Would love to see video of the application in action. Was recently researching eink displays for motorcycle navigation, but the refresh rates were not up to par for realtime automotive navigation..
Show HN: Open-Source eInk Bike Computer
21–30 of 124 posts
Re: Show HN: Open-Source eInk Bike Computer
#22The semi-interactive walkthrough on the website is really cool, great way to show the UX.
I've always wanted to use a round display and an 18650 to plop a mini bike computer into my headset (replacing the cap). There was a Kickstarter years ago for a project doing that, but it seems to have fizzled out
Re: Show HN: Open-Source eInk Bike Computer
#23I love my eInk displays, I love my bike head unit.
But I don't see how they both fit together honestly.
The pros of eInk:
- low energy usage -> don't matter, current GPS units have +30 hours of battery life already
- low eye strain -> don't matter, you don't look at the screen for hours at a time
- visibility -> don't matter, current GPS units adapt to ambient light
- angle visibility -> don't matter, the screen is right in front of you
The cons of eInk:
- refresh rate -> yeah, I don't want the map display to be laggy
- visibility in the dark -> tunnels, tree cover... I don't want to my GPS to be invisible
- lack of color -> colors provide lots of information on the map display
Re: Show HN: Open-Source eInk Bike Computer
#24This is cool, but I bet it will be a grind trying to get to Garmin levels of battery life. They just have it nailed, and an Edge 550 that's ¼ this size can run for over a day, despite its emissive display, and they don't seem to suffer from display scaling since the larger Edge 1050 runs for even longer. That is to say that the larger battery in a larger device more than compensates for the higher display power requirement.
Anyway one thing I think would be nice is if the GPS radio can become a peripheral. Then with that architecture could the head unit just get GPS from your phone?
Re: Show HN: Open-Source eInk Bike Computer
#25Within 10 seconds I was convinced I needed to try this.
For me, the next step for this is taking all the sensor data recorded for a ride, and loading it into my own fitness tracking database that I own, control, and isn't tied to someone else's profits.
Re: Show HN: Open-Source eInk Bike Computer
#26This is great, I just saw your post on X. I'm also building a bike computer! eInk is the right display tech. I think this will do really well. It might need a UV filter. That said, I don't love needing a separate device (hence, I don't own any bike computer). This is just my preference, but I really prefer to just plop my phone on my handlebars. So I'm building a bike computer app for iPhone: https://x.com/mholt6/sta…
To each their own and the e-ink computer is a neat project. But I'm personally with you on not wanting a separate device. I have my iPhone and a quad lock case I swap on for rides.
Not sure I'm 100% on board with the visual style of your interface (some of the metrics look like they'd be nearly impossible to read while riding 30mph down a gravel road) but I'd love to check it out once it's released.
Do you have a way to sign up for release email or updates for your project?
Good luck!
Re: Show HN: Open-Source eInk Bike Computer
#27Hey this looks neat, I’ve been thinking on trying something similar. I’ve not encountered the ANT protocol, what bike ya using? Is it a higher level thing that your display is giving you, or something your controller uses? I know Bafang uses CAN protocols in their newer e-bike systems and a lot of manufacturers (especially Chinese) use a proprietary UART protocol to stitch things together on the cheaper end. The mess…
ant+ is a garmin protocol that is very common with fitness gadgets and in the bike world. It's a bit like bluetooth, but lower energy usage.
It also got nuked from orbit by European regulators. The ecosystem has a huge installed base but no future.
Re: Show HN: Open-Source eInk Bike Computer
#28Hey this looks neat, I’ve been thinking on trying something similar. I’ve not encountered the ANT protocol, what bike ya using? Is it a higher level thing that your display is giving you, or something your controller uses? I know Bafang uses CAN protocols in their newer e-bike systems and a lot of manufacturers (especially Chinese) use a proprietary UART protocol to stitch things together on the cheaper end. The mess…
ANT+ is basically dead because of an EU legal requirement to ensure that personal information is encrypted. So no new devices will be supporting it, and everything has to move to BLE.
It was quite a rich ecosystem of sensor devices, especially for cycling, including speed and cadence sensors, heart rate monitors, power meters, lights, radar, etc.
It has been extremely popular over the last 20 years.
Re: Show HN: Open-Source eInk Bike Computer
#29Very cool! I made something similar recently with my Xteink X4 ereader - difference being it served as a UI for sensors connected to my phone. Getting the ESP32 to communicate directly to ANT sensors is pretty wild!
Re: Show HN: Open-Source eInk Bike Computer
#30This is cool, but I bet it will be a grind trying to get to Garmin levels of battery life. They just have it nailed, and an Edge 550 that's ¼ this size can run for over a day, despite its emissive display, and they don't seem to suffer from display scaling since the larger Edge 1050 runs for even longer. That is to say that the larger battery in a larger device more than compensates for the higher display power requi…
> and they don't seem to suffer from display scaling since the larger Edge 1050 runs for even longer
Why would they suffer from display scaling? At the same device thickness, larger devices have the same volume per cm² of display. And it gets better:
- if they need the same volume for electronics (likely mostly true; you may want a slightly faster CPU and more memory, but don’t need a larger GPS, second WiFi chip, etc), that means more battery volume per cm² of display.
- at small sizes, I guess/expect wall thickness of the case to scale slower than the dimensions of the case, giving larger cases relatively more internal room.
(Googling, I see the 550 is even slightly thicker than the 1050; 16,8mm vs 16,3mm)