Smart Phone Bike

I have this grand vision of a bike where you mount your smart phone where a gauge cluster would be. The phone detects the bike and launches your cluster app - simple (maybe customizable) speedo, tach and indicator lights/icons.

Other implications:
bike doesn't start without phone (and password/PIN)
remote start
working seamlessly with Bluetooth helmets
OBDII function
- send error codes to email, text, etc.
traffic alert function of "Cluster App"

Am I getting too "new school" for this forum or does anybody else see what I'm getting at? haha

 

thats would be pretty awesome. the wiring for the bike and the programing for the phone would be a real pain in the A$$

 

I would rather leave my phone off and in my pocket while I enjoy the ride.

 

Confucius say,"All eggs in one basket leaves rider stranded."

So one day while on a cross-country trip I accidentally drop my phone over a cliff while taking a picture (I haven't done this, but I did witness it happening when I hiked the south rim of the Grand Canyon a few years ago) Right now all that would cause is a few days of annoyance until I get a new phone set up. Under your proposal I'd probably be stuck calling a tow truck to get me and the bike home.

 

agreed, technology isnt as great as it seems.....i used to build computers, coundt stand it.

 

What happens if the guy forgets to pay his smart phone bill, then goes for a ride and his phone gets disabled? DOh!

Keep it simple and reliable! Gadgets tend to fail.

 

That's exactly why I DON'T have a smart phone.

I have a STUPID phone.

 

what if the battery dies lol....and there is no where to charge it...Terrible idea..

 

The dock on the bike would charge the phone. As far as discontinuing service to the phone, that wouldn't affect the phone's ability to interface with the bike (except maybe the remote start feature).

And to address the eggs in one basket thing - you make a great and valid point that I didn't even think of, thank you! Now I'm considering "back up options" for a Grand Canyon scenario...maybe an emergency keyed ignition of some sort in a hidden place.

I also do a LOT of work with computers and electronics which is what sparked this idea. I find that 90% of the problems with gadgets is what I call "biological interface error." My Smart Bike will not be for everyone, no. But I'd like to think that people it appeals to will have the capacity to handle the concept and everything that it entails (i.e. putting their phone in a zippered pocket on long hikes etc.).

 

hmmm, not for me no. Phones are to me, expendable £10 things that you put your sim card in till it's too covered in oil & scratches to work & then put the sim in another one...

Heck I only got this laptop & dongle a couple of months back after my 2001 acer's TFT bonding repairs finally gave up, I'm not so much a technophobe as a "progressophobe" lol, I still prefer my CRT television set, cost nothing out of a skip, took 30mins to repair & is working fine 5 years down the line & I know I can repair most things that could go wrong with it in the next 5-10.

Point is, I like my bikes that way too. TCI ignition & solid state reg/rec is pushing it a bit but how often do they go wrong anyhow? (compared to EFI or "smart phones") :?

/rant

 

That should be the kind you could use to send and receive calls, right?

I have one like that and love it!

 

+1 isn't that what a "telephone" was originally for? then we had a "key" to start/stop/secure our bike, and "instruments" to tell us how the bike was feeling & how many cops-per-hour we were upsetting :wink:

 

http://trailtech.net/indicator_dashboards.html

 

Gadgets are nice, but can be a PITA.
I also have a stupid phone. I often get frustrated when having a conversation with my daughter or son in law because they are texting, playing a game or looking up stupid crap on the internet at the same time and miss half of what's said. Thru with the rant.
I would rather have a dedicated system that doesn't stop working in a dead zone, have to pay for usage and wonder if the data is correct at all times.

 

ooo fancy!

 

i like there striker kit. $110 with all the hardware isnt that bad

 

I just came in from the garage where I put a connector on the bike to mount my droid x. I had purchased a wallyworld dash mount that had a clip on mount as well. Now my phone can act as music source and GPS. I doubt I'll be taking calls though.

Now I gotta see if I can DIY up a power source.

 

No!

I would never want to be in motion, going fast, in traffic, on two wheels, with my life depending on someone else's programing.

