Solar trailer rides again!

[guerney]

Depends on your abilities. The natural choice would be an Arduino nano, or ESP32, but if programming is not your thing, you could go something simple like the Crumble (Redfern electronics) which is purpose designed for children with a Scratch like interface that's easy to use. You could have a distance sensor set up in less than 10 mins with that. There is also a more grown up version with the M5stack system that is ESP32 based, but comes in a package with a display and uses a scratch based or C+ type interface.

I like quick, dirty and cheap (usually) - the Crumble looks good, inexpensive at £12. Next, we need access to self "Driving" car systems, because cyclist/cyclist+trailer/pedestrian detection is not good enough, through a phone module to sound increasingly rapid loud proximity beeps in vehicle cabins to wake up dozy inattentive drivers watching Netflix while texting. Non-military GPS isn't accurate enough for the job.

The Crumble Controller | Redfern Electronics

Crumble Controller | Redfern Electronics

 

[matthewslack]

It needs a realistic looking silver bladed bendy rubber knife on the end! Or a fake severed limb wobbling about on a spring, to remind drivers what's at stake. Bloody drivers...

Perhaps it could trigger a loud piercing alarm when hit? MY cheapo GPS tracker light has a panic button, which sends a text marking it's exact location - triggered by collision, that might also be useful evidence... if the GoPro doesn't record GPS in the EXIF of timelapse photos.

A realistic looking severed leg waggling about on a spring on the passing side, which emits a blood curdling scream when hit, sends it's GPS coordinates by text, and snaps timelapse photos, might be a good Mattslacar Deflector/Kikka Mark X? The GoPro could be disguised as an auto-rotating eyeball on the big toe, which blinks occasionally.

Or a severed head wearing a GoPro.

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Your imagination is world class!

Drivers don't know it is benign, and so give it great respect. It really is a game changer.

I'm just seeing 6A going into my slightly depleted battery after 20 miles of easterly headwind and light overcast as I head for Inverness for police statement giving and trailer repairs.

More later.

 

[guerney]

It has marked its first car I think, and a rather nice electric Zoe, so I'm glad it has no hard core.

Bung an inkjet head on the end which prints "BLIND DRIVER BEWARE" in water soluble ink onto vehicles as they brush past? Or stuff one of these (shortened, lightened) honkers into the end? It'd be rubber tipped. Or a pressure switch activating a Hornit 140db? Such drivers won't learn without negative reinforcement.

Pardon our interruption...

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[matthewslack]

Quite a day! Underestimated the extra distance of an alternative route, so rode on until nearly 8pm, 80 miles today and about 20 left for the part of tomorrow that fits between getting up and 9am. Early alarms set.

I started within sight of the Atlantic, and finished on the shore of the Cromarty Firth, crossing the country in a day. I'll get up-to-date with energy numbers perhaps tomorrow, but in summary, big easterly headwind and drag from a misaligned trailer wheel kept consumption a little ahead of generation, and the last hour or so in overcast skies, I even had to go down to level 1 assist of necessity for the first time this trip. The battery ends the day at 37.5V, but tomorrow will be few miles, so it will likely get fully replenished. Just those 20 odd miles to get through first!

Great tearoom at Elphin, lots of interested customers sitting outside in the sun.



More shapely mountains.



Landscape changing character.



A tree.



A bridge, from another.



Hedging my bets at every opportunity this afternoon.



Part of Bonar's bridge



The Dornoch Firth bridge.



And journey's end for today in an A9 layby.

 

[guerney]

What about two waggly arms on two windscreen wiper mechanisms on the back of the trailer/bike pannier rack? Their resting function in horizontal position would be that of high visibility soft car deflector - sticking out about 40cm, and they could indicate independently by turning back and forth? The problem with most bicycle LED indicators is that they aren't far enough apart, or they're too dim for daytime visibility. Could kill three birds with one stone - in a dire national emergency, when nobody can afford electricty anymore for the internet, pedelecers with binoculars could relay messages across the country by semaphore via a keypad on the handlebar, and the flags on the ends of the solar powered arms could do the rest.

 

[guerney]

It has marked its first car I think, and a rather nice electric Zoe, so I'm glad it has no hard core.

No driver would want to brush against a 40cm long marital aid waggling about on the passing side, but it could send the wrong message. Bet they'd notice that! (I think that qualifies as hard core)

 

[matthewslack]

Which way to Inverness?

