new e-bike display poll

[bcans]

In a few weeks the new E-bike display will be for sale
But I still have some questions.
The enclosure gives me a headache

I have designed a nice enclosure and 3-D printed it.
The next step was making epoxy copy's but the result
I have tried a easier design, but the same problem.

Professional copy's go over 100$ a pcs for 50 pcs
3-D printing even more :-(

this leaves for me 3 solutions

1)Selling the EBC computer without a enclosure, the cheapest.
2)Selling it in a prefab enclosure (+20$)
3)Selling it in a 3-D printed enclosure (+130$)

A second question.
If you like a feature, please tell me now.
I'm full in the software development and new feature are easy to implement.

The 3D printed enclosure

The prefab enclosure

The PCB

 

[Russell]

this leaves for me 3 solutions

1)Selling the EBC computer without a enclosure, the cheapest.
2)Selling it in a prefab enclosure (+20$)
3)Selling it in a 3-D printed enclosure (+130$)

A second question.
If you like a feature, please tell me now.
I'm full in the software development and new feature are easy to implement.

I see no need for the 3-D printed enclosure. A prefab enclosure would probably be best but be sure to include a decent handlebar mount with it. You could also sell it w/o an enclosure for DIY'ers.

What features does it have now? Does it do everything the Cycle Analyst can do because that's the device it will be compared against. For me if it has the features of a Watts-Up meter plus has a remote shunt and speedometer and is priced between the WU and CA I would be interested.

-R

 

[bcans]

This is the steer holder for the prefab enclosure

This display hase all the functions like the CA and more

-realtime clock
-temperature
-battery backup for realtime clock
-µSD card holder for data logging (2 gig max)
-5 stage power level control
-cruise control
...

 

[ebiker]

I also think that the prefab enclosure will do best.
When will the unit be available? Do you already know the final price? I'm very interested as I don't have a CA yet, but want to get one (or your unit ) soon.

 

[icecube57]

SEEEEXXXXY!!!! Pimpin meter.

 

[Zoot Katz]

Does the real-time clock have stop watch functions like lap times? How about elapsed travel times and accumulated riding time since the last recharge or week or whenever?
Does the thermometer only record ambient air temperature? Sensors on the battery pack and/or motor housing would be more useful to me.

 

[adrian_sm]

1 vote for the prefab. It looks fine to me.

Any more details on the specs.

What sort of data logging does it have.

I would be most interested if it had CA features, plus the usual bike computer stats.
Data logging of voltage, current etc that can easily be transfered to a PC for analyse would be awesome.

How do you get the data of the memory card. Do you need to crack open the device?

And of course How much, and when is it available?

Good work. It is looking great.

Adrian

 

[bcans]

Does the real-time clock have stop watch functions like lap times? How about elapsed travel times and accumulated riding time since the last recharge or week or whenever?
Does the thermometer only record ambient air temperature? Sensors on the battery pack and/or motor housing would be more useful to me.

A stopwacht function will be no problem, but only in sec and not 1/100st seconds...
The buttons are read 50 times/sec => 1/100st will not be acurate to push a button.
elapsed travel times: there are two ODO and one TOTAL counter.
ODO A and ODO B give you the distance and the moving time. If speeds zero, no time is added. (adjustable timeout)
from 0 to 999.9 you have 100m resolution, bigger distances from 1000 to 9999 km
TOTAL gives the distance and overall time 0 to 99999 km and 0 to 999.9 hours, for longer time 1000 to 9999 hours

You can put more thermometers on the system, it is based on the Dallas OneWire temp sensors.
If you put 100 temp sensors on this network it will take some time to read them all.
Batterypack, motorhousing, controller and external temp will be no problem.

...
What sort of data logging does it have.
Data logging of voltage, current etc that can easily be transfered to a PC for analyse would be awesome.
How do you get the data of the memory card. Do you need to crack open the device?
And of course How much, and when is it available?

The data is stored on a µSD card in a CVS table for exel
time,voltage,current, reg current, speed, temp,distance ect are stored once a second.
In the near future a GPS option will be possible to store position as well on this µSD card.

You need to open the device to get the µSD card...
If I make an opening in the enclosure to insert the µSD card, water will enter the enclosure
Maybe putting the SD card holder external connected by a short cable, will make acces easyer.
The pcb design can be changed for this reason.
This way I can sell the option SD card data logging separate, and make the standard unit cheaper.

 

[Zoot Katz]

[A stopwacht function will be no problem, but only in sec and not 1/100st seconds...
The buttons are read 50 times/sec => 1/100st will not be acurate to push a button.
elapsed travel times: there are two ODO and one TOTAL counter.
ODO A and ODO B give you the distance and the moving time. If speeds zero, no time is added. (adjustable timeout)
from 0 to 999.9 you have 100m resolution, bigger distances from 1000 to 9999 km
TOTAL gives the distance and overall time 0 to 99999 km and 0 to 999.9 hours, for longer time 1000 to 9999 hours

You can put more thermometers on the system, it is based on the Dallas OneWire temp sensors.
If you put 100 temp sensors on this network it will take some time to read them all.
Batterypack, motorhousing, controller and external temp will be no problem.

