Making a smart bike dumb so it works again
francisco.io
francisco.io
For example, people generally wouldn’t do this for a TV when they can get a decent replacement for $300 new.
For example in south america is is common to get shoes repaired or customized. Clothing altered to fit or be repaired etc. In the US it really only makes sense if that article of clothing is > $200-300. Its pretty hard around me to find a tailor that will do much of anything more than basic hemming for less than $75-100. whereas in south america it would only cost me around $5 to get something altered or a shoe repaired.
I would get something altered about once a month in south america. In the US, maybe once every couple years.
There are many examples of countries where old technology has to be maintained because the new is unavailable or unaffordable.
Presumably the "decent replacement" will also be too smart for their own good and there will be people who will pay extra on purchase for a "de-smarted" device.
Speaking of which, I shudder to think what will happen if my current TV ever breaks. Would getting a "smart" TV and physically removing the wifi help?
I'm a luddite. I have an 1080p TV from before Android TVs.
And I'm afraid to upgrade it...
I still have a dumb monitor that costs more than a TV that would have a larger diameter with an HTPC that is really just a regular Linux install and that runs open source software on it. Which software has changed over the years, as has what kind of "TV" I get on it, from actually having a cable TV tuner in there to all streaming or local files. Over that time frame, it has become increasingly harder to get things to work "properly".
As in, yes there are caveats to this of course. Like there's no Netflix (/insert your favourite streaming service) app for it and you probably can't get 4k and/or surround sound from in-browser. As in, they're intentionally making the experience of people actually paying money to them worse.
Sometimes you have to make sacrifices.
The manufacturer had (has) no good solution to this. They just change something to dealer mode and hope your battery never completely drains and resets it.
the company has something over the consumer, unlike the products of old. This is what i dislike about new age products that are so internet enabled.
It started with game consoles, but it won't end with cars.
I just want a self-contained piece of equipment that can work in perpetuity. Look at those old milling and lathe machines - some are as old as 30 yrs, and works brilliantly.
It was predicted early on in the first IoT booms, earlier still in software, and I have to imagine even before computers were a thing, bespoke components rather than commodity items in particular parts of machines likely had the same effect.
I'm considering buying one, being in India, so would appreciate an explanation.
Same goes for Tesla. Same goes for every brand, but some are probably more likely than other to be used as a kind of "weapon" in a trade war or sth. alike.
I'm asking for specifics. i.e., which system(s) of BYD call home which if didn't work end up bricking or severely impact the working of the vehicle.
We're multiplying points of failure and increasing the repairability complexity 100 fold, for a tiny bit of convenience, sometimes, maybe
I hope this is a typo or this is a terrifying prediction.
I'm all: "So? I Don't want my phone colluding with the dryer and the garage door opener to overthrow me."
* Information is retained for up to 100 years to improve customer experience.
They will try again tomorrow though.
There's no indication that functionality is hidden behind an app. You find that out after you get the thing home, set it up, and start using it (a lot of the time).
This is one of few places where I’d like to sprinkle a little more government overreach in just the right way - to prevent manufacturers from walling clearly essential behaviour behind an app. That’s far too gray of a line for governments to handle, but I can dream.
I know that GDPR doesn't get much love, but I think that it shows that we (well, not we, because I'm in the US, but the EU) can meaningfully legislate issues involving intent and essential function. IA (obviously) NAL, but I see no reason that "those portions of the essential functionality of a device that do not inherently require the use of internet connectivity must be available without internet connectivity," or even the weaker "a device that is not usable without internet connectivity must be clearly signposted as such or be subject to free return at manufacturer expense for [some period of time]," wouldn't be a meaningful and enforcable law.
It is probably too high a bar for most manufacturers, so they will not likely include such functionality.
The idea is that every resource is is monitored, the electric company's smart meters will report everyone's usage. This will then allow for fine grained control over your 'misuse', with carbon credits (taxes/fines) altering behaviour. 'Smart' everything is technocratic control.
Smart = spy.
