2020 Allant 8S - replace Smartphonehub with Nyon 21?

[retiredNH]

Hello @SQUIDwarrior!

Kiox, SPH, and new Nyon all use the same (2) wiring components (handlebar remote, and connection to DU.) A swap between any of these (3) displays should be relatively simple at the handlebars, assuming clearance for the new mount, etc. Each display has their own mount, but the same (2) cables will connect to the back.

Our official recommendation is that the dealer does a software update after installation of any new parts, as it ensures all hardware is running on the same version.

William, I just received a nyon upgrade kit today, brand new. The connectors on the back of the nyon mounting plate look completely different from my SPH mounting plate connectors. Are you sure they're the same? Would pictures help?

 

[fooferdoggie]

William, I just received a nyon upgrade kit today, brand new. The connectors on the back of the nyon mounting plate look completely different from my SPH mounting plate connectors. Are you sure they're the same? Would pictures help?

only the connector from the motor is used you have to replace the remote. I think you have to unscrew them from the back to see on the smartphone hub. I just had this done and the mechanic just had to replace the remote. take off the hub and look on the back should be two screws to remove the wires. here is what the wire end looks like

 

[retiredNH]

only the connector from the motor is used you have to replace the remote. I think you have to unscrew them from the back to see on the smartphone hub. I just had this done and the mechanic just had to replace the remote. take off the hub and look on the back should be two screws to remove the wires. here is what the wire end looks like

Unfortunately, my setup looks sadly different. Here's the back of my smartphone hub. The connectors are boxed in red.

The back of my Nyon upgrade kit wires look like what you pictured:

Thoughts?

 

[fooferdoggie]

Unfortunately, my setup looks sadly different. Here's the back of my smartphone hub. The connectors are boxed in red.

View attachment 119560

The back of my Nyon upgrade kit wires look like what you pictured:

View attachment 119561

Thoughts?

yep thats right its just he position of the wires. on the nyon the overlap. you just need to make sure you get them in the right order of overlap. oops forgot they don't overlap on the nyon they do on the kiox. same wires though for all three just change the remote.

 

[retiredNH]

yep thats right its just he position of the wires. on the nyon the overlap. you just need to make sure you get them in the right order of overlap. oops forgot they don't overlap on the nyon they do on the kiox. same wires though for all three just change the remote.

So you're saying they're the same? Well I'll be...so on the smartphone hub there's two pieces held by one bracket, while on the Nyon mount they're held by separate screws? Hope so. If that's the case, you made my day. I'll try things out in the morning.
Why change the remote? On my setup at least, the remote cable has lots of slack, and looks identical.

Another thing I noticed is that the Allant+ 8s has a headlight dimmer switch. Never noticed it before or seen any reference to it...

 

[fooferdoggie]

So you're saying they're the same? Well I'll be...so on the smartphone hub there's two pieces held by one bracket, while on the Nyon mount they're held by separate screws? Hope so. If that's the case, you made my day. I'll try things out in the morning.
Why change the remote? On my setup at least, the remote cable has lots of slack, and looks identical.

Another thing I noticed is that the Allant+ 8s has a headlight dimmer switch. Never noticed it before or seen any reference to it...

yep the remotes are different thats what my mechanic found. I have to buy another one for the bike it was remove from. ya the dimmer switch is cool the nyon does not control the light at all now. that threw me a bit but I leave them on always so thats fine.

 

[retiredNH]

yep the remotes are different thats what my mechanic found. I have to buy another one for the bike it was remove from. ya the dimmer switch is cool the nyon does not control the light at all now. that threw me a bit but I leave them on always so thats fine.

The remotes look the same to me. I'll look at the part numbers tomorrow. Another interesting thing I noticed was the torque specs for the mounts - 1 nm! I think my torque wrench goes that low....

 

[fooferdoggie]

The remotes look the same to me. I'll look at the part numbers tomorrow. Another interesting thing I noticed was the torque specs for the mounts - 1 nm! I think my torque wrench goes that low....

you dont need to torque them just tighten till the mount does not move much. I like to be able to tilt if if I really need to.

 

[retiredNH]

OK. Did the install today. Hardest part was removing the wire/connector ends from the nyon in order to use my current cables. It helped to loosen the mounting plate - note torx not allen heads....
Once that was done, the rest went really fast. No need to change the remote. Everything seems to work, but have not yet road tested it. Frankly, it took as long for the GPS to sync up as it did to do the bulk of the install.
I charged and updated the device while I worked on the install. Then downloaded local maps. Totally frustration free.

 

[retiredNH]

We may never know exactly why the Cobi app never lived up to it’s potential. But I’ve been in the software business long enough to know that it is almost always due to compromises and decisions made around which product lines get the funding and support. This is even more of a problem when you take a system (like cobi.bike) that is acquired from another company or open source system, and integrate it into your own ecosystem. That is often hard, tedious work and generally while that happens you do 0 feature work (because new features = new bugs) and just try to get s*it working. Meanwhile other teams can just keep developing new features and fixing existing bugs. So the migrated system usually falls behind, and by then time you launch it to hit whatever arbitrary deadline was set by management, you almost always have fewer features and more bugs than you like.

Software development (indeed most complex projects) generally have limitations on quality, time, and cost and getting a project done while hitting all three is VERY hard, even for the best companies in the world: “Good, fast, cheap. Choose two.” In most large companies (especially more old-school ones like Bosch) “fast” and “cheap” are always the things that picked.

My guess is this isn’t some evil plot to extort money from users by creating a purposefully bad product. It’s just a product line that likely ran out of time or out of budget, got shipped with incomplete features, and ended up not selling very well. So it likely didn’t get much extra funding or resources for further development of features, which probably depressed sales further. Meanwhile the other product lines sales obviously continued to do well, and at some point the decision was made to put the SPH out to pasture and focus on the products that are actually making money.

I think we now know! cobi.bike has become the smartphone grip in the new system. I suspect that instead of fixing the problems with cobi.bike and the mount, Bosch took the team, the resources, for cobi.bike and put them to work on the new system. And it confirms for me that cobi.bike et al is as dead in the water as an app and system can be.
Makes me even gladder that I switched to a Nyon a few weeks ago. What a pleasure, especially by comparison. I do suspect Nyon is now EOL, since it seems Bosch is focusing the smart system on Kiox and the smartphone grip. Doesn't matter to me much, since Nyon, so far, does what I want.