Sounds like you've got it covered. Nice work.

The cost of the custom enclosure probably knocks it out of competition with existing products.
Was the mount developed for that enclosure or the prefab?
Certainly you could include templates and suggestions for DIY enclosures and mounts for the hackers here. (Auto-Cad files for the CNC guys.)
Does it fit in an Altoids box? Can the plug-and-play players play too or does its installation require a lot of soldering?

Support and thorough documentation will help sell it.
Good luck.

 

[bcans]

The cost of the custom enclosure probably knocks it out of competition with existing products.

I try to make this computer as cheap as possible but the materials I use are more expensive then the CA.
One example CA LCD 3 Euro, EBC LCD 28 Euro...
I have more functions like real-time clock, µSD card writer, external memory, IP67 buttons...

Was the mount developed for that enclosure or the prefab?

This mount is for the prefab enclosure.
A long goose neck is also available special for recumbent bikes.


Certainly you could include templates and suggestions for DIY enclosures and mounts for the hackers here. (Auto-Cad files for the CNC guys.)

I can put the 3D design available for public, so I you like it you can buy it from
http://www.shapeways.com/model/20160/ebc_computer.html


Does it fit in an Altoids box? Can the plug-and-play players play too or does its installation require a lot of soldering?

What's a “Altoids box”?

Support and thorough documentation will help sell it.

For support or special needs (customer design/soft) I will be reachable.

 

[Zoot Katz]

The cost of the custom enclosure probably knocks it out of competition with existing products.
I try to make this computer as cheap as possible but the materials I use are more expensive then the CA.
One example CA LCD 3 Euro, EBC LCD 28 Euro...
I have more functions like real-time clock, µSD card writer, external memory, IP67 buttons...

Yes, I think I recall Justin saying that the enclosure was the single most expensive piece for the Cycle Analyst.

Certainly you could include templates and suggestions for DIY enclosures and mounts for the hackers here. (Auto-Cad files for the CNC guys.)
I can put the 3D design available for public, so I you like it you can buy it from
http://www.shapeways.com/model/20160/ebc_computer.html

I hope you earn something for the design if they sell any. It's a good looking accessory into which you've obviously put much thought and hard work.
Are you building these yourself? When entering into a commercial venture like this it's a new set of skills that are required and a lot more of your time. If what you prefer doing is developing gadgets and writing code, may I suggest finding a partner to handle the business. There are people here who follow their passion but leave their customers cold (or fuming hot) because they don't have the 40 hours per day.

Does it fit in an Altoids box? Can the plug-and-play players play too or does its installation require a lot of soldering?
What's a “Altoids box”?

Will you also be offering known to work auxiliary temperature sensors?
Altoids are a strong pepermint candy that come packaged in a small rectangular tin box. They're handy for myriad projects.
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/altoids_and_tin_cases/

Support and thorough documentation will help sell it.
For support or special needs (customer design/soft) I will be reachable.

Do you have the users manual near ready?
For example: How to hook up extra temperature sensors and know which one is being displayed?

 

[bcans]

Do you have the users manual near ready?
For example: How to hook up extra temperature sensors and know which one is being displayed?

To connect extra temp sensors there are 3 wires
1 +5V
2 One-wire databus
3 GND

If you like to connect 3 extra temp sensors you connect all the 5V,One-wire and GND to the same connector.
Every Tempsensor hase his own network adres to talk to it, so they use the same wire to talk to the display.

I need to write special software for you to display the values, and create logo's for those values (battery temp, engine temp, controller temp)

I'm still making the prototype, the manual is not writen yet...

 

[Anonymous]

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[bcans]

I really like Vacuum Fluorescent Displays (VFDs) for their bright readability, and well they just look very cool.
I have used them before on wearable computer designs embedded into clothing. I'm actually planning to retrofit
a VFD to a cycle analyst one of these days to see how it looks on the bike. They're pretty expensive compared
to LCD and they are more fragile, but I suspect they would work better in the bitter cold (the LCD doesn't like
winter here very much although it works after warming up for a while). Nice work on the computer and display!

Thanks Nutsandvolts
The MARK II EBC e-bike computer will be a Oled display (next year)
This is a display I've build for a Yamaha R1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxMgIirqy90
Full color high resolution toucht screen.
the same will be used for the MARK II

In my current design the temperatuur sensor adjust the contrast for cold or hot day's.
and you can adjust the contrast manual.

Good luck on the adaption.