iPhone and Wireless Networked Bike

[brucehawsker]

I was asked in another thread why an iPhone on an electric bike.....

Our bikes have a IP address and WiFi board on the conroller. Thus it is a simple matter to interface an iPad or an iPhone using an App to the bike. Equally, using a USB to CANbus connector, we can interface a laptop to the bike.

Through either mechanism, we can change the power profile of the bike - attack, max amps, max speed, role of throttle etc etc.

Using the iPhone, in the pocket or mounted on the handlebars, the user can control these parameters if they wish to change the power profile mid journey.

But that is only 10% of the story. The GPS / Altitude capability of the iPhone, and the accelerometer, give us the ability to build up a data log history of a bike ride. Through the network, the iPhone can interrogate the bike and store data from any of the bike sensors - spped, brake usage, Amps, cadence, torque (differential pedal to pedal), ambient light, temperature. Being CANbus it is trivial to add sensors to monitor such as heartbeat, skin conductivuty, respiration rate. All can be recorded in real time via the wireless by the iPhone.

When you get home, the journey log can be mashed with Google Earth or sent by email to other users.

So, considering just two applications as this is becoming a long post:

A. I want to see how my fitness as a commuter is improving as I use my bike on the same route day after day. I can build up a 3D stack of journeys, with date being the third axis, and see how I am using less and less battrery as I get fitter. I can also look at the points I use most amps, and refine my power profile to avoid such usage and encourage myself to ride harder at those hot points.

B. I am an orthopedic surgeon at a hospital which has leased a fleet of bikes. I lend them to my recovering patients with instuctions to do a set of carefully prescribed different journeys, one each day, they will hopefully follow the navigation I have sent them as GPS routes by email, and at the end of each week, they send me their journey logs. I can see if they have actually being doing the trips I wanted. I can see how much work their two kness have differentially done.

I also was challenged quite reasonably on the use of GPS for altitude and the errors in it. Actually I find my HTC desire more accurate than the iPhone. However, the errors are small and tend to be due to calibration rather than accuracy - thus elevation achieved (difference between two iPhone altitudes) is accurate to about 5%
- even if the baseline is way out.

GPS altitude is usually x1.5 the horizontal error, so an EPE of 2m would give an altitude EPE of 3m. However, these errors tend to be on the same side over a 20 minute period - so difference between elevations are less than that.

GPS altitude is computed above the WGS-84 Geoid (WGS-84 is the reference coordinate system used by the Global Positioning System) which is not necessarily perfectly accurate with respect to the ground around you. It is not be the OS standard used for altitude measurement.

However, the key thing is we use the altitude held by Google maps as a primary data source when we mash, and the GPS realtime as secondary.

Prizes for anyone who comesa up with a novel use for an iPhone wireleseely linked to an electric bike....

 

[10mph]

So I have to purchase an Iphone - £490 on pay as you go or £56 per month for an 18 month contract with a free handset - according to today's issue of Which?

For £490 I could get a realy big spare battery and then I would not have to worry about range. I can determine fitness improvements other ways.

Dont rely on Google earth for altitudes - use the OS 1: 25000 map contours at 5m intervals.

 

[Streethawk]

Thanks for the clarification, scenario A, maybe, although the fitness crowd mostly buy normal bikes and can track everything they need with a GPS enabled HRM. Still, i concede, it'll appeal to those of very poor fitness or with health problems.

Scenario B sounds far too hypothetical, i cant see it ever happening. Never heard of doctors prescribing cycling specifically, let alone giving you a bike to do it.

I do think you have a nice idea, but i think it needs work to be more than a gimmick. As it stands, its not a major selling point.

 

[brucehawsker]

Thank you for your kind comments, Streethawk. Please watch this space. I can't tell you more, but there is a medical research JV which began at the start of this month specifically covering the scenario. Even medics are beginnig to wake up and realise that electric bikes may have an application.