Needs some defining to get right (unanbiguous, useful, concise), but might be easier to realise than forbidding things.
What video?
And oftentimes, download the user manual. If at all possible, I download the manual before making any purchase decision. It can answer questions such as: What’s included in the box? What cables/accessories will I need? Will the specs be fit for purpose?
User manuals are unbiased and usually a very accurate way to figure out lots of things about a product, especially something complicated and/or expensive, before purchase.
Unfortunately I have seen companies who are paywalling or purchase-walling manual downloads.
This is itself an enormous red flag of its own. I would never buy any product from a company that has its manuals online but then makes it difficult to actually download them. That's a worse sign than the manuals just not being up at all.
And not just bikes, but all the various tools, from cordless drills to lawnmovers.
Overcomplication works for masses, unluckily, they want to be thorougly amazed like in a circus at every cycle of washing dishes or what, and real engineers are a dying breed. Children put together shiny crap nowadays. While the motto should be: "A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."
That's progress!
1. Loaded dishwasher doesn’t run until Time-of-Use electric is off-peak.
2. Dishwasher runs after everyone has left for the day
3. Dishwasher runs after everyone has gone to bed
4. Dishwasher stops and drains if external water sensor detects leak (the inbuilt sensor/s don’t work for all types of leaks)
Are these worth it? Who knows. But it does have some uses.
[0] https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/your-kickstarter-sucks...
I live up a hill, and all my destinations are at sea level, so I just want enough E-bike to get home at the end of the day.
This does not even require an app. Simply lock down all hardware and make it economically unviable by charging 100+ euro for a 5 second "software update", which you need to do if you ever unplug the battery for > 10 seconds. See the thousands of Accell bikes (mostly Sparta branded) on dumps. You can get them going again but that's only for diehard hobbyists and requires custom hardware.
Just put the damn interface on the hardware. You are after all selling the hardware, not the app.
I fear that small companies without VC are the only ones interested in making a thing they sell that doesn’t require some ongoing commitment from buyers. And those companies run the risk of folding overnight. It’s fine for the customers since their hardware continues to function, but it’s not an attractive business model.
It's been the business model for over 100+ years with bikes. It's not an attractive VC buisness models as it cannot needlessly extract wealth beyond the product sale. It is double dipping as you fully pay for the bike, and people fall for it somehow.
One can't argue that manufacturers won't try to get away with this stuff, because they will, but one can argue that it's parasitic rent-seeking, which it is. Certainly, there are new classes of device that can be made by leveraging new technology in previously impossible ways, but that's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about classes of hardware that functioned perfectly well 100+ years ago (for a bike), or for other cases discussed in this thread less long ago but before the internet age, that are being artificially hobbled to allow additional revenue extraction.
I can't prove it, but I suspect selling data is a very minor consideration in the appification of everything.
Aside from there actually being people who like that kind of thing (and them apparently being more common than people who like physical forms of self-flagellation), the main benefit of appifying everything is the opportunity to sell you "value-add services", aka sell you a subscription for the hardware you already bought.
How much revenue can you get from knowing when someone was doing their laundry?
It can use third-party detergent by manually adding it at the start of the cycle, but adding some _during_ the cycle (which ultimately uses less) is only supported if using their cartridge.
I wish I was making this up.
A person existing is sufficient to make these people assume they are entitled to something for it.
Yet I fear the issue most people on here have with “rent seeking” is the harm it does to a theoretical idea of free market capitalism - rather than the tangible harm of extracting wealth from someone’s need for a place to live.
So, renting out a home. Just the manipulation of social and political environment has already been done. Rent sought, not rent seeking.
Rent as in rent paid to live in a home fits the definition of “economic rent” perfectly. Because housing rent is an example of economic rent. The cognitive dissonance i am pointing out is that seeking economic rent is bad, but using already created structures to obtain economic rent is… not bad somehow?
That makes sense for the land, but not so much for the actual structure that sits on top. The land is going to exist no matter what. the same can't be said of the apartment building .
