I procured a Garmin FR60 ANT+ watch to use as a head unit while my Edge 705 is in for RMA repair.The idea is to use the watch as a handlebar mounted display for the GSC 10 cadence/speed sensor and HR strap. Unlike the GPS features of the Edge, these bits of data are (now) essential for training rides.

Am pleased to report the FR60 paired up with my GSC 10 and the old HR strap from my Edge (keeping the new strap for future use) and can display three fields per “page”, and five pages of data in bike mode. While the FR60 can be configured to scroll (“AutoScroll”) through the enabled pages I do it manually and keep current HR, speed, and cadence on the page I have visible most of the time. This leaves only distance for the second page (lap and total averages are on later pages that I only really access after the ride is over), which is not a deal-breaking compromise.

The backlight is not as nice as on the Edge (kind of dim, but usable) and will only stay on for a maximum of 15 seconds at a time (Edge can be configured to keep the backlight on continuously). It’s not an issue for daytime rides.

For $125 I am quite satisfied with this as a temporary solution:

• Mounts to handlebars with the aid of some 1/2 in. pipe insulation (cost: $1)
• It’s interesting to note that both the FR60 and Edge can read data from the same sensors simultaneously
• The FR60 has a longer battery life than the Edge (and uses standard CR2032 batteries, also used by GSC 10) and I plan to use it for brevet length rides as a backup. IMO carrying an extra GSC 10 and two zip ties is a better contingency plan than wiring in a old-school bike computer or relying on a flaky wireless bike computer (the Garmin ANT+ sensors are not perfect but have a range longer than 70cm and are rock-solid compared to the flaky Cateye and Topeak wireless computers I’ve tried)
• Of note for long distance riders: maximum workout length is limited to 20 hours, which is insufficient for long events but still a bit better than the Edge (and certainly cheaper to buy extra FR60 than Edge units)

Missing features from Edge 705:

• Altimeter (so no total climb)
• GPS track log (so no post-ride mapping)
• No power meter support
• Smaller screen = less data visible

I have to admit that if the FR60 + GSC 10 really is a better than any bike computer I’ve used short of the Edge models. It can wirelessly sync workouts with a PC and has all the data most people need (though it doesn’t seem to support ANT+ power sensors). If Garmin sold an FR60 with a larger screen it would make a pretty fantastic bike computer for almost everyone.

My Garmin Edge 705 is officially broken and going back to Garmin for replacement. In the past week it has had an increasingly difficult time receiving GPS signals (ANT+ sensors continue to work fine, so it’s functionally the same as a pre-GPS bike computer). It’s easy to watch the deterioration because every time it loses the GPS signal an error message pops up and the unit beeps, which was happening every minute or two on a 65 mile ride last weekend. At this point the errors have stopped because it the unit never acquires a GPS signal.

Now that I’ve used this for a few thousand miles and updated the firmware half a dozen times I have some updated impressions