Choices, choices!

 

[guerney]

Strap a cheapo light sabre onto the back of the trailer for night time visibility, and to keep cars at a distance? Could be too wide for the bike

 

[StuartsProjects]

Which microcontroller would you choose? It'd need a stable IDE.

Here is an example Arduino project;

https://create.arduino.cc/projecthub/onyx/ultrasonic-sensor-alarm-1ec0f3

The amount of memory used by the program is small, only 15% of the space the Arduino UNO used in that example has.

An Arduino Nano would be OK, as would a Arduino Pro Mini. The Pro Mini would have the lowest power consumption, a useful attribute for battery applications.

ESP32 modules are OK, but can be a bit on the power hungry side for battery use.

 

[guerney]

Here is an example Arduino project;

https://create.arduino.cc/projecthub/onyx/ultrasonic-sensor-alarm-1ec0f3

The amount of memory used by the program is small, only 15% of the space the Arduino UNO used in that example has.

An Arduino Nano would be OK, as would a Arduino Pro Mini. The Pro Mini would have the lowest power consumption, a useful attribute for battery applications.

ESP32 modules are OK, but can be a bit on the power hungry side for battery use.

On a road, one wants proximity based beeping on the passing side and from behind from vehicles and other objects, but not from pedestrians on the pavement, unless they're travelling very fast towards the trailer on a collision course on say, a dangerous e-scooter... but on roundabouts you want detection on both sides, the back and the front - therefore several sensors would be needed placed vertically at all sides of the bike and trailer (and the top, for flying cars, and below on flying pedelecs), switching modes depending on what's required. Might be a long program. Sheez... we might as well go whole hog and set up a self "Driving" car-like LIDAR system for ebikes with trailers, without the self "Driving" lie. Or adapt an off-the-shelf LIDAR AI solution - if all self "Driving" systems colluded with each other to avoid collisions, LIDAR AI equipt ebikes could be in with the mix. Potentially. Some day, all road vehicles and carriages will work this way...

 

[Jimod]

Which way to Inverness?

Choices, choices!

View attachment 47378

Go to Dingwall. There's a Wimpy there. Takes you back to the 70s.

 

[guerney]

@matthewslack - Informed (and alarmed!) by your nasty close call the other day, the 5ft trailer flag arrived today. I'll by dropping by my local hardware shop to purchase pipe lagging later, to make one of your excellent guernicar deflectors. Thanks for your excellent R&D and test pilot work in the field! To be more visible at night, and because I couldn't find any spiral reflecting cable grips new, I had to buy ebay grimy and used... but they cleaned up well for use on the long cables which have to stick out from the front of my folding Dahon. I think they're meant to be spoke reflectors, so I also put some on the spokes. They're tight and silent grippers.

 

[matthewslack]

A funny thing happened to me on the way to the police station... I got stopped by the police!

My 23 miles this morning, starting at 06:27, was unavoidably along the A9. More that one driver had phoned the police to report my Guernicar Deflector. Had a good chat, showed the officers the DY11PJJ incident and several others, and told them where I was going.

Drivers were concerned that there might be something hard in the floppy pipe, and the officers were able to satisfy themselves that there was not.

I had the camera running in timelapse for those miles, which shows my getting out of the way behaviour, and that the big queues of vehicles were not caused by me.

All very satisfactory.

Now enjoying a rather good roasted sweet potato soup and tea at Velocity in Inverness, having just successfully repaired my broken trailer axle.





Gone are the quick release stub axles, whose linking bearer tube had fractured, and in its place a solid half inch aluminium rod, filed down to 12mm at the ends. Short 4mm bolts from my spares box and 'washers' made of insulation tape retain the wheels. Room for improvement there, but back on the road. A new tyre ready to fit, replacing the badly scrubbed one.





Perfect day for these non-biking activities. The first 10 miles today consumed 57Wh and generated 2! I dug deep into both the solar and the Shimano batteries, down to one bar on the latter, which I topped up during an hour or so of time in Inverness police station, of which more later.

 

[WheezyRider]

A funny thing happened to me on the way to the police station... I got stopped by the police!

My 23 miles this morning, starting at 06:27, was unavoidably along the A9. More that one driver had phoned the police to report my Guernicar Deflector. Had a good chat, showed the officers the DY11PJJ incident and several others, and told them where I was going.

