A physicist rigged his pet hamster’s wheel to upload to Strava

Mollie the Hamster, on Strava: https://strava.app.link/FMubyPjMa5b

Project: > The main parts are an ESP32 attached to a hall sensor, which I positioned close to the wheel. Using a magnet attached to the back of the wheel, this tells the ESP32 when a full rotation has completed. It gives a timestamp (and total distance) to each magnet-pass, which is stored on the network. A python script (on my laptop) then retrieves this data in the morning, turns it into a .FIT file, and uploads it to Strava through the Strava API (with a randomly chosen run title, taken from a mostly AI-generated list of options, as I needed >100). In terms of manual additions, I had to add the photo manually, and Mollie had to do the running.

More here: https://www.reddit.com/r/SideProject/comments/1v9uyq0/i_buil...

If you look at any neuroscience paper, mice will run 10k a day or more on a wheel overnight. I thought the axis labels were wrong when I first saw that type of study. It’s quite common.

> Over one seven-day stretch, he started within the same 10-minute window on five nights, between 9:54 and 10:04 p.m.

I wonder if this correlates with Thijs's bedtime schedule, or if the hamster really is that precise.

We feed the cat at home at the same time every day, and her internal clock definitely know when it's time less than 30' divergence. She suffers the daylight transitions immensely too because of this.

Have you seen evidence he understands that running causes treats to be dispensed and is running more as a result?

We are all hamsters on Strava.