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Show HN: Open-Source eInk Bike Computer

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Re: Show HN: Open-Source eInk Bike Computer

#111

Post by raudette »

stingrae wrote: post #76
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…

note using a phone mounted to a bike or motorcycle can cause damage over time to the camera assembly especially the motors used for OIS. depending on how much you ride or the quality of the roads you ride, it could be an issue. your project does look amazing. sorry that the appstore team is holding things up. RE: ANT+, a hackrf one and fable was key to the hack.

"Exposure to vibrations, like those generated by high-powered motorcycle engines, might impact iPhone cameras" https://support.apple.com/en-ca/102175

I attribute my iPhone 7's camera failing with mounting it on my bike.

Re: Show HN: Open-Source eInk Bike Computer

#112

Post by woodgala »

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…

My phone is the root of trust of my life. I would never put on in my handlebars where it can be easily snatched while unlocked, or broken.

Re: Show HN: Open-Source eInk Bike Computer

#114

Post by carlosjobim »

pandaman wrote: post #110
carlosjobim wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A paper with printed text on a desk in candlelight is harder to read than any LCD monitor with full brightness emitting its own light. But out in the sunshine, the paper will have hundreds of times better contrast than any LCD. The same is true for eInk. Frankly, I don't understand why you are arguing, when it is so ridiculously easy for anybody to test for themselves. Just bring your LCD or OLED device out in the su…

>TFT displays are really good in the sunshine, but eInk is still a bit better, only beaten by paper for real world contrast. You obviously have not done what you are suggesting. Paper is low contrast too, on the level of e-ink. >Has it been a long time since you've used eInk? Maybe they were worse in the past? No to both questions. E-ink inherently is low contrast and there is no way to enhance it in this technology:…

Maybe you live in a place where the sun doesn't shine that strongly? Because otherwise you could do a real life test and know that I'm right in 5 seconds.

I read books on my Kindle outdoors in the blazing sun, and so do most of the millions of people who have Kindles or similar devices. Contrast is excellent. In the same conditions an LCD phone is just a black mirror which you can hardly make out any kind of information form. An OLED is better, and you can see everything on the screen dimly if you strain your eyes. A TFT is even better, but none of them compares to eInk or paper.

So maybe you live in Britain or in Norway, or somewhere similar where it's cloudy all the time? You saying that paper is low contrast baffles me, actually. It seems like you are hung up on the contrast within the device, which is irrelevant for outdoor use, where the only thing which matters is the contrast as part of the real world environment.

Let me ask you, who is the faster runner: The fastest runner on your street or the slowest runner in the Olympics? Because you seem to be arguing for the former because of measuring within limits that do not confirm to the real world - where there is a sun.

Re: Show HN: Open-Source eInk Bike Computer

#115

Post by _kb »

hi_hi wrote: post #65

There’s no mention of the wheel sensor. How does it get the bike telemetry?

Since the ANT+ protocol implementation seems to already be there, it seems a likely/sensible future path is to implement wheel sensor support. It provides much higher accuracy of speed/distance than GPS and lower power draw.

On that note, this is a world I've recently taken a dive in to. I was about to roll a Pi Zero / ESP data logger to track distance travelled on my commuter bike for planning service intervals. Was keen on a solution that didn't involve draining a phone battery and remembering to start trips, a full bike computer, or smartwatch. After a bit of research I picked up a Garmin Speed Sensor 2 - highly recommend as a bit of stupidly effective tech.

The device straps around your hub and is essentially a coin battery and mems rotation sensor. In addition to running as an ANT+ peripheral it will operate standalone and log the last 300 hours of ride time then sync next time you open the app. Speed and distance is then inferred based on wheel circumference.

Re: Show HN: Open-Source eInk Bike Computer

#116

Post by [deleted] »

matsemann wrote: post #62
robot_jesus wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

For many, a separate device is a feature. Not using the phone battery and not poosibly damage my phone (fall) is good.

[deleted]

Re: Show HN: Open-Source eInk Bike Computer

#117

Post by robot_jesus »

mholt wrote: post #41
robot_jesus wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Thanks; not yet unfortunately, I have been too busy to set up a mailing list, but that's a good idea. The video preview I linked to only shows the rich maps and instrument modes. There's also a wireframe map view that is higher-contrast and much more practical for your gravel rides: https://i.imgur.com/lZF20Xz.png -- and I am still tuning of course, we can make the map smaller and the characters larger, etc. Maybe fo…

Alas, no X account but I'll set a remind to check in again in a month or two. Cheers.

Re: Show HN: Open-Source eInk Bike Computer

#119

Post by speedgoose »

jeffbee wrote: post #84
Brian_K_White wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I think it’s more about the ANT+ sport heart monitors.

Re: Show HN: Open-Source eInk Bike Computer

#120

Post by pandaman »

carlosjobim wrote: post #114
pandaman wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>TFT displays are really good in the sunshine, but eInk is still a bit better, only beaten by paper for real world contrast. You obviously have not done what you are suggesting. Paper is low contrast too, on the level of e-ink. >Has it been a long time since you've used eInk? Maybe they were worse in the past? No to both questions. E-ink inherently is low contrast and there is no way to enhance it in this technology:…

Maybe you live in a place where the sun doesn't shine that strongly? Because otherwise you could do a real life test and know that I'm right in 5 seconds. I read books on my Kindle outdoors in the blazing sun, and so do most of the millions of people who have Kindles or similar devices. Contrast is excellent. In the same conditions an LCD phone is just a black mirror which you can hardly make out any kind of informat…

I live in Texas. I think you are just confused about meaning of the word "contrast" because you keep using in a way that makes no sense for contrast but makes some sense for brightness. Contrast in this context is the ratio of luminosity between brightest and darkest areas of a display. For a non-emissive display such as e-ink or LCD in a bike computer the ambient light level makes zero difference: the white pigment in e-ink will reflect/diffuse ~15 times more light than the black pigment in the same. Light areas in an LCD screen will reflect 1000 times more light than dark areas. The absolute amount of light above quantum level makes zero difference, it's the same for a candle, Sun or a supernova star - the ratio i.e. contrast remains the same. An e-ink display can be brighter than a reflective LCD though due to higher albedo, this is likely what you are talking about.

Also, if you really try to do what you suggested - you should not use an LCD phone, phones do not have reflective LCD displays but use backlight instead so the contrast on those decreases with increase of the ambient as both light and dark areas reflect the same amount of ambient light and the only difference is the backlight's emissive portion, the higher is the ambient, the lower of the ratio i.e. contrast.

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