Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Show HN: I replaced a $120k bowling center system with $1,600 in ESP32s

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

341–350 of 375 posts

Re: Show HN: I replaced a $120k bowling center system with $1,600 in ESP32s

#341

Post by madaxe_again »

smm11 wrote: post #321
madaxe_again wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup. I live on a river. We flooded catastrophically in 2019, which made me suddenly care about the government’s network of river level meters. Turns out, they abandoned most of them in 2008, as it was the local council who were meant to maintain them, but they couldn’t afford it - a chat with the president revealed they’d been paying €15k a year for each station to maintain it and they’d cost about €100k each. I went…

Next you can hook up an abandoned nuke silo, right?

Pretty sure you could manage launch control with nothing but a bunch of ESP32s and home assistant. Sadly there are no rad hardened ESP32s I know of, but that’s what the silo’s for.

Re: Show HN: I replaced a $120k bowling center system with $1,600 in ESP32s

#342

Post by madaxe_again »

cechmaster wrote: post #264
madaxe_again wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They hadn’t been paying since 2008, hence it was all derelict trash - they don’t even have the budget to maintain the roads or keep the school open, never mind monitor river levels. My interest was not drowning, rather than pecuniary.

so what are they doing?

Care and education, and whatever they can manage with whatever’s left over. Same as pretty much every council everywhere.

Re: Show HN: I replaced a $120k bowling center system with $1,600 in ESP32s

#343

Post by BizarroLand »

humanpotato wrote: post #332
red369 wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I once expected an aftermarket industry to pop-up to hybridize old cars. Old rear-wheel drive manual cars sound easiest. Generator attached to the flywheel instead of the starter motor, and then find some way to squeeze a drive motor by the rear diff (probably more complicated, but surely not impossible). I thought something might pop up once companies like Bosch started making generic e-axles for manufacturers to us…

Automotive engineer here. One consideration for the diff motor is that it would REALLY sag the diff. I think the only way to go would be a front and rear generator/motor combo in one housing to replace the transmission, powering the rear end with a driveshaft. A direct drive clutch between the front and rear motor/generator would economize driving and assure high power at high speeds.

How about a front wheel mounted drivetrain with the motors built into the wheel hubs?

That would effectively add 4wd to old cars and allow the onboard engine to work normally with an option for eboost/edrive with the only extreme modification being adding the battery and control modules.

Re: Show HN: I replaced a $120k bowling center system with $1,600 in ESP32s

#344

Post by high_priest »

BizarroLand wrote: post #343
humanpotato wrote: post #332

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Automotive engineer here. One consideration for the diff motor is that it would REALLY sag the diff. I think the only way to go would be a front and rear generator/motor combo in one housing to replace the transmission, powering the rear end with a driveshaft. A direct drive clutch between the front and rear motor/generator would economize driving and assure high power at high speeds.

How about a front wheel mounted drivetrain with the motors built into the wheel hubs? That would effectively add 4wd to old cars and allow the onboard engine to work normally with an option for eboost/edrive with the only extreme modification being adding the battery and control modules.

You would have to provide custom replacement hubs, for all the vehicle types you want to support. Plus, adding a clutch system to a hub drive is not feasable. So, the hub engines are engaged all the time.

I've considered it as a modification for FWD track performance cars. It is much easier to add a hub into a stiff rear axle. Turns out, that adding an electric motor, which is not part of the main engine assembly, ads way too much complexity in controlling the whole thing and weight to power ratio, that it stops quickly stops making sense.

Re: Show HN: I replaced a $120k bowling center system with $1,600 in ESP32s

#345

Post by high_priest »

mattgrice wrote: post #323
red369 wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I once expected an aftermarket industry to pop-up to hybridize old cars. Old rear-wheel drive manual cars sound easiest. Generator attached to the flywheel instead of the starter motor, and then find some way to squeeze a drive motor by the rear diff (probably more complicated, but surely not impossible). I thought something might pop up once companies like Bosch started making generic e-axles for manufacturers to us…

In the US RWD manual cars have been exclusively sport/GT for decades. They aren't cheap and a hybrid swap and/or daily driving miles would destroy their value.

There are hybrid packages, which are very good for performance applications. A performance oriented conversion, done well, should boost the value.

Re: Show HN: I replaced a $120k bowling center system with $1,600 in ESP32s

#346

Post by angoragoats »

monster_truck wrote: post #156
angoragoats wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, not a Substack, just a regular blog please.

Seconded. I don't need, want, or read emails. I want a website I can go to and show to others

I don’t even care that much about the email thing, and most newsletter sites make it easy to have your articles available on the web, but Substack specifically is a horrible company that needs to die. I refuse to read anything hosted on Substack on principle.

Re: Show HN: I replaced a $120k bowling center system with $1,600 in ESP32s

#347

Post by wilted-iris »

I’m curious, does the addition of wireless enable anything that wouldn’t be possible on RS485? Naively to me, it seems like it would add failure modes and hurt worst case performance, but I assume it’s a tradeoff to get a bandwidth or average latency improvement.

Re: Show HN: I replaced a $120k bowling center system with $1,600 in ESP32s

#348

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

walrus01 wrote: post #170
zrail wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having grown up in a small midwest town in an R&R desert, I think the canonical answer is a liquor license.

I've always wondered about these when I see bars in tiny towns in rural parts of WA, OR, ID because the only way to get home is to drive drunk (I seriously doubt that the locals are organizing designated drivers for carloads of intoxicated people, and no taxi services exist). It seems they just take a gamble on not crashing and not getting caught by the local law enforcement.

Yes. I live in a rural area. The two closest businesses (within 5 miles) are bars. IIRC, both have tie rails so you can ride your horse there. The horse will know the way home, so you just have to stay onboard.

Wife used to be a bartender (somewhere else) and one of the regulars usually showed up on a tractor because he had lost his license. She once fit 3 people plus herself in my 2-seater car as their sober cab.

Sadly, here in the midwest, people driving drunk in small towns is not particularly noteworthy. You learn to be extra careful driving past the bars late at night.

Re: Show HN: I replaced a $120k bowling center system with $1,600 in ESP32s

#349

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

Nerdrotic wrote: post #57

All this tech is now off the shelf commodity items that anyone with basic skills can put together. For decades this tech was crazy expensive and required assembler machine language programming.

That hasn't been the case for at least 20 years. And I'm being generous.

Re: Show HN: I replaced a $120k bowling center system with $1,600 in ESP32s

#350

Post by tanseydavid »

tanseydavid wrote: post #168
taneq wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah this $100k system with all its expensive add ons is there to push a single button.

This is an AI app from the 1950s! Developed by Rube Goldberg who fully intended to vibe code the scoring part later.

Point of clarity: my remark was not in reference to the original post and project (which I love!).

It was in reference to this comment (which I should have pasted):

> Yeah this $100k system with all its expensive add ons is there to push a single button

Post reply on HN