• The Edge provides all the instrumentation and data logging I could (currently) want. That is to say, it’s an excellent “head unit” for ANT+ sensors. I had expected the GPS features would be more important, but I use them only occasionally when riding my usual routes. All the realtime data is quite addictive and nearly justifies the price of the unit
• The firmware was incapable of following a cue sheet (e.g. a GPX file) type of route until about six months after the product was released, which is to say I did my first ride with directions in September 2008. Cue sheet style navigation is still quite buggy and unreliable (when it works it is impressive, but it’s more the exception than the rule that it works at all). Whether any given GPX file is usable for navigation generally depends on what type of software was used to create the GPX file. GPX files from Garmin MapSource and Bikely work well, so if you are willing to invest the time to author your own GPX files the unit should be able to navigate the route (this was not the case when it was released). GPX files from other GPS receivers often never work (e.g. the turn by turn directions will have all 50 turns listed on the route, but zero feet of distance between them so the navigation ends as soon as it starts), so most of the GPX files I download from my local club’s web site load do not work on the Edge (loading GPX files into MapSource first sometimes helps)
• The handlebar mount is completely inadequate. The mount breaks if the zip ties are too tight. Even if the zip ties are not tight, it still breaks every few months. All mounts seem to break in the same place (the inner plastic piece that slides into the Edge unit itself splits). Most experienced Edge 605/705 users I see have had this problem and some have devised interesting homebrew solutions to mitigate the risk of the unit falling off the bike at speed (e.g. epoxy a metal loop to the back to catch the unit when the mount breaks, zip ties around the unit and stem, etc.). Fortunately the mounts are not too expensive, so I keep several on hand and replace them every other month
• Battery life is ever-decreasing as the unit ages. I ride about 200 miles/week and charge the unit on Friday and Sunday nights (previously it could handle being charged only once a week). This is expected, much as with an iPod because the sealed battery loses its ability to hold a full charge over time (and has a limited number of recharge cycles, though this is probably not a big problem as it is a new-style Lithium-ion battery)
• With subsequent firmware updates the Edge has become much better. Before breaking it was able to acquire a GPS signal in well under a minute (sometimes just a few seconds if my previous ride ended in the same place) whereas it needed 60-120 seconds to find a signal in the when I first started using it
• The backlight feature is excellent for night rides, and the reflective LCD display is very good in daylight
• I’ve gotten used to the spindly typeface, though I still don’t like it

What I would like to see in the next Edge product (FWIW):

• Do not release the product until it is ready and all the promised functionality works. Nobody has challenged Garmin in the cycling-specific GPS receiver space, so it’s worth having a stable/working product at the time of release. I don’t know the specific demographics of Edge users, but my anecdotal experience is that people who buy $500 bike accessories expect the product to be well designed and reliable (the Edge 605/705 was well designed, but had software that was far from reliable). This is more of an iPod type product (premium, polished, with a product cycle measured in years) than an expensive mobile phone (fashionable, extremely buggy, with a product cycle measured in months)
• Lanyard loop (like most mobile phones and digital cameras have) to secure the unit in case the primary mount fails
• More reliable (perhaps not 100% plastic) handlebar mount
• Robust GPX file handling in the unit itself (e.g. for files dropped in the “GPX” folder). Desktop software seems much better at making sense of “foreign” GPX files than the Edge firmware
• Faster calculation of routes (it takes about 10 minutes for my Edge to parse and navigate a century length route from a GPX file). If this can’t be made faster, at least make it non-modal (route calculation locks up the unit so it cannot be used as a bike computer while it (re)calculates routes)
• Better support for navigating routes from places other than the start (e.g. picking up a 50 mile ride at mile 2)
• A “Return to Start” feature that doesn’t rely so heavily on reversing the course. Most organized rides are loops/circular, not point to point
• Accessory cable to power/charge unit from a hub dynamo (this is really important for brevet length rides and should be simple)
• User interface to force calibration of the altimeter from GPS (so it is accurate before the start of the ride). Might be worth remembering the last n-points where the altimeter was calibrated to speed the process in the future (e.g. my weekly hill ride starts in the same place each week)
• Wireless route transmission is too slow to be useful before a ride. GPX routes are no more than a few hundred kilobytes, so why does it take several minutes to transmit?
• Support for calculation of speed from cadence and cadence from speed for fixed gear bikes (especially helpful when swapping wheels at the track)
• Calculate the number of gear inches and log changes (up/down shifts). I think the GSC-10 sensor provides enough information to do this, and for extra credit it might not require too much data for the firmware to accurately guess the chainring and cog sizes from the changes in gear inches (especially for now-popular compact doubles which have no/few overlapping ratios). Would be interesting to compare shifting strategies on each lap of a crit or circuit race
• When several bike profiles are configured to use “Auto” wheel size, do not recalculate the wheel size each time a different bike profile is selected (store and re-use the previously calculated value). This makes the first mile of riding inaccurate after changing from one existing bike profile to another
• Choice of typefaces for the data fields
• Possibility to have wireless sync to PC (e.g. ANT Stick like the Garmin FR60) and support for ANT+ weight scales (again, like FR60)
• Capacity for North America and Europe maps without swapping microSD cards. Everybody needs/wants the maps anyway, so eliminate the non-map SKUs

