An open source electric bicycle conversion kit — designed by the community, for everyone.
OpenEBike is a community-driven open source project to design, build, and document a complete electric bicycle conversion kit — from the motor and battery to the firmware, IoT telemetry, and rider interface.
Every component — mechanical drawings, PCB schematics, firmware, software — will be openly licensed and freely available. Anyone should be able to build, modify, and improve upon it.
This project is rooted in India, and welcomes contributors from engineering colleges, hackerspaces, barcamps, and hobbyist communities across India and beyond.
Because we can build it ourselves. We have the engineers, the students, the hobbyists, and the curiosity. Why buy a readymade kit when we can design one from scratch, understand every part of it, and share that knowledge openly?
Because it should be fun. Building something that moves, that you can ride, that you made yourself — that is a different kind of satisfaction. This project exists as much for the joy of making as for any practical outcome.
Because it does not exist yet. An electric bicycle conversion kit that is fully open source — schematics, firmware, mechanical drawings, everything — does not exist in any meaningful, complete form. That gap is worth filling.
Because an e-bike is just the beginning. Motor control, battery management, power electronics, IoT, embedded systems — the skills and subsystems here are the same ones that underpin the larger EV world. OpenEBike is a tangible, rideable stepping stone into that space.
A modular electric bicycle conversion kit consisting of:
- A hub motor with mechanical fixtures compatible with standard bicycle frames
- An open motor design with documented windings, geometry, and specifications
- A motor driver (controller) with open firmware
- Regenerative braking integrated into the drive system
- Live measurements and instrumentation (speed, current, voltage, temperature, power)
- IoT connectivity for telemetry, remote diagnostics, and data logging
- A rider UX layer — display, mobile app, or dashboard
Every subsystem is a standalone module. You can contribute to one without needing to understand all the others.
The project is organized into focused teams. Each team owns a subsystem end-to-end — from design to documentation.
| # | Team | What they own | Skills welcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Motor Hub & Mechanical | Hub motor housing, axle, spoke flanges, mounting fixtures for bicycle frames | Mechanical engineering, CAD (FreeCAD/SolidWorks), manufacturing |
| 2 | Motor Design | Stator/rotor geometry, winding design, magnetic simulation | Electrical engineering, motor theory, FEA/FEMM |
| 3 | Motor Driver | Gate driver circuits, inverter topology, current sensing, PCB design | Power electronics, PCB design (KiCad), embedded C |
| 4 | Regenerative Braking | Regen control algorithm, energy recovery, braking feel tuning | Control systems, embedded firmware, power electronics |
| 5 | Measurements & Instrumentation | Sensor integration, ADC design, real-time data acquisition | Electronics, signal processing, embedded systems |
| 6 | Battery & BMS | Cell selection, pack design, battery management system, charging | Electrochemistry, power electronics, safety systems |
| 7 | IoT | Wireless telemetry, data pipeline, cloud/edge logging, OTA updates | Embedded systems, MQTT/protocols, cloud platforms |
| 8 | UX | Rider display, mobile app, web dashboard, data visualization | UI/UX design, React/Flutter, data viz |
| 9 | Power Electronics & DC-DC | Auxiliary power supply, converters for electronics and accessories | Power electronics, PCB design |
| 10 | Safety & Fault Handling | E-stop logic, thermal protection, fault escalation across subsystems | Functional safety, embedded firmware, systems engineering |
| 11 | Pedal Assist & Throttle | Cadence/torque sensors, PAS algorithm, throttle input | Embedded systems, mechanical integration |
| 12 | Testing & Validation | Integration testing, field test protocols, hardware-in-the-loop | Testing, instrumentation, documentation |
┌─────────────────────┐
│ Battery & BMS │
└────────┬────────────┘
│
┌──────────────────────▼──────────────────────┐
│ Power Electronics / DC-DC │
└──────┬──────────────────────────────┬────────┘
│ │
┌────────────▼──────────┐ ┌────────────▼──────────┐
│ Motor Design │ │ Measurements & │
│ Motor Hub (Mech.) │ │ Instrumentation │
└────────────┬──────────┘ └────────────┬──────────┘
│ │
┌────────────▼──────────┐ ┌────────────▼──────────┐
│ Motor Driver │ │ IoT │
│ Regen Braking │ └────────────┬──────────┘
│ Pedal Assist │ │
└────────────┬──────────┘ ┌─────────────▼─────────┐
│ │ UX │
┌────────────▼──────────┐ │ (Display / App) │
│ Safety & Fault │ └───────────────────────┘
│ Handling │
└───────────────────────┘
All inter-team communication protocols and data interfaces are defined in docs/architecture/.
Stage: Formation
We are currently inviting members to form a multidisciplinary founding team of 20 makers.
If you are an engineer, student, hobbyist, or maker who wants to be part of building this from the ground up — this is the moment to join. The founding team will set the direction, define the architecture, and establish how each subsystem is built.
No prior open source experience required. Curiosity and commitment are enough.
Open a GitHub Discussion and introduce yourself — who you are, what you do, and what draws you to this project. There is no wrong answer.
Add a file with your name or your group's name under teams/ with a brief intro — who you are and what you want to work on. That's it — you're in.
- Engineering students — Apply your coursework to a real, open, physical product. Great for final year projects.
- Hobbyists & makers — Build and ride something you designed yourself.
- Professionals — Mentor, review designs, or contribute deep expertise to a specific team.
- Designers — Help make the UX and documentation clear and accessible.
- Writers — Good documentation is as valuable as good code.
No contribution is too small. Fixing a typo in a spec document is as welcome as submitting a PCB schematic.
- Hardware (mechanical designs, PCB schematics): CERN Open Hardware Licence v2 - Strongly Reciprocal (CERN-OHL-S)
- Firmware & Software: GNU General Public License v3.0 (GPL-3.0)
- Documentation: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
All contributions must be made under these licenses.
Built in Barcamp. Open to the world.