You've started with the assumption that landlording is a good Capitalist respectable thing and nobody could question it, so mocking the thing a landlord does can't possibly have any legs to stand on. But yes! A landlord seeking rent for doing nothing is a parasite! Yes! It’s rent seeking! The people who really try to defend it as difficult and performing a useful service are bad people who benefit from the status quo and lack the imagination and wider experience to see that things like council housing exists and works and benefits people other than the wealthy landowners. If there are two houses and two families could own them and live in them, turning it into one family owning both plots/houses and the the other family paying rent forever is worse. Turning it into one landlord owning both plots/houses and charging both families to live there forever so they don't have to work for a living is worse again. Turning it into a landlord class who both try to squeeze as much rent as possible while lobbying the authorities to block new-house building and reduce tenant's rights is worse again.
No, gently calling that into question was entirely my point. I was starting with the assumption that the reader believed that, but I don’t.
Since this is a vanmoof (first edition probably) I think they followed the design of "old fashioned" bikes which also lack the turnability features as the light is attached to the frame part of the central steering bar and not the insert which turns with the steering wheel.
A dynamo would be the next upgrade
It's easy to get to about 90Wh, which will run a dynamo-powered light for 30 hours on max (most dynamos seem to be rated 3W).
There are definitely cases where it makes sense, and not having to keep batteries charged is nice, it's just easy to miss how good batteries are these days.
If you're worried about being without light, a (typical) dynamo system is more complicated and exposed than a battery system, so will be more prone to failure.
If you commute on a daily basis, a hub dynamo and light system is a bliss. Just hop on the bike and go. I have used bikes with Shimano, SP and Son for thousands of kms in all kind of weather and never really experienced a fault. It’s as simple as car lights - you just take them for granted.
With battery powered lights you need to take them off and put them back; recharge them; remember to bring them with you and not lose them. A spare battery pack is not enough (front and rear) and may not work during cycling (not all lights can be charged while turned on). And, low quality battery powered lights tend to quickly break (2-3 years) while I now realize one of my b+m systems is 10y old already. Good battery powered lights will probably last more, but they’re as expensive as dynamo powered ones.
So yeah, battery is ok and cheap for casual cycling, but very suboptimal if you want reliable lights every day throughout the year.
Rechargeable lights from the usual suspects are generally not good, they are expensive for what they are, have low capacity, and don't have swappable standard-size batteries.
They make dynamo systems look like a good deal, but if typical battery-powered lights were even close to their theoretical optimum I think people would be much less enthusiastic about dynamos.
Ofc if you mount fixed battery-powered lights and you could just swap a usb c battery, maybe it would compete with dynamo. But an easy swappable battery would still ve easy to steal (unless it’s inside the frame with a lock or sth like that)
Hub dynamos seem a bit more fragile, with a wire extending into the lightbulb, but never heard reliability is a concern with it...
A spare battery in your saddle-pack
"This showed that for cars DRL reduces the number of daytime injury crashes by 3-12%. The effect on fatal crashes can be estimated as somewhat greater (-15%)."
https://swov.nl/system/files/publication-downloads/fs_drl_ar...
This is about cars/motorcycles and daytime, but it certainly applies to any moving vehicle at any time...
When driving, I love those bicyclists that have a blinking rear light btw. Can't overlook them.
Ensuring the battery is not empty at the time you want to ride it and it is night is not always convenient
I'm talking about commute, not sports, here.
My only misgiving is: Which bike to put it on?
As mentioned, a city bike, I don't think a dynamo hub would be a practical choice for a racing bike or mountain bike, nor fit all riders.
The drag is not an issue for a bike that I use to commute to work and go shopping, the convenience out weights by far the drag, and if the worry was weight and drag there are other parts that contribute much more like the carry bags, pannier rack, mudguards that again, are convenient.
Another positive factor not mentioned would be environmental, no need to create waste with batteries.
Not solely caused by the lights as they are about ~5W anyway (edit: the old one in my box of bike parts says 6V/3W on the metal). The wheel dynamo's are insanely inefficient and get hot everywhere which were the primary ones used with most incandecant lights.