One of the things we find in sales is that it is the students and young proefssionals who 'get' immediately why an iPhone enabled bike allows them to post rides socially and exchange rides socially and monitor thier performance and their rides to work.

Most of our younger clients already have either an iPhone on an Android - and the Windows 7 App is nearly ready.... One of the cries of this industry has been to move the demographic down in age terms - well we are at least investing huge effort in trying to do so - and getting sceptical flak from some areas of the older demographic

 

[NRG]

Well you hit the nail on the head there, the demographic of this forum is not your 20 or 30 somethings

I love my gadgets, have an iPhone, iPad, wireless music in the home etc but for the life of me I can't think of a reason why on earth I would want to interface my bike to my phone or why I would want to change a user profile mid ride. If this is what you are doing to differentiate your self in the market then I wish you luck, personally, I would be more interested in the quality of the bike as a bike, the spec, the back up, the dealers, the reliability etc etc. All these rank way ahead of an IP address for my bike I'm afraid but, I do wish you luck though! The Gadget show team would wet themselves I'm sure to test one.


BTW Bruce you should declare your commercial interest in either in your user name or signature as per the forum AUP

http://www.pedelecs.co.uk/forum/electric-bicycles/6645-businesses-please-read.html

 

[AndyOfTheSouth]

Start up ebike company Radstock Holly has announced a range of new products based around a CANNY bus user interface. 'We believe this will take the ebike user experience to a new level. We want to get away from the idea of an electric bicycle as a form of transport and into the realm of experiential transformation.'

Radley Holly will be turning the industry upside down by doing away with dealers. Rather their eTrans machines will be sold by eTrans Counsellors who can program the integrated iPad (sold separately) to reflect the personality of the owner.

'By doing this we can ensure that our customers don't simply ride their bikes, or eTransitioners as we call them, but enjoy the totality of the moment.'

Company CEO Hieronymous Buzzard hinted that future products may even venture into the medicolifestyle area.

'CANNY programming could allow a customer to set a target heart rate. Patented sensors would detect a suitable downhill gradient and prevent the brakes operating until the required heart rate has been reached.'

'Of course, we have to run that idea past the health and safety people', he joked.


[Kindly and thoughtful responses to this are in the Charging Post version, to which it had been moved and where it made little sense! Not that it makes much sense here, of course... ]

 

[10mph]

AndyOfTheSouth

Would you say of your CANNY bus that it uses "simple electricity moving through a wire in a code (like moris code) you do not need to understand the code, just know that its there and there should be a signal. Leave the understanding up to those crazy engineers the program the stuff."

I think something like Moris code is essential for the type of conusmer you are pitching to. The great thing about Moris Code is that it is tuned to young professionals with money to burn. I am over 60 and it is beyond my comprehension. </scarcasm>

 

[Ultra Motor]

I think the point here is that the bikes are for the 'technology focused group'. Of course I would want to connect my iPhone and have one interface, to be able to change my profile when I get to a hilly section or when out of breath. I think this makes total sense!

Look at the Mini and Smart offerings in the electric scooter sector, all have an iPhone interface. We are exploring opportunities in this technology and our target audience is 30-55.

Watch this space....

 

[averhamdave]

Well I'm 57, I own an android phone and use the app "Sports Tracker" every time I go out on my bike and find the data analysis i can do later quite interesting for the reasons outlined in the OP.

I'm going to read the post again and try and understand the detail better but to me this is an interesting concept - the quantifiable measurement in health improvement, improving fitness, battery and controller tuning to optimise bike performance etc.

Bruce, please don't be put off my the less than enthusiastic responses and keep us in touch.

dave

 

[Ultra Motor]

Well I'm 57, I own an android phone and use the app "Sports Tracker" every time I go out on my bike and find the data analysis i can do later quite interesting for the reasons outlined in the OP.

I'm going to read the post again and try and understand the detail better but to me this is an interesting concept - the quantifiable measurement in health improvement, improving fitness, battery and controller tuning to optimise bike performance etc.