Blue sky enhancements

• Support for Bluetooth for mobile phones would be a battery drain but could add more interesting functionality. Most riders who have an Edge also carry a mobile phone, and most of these have Bluetooth support and access to 2.5G or 3G packet networks. The rider’s phone could be used to provide interesting mid-ride data updates, download weather forecasts, receive SMS messages, provide incoming caller ID, and maybe even receive mid-ride safety warnings, last minute course changes, etc. for organized events. It would also be useful to actually know how far away your friends and training buddies are on a ride if they choose to make that information available
• A simple MP3 player would be nice for extended tours, but is clearly non-core functionality. A second micro-SD card could make this easier to manage, and dynamo power would help make it practical from a power perspective. This probably opens legal liability concerns…
• The current form factor is well suited to stem mounting. I find it easier to read on the handlebars and would prefer a wide form factor Edge (somewhat like the Topeak V16 in appearance). If this allowed for a larger battery, all the better! Allowing the display to be rotated 90 degrees would be interesting.

Killed my first Brooks saddle (a Team Pro) last night when I was caught in the rain. It only required 20 wet miles (with no fenders) to complete the task. The B-17 on my grocery-getter is still fine after a winter of riding, but requires more attention and planning than any other bicycle component I’ve ever owned (e.g. planning where to park, whether to ride, and how many plastic bags to bring).When deciding to try Brooks saddles I was overwhelmed by the amount of positive chatter surrounding them on the Internet. I want to add a dissenting voice to the cacophony, and certainly recognize that there is a market for these products. Leather saddles seem to be a religious issue (on which the high priests have disagreed) for people old enough to have owned one when they were the only option. The Brooks saddles had a lot of foibles, and I learned a lot about my own saddle preferences by trying them

Pro

• Unlike vinyl, leather is very hard and slippery. Having previously used standard padded vinyl saddles I had not appreciated the advantages of such a surface
• Brooks saddles have a great classic look (most easily appreciated while not riding the bike). Instant cred with the Vintage Bicycle Quarterly crowd
• Not uncomfortable at any point (when new or broken in)
• The tail end of the saddle is high and nice to lean on when mashing
• Weighs a lot (good for training, bad for racing)

Con

• Constant creaking over bumps or during heavy pedaling begins during the first ride. Can be temporarily silenced by turning the tension bolt (which I did only once on one saddle– adding tension is verboten as it can only be done a few times)
• Saddle flattens out as it is used (I weigh 195 lbs, an began to notice this after the third ride on both B-17 and Team Pro). It is possible to “lace” the saddle to reduce this effect
• Adjustment range of seat rails is much smaller than any modern saddle. This limitation can be addressed with the addition of a setback seatpost
• The nose of a Brooks saddle seems to be canted upward (B-17, Team Pro), requiring the rails to angle downward to avoid putting pressure where it’s not wanted (this is a problem for both upright and laid out positions). Some seatposts lack sufficient adjustment range to accommodate this strange requirement (what rider would want the nose of their saddle to slant upwards?)
• Leather saddles can be easily destroyed when wet. Avoiding water requires constant mindfulness: before the ride (Might there be rain while the bike is on the roof rack? Could the shaded portions of the route still be wet from yesterday?), during the ride (Is that wet pavement ahead? Is it getting cloudy? Is my rain cover slipping? Maybe I should build that dedicated rain bike with fenders), and after the ride (Saddle got a bit wet, so can’t ride it tomorrow)
• The saddle has it’s own maintenance regime and requires special chemicals (the specific details of which are an open controversy). It’s not a lot of work, but it is a lot more work than any plastic saddle
• For me, none of the Brooks saddles were more comfortable than a standard vinyl saddle over long distance (e.g. centuries and more)

The Brooks saddle looks great on a parked bike. Riding in New England I need equipment that enables and encourages me to ride in marginal (especially wet) conditions. The special needs of a leather saddle accomplish precisely the opposite. Given the cost of Brooks saddles it’s easy to justify experimenting with a variety of plastic saddles in search of a comfortable one.

