Bell Dashboard 100, re-enter odo numbers?

On Monday, July 31, 2017 at 2:05:16 PM UTC-7, Joerg wrote:

Ok, but a company such as Bell?

From a very poor memory I think that Bell Helmets and their sub-brands were purchased by an Equity company because of patents and testing apparatus used by most of the other companies.

On 7/31/2017 4:05 PM, Joerg wrote:
On 2017-07-31 10:50, AMuzi wrote:
On 7/31/2017 12:02 PM, Joerg wrote:
On 2017-07-31 07:49, wrote:
On Sunday, July 30, 2017 at 9:53:35 AM UTC-7, Frank
Krygowski wrote:
On 7/29/2017 2:09 PM, Joerg wrote:
I'd never use Reed or
anything mechanical in those, especially in an
environment that is prone
to vibration. Like ... a mountain bike.

:-) Joerg would never use what every current cyclometer
company (and
therefore almost every mountain biker) uses without
problems, because
his situation is just so gnarly!

Classic Joerg!

Actually it's classic Chinese manual.


Surprisingly the Bell manual is written in very good
English, doesn't look light "Designed in Outsourcia" at all.
My guess is that their software engineers simply messed up
or they didn't hold design reviews, or both.


One possible explanation, "Our new vendor doesn't have
anyone who could
write a manual even in Chinese. Get the intern to clean up
some online
manual and then print that."


Ok, but a company such as Bell?


Uh, it's easy to find a quality cycle computer. They have
"Cateye" printed on the box. Gonna cost you more than $6.99.

(I originally wrote $9.95 but a quick web search shows Bell
has clipped a few more corners for 2017)

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

On Monday, July 31, 2017 at 2:24:35 PM UTC-7, AMuzi wrote:
On 7/31/2017 4:05 PM, Joerg wrote:
On 2017-07-31 10:50, AMuzi wrote:
On 7/31/2017 12:02 PM, Joerg wrote:
On 2017-07-31 07:49, wrote:
On Sunday, July 30, 2017 at 9:53:35 AM UTC-7, Frank
Krygowski wrote:
On 7/29/2017 2:09 PM, Joerg wrote:
I'd never use Reed or
anything mechanical in those, especially in an
environment that is prone
to vibration. Like ... a mountain bike.

:-) Joerg would never use what every current cyclometer
company (and
therefore almost every mountain biker) uses without
problems, because
his situation is just so gnarly!

Classic Joerg!

Actually it's classic Chinese manual.


Surprisingly the Bell manual is written in very good
English, doesn't look light "Designed in Outsourcia" at all.
My guess is that their software engineers simply messed up
or they didn't hold design reviews, or both.


One possible explanation, "Our new vendor doesn't have
anyone who could
write a manual even in Chinese. Get the intern to clean up
some online
manual and then print that."


Ok, but a company such as Bell?


Uh, it's easy to find a quality cycle computer. They have
"Cateye" printed on the box. Gonna cost you more than $6.99.

(I originally wrote $9.95 but a quick web search shows Bell
has clipped a few more corners for 2017)

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

I've tried just about all of the speedos from the el cheapos to the cost a mint and agree that Cateye seems to be the best.

On 2017-07-31 15:39, wrote:
On Monday, July 31, 2017 at 2:24:35 PM UTC-7, AMuzi wrote:
On 7/31/2017 4:05 PM, Joerg wrote:
On 2017-07-31 10:50, AMuzi wrote:
On 7/31/2017 12:02 PM, Joerg wrote:
On 2017-07-31 07:49, wrote:
On Sunday, July 30, 2017 at 9:53:35 AM UTC-7, Frank
Krygowski wrote:
On 7/29/2017 2:09 PM, Joerg wrote:
I'd never use Reed or anything mechanical in those,
especially in an environment that is prone to
vibration. Like ... a mountain bike.

:-) Joerg would never use what every current cyclometer
company (and therefore almost every mountain biker) uses
without problems, because his situation is just so
gnarly!

Classic Joerg!

Actually it's classic Chinese manual.


