arta
New Member
- Region
- Canada
- City
- Vancouver
--
An intelligent alarm from bikeMinder.ca.
Large siren, heard from 100 meters (or yards), controlled by an intelligent computer running massively complex firmware. The first of its kind.
It's ready for sale, but stock is expected to be available in Spring 2023. Direct from the manufacturer--yours truly--at $120 CAD (under $100 USD), highly discounted from the retail price of
It watches for the minutest movements, but watches quietly until it decides otherwise. The video shows tests which were carried out soon after power-up, which is when the system is very hyper (because it distrusts the new parking-spot), so it is more screamy in the video than it would be deeper into the parking session. Ordinarily, it is more likely to start with only a mild warning, rather than a shrieking siren.
When you return to your parked bike, it'll tell you if your bike had been moved--as the video shows.
No tracker/app/'GPS'/phone. The minder focuses on the moment of theft, trying to prevent the theft in the first place!
No SIM card, or monthly payments, are thus required.
No phone is needed.
No Internet/G3/G4/whatever connection is needed.
No app installation, OS-support or updates.
No confronting a violent thief, or hoping the cops show up for a crime that's not life-or-limbs, for a potentially disassembled bike!
Even if this product or business discontinues, your minder can continue to work.
A basic padlock is needed to attach the minder to your lock. The device must be hanging freely; so, the most practical position would be to hang it from a U-lock that locks the bike's top bar to a reliable anchor--as shown in many of the clips.
This being EBR, there's gotta be a lot of nutcases like me who have more than one bike! Well, just hang the minder on whichever bike you happen to be using on the day. No need to buy more than one. if you change your lock, just use the same minder!
Or perhaps you could use it on other things: Padlock it to anything that mustn't move, and you've got a minder. Ensure that it hangs freely, and remains fully audible. On a large, heavy object (e.g. an ATV), it won't detect tampering (e.g. stealing parts) but it will detect the entire object being moved. Objects larger, or heavier, than a bicycle are sluggish; the system assumes that it is on a bicycle, which is why it can detect a front tire being removed, but won't detect a car's catalytic converter being stolen! (Could a minder be hung from one? I don't know!) No tests have been carried out on objects other than bicycles.
I've tested the minder on only my own bikes, which are not ebikes. Some ebikes, and even escooters, are rather massive, and they carry many accessories. So, I don't know to what extent the system might be able to detect component theft on those. _If_ the theft attempt causes movements in the minder, then the system will know. You could hang an additional minder on a _component_, I suppose!
While the video shows the minder being used on an unlocked bike, no guarantee is provided at all: You must lock your bike using a reliable U-Lock/D-lock. And there is no guarantee that your bike won't be stolen; the warranty is for only manufacturing defects.
The video shows just a basic U-lock/D-lock being used, not a pricey, hefty one. The deterrence is in the loudness: The effect on an average person is psychological. A thief used to violence on streets simply won't care about even a 120 dB beeper. I am very nervous when testing the device--which is why the tests are shot where no pedestrians are nearby!
--
Full disclosure: Don't expect a shiny, polished, consumer product! It functions outstandingly well, but it lacks the niceties of a well-funded, corporate product. It is not mass produced, but practically hand-made by a solo engineer. Right now, I've made no stock (so the shop shows everything to be out of stock, with lots of sucky photos, some even outdated), thus the earliest delivery will be by Spring. And the combination of the Covid Supply Crisis, and the current inflation, means that mass manufacturing will not _lower_ the price, but raise it! So, order early!
--
(No promise is made on the following; I've just put a lot of effort towards the goal.) I've aimed for repairability and upgradeability. For example, if only the enclosure gets damaged during an attack, it might be possible to replace only the enclosure (instead of purchasing a whole new minder). This is subject to version compatibility, because e.g. a minder3's enclosure might not fit the current one's (minder2's). The same for upgrades: It might, or might not, be possible to upgrade from the current mother-board to a future one. I've made efforts towards this goal, because I hate Planned Obsolescence, and electronic waste. But, again, no promises! Let's see how things pan out. The web site has information on repairability and upgradeability that will be expanded as time goes.
--
My personal youtube channel shows the tests in context, rather than the above montage of clips.
--
Who am I? A cranky cyclist in Vancouver who also has some patches in the Linux kernel with his name included on them. There's a statistical possibility that, while you're reading this, some of my code, somewhere, is executing for that to happen--though that may be wishful of me. Firmware engineers are unsung!
