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Palm on a Bicycle

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the burning-rubber dept.

jcwise writes: "Want to use your Palm or Handspring as a bike computer? Here are two different products that use completely different approaches. I'm not sure if either are better than a $30 bike computer. With PDA prices falling, it might be a fun hack."

3 of 97 comments (clear)

  1. Old news.. been there done that. by Lumpy · · Score: 3, Informative

    I had this back in 1999. There's a shareware program that does all this and simply connects to a el-cheapo bike "puter" and uses it's reed switch as the pulse input on the rs232 port.

    it was nice, graphs, averages, etc... it just sucked down batteries like mad. but it was a great addition to my recumbent trike.

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  2. What would be better by hey! · · Score: 4, Informative

    is to get the magellan GPS unit. You get speed, plus you can create a log of your actual route. Absolute altitude is terrible on all GPS units, but you may be able to a pretty good slope reading. THe unit sends normal NMEA strings over a serial connection, so it's relatively trivial to write software for.

    Magellan receivers lock on fast, and the handpring/magellan handspring module makes a nice, clean combination (relatively compact as a system, no external cables).

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  3. Re:Never mind that. by Hiro+Antagonist · · Score: 3, Informative

    As a cyclist, allow me to cluebat you in.

    A bike computer is a small (or, in this case, not-so-small) device attached to the handlebars of your trusty steed. The cheaper computers only track speed, distance, and trip time; and the more expensive computers (when mated with the appropriate components[1]) can track altitute, position, and even cadence -- the last of these being vital to any moderately serious road cyclist.

    So; almost all bikes nowadays are equipped with computers; the Palm just provides a larger display. Since it can't track cadence, however, it would be useless to pretty much any road cyclist. The fact that Palms don't absorb repedative shock all too well rules mountain biking out. However, the large display size makes a Palm almost ideal for recumbent cyclists.

    [1] For example, the Flight Deck computers must be mated with Shimano 105 (or better) components.

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