Interfacing bicycle to computer for indoor training?

What I am talking about is a DIY cheap version of the compu-trainer. I used to program
microcontrollers and it would have been fairly trivial to run a magnetic switch on a microcontroller
interrupt to calculated speed.

But I know comparatively little about interfacing unique HW to a PC under windows.

But this should not pose any significant challenge and with under $10 of HW cost you should be able
to get wheel pulse info into the PC. If the PC can directly read the pulses via an interrupt. If
not then a simple microcontroller with serial interface could do the work and send speed updates
via rs232.

So has anyone heard of any user projects like this?

guidryp@yahoo.com (Peter Guidry) wrote in message news:<632dae73.0401261150.1513ddff@posting.google.com>...
> What I am talking about is a DIY cheap version of the compu-trainer. I used to program
> microcontrollers and it would have been fairly trivial to run a magnetic switch on a
> microcontroller interrupt to calculated speed.
>
> But I know comparatively little about interfacing unique HW to a PC under windows.
>
> But this should not pose any significant challenge and with under $10 of HW cost you should be
> able to get wheel pulse info into the PC. If the PC can directly read the pulses via an interrupt.
> If not then a simple microcontroller with serial interface could do the work and send speed
> updates via rs232.
>
> So has anyone heard of any user projects like this?

Computrainer sells a cheaper product called Anytrainer. I have it and as far as I can tell they
simply have the magnet on the wheel passing a coil attached to the frame which is wired directly to
the serial port. I think I paid about $30 for the gizmo and software.

Matt Cahill wrote:
> guidryp@yahoo.com (Peter Guidry) wrote in message
> news:<632dae73.0401261150.1513ddff@posting.google.com>...
>> What I am talking about is a DIY cheap version of the compu-trainer. I used to program
>> microcontrollers and it would have been fairly trivial to run a magnetic switch on a
>> microcontroller interrupt to calculated speed.
>>
>> But I know comparatively little about interfacing unique HW to a PC under windows.
>>
>> But this should not pose any significant challenge and with under $10 of HW cost you should be
>> able to get wheel pulse info into the PC. If the PC can directly read the pulses via an
>> interrupt. If not then a simple microcontroller with serial interface could do the work and send
>> speed updates via rs232.
>>
>> So has anyone heard of any user projects like this?
>
> Computrainer sells a cheaper product called Anytrainer. I have it and as far as I can tell they
> simply have the magnet on the wheel passing a coil attached to the frame which is wired directly
> to the serial port. I think I paid about $30 for the gizmo and software.

Thanks for the tip! www.anytrainer.com.

--
- Zilla Cary, NC (Remove XSPAM)

"Zilla" <zilla62XSPAM@bellsouth.net> wrote in message news:<WyyRb.5926$Iw6.2904@bignews1.bellsouth.net>...
> Matt Cahill wrote:
> > guidryp@yahoo.com (Peter Guidry) wrote in message
> > news:<632dae73.0401261150.1513ddff@posting.google.com>...
> >> What I am talking about is a DIY cheap version of the compu-trainer. I used to program
> >> microcontrollers and it would have been fairly trivial to run a magnetic switch on a
> >> microcontroller interrupt to calculated speed.
> >>
> >> But I know comparatively little about interfacing unique HW to a PC under windows.
> >>
> >> But this should not pose any significant challenge and with under $10 of HW cost you should be
> >> able to get wheel pulse info into the PC. If the PC can directly read the pulses via an
> >> interrupt. If not then a simple microcontroller with serial interface could do the work and
> >> send speed updates via rs232.
> >>
> >> So has anyone heard of any user projects like this?
> >
> > Computrainer sells a cheaper product called Anytrainer. I have it and as far as I can tell they
> > simply have the magnet on the wheel passing a coil attached to the frame which is wired directly
> > to the serial port. I think I paid about $30 for the gizmo and software.
>
> Thanks for the tip! www.anytrainer.com.

Your welcome. I did notice that my memory was probably wrong about the price. On line ordering in
the web site you referenced said $80...still alot cheaper than a computrainer.

"Zilla" <zilla62XSPAM@bellsouth.net> wrote in message news:<WyyRb.5926$Iw6.2904@bignews1.bellsouth.net>...
> Matt Cahill wrote:

>
> Thanks for the tip! www.anytrainer.com.

Here is another. Free software and instruction for building the cable:

http://users.pandora.be/jim.de.sitter/html/spinner.html