FreeNAS is nearly what I want (for now). In addition to consolidating my files I want to run an IMAP server (dovecot) for my decade of archived email on my wildly over-powered “storage appliance” (sporting GBs of underutilized RAM and storage). Combined with fetchmail this would be great was to consolidate email for the long term (beyond Gmail). The necessary software is already ported to FreeBSD, so maybe could be trivial. Maybe it could take months of overcoming unanticipated challenges. Maybe I’ll do it myself.

If this thing was Linux based I could probably hack it together tonight.

Tried AsteriskNOW 1.2 in VMWare today. I like the AsteriskNOW GUI and approach to configuration file management (i.e. does not make a mess). Imagine lots of users would like to install AsteriskNOW on Soekris or PC Engines ALIX SBC style systems.

It does not seem to have a TFTP server installed by detault (important for Cisco handsets), but this can be added without much difficulty (search the forums for details).

With a flash memory installation mode (e.g. readonly root, logs on ramfs, configuration on rw partition) I would replace my existing AskoziaPBX with AsteriskNOW. However the nice GUI alone is not worth the burden of maintaining another full system (or VM).

If rPath is anything like CentOS 5 then it’s probably only a matter of an init script and some system configuration to make AsteriskNOW run in a flash-friendly way. Not sure if cheap SBC based boxes would cannibalize sales of other Digium products, but this would be a very attractive solution for small/simple configurations

Hopefully Garmin Connect (“Connect”) is under heavy development. MotionBased (“MB”), it’s predecessor, was acquired by Garmin and will be replaced with Connect sometime soon. MB has always had poor performance, but offers many useful and interesting features to analyze GPS and workout data, so much so that I happily paid $10+/month for MB before Garmin bought it.

Connect is more attractive and (seemingly) more modern. I can tell this the occasional Java stack traces that reference the Java Faces API. It’s performance is even worse than MB (over 18 seconds to load the “Dashboard” and similar delays viewing/updating activities). MB needs about 10 seconds to change views, which was noticeably slower than any other site I use regularly.

The upshot is that I’ve found SportTracks, a closed source desktop app for Windows which does most of what I want (analysis, mapping, import/export). It’s a black box and I would prefer to use an online service, but it does offer interesting features and analysis, which adds a lot of value to the Edge product itself.

There are lots of GPS and cycling related mapping services available. Most support either route planning, ride logistics (team/group planning), training/analysis, or data conversion. MB has the most comprehensive feature set, but is not a leader in most categories (especially compared with the SportTracks application). Garmin Connect is still missing most of the MB functionality.

I would have expected Garmin to aggressively push interesting and innovative features with the Conect service as it could tie users to their hardware and create buzz. The Edge is an adequate bicycle computer, but not significantly better than others without GPS (making GPS courses and routes work is beyond the capability of with MB or Connect). Effective use of the logged GPS data would make the Edge much more exciting to use.

If another company offered a competitive product with an interesting web site I would replace my brand new Edge 705. My interest in this is piqued, but the Edge/Connect combination underwhelms. A better MB than MB/Connect would also be compelling, though it could be hard to justify a viable business to compete with the (unfulfilled) promise of Garmin Connect.

Music on hold is something I avoid, so I was embarrassed to discover my own PBX (Askozia) forcing it on my own callers. Though the solution is not documented, it was straightforward. Run these three commands using the /exec.php script (no UI link to this, but it does exist)

/sbin/mount -u -o rw /asterisk
rm /usr/local/share/asterisk/moh/*
/sbin/mount -u -o ro /asterisk

This remounts one of the partitions, removes the music on hold files (fpm-calm-river.ulaw, in my case), and returns the partition to its original (read only) state.

Until Askozia gains UI to disable music on hold this will probably be necessary after each upgrade. It will survive reboots so long as the system is not upgraded.

Otherwise Askozia works well. Would be nice to have a TFTP server to support my handsets…

This product has amazing specifications. It measures (or is capable of measuring) just about all the data I possibly want for a ride, and works very well as an instrument.

I’ve done a few fitness rides with it and I am very disappointed with its usability. Until its arrival I had a Garmin 60CSx clamped (rather unfashionably) to the handlebars on my training bike, so the GPS aspect of the Edge 705 is not much of a change for me.

Some comparative observations:

1. 60CSx and Edge 705 have similar accuracy, and make similar mistakes (e.g. both think I am 375 ft below sea level at my desk)
2. Battery life is similar (about 10 hours), though the 60CSx uses 2 AA cells and the Edge has an iPod style (non-replaceable) Li-ion battery
3. Edge weighs much less
4. Edge has better designed bike mount (for me the 60CSx mounts seem to break every 1,000 miles due to stress. Fortunately they are inexpensive)
5. Displays are similar dimensions (Edge is smaller: about 1 cm less height, 0.5 cm less width)
6. Edge has wireless “ANT+” sensors for heart rate, cadence, and speed. These wireless sensors have required no configuration and worked flawlessly so far

There is one major deficiency, the font used to display measurements on the Edge 705 is much harder to read than the 60CSx.

On the web this may be a legitimate question of taste but on the road the light/narrow font used on the Edge is less legible. There is plenty of empty space on the display but the Edge does/cannot make use of it because of the font.

Decreasing the number of fields displayed offers more vertical space, which just creates huge areas of fallow real estate around a narrow bit of data in the center of the screen. It helps legibility less than one would hope to view fewer data elements.

The font is not configurable on either unit, but for me the Edge has been a step backward in usability for this rather trivial reason. I know it’s possible for Garmin to offer a more generously proportioned typeface in a software release, but the anticipated 3 year life of this product (Owners Manual, page 61) suggests that Garmin are probably hard at work on its successor and will not make such a noticeable change to the Edge 705.

I do like the great functionality of both Garmin GPS products, but the interface for the Edge leaves me very disappointed. Hopefully someone else will get into the expensive cycle computer market soon, or maybe Garmin will improve their UI.

Want pfSense 1.2 installed on PC Engines ALIX.2c3 platform to for home router duty and provisioning of a Polycom IP430 phone. The former is trivial, the latter requires some minor abuse.

Setting DHCP Option-66 for Polycom Phone

Cannot use pfSense next-server option, as this cannot handle a string (e.g. URL). Need to manually specify the necessary option to send to Polycom phone. pfSense 1.2-RC5 has dhcpd version is “isc-dhcp-V3.0.5″

We want something like this in /var/dhcpd/etc/dhcpd.conf

if exists dhcp-parameter-request-list {

        # Always send the option-66 (next-server), specified in hex
        option dhcp-parameter-request-list = concat(option dhcp-parameter-request-list,42);
}

option next-server code 66 = text;
option next-server "http://gw1.local/mnt/da0/polycom/";

• Inspirational DHCP option request list extension seen at http://syslinux.zytor.com/pxe.php

Settle for abusing the next-server configuration by injecting some additional configuration statements using next-server in dhcpd.conf

192.168.2.1;}
option next-server code 66 = text;
option next-server "http://gw1.local/mnt/da0/polycom/";
subnet 127.0.0.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
option ntp-servers 127.0.0.1

Ensure the filename parameter is not blank (value is not important). This results in

subnet 192.168.2.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
        pool {
                range 192.168.2.129 192.168.2.254;
        }
        option routers 192.168.2.1;
        option domain-name-servers 192.168.2.1;
        option ntp-servers 192.168.2.1;
        next-server 192.168.2.1;} option next-server code 66 = text; option next-server "http://gw1.local/mnt/da0/polycom/"; subnet 127.0.0.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 { option
ntp-servers 127.0.0.1;
        filename "must_not_be_blank";
}

This only works because there are no scope options set after next-server that we care about (e.g. the filename option is not even in the correct scope). Obviously it would be better if pfSense provided direct support for custom DHCP options.

Distribute Phone Config via HTTP

Want to provide firmware and configuration files through the pfSense HTTPD (lighttpd). pfSense includes filesystem support for FAT, so this is trivial.

1. Following config.xml chunk mounts first USB disk under /var/mnt/da0.and runs autorun.sh script, if present. Place shellcmd element in pfsense->system

   test -c /dev/da0 && test -z "`mount | grep /dev/da0`" && mkdir -p /var/mnt/da0 && mount -t msdosfs -o ro /dev/da0 /var/mnt/da0 && logger -t shellcmd "Mounted /dev/da0 on /var/mnt/da0"
   test -x /var/mnt/da0/autorun.sh && logger -t shellcmd "Executing /var/mnt/da0/autorun.sh" && . /var/mnt/da0/autorun.sh

2. Script to copy contents of /usr/local/www to a RAM disk and add a symlink to the mounted USB disk. The alternative is remastering the pfSense loopback filesystem (called autorun.sh)

   #!/bin/sh
   
   # This is a rough shell script to copy the pfSense Web UI contents to a ram
   # disk and add a symlink to the mounted flash drive mounted under /var/mnt/da0
   #
   # This is necessary for pfSense 1.2 embedded as /usr/local/www is mounted
   # read-only, making it impossible to add the symlink without replicating or
   # moving the entire tree under /usr/local/www. For pfSense 1.2-RC5 the size of
   # this data are less than 6MB and the ALIX platform has 256MB of ram, so the
   # trade is acceptable.
   #
   # If the size of the Web UI grows it may be necessary to use fixed storage or
   # remaster the root loopback file to include the link
   #
   
   WEBROOT=/usr/local/www
   MD_NUM=10
   MD_DEV=/dev/md$MD_NUM
   
   # if ram disk is larger than kernel max heap size then system will panic
   # only after available heap is consumed. Use -o reserve to ensure size
   # is not larger than available heap space (pre-allocates requested size)
   mdconfig -a -t malloc -s 16m -u $MD_NUM -o compress
   
   # format and mount ram disk
   newfs -O 2 -o space -n $MD_DEV
   mount $MD_DEV /mnt
   
   # copy should fail if insufficient space is available
   cp -R $WEBROOT/* /mnt/ && (
   
   	# add symlink to flash drive (this is the point of this script)
   	mkdir /mnt/mnt
   	ln -s /var/mnt/da0 /mnt/mnt/
   
   	umount /mnt
   
   	# if user upgrades system there will be issues, mounting ram disk
   	# read-only should bring these issue to light before too many bad
   	# things happen
   	mount -o ro $MD_DEV $WEBROOT
   
   	logger -t autorun.sh "Mounted $MD_DEV on /usr/local/www"
   
   ) && return
   
   # reaching this point implies that copy failed (likely due to insufficient
   # ram disk size), so clean up and terminate
   umount /mnt && mdconfig -d -u 10
   

Use Windows XP Embedded “Enhanced Write Filter” to prolong the life of flash disks

Be sure you are using IDE master for target disk, edit ewf.reg “ArcName” as necessary. Does not work with SCSI disks

1. ewfntldr -> C:ntldr (read-only, hidden, system attributes are not important)
2. ewf.sys -> %WINDIR%system32Drivers
3. ewf*.dll, ewfmgr.exe -> %WINDIR%system32
4. Edit registry using REGEDT32.EXE: allow “Full Control” for “Everybody” to HKLMSYSTEMCurrentControlSetEnumRoot
5. Merge ewf.reg into Windows Registry (double click on it)
6. Reverse permission change in step 3
7. Reboot, ewfmgr c: should say something interesting

Using XPe components in Windows installs