Micro-gadget and Smart Phone programming, these days, is a frenzied race between Nano-PDA software engineers striving to write bigger and better idiot-proof programs; all the while our Universe keeps producing bigger and better idiots.

So far, ... the Universe is winning.

 

I wouldnt mind a phone next to my guages that told me other things like traffic, text messages, gps and other stuff my bike doesnt have. But would never want my bike to rely on my phone.

 

I believe most phones use 5.0 volts via the USB port. The typical phones I've seen have a 3.7volt Li-ion battery thats 1-1.5 amp/hours.

I dont know if you would need any kind of power rectification because the motorcycle's charging system is more erratic, but otherwise a car charger should be able to splice nicely into a motorcycle's 12-13 volt battery.

 

some type of solar charging device??? just throwin that out there

 

More functionality and information from your bike...yes.

But a phone lockout, remote start, no way. Why would you want or need a remote start? Forget losing your phone, what if someone swiped it? It would be much easier and more reliable to install a finger print reader as a lockout-then as long as you still have your finger (harder to lose or get stolen) you and only you could fire up your ride.

BTW since we're on the subject-'Smart phones' are replacing peoples' smarts-plain and simple. The people who obsessively play with and constantly use their S phones are MORONS!!! They walk into walls, into me on my stopped bicycle because they don't see me, they drive off the road and over whatever while they text!! They're all getting 'phone neck' from looking down all the time, carpal thumb syndrome, and if they lose their phone they experience continuous separation anxiety and panic attacks. Sorry but that is just NOT SMART! Rant over.

A computer doing what you suggest with the FP reader would be very cool, providing you could easily overide it and go manual in case something failed-like software etc. The only difference would be that you could take calls with the phone, but seriously riding is a FULL attention deal-you wouldn't want to be making a call while riding.

 

agree, i notice these people all the time at stop sighs and lights looking at their crotch and i know they aint just starin at it for not reason LOL. unfortunately my 85 chevy blows a fuse EVERY time i use the horn so i dont have one anymore but it is loud so usually i romp on the motor or just start doing a break-stand and smoke em out lol.

 

IF a "Smart Phone" was really, ... SMART ... all functions (other than GPS-related) would be disabled if the GPS determined it was moving faster than 8 mph! (Eight).

 

yes but that could be easily disabled, either by someone making an app to bypass that, OR do what i did and get rid of your OS and put another one on there its called "rooting" your phone. any droid can be "rooted" BUT once it has another OS on there you cant go back. you get the advantages though like, overclocking, getting rid of stupid verison apps and stuff like that.

 

I followed a drunk driver down the freeway last night while chatting with 911 on my cell phone. One of the rare instances I use my phone while driving but it should serve as a possible reason why phones shouldnt lock out over 8mph.

We dont need to restrict people, people just need to be more responsible or hurry up and get themselves killed so they're out of the gene-pool

 

I realise the last statement could be seen as being dangerously close to the ideals of a guy called Adolf, but personally I have no problem with anybody of whatever "race" "religion" or "creed" or whatever, personally I couldn't care less as long as you have the basic nouse to realise that dangerous stuff is dangerous and that a calculated risk is still a risk...

 

Fine. Include 9-1-1, ... I got no problem with that.

It's the guy in the Escalade watching the NCAA Hoop Tourney on Streaming Video that we need to worry about.

Pulling over to the side of the road to Text or play Words With Friends will save a life or two.

 

My .02, BAD idea. 1. Road vibrations do weird things to electronics, 2. Why would you want to complicate your bike MORE? 3. A lot of us are running minimal wiring on this forum, my bike may not even have blinkers when it's done. (Still not riding it yet.)

 

you should AT LEAST keep the rear blinkers man. i dont have front ones and i have had people yell at me for that even lol. one lady in particular, i stopped, got off the bike and asked her if she wants them on my bike then would you buy them for me, she rudely declined.

 

Seriously? We over here have "adapted" hand signals for those type of people...

