One well-known U.S. fitness company (Wahoo) recently released an excellent indoor training system that raises and lowers the front of the treadmill according to the simulated lifting height at which the trainee is traveling.
Unfortunately, such a simulator costs about £ 500 in cash.
The author of this homemade I decided to independently make such a simulator based on Tacx Neo. In his opinion, any simulator that transmits its power and speed data through ANT + or BLE can be equipped with this system.
Tools and materials:
-Aluminium tube with a diameter of 1.9 cm long 10 cm;
-Steel tube 80X6 mm;
-Acrylic;
- Linear drive 750N, 200 mm stroke;
Driver L298N;
-Arduino Nano;
-2-key membrane key;
-Interface module I2C;
- Power supply 12 V 3 A;
-Receiver;
-1.3 "OLED LCD with IIC I2C 128x32 3.3 V;
Since the wheelbase of the master’s road bike is exactly 1000 mm, he needed to raise the fork 200 mm to simulate a 20% slope. The weight of the simulator + athlete is unlikely to exceed 100 kg, and since it is distributed between the axles, and most of it is on the back of the simulator, the linear actuator 750N, which lifts 75 kg, must cope. More powerful drives, as well as servo drives with potentiometers, cost much more than this model.
The wizard calculates and sets that the front end lift should be 3 mm / s.
The master used NPE Cable ANT + to BLE to pair the electronics of the exercise bike and Arduino.
All downloads are available at the link.
It is also necessary to print some details on a 3D printer. Files can be downloaded here.
The linear actuator is installed with an aluminum tube and printed parts.
The L298N H module, which is very common, has a built-in 5 V regulator, and is excellent for supplying Arduino with a 12 V power supply. Unfortunately, the Arduino Nano IoT board provides 3.3 V power, so a logic level converter (or an optical isolator is required, since signals are only unidirectional).
The housing is designed for power connectors commonly used in LED lighting systems. The wizard has connected a USB extension cable so that you can easily connect / disconnect the Arduino.
The housing for the Arduino OLED and the logic-level converter has a standard mount on the back of the Garmin, which allows it to be securely mounted on a bicycle. It is easy to install an “external” mount so that the device can be tilted up or down to “zero” the position of the accelerometer.
In the case there is a place for a membrane key, it is used to set the weight of the cyclist.
