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Show HN: Open-Source eInk Bike Computer

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Re: Show HN: Open-Source eInk Bike Computer

#91

Post by pandaman »

carlosjobim wrote: post #89
pandaman wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 separ…

> Measuring the contrast within the display means practically nothing compared to measuring the contrast in the real world environment

Even if it had been true, claiming the e-ink has the same or better contrast as LCD is still false. The sun-lit world has higher contrast than any display, yet it does not make e-ink's contrast any good. In fact it makes the low contrast display much worse as you are likely to be looking at much brighter scenes than your bike computer's screen immediately before looking at it and thus having even less ability to distinguish slight brightness variations on the low contrast screen. A transflective TFT display in bike computers also does not emit light, it's still higher contrast in the sun than e-ink.

Re: Show HN: Open-Source eInk Bike Computer

#92

Post by pandaman »

ehnto wrote: post #90
pandaman wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Sure, threaded headsets (hardly modern, but they do still make bikes with those) don't use top cap, but they also don't have a hole at the top, which products you are talking about?

PS. I searched and found some in-steerer storage. It's not a headset but essentially a hollow compression plug replacement with a top cap moved to the bottom. I have never seen a road fork with a hole at the bottom so it is likely limited to MTB forks and, since there is no compression in that thing, it might be not very safe with a carbon steerer.

Re: Show HN: Open-Source eInk Bike Computer

#93

Post by rjrjrjrj »

Cool project. Not sure I'd use it, as my iPhone works quite well for this purpose. iPhones have had always on display since the 14 Pro and 17, and they've had good water resistance since forever. No problem reading it under any conditions.

  - iPhone 15 Pro with quadlock case 
  - various Quadlock mounts 
  - Quadlock mag charging mount with a USB C battery in the top tube bag for long rides
  - Apple Watch (paired to SRAM Powermeter on bike)
  - Record rides using Apple Fitness on Apple Watch
  - Apple fitness syncs to Strava and other services
  - Ride With GPS, Apple Maps, or Google Maps for turn-by-turn (when necessary)

Re: Show HN: Open-Source eInk Bike Computer

#94

Post by stingrae »

rjrjrjrj wrote: post #93

Cool project. Not sure I'd use it, as my iPhone works quite well for this purpose. iPhones have had always on display since the 14 Pro and 17, and they've had good water resistance since forever. No problem reading it under any conditions. - iPhone 15 Pro with quadlock case - various Quadlock mounts - Quadlock mag charging mount with a USB C battery in the top tube bag for long rides - Apple Watch (paired to SRAM Pow…

be careful how you mount it, make sure that there is enough dampening. people have had issues with excessive vibration and damaging the OIS and focusing motors in the cameras.

Re: Show HN: Open-Source eInk Bike Computer

#95

Post by rjrjrjrj »

stingrae wrote: post #94
rjrjrjrj wrote: post #93

Cool project. Not sure I'd use it, as my iPhone works quite well for this purpose. iPhones have had always on display since the 14 Pro and 17, and they've had good water resistance since forever. No problem reading it under any conditions. - iPhone 15 Pro with quadlock case - various Quadlock mounts - Quadlock mag charging mount with a USB C battery in the top tube bag for long rides - Apple Watch (paired to SRAM Pow…

be careful how you mount it, make sure that there is enough dampening. people have had issues with excessive vibration and damaging the OIS and focusing motors in the cameras.

Thanks, hasn't been a problem for me.

~15,000km with this phone. Tens of thousands more on older phones all the way back to the 5s. Which of course wasn't nearly as good: no always-on display and had to use the Quad Lock "poncho" in the rain.

Re: Show HN: Open-Source eInk Bike Computer

#96

Post by asdff »

rjrjrjrj wrote: post #95
stingrae wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

be careful how you mount it, make sure that there is enough dampening. people have had issues with excessive vibration and damaging the OIS and focusing motors in the cameras.

Thanks, hasn't been a problem for me. ~15,000km with this phone. Tens of thousands more on older phones all the way back to the 5s. Which of course wasn't nearly as good: no always-on display and had to use the Quad Lock "poncho" in the rain.

My road bike handlebars killed my iphone camera fwiw. Into the saddlebag it goes now.

Re: Show HN: Open-Source eInk Bike Computer

#97

Post by __d »

stingrae wrote: post #74
loeg wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Refresh rate does kind of matter. 1Hz imposes an average 0.5s latency on any update, which would be obnoxious in some situations.

i can push it as high as 20Hz.

For me, it matters only when I'm futzing with the map: dragging around or zooming. For the rest of the info on the display, anything more than 500ms interval seems like a waste of power.

Re: Show HN: Open-Source eInk Bike Computer

#98

Post by __d »

stingrae wrote: post #75
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…

refresh rate is sort of a non issue. i can push the refresh rate to up to 20Hz, it is largely unnecessary for this project. it has a nice backlight (basically identical to a kindle display) color is fair, but i dont miss it. i do absolutely love how readable it is in direct sunlight (when im mostly riding)

I find colour useful for a navigation map, mostly. I think the 4-colour eInk displays would be plenty for that, although they have refresh constraints iirc.

A good UI design would mostly avoid the need for colour.

Re: Show HN: Open-Source eInk Bike Computer

#99

Post by __d »

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…

For some use cases, reliance on a phone is sub-optimal. Multi-day wilderness bikepacking, ultra distance racing, etc -- phones just use too much power when you can't get a few hours of charging every day or two.

Re: Show HN: Open-Source eInk Bike Computer

#100

Post by belZaah »

stingrae wrote: post #94
rjrjrjrj wrote: post #93

Cool project. Not sure I'd use it, as my iPhone works quite well for this purpose. iPhones have had always on display since the 14 Pro and 17, and they've had good water resistance since forever. No problem reading it under any conditions. - iPhone 15 Pro with quadlock case - various Quadlock mounts - Quadlock mag charging mount with a USB C battery in the top tube bag for long rides - Apple Watch (paired to SRAM Pow…

be careful how you mount it, make sure that there is enough dampening. people have had issues with excessive vibration and damaging the OIS and focusing motors in the cameras.

Quadlock makes a special dampening mount for this reason.
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