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Show HN: Open-Source eInk Bike Computer

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Re: Show HN: Open-Source eInk Bike Computer

#31

Post by 30minAdayHN »

wiether wrote: post #23

I 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 r…

I agree. But this could be a fun and cheap project to do with kids for their bikes :)

Re: Show HN: Open-Source eInk Bike Computer

#32

Post by jeffbee »

Someone wrote: post #30
jeffbee wrote: post #24

This 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, et…

Yes, that's my point. You might imagine an advantage for eink if you can make the display as big as you want without blowing out the power budget, but in practice it already doesn't matter.

Re: Show HN: Open-Source eInk Bike Computer

#34

Post by flutas »

wiether wrote: post #23

I 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 r…

IMO at least a better one to do would be a transflective LCD like the original pebble watches used.

Re: Show HN: Open-Source eInk Bike Computer

#35

Post by mattlutze »

wiether wrote: post #23

I 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 r…

This device has a backlight enabled by a physical button, and navi refresh rate doesn't matter because you're riding and not staring at it. 1Hz is fine for a reference.

Not sure why needing less battery or having better at-a-glance visibility would be such a bad thing.

One need not love a device, that's ok. But digging to invent a reason to hate it also doesn't seem necessary.

Re: Show HN: Open-Source eInk Bike Computer

#36

Post by Finnucane »

evrimoztamur wrote: post #3

I can't imagine using this in the Netherlands with random rain. The tradeoffs are hard to accept, wondering how it looks and performs in various weather conditions, and if a physical buttoned shell is worth it...

I gave up on bike computers years ago after a couple of tries to find one that would survive New England winter. Then I realized I didn't really need to give a crap about anything a bike computer was telling me.

Re: Show HN: Open-Source eInk Bike Computer

#37

Post by financetechbro »

nickmcc wrote: post #29

Very 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!

Do you have any resources for playing around with the Xteink outside of just reading? I got mine this week and would love to push its utility!

Re: Show HN: Open-Source eInk Bike Computer

#38

Post by wiether »

mattlutze wrote: post #35
wiether wrote: post #23

I 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 r…

This device has a backlight enabled by a physical button, and navi refresh rate doesn't matter because you're riding and not staring at it. 1Hz is fine for a reference. Not sure why needing less battery or having better at-a-glance visibility would be such a bad thing. One need not love a device, that's ok. But digging to invent a reason to hate it also doesn't seem necessary.

  > But digging to invent a reason to hate it also doesn't seem necessary.
I don't see where I expressed any kind of hate towards the device.

Re: Show HN: Open-Source eInk Bike Computer

#39

Post by mmooss »

mholt wrote: post #15

This 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…

> eInk is the right display tech.

It's interesting and I clicked on the OP, but why? The variable ambient light conditions, refresh rate, etc would seem to favor standard LCD/etc.

Battery capacity isn't much of an issue for a small screen, and weight carried by the bicycle.

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