 

oh believe me i know my hand signals (yes even the good one), but this wa literally as i was turning into my driveway so right in front of my house. could of been a neighbor of mine idk.

but keeping the rear ones are good so you can reduce the risk of getting rear ended, i personally dont use mirrors. i like to believe my own eyes so i just turn my head when i go to change lanes. so im not criticizing, i know someone will tell me i should use them. but as far as blinkers, i still only have the rear, like i said shes didnt want to buy the front ones

 

In many States. turn signals are required on ANY Street Legal Motor Vehicle.
You're asking for trouble without rear turn signals. The threat increases as the size of the city environment increases.

I refinished the reflectors on my stock signal lights that had dulled with age.
I sanded them with 400 and 800.
Smeared-on some 3M Fast Tack Trim Adhesive.

Lined the reflector with shiny-side of Aluminum Foil out.
Smoothed the Foil on with my finger wrapped with a swath of material cut from a ink-stained necktie.

I have three extra Brake Lights that strobe with rapid flashes -- three times, before coming-on full.

 

That's overkill. I have epilepsy and have seizures from flashing lights as well as every time I try to sleep. People like that make me want to beat their face in if you can't notice a standard brake light your worthless.

 

Agreed on the overkill, OK flashing is a good thing (since there ARE plenty of WORTHLESS shit for brains drivers out there) but not stroboscopic, I'd say something like 3 to 4Hz Max for 2-3 seconds is plenty to get noticed...

 

Wow, complete hijack. I still don't think a smart phone- lockout- GPS- atari- hook up is a good idea. Too many distractions that will take away from the idea of just riding for the sake of riding, and way too many possibilities to leave you on the side of the road. To Rick, OKLA. only requires turn signals on 2005 and later. I do a lot of riding in Texas, Where they're required, so I probably will install them. Oh, and I avoid cities like the plague.

 

if you build a kit that works for the smartphone interface, I would really like to know about it, and possibly purchase one from you, or get the schematics you used to try it for myself.

 

C++, Java, APL, whatever the language is they can all fail at some point in time.

I have seen it on my iphone plenty of times when apps crash. I would not like to be riding and having to restart my bike's app or worse, the motorcycle shuts down because an app crashed.

That is besides the charging, waterproofing connections, etc.

It sounds like a neat idea in theory but I think it's good to leave it as theory.

 

how about a 30yr old phone on a 30yr old bike i wouldn't see the road for the phone lol

 

Went to a bike show a few weeks ago, "the one" bike show in portland and here was a bike here that had an iPhone wired for all controls. Pretty sweet

 

Whoa, I read the first post, and thought this idea was intriguing, and its not a bad one at all. First though, I've gotta comment on the misinformation/easy to misinterpret posts:

Dude, have you ever driven in or been driven in a car made in the last 25years? You're whole drive train is monitored by, and in a large part controlled by computers(in effect, "someone else's programming.") Billions of people trust their lives with this technology. And for the sake of their livelihood, auto engineers do a hell of job to make that possible. Don't misunderstand me, I'm not suggesting that older technology is in anyway bad(in fact, I almost exclusively work on and drive pre-70's automobiles as a hobby), but in no way are computer controlled systems as a whole less capable.
I don't know where to begin in regards to the second half of your comment on "nano PDA software" so I'll abstain.

I'll preface this one by letting you know that I'm a programmer, and work with these languages every day. Languages don't fail(they effectively don't fail, you can nitpick but it doesn't detract from my argument), programs fail! And its crucial to clarify that it is actually *ok* for many(understandably not all) of your iphone apps to fail occasionally, the reason being that if many of your smartphone apps fail they will not cause complete catastrophe, and developers know this, and it's they work to eliminate bugs, but they're not going to delay a whole year releasing Angry Birds so they can provide you with a 98% success rate opposed to 95% success rate. And the standard is set accordingly for more critical applications.(since when is gauge cluster considered critical? definitely helpful of course )

All things considered, this is a great idea. Of course it would be dumb to have any sort of "protected start" that could lock you out of your bike, duh!!, but this was also the first thing people caught onto on this thread, and the original poster(nevarez_700) recognized this pretty quickly, so like any idea, its progressing!

Seriously, we're in the mod forum, how many builds here, be it "cafe" or "bobbed" don't set out with the goal to streamline appearence? There is absolutely no reason that the implementation of phone gauge cluster would have to mean significant complications in wiring, etc.

