Main > Driving & Racing Cabinets

Bike cabinet or desk idea

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ark_ader:
Hi,  I want to build a bike cabinet or desk where I can interact with games and lose some pounds (yep I gained again) in the process.  Other than buying a cockpit cab or Stun Runner and adding the cycle parts inside, I thought it would be simpler to weld a stationary bike to a desk or chair.  Also I would want to interact with some games like propcycle or driving games based on the speed of rotation of the pedals.

Something like this:



Any ideas?

BadMouth:
I'd like to see us come up with something good enough to set the standard on doing this.
It could even be applied to a treadmill...or maybe we could make the joystick input control treadmill speed.  :D

The first order of business is probably translating pedal movement into analog joystick input.
I'm curious as to how the Fisher Price Smart Cycle does it.

For someone good with arduino or such, they could probably just translate pulses from a magnetic sensor.
You can get cheap speedo's for bicycles that work this way.

If you have an input device that works off voltage instead of resistance, a more direct way might be to use a 5v generator.
I'm pretty sure that's how the A-Pac worked, since it worked with any value potentiometer.  I'd assume the U-HID would work the same way.
This is just thinking out loud, I haven't seen anyone run voltage from something else into an Apac or U-HID.
Definitely check with Andy before trying.

I'll keep pondering the concept and post if I come up with anything else.

 

Howard_Casto:
Well I don't know the specifics, but every single solitary bike/whatever I've seen has a simple two wire cable that goes to the display.  My guess is it's just a simple digital speedo using a square wave pulse. 

So basically check the "real instrument panels" thread.  It's the same deal, only backwards. 

BadMouth:
This place has a DIY kit for $80.

http://www.cyberbiking.com/info.html

Uses a magnet and most likely a microcontroller showing up as a generic gamepad.
I'd probably make a nicer looking magnet and pickup, but would be tempted to just buy the damn thing instead of trying to make my own.

EDIT: ok, might have to start looking for free recumbent bikes on craigslist myself.  :lol

Howard_Casto:
That's a bit pricey, but not terribly unreasonable. 

I wonder if a person could get the general idea of what the bike sends via a multimeter?  I don't have a scope unfortunately. 

I mean if the built in sensor for the bike is generic enough making a avr show up as a joystick is child's play.  Minimal code would be required to count the pulses and translate that to an axis. 

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