Bruce, please don't be put off my the less than enthusiastic responses and keep us in touch.

dave

Great to hear it Dave! I've always found that 50+ tend to be the biggest early adopters!

 

[Deleted member 4366]

I use my iphone a lot on my bike for logging journeys, and it's pleasing to see how my average speed is increasing as I get gradually fitter. The logging is a secondary function really: The main function is to provide GPS positioning on cycle routes and roads where I havn't been before. Bruce, I'm sure your system is going to keep the gadget geeks (like me) amused, and I can't really think of how else you could use the iphone, but, of course, you could look it the other way. What can the bike do for the iphone? - like provide power to it, because, as you probably know, the iphone battery won't last the length of a decent bike ride, so all your system will come tumbling down when the iphone battery goes flat. I have to carry an extra 12v lithium battery with adaptor and charger so that I can keep my phone going on a long ride.

 

[Ultra Motor]

I use my iphone a lot on my bike for logging journeys, and it's pleasing to see how my average speed is increasing as I get gradually fitter. The logging is a secondary function really: The main function is to provide GPS positioning on cycle routes and roads where I havn't been before. Bruce, I'm sure your system is going to keep the gadget geeks (like me) amused, and I can't really think of how else you could use the iphone, but, of course, you could look it the other way. What can the bike do for the iphone? - like provide power to it, because, as you probably know, the iphone battery won't last the length of a decent bike ride, so all your system will come tumbling down when the iphone battery goes flat. I have to carry an extra 12v lithium battery with adaptor and charger so that I can keep my phone going on a long ride.

Very good point!!

 

[jbond]

So let's have a 5V USB charger socket on E-Bikes. Shouldn't be hard. In fact it's quite likely you could just gut a car USB charger and run it from 36v instead of 12v.

Not a problem for me, as the iPod and mini speaker will keep going for 8 hours or so. Much longer than I want to ride.

An iPhone dock doesn't seem far fetched to me. I know several people who use cycle tracking apps on their iPhone.

 

[NRG]

I think the point here is that the bikes are for the 'technology focused group'. Of course I would want to connect my iPhone and have one interface, to be able to change my profile when I get to a hilly section or when out of breath. I think this makes total sense!

Look at the Mini and Smart offerings in the electric scooter sector, all have an iPhone interface. We are exploring opportunities in this technology and our target audience is 30-55.

Watch this space....

Not picking on Mark but aimed at the other replies: You've heard of the KISS principle? It works really well, there is engineering for a positive purpose then there's engineering for engineering's sake

If I come to a hill and need an extra push I want to flick a switch not interface with an iPhone, BTW going off at a Tangent, sticking with an iPhone alienates all the other smart phone users who prefer a different platform.

Back to KISS, the logging features: OK, I can see why some people want to do this but personally I'm not bothered, I want to look at the scenery not data on where and how high I've climbed but there's cheaper and better devices to log data if you want to do so like the eTrex GPS mentioned by 10mph....plus the battery lasts way longer.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

So let's have a 5V USB charger socket on E-Bikes. Shouldn't be hard. In fact it's quite likely you could just gut a car USB charger and run it from 36v instead of 12v.

Not a problem for me, as the iPod and mini speaker will keep going for 8 hours or so. Much longer than I want to ride.

An iPhone dock doesn't seem far fetched to me. I know several people who use cycle tracking apps on their iPhone.

Don't forget that the iphone won't charge off a standard 5v USB. It needs something on one of the other pins.

The iphone can run some aps all day, but when you're using wifi and GPS, it goes down to a couple of hours - if it was fully charged first, so for a decent ride out, you need some sort of additional battery.

 

[jbond]

Don't forget that the iphone won't charge off a standard 5v USB. It needs something on one of the other pins.

This is why I hate Apple. The USB standard works. So why did they have to change it? Hence this. ThinkGeek :: iPhone USB Charging Adapter
Some but not all USB chargers will charge some but not all Apple devices. It is understood now what Apple wants on the other two pins so some of the 3rd party manufacturers allow for it.