Older dynamos with a bulb connected were quite tiresome to propell.
The old dynamos were a chore. But their efficiency pales in comparison to a solid hub dynamo :)
https://www.cyclingabout.com/how-much-do-hub-dynamos-really-...
And I agree with other comments that linking products to their manufacturers is deplorable -- you don't own a modern product, it owns you.
First, in a regulated power supply, you control the current by (a) monitoring current, and (b) adjusting voltage.
Second, a switching power supply can easily be designed to regulate load current, which is what you want for an LED load, because the voltage across the LED changes with both current and temperature. The point of a switching design is that very little power is dissipated by anything except the load.
In your present circuit, the 22 ohm resistor is dissipating at least half the available power, all to protect the LED from overcurrent. I should add that, in any LED driving circuit, a way must be provided to limit the LED's current, or it may experience thermal runaway and failure. A switching power supply is an ideal way to do this, but only if it senses current in the load, not voltage.
Apropos, I designed switching power supplies for the NASA Space Shuttle. They were about 90% efficient, in spite of the fact that they had to deliver widely varying voltages and currents.
Eg, it is probably already illegal to use the term 'purchase' for this sort of thing - as it actually seems like some sort of 'service contract' with terms for both parties to agree to. That items that need to 'call back to base' are allowed to be sold with no repercussions, tells you who the legal/governmental systems are serving.
They tried for months to diagnose why the message was coming up and they couldn't figure it out.
It would be great to have a motorcycle with as little electronic magic as possible to allow it to be repaired easily
That they do all this for the sake of extracting every possible penny out of you through data via forced app interaction only makes it more disgusting and parasitic. It used to b e that purely digital social media/ad-type companies mostly did this, now the very visible nonsense fashion is to cram as much extractive app-based shit into every possible physical product under the sun.
I can't wait to see a mass consumer revolt against such garbage, putting these companies sales firmly down the toilet. To those of you who fund, found or promote such things in your ventures and pitches, simply: Fuck. You..
Thinking one can skip down the trail of life without having to watch out for wolves is just being naive. Most of us lock our doors at night.
First key for the gate on the road to get into the yard.
Second key for the gate in the yard to the stairs and elevator.
Third and possibly fourth key for the door to the apartment.
That's pretty normal. I've seen at least once another key for a door between stairs/elevator and the home door. That's because of many burglars in the very first months after the building was built.
That said, I agree with you that living in a place where you only have one key and nothing happens if you forget to lock the door is much better.
I recall no situations where I preferred an app as opposed to a regular hardware button like this.
If this is a VanMoof, I believe they were sold in Japan and even had a Store in Shibuya
Secondly, they were bankrupt, but to my knowledge were bought and is therefore still (again?) in business.
- We tried a few times to recover the account but had some trouble with CS and the particular account, so ended up giving on that. It didn't help that he visits the country from time to time and we'd need to migrate the account each time.
I've owned a lot of VanMoofs. You absolutely do not need to use the app to interact with the lights, they are automatic. If the bike is misconfigured, it takes about 30 seconds to reset its preferences with a physical button accessible from the exterior, since the SX2.
Your friend may have bought a broken VanMoof.
The explanation is that it's one of the first generation ones. Originally there was a single push button outside on the handle, for the Bell, and a single charging micro-USB.
That's quite the trip it made.
Also that must have been in the sweetspot of couple of month between the release of the bike and the bankruptcy, who else would want to transport a "dead" bike that far?
2. > Someone risked life in prison for a measly $3.5/500円 light.
Is the punishment really life in prison in Japan for stealing a bike light?
from what I read they used many (low quality) custom parts for this bike which aren't available anymore.
It doesn't, assuming you have the PIN to the bicycle.
> from what I read they used many (low quality) custom parts for this bike which aren't available anymore.
I've worked on my two VanMoofs a bunch to keep them running and they're okay quality parts in my opinion. Additionally, they sold about 200k bicycles so there's plenty of second hand, and even new, parts out there.