Surprisingly the Bell manual is written in very good English,
doesn't look light "Designed in Outsourcia" at all. My guess
is that their software engineers simply messed up or they
didn't hold design reviews, or both.


One possible explanation, "Our new vendor doesn't have anyone
who could write a manual even in Chinese. Get the intern to
clean up some online manual and then print that."


Ok, but a company such as Bell?


Uh, it's easy to find a quality cycle computer. They have "Cateye"
printed on the box. Gonna cost you more than $6.99.

(I originally wrote $9.95 but a quick web search shows Bell has
clipped a few more corners for 2017)

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

I've tried just about all of the speedos from the el cheapos to the
cost a mint and agree that Cateye seems to be the best.


Same here. Got a Cateye Padrone on the MTB and that has never let me
down. If the road bike meter croaks that's what I'll buy unless I have a
smart phone by then.

The Cateye rear lights are IMHO another story. I was not so impressed by
the mechanical quality and rather build my own. Bolted down to a sturdy
chunk of aluminum with lock nuts and all that.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

On Mon, 31 Jul 2017 10:21:39 -0700, Joerg
wrote:

On 2017-07-31 10:12, wrote:
On Monday, July 31, 2017 at 10:02:34 AM UTC-7, Joerg wrote:
On 2017-07-31 07:49, wrote:
On Sunday, July 30, 2017 at 9:53:35 AM UTC-7, Frank Krygowski
wrote:
On 7/29/2017 2:09 PM, Joerg wrote:
I'd never use Reed or anything mechanical in those,
especially in an environment that is prone to vibration. Like
... a mountain bike.

:-) Joerg would never use what every current cyclometer
company (and therefore almost every mountain biker) uses
without problems, because his situation is just so gnarly!

Classic Joerg!

Actually it's classic Chinese manual.


Surprisingly the Bell manual is written in very good English,
doesn't look light "Designed in Outsourcia" at all. My guess is
that their software engineers simply messed up or they didn't hold
design reviews, or both.

This is extremely weird. This looks like what you need now. I'm sure
this one allows you to set the mileage.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Wireless-LCD...YAAOSwYshUZQ9G


Yes, I could simply buy a new and better speedometer and then it would
be another brand. In that case I'd buy a Cateye Padrone like I have on
the MTB which allows re-entry. It has a much larger display than others
which helps not to have to wear reading glasses to see the numbers.

However, I really don't like to throw away stuff. As a society we
shouldn't keep chucking stuff whenever something isn't 100% up to snuff.

But in any case, sooner or later your cycle meter mileage meter will
return to zero, or cease working. Probably when you reach 99999.

As for planned obsolescence, think of paying some electronic genius
$50 an hour to fix it versus paying $15.99 to buy a new one.
--
Cheers,

John B.

On Mon, 31 Jul 2017 12:50:16 -0500, AMuzi wrote:

On 7/31/2017 12:02 PM, Joerg wrote:
On 2017-07-31 07:49, wrote:
On Sunday, July 30, 2017 at 9:53:35 AM UTC-7, Frank
Krygowski wrote:
On 7/29/2017 2:09 PM, Joerg wrote:
I'd never use Reed or
anything mechanical in those, especially in an
environment that is prone
to vibration. Like ... a mountain bike.

:-) Joerg would never use what every current cyclometer
company (and
therefore almost every mountain biker) uses without
problems, because
his situation is just so gnarly!

Classic Joerg!

Actually it's classic Chinese manual.


Surprisingly the Bell manual is written in very good
English, doesn't look light "Designed in Outsourcia" at all.
My guess is that their software engineers simply messed up
or they didn't hold design reviews, or both.


One possible explanation, "Our new vendor doesn't have
anyone who could write a manual even in Chinese. Get the
intern to clean up some online manual and then print that."

I've always attributed it to "My brother-in-law needs a job and he
took English in school".

But more seriously, way back when Japanese manuals were as
incomprehensive as current Chinese manuals I approached a number of
Japanese companies with the idea of acting as a translator of their
"English" manuals into "Modern English" and not a single company was
interested as they all thought that *their* manual was perfect.
--
Cheers,

John B.