Drivers were concerned that there might be something hard in the floppy pipe, and the officers were able to satisfy themselves that there was not.

I had the camera running in timelapse for those miles, which shows my getting out of the way behaviour, and that the big queues of vehicles were not caused by me.

All very satisfactory.

Unbelievable, even if there is something hard inside the floppy pipe, any car overtaking you should be >1.5 m away, so it shouldn't be their problem. Drivers getting annoyed as they don't have as much freedom to put your life in danger as they did before you fitted the tiny boom. I hope some of the ones who reported you get done for close passing.

 

[matthewslack]

Beware of head height deer!

Just had a female red deer run across the cycle path and road about 10m ahead of me! It found a gap between the oncoming cars, and crossed at full speed, leaping fully 5 feet of the road surface.

Camera facing backwards, otherwise that would be wildlife shot of the year. Some very surprised looks on the car drivers' faces!

My view



It came out of here



Into the little path opposite.

 

[matthewslack]

Unbelievable, even if there is something hard inside the floppy pipe, any car overtaking you should be >1.5 m away, so it shouldn't be their problem. Drivers getting annoyed as they don't have as much freedom to put your life in danger as they did before you fitted the tiny boom. I hope some of the ones who reported you get done for close passing.

Don't worry, they were responding to people's concerns, and are now fully informed, and aware of my continuing presence on the roads, and the camera footage that shows them if they want to see it that I ride responsibly, and choose quiet routes when available.

Nothing negative for me either in that conversation or the interview later.

 

[matthewslack]

Back to the solar part of this adventure!

Today was very much less optimal than all preceding days. Varying thickness of overcast, several hours of light drizzle and barely a sight of the sun. And yet, I generated 504Wh and used pretty much the same, 509. I rode on until just after 8pm to get a chunk of the busy road out of the way at a quiet time, with one eye on the battery voltage. Started at 37.1, ended at 36.8.

Those 500ish Wh have carried me 108km or 67 miles at 4.7Wh/km or 7.6Wh/mile. So even on a fairly unpromising day, provided I limit the use of higher assistance levels and keep the battery alive, good distances are possible.

 

[matthewslack]

Midges and morning sunshine.

High time I said something about the Scottish midge. The key to dealing with this tiny, all conquering insect is a piece of special equipment, wardrobe rules and Smidge. Concede gracefully that you cannot beat it and your life can return to serenity.

No exposed skin except hands, head covered by a midge headnet, Smidge applied to wrists and hands.





Note long socks, long leggings, tucked in. Don't worry what you look like, anyone nearby not looking the same is too busy suffering to see.

Only Smidge will do as a repellent. Developed in Scotland against midges, it is the one. In every outdoor shop, and many others too. COOP in Kyle had a huge rack of it.

Midges inside the flysheet.



They don't like sun, and cannot fly in much wind, so when route allows, I always camp by the coast for first preference, exposed to wind, and not amongst trees.

Brief spells of early sun just now, topping up battery before the initial 130m climb this morning as. I return to Ullapool and head north for a second time.

 

[WheezyRider]

Back to the solar part of this adventure!

Today was very much less optimal than all preceding days. Varying thickness of overcast, several hours of light drizzle and barely a sight of the sun. And yet, I generated 504Wh and used pretty much the same, 509. I rode on until just after 8pm to get a chunk of the busy road out of the way at a quiet time, with one eye on the battery voltage. Started at 37.1, ended at 36.8.

Those 500ish Wh have carried me 108km or 67 miles at 4.7Wh/km or 7.6Wh/mile. So even on a fairly unpromising day, provided I limit the use of higher assistance levels and keep the battery alive, good distances are possible.

Is the 7.6Wh/mile net of the solar input, or does it include solar and battery input? What is your typical average speed?

 

[WheezyRider]

I like quick, dirty and cheap (usually) - the Crumble looks good, inexpensive at £12. Next, we need access to self "Driving" car systems, because cyclist/cyclist+trailer/pedestrian detection is not good enough, through a phone module to sound increasingly rapid loud proximity beeps in vehicle cabins to wake up dozy inattentive drivers watching Netflix while texting. Non-military GPS isn't accurate enough for the job.

The Crumble Controller | Redfern Electronics

Crumble Controller | Redfern Electronics

How good is your German?

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