17
Backers
$1,560
pledged of $500 goal
0
seconds to go
Funding Successful
This project successfully raised its funding goal on July 2, 2010.
Pledge $5 or more
we'll send you a zip file containing an mp3 of velosynth sounds made as an artifact of the development process along with a velosynth coloring book and crossword puzzle pdf that you can print out yourself. and of course, we'll keep you up to date on the project!
Pledge $20 or more
ENCLOSURE KIT — add your own electronics! this kit includes 2 vacuum-formed enclosure shLs, bungee cords, mounting velcro, a 3D-printed spoke magnet holder, magnets, and a hall effect sensor. combine this with your own hardware to create the hackable bicycle computer of your dreams!
Pledge $100 or more
everything you need except the batteries! this hacker-friendly, super-hella-low-level DIY kit includes a jeenode (arduino-compatible) microcontroller, three-axis accelerometer, and all the electronic bits to make some bleeps and bloops on your bicycle.
Pledge $250 or more
a hand-built velosynth made just for you, completely patched up, and a reasonable amount support to get it up and running. beware, you'll still need to have some familiarity with microcontrollers and such; this is just a quicker way to get started, albeit more expensive.
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EFFALO was chartered to synthesize, modulate, and deploy multimodal interaction environments that promote expressive feedback between humans, nature and technology.
Wow, great work on the fundraising, Effalo! As a fellow designer, I understand the difficulty of pricing your work, as it must consider the time spent in sketching, visualizing, model-making, etc. There are clearly countless hours of research and design going into your work for which you deserve recognition. Keep it up!
Embedded Systems are all about getting known components to "communicate" together in a precise and inexpensive way. While said components may be cheap, the effort spent getting them to work together is worth the cost of the project alone.
I am pretty psyched to see some more videos of this thing. I think the idea is fantastic, kudos for putting so much time and effort into dev!
SO AWESOME. I always dreamed of wiring cycle computer mounts to a drum machine, but you guys took it to the next level. thanks!
Huh, well I dont get all the hating either. As a biker, engineer and musician this sounded super cool to me. Ive been wanting to play around with microcontrollers and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. Im not entirely sure of the commercial viability of the device, but Im really into the idea and I like supporting local creatives :) Already thinking of some hacks I want to try, cant wait to get my kit!
hi willard! thanks for leaving some raw, super-passionate feedback! i feel like a little bit of a broken record here, but there's a few point's i'd like to to respond to:
re: more noise on the road — sure, this is totally possible. it's all in what you do with it! given our maximum distribution of around 12 kits, there's little chance that you'll be bothered. although, hopefully i'll steer clear of your neighborhood, as apparently you're hostile enough to throw rocks :-)
re: ruining open source — ouch, dude! since when was openly sharing knowledge, code, ideas, designs, and software against the concept of open source? please tell me what i'm doing wrong here, because i don't know what else i could be doing? alsoooo, saying that i'm using cheapo parts is a slap in the face to the following, well-respected small businesses, whose open-source hardware components are used in velosynth:
jeelabs — jeenode v4 microcontroller
modern device — three axis accelerometer
makerbot industries — cupcake cnc (used to make spoke magnet holder)
adafruit industries — hall effect sensor + knowledge
all i did was figure out a way to put these pieces together! sorry you hate it so much, but it's probably going to happen anyway, as we've already hit our funding goal! take care willard!
Last thing we need is to start introducing MORE noise to the roadways. This won't help alert cars, but it will annoy (justifiably) pedestrians and other cyclists...the very people who are helping to reduce automobile use! I'm a cyclist myself, but if you ride this through my neighborhood, don't be surprised if I hop off my bike to throw rocks at you.
Not to mention the fact that you are obviously trying to make an enormous profit from the ridiculous markup to the cheapo parts. People like you ruin the concept of opensource.
I love this project! We need a critical mass of Velosynths!!!!!!!!!!!!
dunno if we're on the same page here, but the microcontroller itself is about $25, an accelerometer is another $20 or so, a digital potentiometer is around $4.... lots of tiny pieces add up to a bigger cost!
we decided to release this device now rather than wait for it to be developed into a "product" that you can "buy." this isn't about making money, it's about getting a framework in the hands of creative people who can really push this idea to the limit.
some people get it, some don't, but nevertheless your feedback is proof enough that we're doing something right. cheers!
This is totally nuts. 250 dollars for hardware worth 20 bucks? You already have the device, what do you need money for. It will just annoy people who ride the bike to hear the sound all the time.
thanks for the feedback! the point here is to make cycling more interactive by increasing the feedback and awareness of the cyclist. as more people begin to ride bicycles and computers get smaller and cheaper, it's only a matter of time before someone puts the two together. we want to facilitate this convergence, and make sure the knowledge is kept free and open-source, so everyone can make the most of it.
we feel that the best interface for communicating information to the cyclist is auditory. because it's passive, it doesn't take your attention away from the ride. please checkout http://velosynth.com for more information.
Im a geek, who cycles, but im not sure im seeing the point to it - is there more info somewhere or something im missing?