On Mon, 31 Jul 2017 09:44:48 -0700, Joerg
wrote:

On 2017-07-30 14:27, Graham wrote:

"Joerg" wrote in message
...
On 2017-07-30 02:21, Graham wrote:

"Joerg" wrote in message
...
On 2017-07-29 13:46, Graham wrote:

"Joerg" wrote in message
...
On 2017-07-29 12:16, wrote:
On Saturday, July 29, 2017 at 7:06:59 AM UTC-7, Joerg
wrote:
On 2017-07-29 02:14, Graham wrote:

"Joerg" wrote in
message ...
Had to change the battery again on my Bell
Dashboard 100 cycling speedometer. Or what they
call "cycle computer" In the manual it says one can
re-enter the odometer reading but nowhere it says
how. When I contacted Bell years ago they said "no,
you can't". Does anyone know a secret trick Bell
doesn't know?

I keep a log but it gets old having to calculate
to see when the rear tire or other stuff is
nearing end-of-life. Mainly to avoid a *KAPOW*
surprise way out in the boonies. Many tires don't
have TWI.

-- Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

Looking at your day job from the above link why not
just design a circuit to replicate the job of the
magnet which is only a switch which is creating a
pulsed current/voltage read by the head unit
electronics. Then set the tyre size to maximum and
determine the maximum response frequency of the head
unit circuitry and simulate pulses at that frequency.
If the frequency is reasonably high it should not
take too long to reset the mileage. With a tyre
circumference of 9999mm, if it will take that, then
you are looking at 10m per Hz.


Sure I could design a meter that works better than
commercial one. However, I've got enough electronics
projects as it is. When I am fully retired, maybe. But
then I want to ride instead of build replacements for
messed-up commercial designs. On the bikes I already
had to do that for lighting but there it was a
necessity.

If I ever build my own it will be like what cars have
since over 100 years. A speedometer that is backlit at
night, works off the central battery and most of all
never forgets its odometer info.

I think that he was suggesting that you pulse the meter
until it reaches the mileage you originally had.


Yes, I misunderstood Graham. If almost all brands contain
Reed switches like Andrew said that might not be so great
for the lifetime of that switch. Also, it would eat up
battery because there will be a limit in the speed and I
guess that's not the same at on a Ferrari Testarossa. So
I'd have to let that artificial wheel run a long time in
order to get the usual 4000+ miles back in, and next time
8000+, then 12000+ and so on. Most likely that takes
weeks.

-- Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

It looks like you still have not got it. Lets forget the
grinder idea as I agree with Andrew about the read switches
and that does tend to rule that idea out. My first idea was
to do it electronically with a simple circuit that would send
relatively high frequency pulses to the appropriate terminals
on the head unit to simulate the action of the switch. From
your decription of your background surely this is a trivial
exercise and I am sure you will have the required circuit
components lying around on your bench. See my earlier posts
as to how long it would take at different frquency pulsing if
you set the tyre circumference to 9999mm. 4000 miles would
take around 180 hours at 1Hz, 18 hours at 10Hz etc and my
guess is that the head unit circuit should at least cope with
that. Any higher frequecy response would be a bonus.


Yeah, I could hack the cable aoart, roach on a MOSFET, wrap
the whole enchilade with duct take and feed pulses from a
function generator :-)
[snip]

Why so dramatic do you just like cludging things with duct tape.
Your head unit has two contacts on the back and my guess is that
if you apply a rapid series of shorts across those two contacts
the unit will display speed. How you might choose to apply those
shorts is up to you: electronically, mechanically eg make a
simple rotary switch driven by an electric drill or even a DPDT
relay wired to self oscillate. The possibilities are almost
endless, relatively simple and do not involve cable hacks and
duct tape cludges


I could probably do that but I am sure they have a lowpass filter
in there to mitigate noise and Reed bounce. Or I could pipe out the
power supply to some metal spots such as a couple of the mounting
screws and supply 1.5V while changing the battery. That way it
won't forget the mileage.

