The path of tech progress can be a loop

https://bikerumor.com/2021/03/22/pat...n-the-horizon/


--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org/
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

On Thu, 25 Mar 2021 09:14:49 -0500, AMuzi wrote:

https://bikerumor.com/2021/03/22/pat...n-the-horizon/

Since this is the battle of which company can collect the largest
patent portfolio, I predict that we will soon see derailleurs powered
by solar cells, magnet in the jockey wheel driving dynamo, firberoptic
conducted light power, various energy harvesting schemes, turbine
driven wind energy, piezo electric, replaceable electrolyte liquid
battery, ambient RF pickup, flame powered thermocouple, radioactive
decay thermal battery, and 10+ year lithium thionyl chloride battery
where you throw away the entire derailleur when depleted. It doesn't
really matter if it's a good idea or economical. The idea is to lock
up *ALL* the other methods of powering bicycle components so that the
evil competition doesn't do the same.

I kinda like the flame powered thermocouple version, where a slow
burning exothermic reaction provides a temperature differential
sufficient to convince a themocouple to produce enough power to run
the electronics.

I suppose someone could contrive a flamable resin so that carbon fiber
would burn. Ignite part of your derailleur and it will power itself.

Energy Harvesting
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_harvesting

What’s inside disposable hand warmers?
https://cen.acs.org/articles/88/i4/Hand-Warmers.html

Soon, everyone will be riding around with smoking derailleurs.


--
Jeff Liebermann
PO Box 272 http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Ben Lomond CA 95005-0272
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

On Thursday, March 25, 2021 at 7:14:57 AM UTC-7, AMuzi wrote:
https://bikerumor.com/2021/03/22/pat...n-the-horizon/

When you have a lot of wireless shifters in the peloton, they have to be encoded so that each bike knows whose shifter is whose. This does two things, 1. It slows the shifting down because it has to read a code. 2. These codes always have the possibility of overlapping and peloton overlapping shifting. The ONE advantage of wireless is to make is easier to assemble a bike from scratch. The main disadvantage is that you cannot have a large central battery that can hold long charges.

Yes, electric shifting really is nicer if properly installed and operating properly. But since there is really no difficulty using manual controls why bother? I don't like 10 speeds. I would prefer 9. But the 10's were the start of much better and lighter controls. With 10 or 11 or 12 or 13 or 14, all of the components become much faster wearing and very much more sensitive to adjustment and like I was doing on the 10, I would have to stop all of the time and take a fractional turn on the adjustment screw to stop a skipping. This NEVER occurred with 8 speeds away and only very seldom with 9's but the wider you make a cassette and the narrower the distance between the cogs the more accurate the shifting must be and the more that slight wear in the shifters tend to make free play that can cause clattering and false shifting.

On Thursday, March 25, 2021 at 9:12:05 AM UTC-7, wrote:
On Thu, 25 Mar 2021 09:14:49 -0500, AMuzi wrote:

https://bikerumor.com/2021/03/22/pat...n-the-horizon/

Since this is the battle of which company can collect the largest
patent portfolio, I predict that we will soon see derailleurs powered
by solar cells, magnet in the jockey wheel driving dynamo, firberoptic
conducted light power, various energy harvesting schemes, turbine
driven wind energy, piezo electric, replaceable electrolyte liquid
battery, ambient RF pickup, flame powered thermocouple, radioactive
decay thermal battery, and 10+ year lithium thionyl chloride battery
where you throw away the entire derailleur when depleted. It doesn't
really matter if it's a good idea or economical. The idea is to lock
up *ALL* the other methods of powering bicycle components so that the
evil competition doesn't do the same.

I kinda like the flame powered thermocouple version, where a slow
burning exothermic reaction provides a temperature differential
sufficient to convince a themocouple to produce enough power to run
the electronics.

I suppose someone could contrive a flamable resin so that carbon fiber
would burn. Ignite part of your derailleur and it will power itself.

Energy Harvesting
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_harvesting

What’s inside disposable hand warmers?
https://cen.acs.org/articles/88/i4/Hand-Warmers.html

Soon, everyone will be riding around with smoking derailleurs.

Tell you what Jeff, why don't you and Jay get together with that idea and get a patent since Jay believes that anything and everything is patentable.

On 3/25/2021 7:46 PM, Tom Kunich wrote:
On Thursday, March 25, 2021 at 7:14:57 AM UTC-7, AMuzi wrote:
https://bikerumor.com/2021/03/22/pat...n-the-horizon/

When you have a lot of wireless shifters in the peloton, they have to be encoded so that each bike knows whose shifter is whose. This does two things, 1. It slows the shifting down because it has to read a code. 2. These codes always have the possibility of overlapping and peloton overlapping shifting.

