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[on:]

I've written a small piece of how I reverse engineered my exercise bike while learning some electronics. I tried to write it as entertaining as possible.

http://www.larsby.com/johan/e-bike/

[Reply #1 on:]

Nice write-up. One of the benefits of physical computing is that it makes an enjoyable diversion from doing other things, like actually taking exercise on the bike  

If you looking for ideas for further distraction, how about a program that advances your position on google maps based on the distance you peddled. I guess someone has already posted some code somewhere that does the interface to Google maps, you would just need to get your arduino signal connected into that code.

Anyway, have fun and stay fit!

[Reply #2 on:]

I actually had to ride the bike quite a lot for debugging purposes  ;D

I think i wrote something about Google earth (and Indiana Jones, riding to the moon) in the essay, but perhaps Google maps would be great also.

But for now I'd rather continue to explore new ideas, like making a solenoid drummer. Build that arduino monome (with shield).

If I where to continue with the bike build I thik I'd first do one or all of these things:

* hook the arduino up to a battery and save the data to eeprom (or whatever) (getting rid of the computer
or
* create a mount for my macbook in the bike

[Reply #3 on:]

Nice project and description.

I'm in the middle of doing someting similar with a roving ergometer training device.

The built in computer is very simple and the only sensor input availabel is a reed switch that is triggered by a magnet every time the seat on the roving ergometer passes over it. (two times on each rov stroke)

I want the Pc software to be "motivating" me to beat my own previous best training pass. So it will have a small database of my previous training passes and constantly calculate the strokerate i should be going at to beat my own record.

I have a few ideas to make it better, like interfacing the whole thing with a pulse meter too, and doing some "fancy" graphing in realtime of course :-)

[Reply #4 on:]

I think the pulsemeter in my bike is only meassuring body-resistance and guesstimating the pulse from that.

Good luck with your project, looking forward to seing the fancy-graphics