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Show HN: Open-Source eInk Bike Computer

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Re: Show HN: Open-Source eInk Bike Computer

#81

Post by [deleted] »

__d wrote: post #28
tuchsen wrote: post #6

Hey 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.

[deleted]

Re: Show HN: Open-Source eInk Bike Computer

#82

Post by pandaman »

Rebelgecko wrote: post #22

The 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

If you mean that you push a 18650 inside the steerer tube and have the display at the cap level - how do you preload the headset then? You need to pull the steerer up somehow and it's done via that cap and a bolt that goes through it into a compression plug/star nut inside the steerer. If you place something under the cap it needs to fit between that bolt and the inside of the steerer tube, which 18650 can't.

Re: Show HN: Open-Source eInk Bike Computer

#83

Post by steve_adams_86 »

stingrae wrote: post #48
shrinks99 wrote: post #40

Very cool! Did you consider Protomaps for the map tile format at all? It's a pretty clever way of storing everything in a single file and their tooling is pretty nice.

I hadnt heard of it. I will check it out.

PMTiles is the underlying technology I believe. We use it on oceanconnect.ca and in my opinion it’s pretty awesome. Very efficient to store and retrieve, and cut our S3 PUT request costs by something like 90% across the project.

Re: Show HN: Open-Source eInk Bike Computer

#84

Post by jeffbee »

Brian_K_White wrote: post #80
jeffbee wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It also got nuked from orbit by European regulators. The ecosystem has a huge installed base but no future.

Isn't it only using standard ble hardware anyway? So what's the problem?

They are both using the same physical layer, but the ANT+ protocol scheme is more amenable to ultra-low-power implementations than BLE is. The European belief that my wheel rotation sensor needs privacy through encryption has effectively outlawed the low-power attributes of ANT+ for future hardware.

Re: Show HN: Open-Source eInk Bike Computer

#85

Post by pandaman »

carlosjobim wrote: post #72
ianburrell wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Transflective LCDs, which most bike computers use, are also reflective but have better contrast than eink making them more visible in sunlight. They are different than phones.

They don't have better contrasts. They have blacker blacks, but eInk has much whiter whites.

They obviously do. E-ink display in this topic, for example, is 12:1[1]. The best (contrast wise) e-ink displays available commercially are around 20:1. The trashiest LCD, on the other hand, will be around 500:1.

1. https://www.panelook.com/ED047TC1_E_Ink_4.7_EPD_parameter_25...

Re: Show HN: Open-Source eInk Bike Computer

#87

Post by prmoustache »

kccqzy wrote: post #45
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…

Only a day? COROS has it beat by having 100+ hours of GPS riding. And I think GPS is the key power consumption part here. Have you tried opening one of those background location tracking apps that would require your phone to receive GPS all day long? That significantly reduces battery life on your phone. You really want your entire GPS stack running on a power-sipping processor, not on your phone’s application proces…

> Only a day? COROS has it beat by having 100+ hours of GPS riding.

If my memory is correct, at the price of only be able to sync your rides and routes using a proprietary app that probably also send all your data to mothership.

Re: Show HN: Open-Source eInk Bike Computer

#89

Post by carlosjobim »

pandaman wrote: post #85
carlosjobim wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They don't have better contrasts. They have blacker blacks, but eInk has much whiter whites.

They obviously do. E-ink display in this topic, for example, is 12:1[1]. The best (contrast wise) e-ink displays available commercially are around 20:1. The trashiest LCD, on the other hand, will be around 500:1. 1. https://www.panelook.com/ED047TC1_E_Ink_4.7_EPD_parameter_25...

Measuring the contrast within the display means practically nothing compared to measuring the contrast in the real world environment, which in this case is outdoors and hopefully in the sun.

Compared to the full contrast range of the sun lit real world, all displays emitting light function in a very narrow and very dark contrast range. An eInk display does not emit light, so in that environment you have a clear separation between bright and dark.

Re: Show HN: Open-Source eInk Bike Computer

#90

Post by ehnto »

pandaman wrote: post #82
Rebelgecko wrote: post #22

The 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

If you mean that you push a 18650 inside the steerer tube and have the display at the cap level - how do you preload the headset then? You need to pull the steerer up somehow and it's done via that cap and a bolt that goes through it into a compression plug/star nut inside the steerer. If you place something under the cap it needs to fit between that bolt and the inside of the steerer tube, which 18650 can't.

Some modern headset designs don't use the top cap to do that. There's a bunch of products that exploit that to put toolkits, spare CO2 canisters or whathave you in that spot.
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