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Posted by stingrae 14 hours ago

Show HN: Open-Source eInk Bike Computer(opentrailpaper.com)
Hey all, i just launched my Eink Bike computer project and think it is cool.

Another tidbit, in the crazy things that AI has done... It has helped create a ANT (common sensor wireless protocol used in workout/biking) implementation for ESP32 by messing around with undocumented registers: https://github.com/RaemondBW/esp32-ant

266 points | 96 commentspage 3
zsoltkacsandi 13 hours ago|
I've found e-ink displays super fragile for this use case. They break from a little fall, or even from the constant shaking.
orbital-decay 12 hours ago|
For all their readability benefits under direct sunlight, prolonged exposure also damages or kills them. You need at least a UV blocker for outdoor use, but the heat cannot be avoided.
memoryfault 13 hours ago||
I love this. How do you house & secure your lily on your bike?
Lucasoato 13 hours ago||
Any open source GPS locator for bikes?
insane_dreamer 9 hours ago||
awesome stuff. I have a Wahoo bike comp but would love to use an OSS alternative

the dealbreaker for me is whether it could eventually work with the Garmin Vario radar (which the Wahoo supports with a nice visualization) -- that is _literally_ a life saver and I no longer ride without it.

dddw 1 hour ago|
I also have a wahoo. Pretty great. Especially its week of batterylife
bruce_wayne_ 11 hours ago||
Damn, this looks cool
me_online 12 hours ago||
Funny, I just got done researching the Coros Dura, another eInk bike computer.
stingrae 11 hours ago|
technically i dont think the coros uses an eink display. but it is definitely one of the cooler bike computers.
jeffbee 12 hours ago||
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 requirement.

Anyway one thing I think would be nice is if the GPS radio can become a peripheral. Then with that architecture could the head unit just get GPS from your phone?

kccqzy 11 hours ago||
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 processor.

prmoustache 5 hours ago||
> 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.

__d 2 hours ago|||
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.
Someone 12 hours ago|||
> and they don't seem to suffer from display scaling since the larger Edge 1050 runs for even longer

Why would they suffer from display scaling? At the same device thickness, larger devices have the same volume per cm² of display. And it gets better:

- if they need the same volume for electronics (likely mostly true; you may want a slightly faster CPU and more memory, but don’t need a larger GPS, second WiFi chip, etc), that means more battery volume per cm² of display.

- at small sizes, I guess/expect wall thickness of the case to scale slower than the dimensions of the case, giving larger cases relatively more internal room.

(Googling, I see the 550 is even slightly thicker than the 1050; 16,8mm vs 16,3mm)

jeffbee 12 hours ago||
Yes, that's my point. You might imagine an advantage for eink if you can make the display as big as you want without blowing out the power budget, but in practice it already doesn't matter.
arpanghoshal07 13 hours ago||
great!
vilas900420 5 hours ago||
[flagged]
Mathieu_UpCard 10 hours ago|
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