So, this is a first...

When I pulled up to the bike rack yesterday, I saw something new: an unfamiliar lock and chain that appeared to be well-used. I thought that it perhaps belonged to my co-worker, who took the whole team along bike shopping over lunch earlier this week. He ended up with a fine, barely-ridden Trek 4500, which appears to be of a 2006 vintage:



It ended up being for someone else's bike, which I saw later in the day:


So it's official. It took almost two years, but someone else is finally riding their bike here.

I made the mistake of attempting to forge onward through the Indian Creek Trail construction yesterday. I made it, but let's say I won't be doing it again until the trail opens. Bike/Ped-friendly options for getting from one side of US-69 to the other through central Johnson County are few and far between. If you find yourself near Corporate woods, you'll be stuck braving 119th, College Blvd or 103rd street. I've stated previously that Johnson County is split into islands by highways. Within each island, it's pretty easy to get around using residential roads. To jump from one to another is often a frustrating affair.

I'm experimenting with a GPS transponder I built (think of it as kind of like a poor-man's "SPOT" tracker). It fits nicely in the pannier zipper pocket. I'm sure if I parked my bike somewhere with this thing attached, it'd get called in as a "suspicious device" and the bomb squad would get called in.


Inside, there's a waterproof box containing a few gadgets including a small radio transceiver, GPS, a battery pack and some other stuff that's needed to make it all play together nicely.


It's far from perfect. I'm still kind of working on it. I tested it yesterday while riding between home, the office and the hospital. It worked only part of the time. It transmits its location every time you make a significant change in heading (at every turn, basically) and about every 20 minutes when stationary. The problem is that it's largely a one-way operation so the rig doesn't know if the message actually got through, and I'm using a very low power transmitter. There are ways to fix both problems at the cost of increased power consumption and/or more expensive radio equipment inside the box. The map below is missing a significant number of turns, especially through residential and trail areas.


I will experiment with it some more as time goes on. I know there are smartphone applications that can upload your position and track your rides for you. I was looking to build something that operates without relying on the Internet. The above map was drawn using data gathered from a mesh network of amateur radio digital repeaters and internet-connected gateways.

Anyhow, I'm still here. I'm still riding for work and errands when I can. I'm still a nerd. You can call me Captain Dashboard. I don't mind.

Random Tunage:
Plaid - Assault on Precinct Zero
Elite Force - Cross The Line

Mobile Ham Radio

Last night, I decided to try proving out my mobile ham radio setup for the Lenexa Midnight Bike Ride. Since I was going to be coming by bike, the coordinators wanted me to provide support for the hiking part of the event on the Black Hoof Park trail. Duties included reporting when hikers first arrived at the turn-around point of the hiking trail, taking approximate count of them, and sweeping the trail both ways when the event was over. I didn't know how much talk time I was going to need, so I rigged up a 12AH gel cell and a 12V lighter outlet splitter in one pannier, and ran my Yaesu FT-90 as my primary radio, running the microphone cable under my top tube. The handheld mic snapped into a belt-clip rigged to my stem. I couldn't have asked for a nicer setup. It worked flawlessly, and although "too heavy" is subjective, at about 9 pounds total for the whole rig, I don't feel it's too bad.

Most of the radio operators were using some form of APRS to automatically map their locations for strategic purposes. I was running APRSDroid on my phone to fulfill this function and locate the other operators. I also used the gel-cell to keep my phone charged up for the event, as the application chews through phone batteries.

I couldn't get any really good photos last night. I have a bunch of video that I also suspect is similarly crappy. We'll just have to see. This morning, I rolled my bike onto our patio to show you how I've got it all rigged up. This setup might make an appearance at the Middle Creek bicycle camping trip, along with a solar panel to help keep the gel-cell topped off. I'm not a weight weenie, so it's mostly a question of how much room I have in my panniers and if rain is in the forecast, not how much extra weight this thing adds.

When I arrived home some 5 hours after firing the mobile rig up and after plenty of talking on the radio, the battery was at about 85% capacity. the radio itself can transmit at 50 Watts, but I was running it at the minimum power setting of 5 Watts. This setup could probably last a whole weekend without recharging, depending on conditions.

Photos follow. Enjoy.

 

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