Hacking a treadmill with Arduino?
This project is going to need lots of reverse engineering, and maybe even a scope. It may also be very hard to do without making the control panel useless, or hacking that too.



WARNING: Do this at your own risk. If handled improperly, you could fry both your Arduino and your treadmill. Proceed with caution. When reverse engineering, make sure to change the circuit as little as possible to prevent a surge in voltage or a drop that can damage your equipment. Be safe. Use common sense. If you're not sure, ask. Unplug everything before you modify electronic. Triple check your connections. Redo anything if you're not certain that it's fine. Safety should be your first priority.

[I feel like a lawyer now... :P]



Reverse Engineering:

This may be one of the hardest steps, especially if you don't have a oscilloscope, since you'll need one or similar devices. They're useful, but expensive. I've never needed one, so I don't have one, and I'm guessing. Any corrections welcome.

If you're lucky, your scope will have a feature that you can record it and "freeze" the screen, and maybe even edit it on the computer.

So, unplug the treadmill. Detach the cord. I would personally cut off the connectors and solder some wires on them, probably the same size of wire so you know it can handle the amperage, with the least amount of resistance. Then, I would also somehow connect the wires firmly, so the can conduct, and use a little masking tape so someone doesn't touch the wires accidentally. However, you'll need one uncovered at all times. Which one it is will vary by which line you want to test. You'll need to attach the clips to each wire. (You'll just have to figure out a similar solution with tape or clothes pin if you have a probe.)

Turn on the scope. Enjoy. I would study the patterns of each one, and push all the buttons. Some will and some won't respond. Test both amps and voltage. You might be able to imitate this with an Arduino.

If it looks like gibberish: doing some pulsing that is proportional to the speed the motor is running, then it may be harder. It's probably a stepper motor.



A simpler way is this; it is a coffee maker, but the information is good. It shows you how to modify the buttons to "push" them with Arduino.

Other than that, without any more information, I can't really help you without making a whole book. If you need help with simpler problems in the future when you've discovered more, feel free to post a new question. The "pushing" would be ideal, and I think that you could still use the control panel and the computer could push the buttons too, although if you push it to 3 and it wants it at 5 and thinks it is at 0, you'd be on speed 8. It's almost like backlash in a CNC machine. (Skip that if you don't know what that is.)

I think this is enough to get you started. Good luck.