funding someday.