Hmm. I wonder how long before someone figures out how to shift
competitors' bikes wirelessly? There's "mechanical doping" and, for
E-sports there's "digital doping". Is this another opportunity?

(I remember the scene in "Breaking Away" when the nasty Italian racer
reaches over and shifts Dave's bike into high gear.)

I own a universal TV remote, keychain size. All it does is cycle through
the "OFF" codes for many brands of TVs. It's useful for places like
doctor's office waiting rooms, where they seem to think every American
wants to constantly watch a blaring TV. Would a similar universal
"Upshift" remote be possible?

--
- Frank Krygowski

On 3/25/2021 7:02 PM, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 3/25/2021 7:46 PM, Tom Kunich wrote:
On Thursday, March 25, 2021 at 7:14:57 AM UTC-7, AMuzi wrote:
https://bikerumor.com/2021/03/22/pat...n-the-horizon/


When you have a lot of wireless shifters in the peloton,
they have to be encoded so that each bike knows whose
shifter is whose. This does two things, 1. It slows the
shifting down because it has to read a code. 2. These
codes always have the possibility of overlapping and
peloton overlapping shifting.

Hmm. I wonder how long before someone figures out how to
shift competitors' bikes wirelessly? There's "mechanical
doping" and, for E-sports there's "digital doping". Is this
another opportunity?

(I remember the scene in "Breaking Away" when the nasty
Italian racer reaches over and shifts Dave's bike into high
gear.)

I own a universal TV remote, keychain size. All it does is
cycle through the "OFF" codes for many brands of TVs. It's
useful for places like doctor's office waiting rooms, where
they seem to think every American wants to constantly watch
a blaring TV. Would a similar universal "Upshift" remote be
possible?

"cycle through the "OFF" codes for many brands of TVs."

Good idea! Oh wouldn't it be nice if there was one for the
whole nation?



--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org/
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 3/25/2021 7:46 PM, Tom Kunich wrote:
On Thursday, March 25, 2021 at 7:14:57 AM UTC-7, AMuzi wrote:
https://bikerumor.com/2021/03/22/pat...n-the-horizon/

When you have a lot of wireless shifters in the peloton, they have to be
encoded so that each bike knows whose shifter is whose. This does two
things, 1. It slows the shifting down because it has to read a code. 2.
These codes always have the possibility of overlapping and peloton overlapping shifting.

Hmm. I wonder how long before someone figures out how to shift
competitors' bikes wirelessly? There's "mechanical doping" and, for
E-sports there's "digital doping". Is this another opportunity?

(I remember the scene in "Breaking Away" when the nasty Italian racer
reaches over and shifts Dave's bike into high gear.)

I own a universal TV remote, keychain size. All it does is cycle through
the "OFF" codes for many brands of TVs. It's useful for places like
doctor's office waiting rooms, where they seem to think every American
wants to constantly watch a blaring TV. Would a similar universal
"Upshift" remote be possible?


Depending on how well the security is implemented, it could be feasible. At
one end of the spectrum, if each shifter had a random 8 bit address, you
could walk through every upshift code in 256 messages. On the other hand,
if each shifter had a dedicated 32 bit address burned into ROM, it would
take 4 billion messages to guarantee your malicious message was received.

On Thu, 25 Mar 2021 20:02:23 -0400, Frank Krygowski
wrote:

On 3/25/2021 7:46 PM, Tom Kunich wrote:
On Thursday, March 25, 2021 at 7:14:57 AM UTC-7, AMuzi wrote:
https://bikerumor.com/2021/03/22/pat...n-the-horizon/

When you have a lot of wireless shifters in the peloton, they have to be encoded so that each bike knows whose shifter is whose. This does two things, 1. It slows the shifting down because it has to read a code. 2. These codes always have the possibility of overlapping and peloton overlapping shifting.

Hmm. I wonder how long before someone figures out how to shift
competitors' bikes wirelessly? There's "mechanical doping" and, for
E-sports there's "digital doping". Is this another opportunity?

(I remember the scene in "Breaking Away" when the nasty Italian racer
reaches over and shifts Dave's bike into high gear.)

I own a universal TV remote, keychain size. All it does is cycle through
the "OFF" codes for many brands of TVs. It's useful for places like
doctor's office waiting rooms, where they seem to think every American
wants to constantly watch a blaring TV. Would a similar universal
"Upshift" remote be possible?

And one could have "wireless brakes" too. Wow! A totally wireless
bicycle. Just think how one could "lord it" over those improvised
blokes that were still forced to use those old fashioned bikes with
the cables all over them. And! Think of the reduced wind resistance
from removing all those ugly cables!
--
Cheers,

John B.