Don't let the poll figures be discouraging(40% to 60%) If you could reach 40% of any market with any product, you'd be doing a killer job. Definitely keep at it!

Issues to consider: rain/weather

 

Since I stripped the hell outta my bike and want to do a custom front end, dumping the atari for something much smaller and less wiring intensive would be nice. I've considered a phone mount with 12v -> mini usb adaptor, running one of several programs, but none of them really wowed me.

What I'd really like to see is one that is free, uses the microphone to pick up the engine RPM, and overlays on whatever else you have up (dash cam or navigation). I'd want MINIMAL integration / interfereance with the bikes wiring, so no tach pickup, and certainly no ignition control.

 

ThunderThighs69 Wrote:
Dude, have you ever driven in or been driven in a car made in the last 25years? You're whole drive train is monitored by, and in a large part controlled by computers(in effect, "someone else's programming.") Billions of people trust their lives with this technology. And for the sake of their livelihood, auto engineers do a hell of job to make that possible. Don't misunderstand me, I'm not suggesting that older technology is in anyway bad(in fact, I almost exclusively work on and drive pre-70's automobiles as a hobby), but in no way are computer controlled systems as a whole less capable.
I don't know where to begin in regards to the second half of your comment on "nano PDA software" so I'll abstain.




This is the reason I got out of auto mechanics. Before all the computer crap, a problem could easily be diagnosed and fixed. Now you have to hook the car to a computer which spouts off several potential problems that requires you to check up to 20 sensors and the ECU. I have a "03" Ford Ranger with a computer controlled automatic tranny that has been rebuilt twice now in less than 300k miles and has never shifted worth a damn. Sometimes technology doesn't improve things.
Maybe I'm an old fart, but I'd rather keep it mechanical. 8)

 

I like the way you think.
My car runs just fine on its old 6 volt and breaker point ignition system. It can stay that way.

 

To a point I agree, don't understand people who fit electronic ignitions to points cars for "reliability" or "maintenance" reasons. How often do the points need setting, once a year? How much does a condenser & points set cost compared to a spare ignition module?

That said, CDI is a big improvement in spark quality for little (and generally reliable) extra tech. Cars & bikes nowadays have way too much electronics involved.

 

I'm in with Thunder Thighs. I work in software development; I'm in quality assurance, not programming, so Thunder Thighs and I probably wouldn't get along too well.. But I agree with his arguments. A computer (including the smart phone) is just another tool. Maintain it and enjoy all the perks with few or no drawbacks. Feel free not to use it, but then you lose out on all those benefits (shop guide PDFs, access to these boards, etc).

Nevarez, everything you imagine is possible. You can probably find an app that does much of this already, or you can do it yourself if you so choose. If you're interested, a popular interface for connecting hardware and software is Arduino. If you're not familiar with the term, this page has many articles written in English: http://lifehacker.com/tag/arduino

Some things I would consider using a smart phone app for:
-Speedometer
-Tachometer
-Trip meters
-GPS
-Music (Pandora/Spotify plug-ins)
-Lighting system observation (to identify any bulbs not functioning, NOT to actually control those bulbs)
-Auxiliary lighting controller
-Silly but fun performance estimators (0-60, quarter mile, lap timer, G-meter, etc)
-Location 'check-in' functionality, and other social media type features
-Many others I haven't thought of

Things I would not consider using the smart phone app for:
-Ignition system
-Headlight/taillight/blinker operation

On a newer bike, I would certainly consider a trusted developer's app to rewrite fuel maps, similar to how a Power Commander works. But it seems generally unwise to invest too much control into a system that can easily be dropped/lost/damaged/power-drained, so I would prefer to keep the functionality auxiliary and observational.

 

ThunderThighs and Crewwolfy:

thank you for the most objective feedback of ALL. THAT is the kind of stuff I was looking for when I rattled this idea off.

Thank you.

 

Thank you for the link also, just caused me to buy an Arduino starter kit and a few other bits to play with (maybe next winter after the bikes become too cold to work on lol)

 

anyone use the TORQUE app on android

 

How does that work, put the device at the end of the breaker bar & it tells you when to stop? :lol: