Customizable top speed warning please!

[OneDan+]

OK, so I've read most of the "wipe out" posts on this forum, some with pretty disastrous outcomes. I've had my + since August and have over 625 miles on it.

At around 108 miles, I had my first nosedive. I was barely moving, maybe 5 mph, when I decided to accelerate quickly for "one last lap" around the park. Found myself flat on the ground with a very deep scraped elbow and bruised rib. That's when I seriously started reading this forum and chalked it up to over-acceleration and over-confidence.

Since then (some 500 more miles), I've learned to accelerate at a slower pace and keep my top speed in the 15-17 mph range. I normally reset the high speed warning when it gets above 17 and if it goes off, I instinctively slow down.

Until today. A beautiful day, sunny, calm, almost 60 degrees, decided to take several rides, charging in between. First ride was uneventful, normal pavement to some off road trails and back, the usual fun time. Second ride, found a challenging patch of off road that was beyond my abilities. I survived the hard part, hopped off and carried the board over a path made of 3-4" rough stones, and was on my way. On the way home however, I breached my top speed near the end and when I arrived I noticed I had hit 19.9 mph, well beyond my normal safe speed.

Then came my third ride. As I was riding out, I realized I didn't reset my top speed and thought to myself, maybe I should stop to do that, but decided not to. I went on a path I've done dozens of times before. A fun ride on some biking/jogging paths and all was going well. I was on a road that gets almost no traffic that connects me back to a sidewalk to my neighborhood, cruising along a bit too fast, when the "new top speed" alarm goes off. I immediately realize "oh $%@#", I'm doing at least 20 mph! My brain goes into slow down mode, but the board has already decided it can't keep me going. Down I go, sliding on pavement at 22 mph (indicated by the new top speed reading, once I recovered). Had my usual protection: helmet (small scratches), wrist guards (left one trashed), and elbow pads (left one slid off a bit, same as my 108 mile slow crash). New left elbow scrape, not quite as bad as my first fall. Four left knuckles scraped up, 1 finger scraped on my right hand, and both knees lightly scraped without ripping my jeans. The left arm of my sweatshirt ripped open, pretty much destroyed. After a few hours, 1 left rib is hurting due to bruising or sprain I think. Overall, lucky for a nosedive at 22 mph. Will rethink adding back my knee pads and gloves with knuckle protection.

Now to the topic. One simple change to the app would have saved me. If I could set a speed warning trigger, with sound, to 15 or 16 mph, I would've never gotten myself into this situation. If FM is listening (or whoever writes/owns the app nowadays), this would be a HUGE help, at least for me, in stopping high speed crashes.

I've always known going too fast is playing with disaster, but not knowing your true speed (and we can't watch our phones easily while riding) makes it difficult to judge when we're close to the limit.

This is the best toy I've ever owned, but I do think FM needs to begin addressing some of the safety issues. I'll be back on my board once I recover and I'll be even MORE cautious than I have been. Everyone please be careful out there!

[AceCannon]

Sounds like it could have been worse- I’m happy to hear you are relatively ok and plan to be back riding soon. Your analysis sounds very reasonable, unlike some others who are stringently blaming the board itself for their 20+mph crashes.

However - I agree with you about have a “programmable speed” alarm.

[poppavein]

@onedan said in Customizable top speed warning please!:

flat

Until they do, can’t you use pushback as a warning?

[OneDan+]

@poppavein You know, I've been riding all this time and really can't identify that pushback feeling, I'm not sure why. I certainly didn't feel anything this time and, if it did pushback, perhaps it was too late. Perhaps a sound from the phone when it is pushing back might add the emphasis needed, but I would really prefer a setting for an alarm that could be set well below the "about to fail" speed of pushback.

[davidw]

I would also want a top speed limit custom setting, not warning just don't go more than a certain speed. Also the board itself without app should give a warning sound when certain potential show stopping limits are reached.

[NJacobs]

@davidw Regardless of what the max speed is, you will always have the risk of nose dive. If the OW had settings to customize speed and you set the max speed to 10 then the second you were going 10.00 and leaned forward the nose would dive because the board couldn't go faster to keep it under you and you'd be on the ground. The only real way to get rid of nose dive would be to have the board capable of doing something crazy like 150 mph at which point because of wind you wouldn't be able to stay on it. Nose dive will always be an issue, something the rider needs to understand and adjust how they ride to minimize it.

[djinn]

Great idea!
Simple to add to existing app, definitely an additional safety feature. Don't have to get psycho wondering whether if what you just felt was a pushback or not. App warns you you've hit your set top speed, you can slow down yourself... Brilliant. :)

[OneDan+]

My partial solution until when/if they decide to add a customizable top speed warning to the app. Repurposed an old Galaxy S4 and got an armband that I wear on my wrist. Still have to remember to glance at it, but at least it's readily available. So far, it's helped me stay under 16mph . . . still a bit cautious after my 22 mph nose dive last week!

The warning that I've gone over my top speed doesn't go off anymore, anyone else have that happen? It's turned on in the app and the half and low battery warnings still work, so not sure why that stopped. I've reset the top speed to zero and it's counting back up, just no more warning when I pass it.

[cascadewheeler]

Something like this maybe?https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.softls.speedwarning

[OneDan+]

@cascadewheeler

I might give that a try! Hopefully not too much delay from the GPS, might not warn in time.

[cascadewheeler]

Ya there was several apps when i searched "speed alarm" on the play store.

[djinn]

@cascadewheeler Thanks, that's a good suggestion in the meantime.
But I agree with OneDan+: it's too inaccurate, too slow/laggy, and it requires GPS cover to begin with. Won't work at all in a tunnel for example, and many other places.
Perhaps a slightly better solution would be to hack the ponewheel app (https://github.com/ponewheel/android-ponewheel). It already knows the wheel speed.

[skyman88]

@djinn said in Customizable top speed warning please!:

@cascadewheeler Thanks, that's a good suggestion in the meantime.
But I agree with OneDan+: it's too inaccurate, too slow/laggy, and it requires GPS cover to begin with. Won't work at all in a tunnel for example, and many other places.
Perhaps a slightly better solution would be to hack the ponewheel app (https://github.com/ponewheel/android-ponewheel). It already knows the wheel speed.

@OneDan+ A while back on the Facebook page, a few folks found the smallest droid watches that could run the app without needing a phone. So you'd have a cheap watch doing what your phone is doing there. Another option if you're just looking for real time speed.

I use an Apple Watch and so far it's been great. After a while you may develop a better sense for your speed without the need for an app... but it is something you have to be wary of at all times.

[djinn]

@skyman88 said in Customizable top speed warning please!:

I use an Apple Watch and so far it's been great. After a while you may develop a better sense for your speed without the need for an app... but it is something you have to be wary of at all times.

That's what makes the alert system powerful: it brings your mind back to it when necessary.

[OneDan+]

@djinn I may look into making a mod to ponewheel, as I'm a SW developer (tho, I haven't touched Java in a LONG time, LOL). I recall trying to get this installed at some point in time, but wasn't able to on my Google Pixel. I'lll try again if I get some time.

[djinn]

I've mentioned the idea in a ticket (https://github.com/ponewheel/android-ponewheel/issues/35) and it has not been rejected —yet! :p
Fingers crossed. ^^

[djinn]

@onedan Sweet! Hey, are you familiar with building Android apps? Have never done it and I'd love to test the current ponewheel code (the Google Play app is rather old)...

[OneDan+]

@djinn Used to fiddle with Android apps a long time ago, but not lately. I think the issue I had before was that ponewheel didn't support the OneWheel+ . . . do you know if it does now? I thought I read something about them getting close to releasing a new version. Perhaps we can test it for them. :)

[goodblake-eskate]

@OneDan So when I first got my Onewheel+ I never felt any pushback for the first 100 - 150 miles and during this time I had quite a few terrible nosedives to the point I considered getting rid of my Onewheel. I thought there was something wrong with the pushback on my onewheel. As I was determined to feel pushback, I switched to Sequoia mode. At first I didn't feel pushback in this mode either riding at speeds that sequoia would normally give you pushback, and then suddenly out of no where the pushback kicked in. It was very obvious and clear, and I am certain it wasn't there before. Then I switched back mission (back before delirium existed) and I immediately noticed pushback in that mode as well. I think once I forced pushback for the first time it finally started working properly. After this day I have not had any nosedives like I was having when I first got the OW. The kind where the front just drops with no warning and just drops you off the front. Now my nosedives have a pushback warning before and most I am able to ride out as it isn't straight nose drops. So my advice is to try to force pushback in sequoia to see if that breaks in the pushback function.
The other thing that I would recommend is to shift your stance backwards a little. Meaning your front foot should never be further forward than the middle of the pad, and the back foot should be middle to back. By having your stance shifted back, it helps prevent nosedives and helps riding / running them out.

[djinn]

@onedan Looks like it —although I haven't tried it myself:

[OneDan+]

@goodblake-eskate Hmmm, might be worth a try to get it working with Sequoia mode. I actually brought my foot further back after my first fall at 108 miles, that was due to trying to accelerate way to quickly, so I'm covered there. The fall at 600+ miles was definitely due to high speed, so yeah, maybe if I can get pushback working so I can feel it, I could be warned in time. Thx!

[OneDan+]

@djinn Awesome, gonna give ponewheel a whirl on my ride tomorrow!

[OneDan+]

@djinn Where did you get that screenshot? I installed the playstore app and only see the 3 old modes, not the 5 new ones that you show. It did connect to my plus, but I can't try riding with it until tomorrow.

[OneDan+]

So I tried out the pOneWheel app and it did work with the plus. However, around 75%, it just locked up. I had to restart my phone to get the bluetooth to connect, but I just used the standard app to get home.

While it was working, it seemed pretty nice and had easy to read speed text. Will be really nice if they can get the customizable top speed warning in along with a new build with all of the latest fixes.

[djinn]

Sweet!
A few commits have pushed addressing this and other issues/suggestions I had made in the same ticket. The ponewheel crew was super nice and super responsive. Keep up the good work ,guys!