On Thu, 25 Mar 2021 09:11:57 -0700, Jeff Liebermann scribed:

On Thu, 25 Mar 2021 09:14:49 -0500, AMuzi wrote:

https://bikerumor.com/2021/03/22/pat...etap-wired-on-
the-horizon/

Since this is the battle of which company can collect the largest patent
portfolio, I predict that we will soon see derailleurs powered by solar
cells, magnet in the jockey wheel driving dynamo, firberoptic conducted
light power, various energy harvesting schemes, turbine driven wind
energy, piezo electric, replaceable electrolyte liquid battery, ambient
RF pickup, flame powered thermocouple, radioactive decay thermal
battery, and 10+ year lithium thionyl chloride battery where you throw
away the entire derailleur when depleted. It doesn't really matter if
it's a good idea or economical. The idea is to lock up *ALL* the other
methods of powering bicycle components so that the evil competition
doesn't do the same.

I kinda like the flame powered thermocouple version, where a slow
burning exothermic reaction provides a temperature differential
sufficient to convince a themocouple to produce enough power to run the
electronics.

I suppose someone could contrive a flamable resin so that carbon fiber
would burn. Ignite part of your derailleur and it will power itself.

Energy Harvesting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_harvesting

WhatÂ’s inside disposable hand warmers?
https://cen.acs.org/articles/88/i4/Hand-Warmers.html

Soon, everyone will be riding around with smoking derailleurs.

It worked for model trains as an add-on.

On Thu, 25 Mar 2021 20:02:23 -0400, Frank Krygowski
wrote:

On 3/25/2021 7:46 PM, Tom Kunich wrote:
On Thursday, March 25, 2021 at 7:14:57 AM UTC-7, AMuzi wrote:
https://bikerumor.com/2021/03/22/pat...n-the-horizon/

When you have a lot of wireless shifters in the peloton, they have to be encoded so that each bike knows whose shifter is whose. This does two things, 1. It slows the shifting down because it has to read a code. 2. These codes always have the possibility of overlapping and peloton overlapping shifting.

Hmm. I wonder how long before someone figures out how to shift
competitors' bikes wirelessly? There's "mechanical doping" and, for
E-sports there's "digital doping". Is this another opportunity?

(I remember the scene in "Breaking Away" when the nasty Italian racer
reaches over and shifts Dave's bike into high gear.)

I own a universal TV remote, keychain size. All it does is cycle through
the "OFF" codes for many brands of TVs. It's useful for places like
doctor's office waiting rooms, where they seem to think every American
wants to constantly watch a blaring TV. Would a similar universal
"Upshift" remote be possible?

Yes, fairly easy if the control data is not encrypted. Looks like
SRAM is ahead of the game and using some kind of 128 bit encryption
and 1:1 pairing:
https://www.slowtwitch.com/Products/Components/SRAM_s_eTap_Wireless_Electronic_5303.html
At the heart of SRAM eTap is its personal area network
(PAN) referred to as AIREA. It is a wireless system using
128-bit encryption with rotating encryption codes that
transmits and receives data, including shifts, using a
proprietary wireless protocol. It also only allows for
pairing of 1 set of shifters and a blipbox to prevent
accidental shifts by other units. AIREA has a range of
transmission of 100 meters.

I would start with a cheap SDR (software defined radio) receiver,
https://www.rtl-sdr.com
and record all the codes in use. At an opportune moment, a matching
transmitter shifts everyone's derailleur simultaneously, resulting in
the ultimate race crash photo opportunity. It should be possible to
determine which bicycle is sending which ID code. Therefore
synchronized crashes could be limited to only one team. Eventually,
the carnage will be commonplace during races and not create the
necessary spectacle for the press and fans. Of course, someone will
contrive a DoS (denial of service) attack using a high power
transmitter on the derailleur control frequency. That will prevent
the derailleur receiver from hearing any control transmissions
resulting in a general failure to shift. While not as spectacular as
the ultimate crash spectacle, a universal failure of everyone's
shifting mechanism would be quite entertaining.

Of course, it won't take long for the hackers to find a way to deal
with the encryption:
https://www.zdnet.com/article/logitech-wireless-usb-dongles-vulnerable-to-new-hijacking-flaws/
resulting in yet another technology war. It is written somewhere that
progress is mostly sequentially repeating everyone else's mistakes.

The success of any advanced technology is measured by how well it can
be abused. If you really want a genuine nightmare, mention to some 16
year olds that bicycles use wireless shifting, and you'll soon have an
assortment of exploits that nobody here is evil enough to even
consider.


--
Jeff Liebermann
PO Box 272 http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Ben Lomond CA 95005-0272
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558