OK I give in. I am largely just a lurker in this group and only chip
in when things look like they are, as one might say, "tech". If you
are the "elecy techy" you claim to be then you could have solved this
problem without even troubling this news group. The reply above shows
that you know how to solve this problem so why waste bandwith?


sigh

Again, the reason for my question is this simple:

1. The manual says you can re-enter the mileage number (without tricks
such as clocking in the equivalent of thousands of miles which slurps
away a lot of juice from the newly installed battery).

2. The customer service says that it cannot be re-entered.

These statements clearly contradict each other. I simply wanted to know
which statement is correct and whether someone else had managed to
re-enter the odometer number, and most of all how.

I can't comment on Bell meters but on other makes, including a very
cheap Chinese meter, if the manual told you that you COULD re-enter
the mileage then it also told you HOW to re-enter the mileage.

What is it that I keep hearing repeated? RTFM?
--
Cheers,

John B.

On Mon, 31 Jul 2017 10:00:34 -0700, Joerg
wrote:

On 2017-07-30 18:22, John B. wrote:
On Sun, 30 Jul 2017 09:59:59 -0700, Joerg
wrote:

On 2017-07-30 09:53, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 7/29/2017 2:09 PM, Joerg wrote:
I'd never use Reed or anything mechanical in those, especially in an
environment that is prone to vibration. Like ... a mountain bike.

:-) Joerg would never use what every current cyclometer company (and
therefore almost every mountain biker) uses without problems, because
his situation is just so gnarly!

Classic Joerg!


And, not surprisingly, my clients enjoy electronic designs of cast-iron
reliability and robustness.

Ah but your clients come to you because they want to solve a specific
problem while you take an object that is made to suit the general
public's needs and complain because it doesn't fit what you perceive
as your specific needs.

Your logic is faulty.


You don't know my jobs. A large part of them is designing systems from
scratch. And yes, there we hold design reviews where such flaws will be
flagged. For example, with med tech designs we have real physicians
sitting in on reviews and they are instructed to raise their hand
whenever they see something that should be improved.

That is exactly what I said, that "your clients come to you because
they want to solve a specific problem".
--
Cheers,

John B.

On 7/31/2017 1:21 PM, Joerg wrote:


Yes, I could simply buy a new and better speedometer and then it would
be another brand. In that case I'd buy a Cateye Padrone like I have on
the MTB which allows re-entry. It has a much larger display than others
which helps not to have to wear reading glasses to see the numbers.

However, I really don't like to throw away stuff. As a society we
shouldn't keep chucking stuff whenever something isn't 100% up to snuff.

Seems to me we're throwing away a lot of electrons because of this
issue. :-/


--
- Frank Krygowski

On 7/31/2017 8:46 PM, John B. wrote:
On Mon, 31 Jul 2017 12:50:16 -0500, AMuzi wrote:

On 7/31/2017 12:02 PM, Joerg wrote:
On 2017-07-31 07:49, wrote:
On Sunday, July 30, 2017 at 9:53:35 AM UTC-7, Frank
Krygowski wrote:
On 7/29/2017 2:09 PM, Joerg wrote:
I'd never use Reed or
anything mechanical in those, especially in an
environment that is prone
to vibration. Like ... a mountain bike.

:-) Joerg would never use what every current cyclometer
company (and
therefore almost every mountain biker) uses without
problems, because
his situation is just so gnarly!

Classic Joerg!

Actually it's classic Chinese manual.


Surprisingly the Bell manual is written in very good
English, doesn't look light "Designed in Outsourcia" at all.
My guess is that their software engineers simply messed up
or they didn't hold design reviews, or both.


One possible explanation, "Our new vendor doesn't have
anyone who could write a manual even in Chinese. Get the
intern to clean up some online manual and then print that."

I've always attributed it to "My brother-in-law needs a job and he
took English in school".

But more seriously, way back when Japanese manuals were as
incomprehensive as current Chinese manuals I approached a number of
Japanese companies with the idea of acting as a translator of their
"English" manuals into "Modern English" and not a single company was
interested as they all thought that *their* manual was perfect.

Perhaps you needed a more forceful approach. Someone may correct me but
IIRC, Jobst Brandt got his foot in the door at Porsche using exactly
that same proposal.

Jobst was not known for being diplomatic or shy. In that instance, that
probably worked well for him.


--
- Frank Krygowski