Pyloton Cycling Computer software on a Rasperri PI? Moderators: adafruit_support_bill, adafruit

[Peter_Gamma]

Adafruit has made many great instructions, for instance the instruction how to record brainwaves with a Raspberry Pi:

https://blog.adafruit.com/2018/05/28/re ... pberry-pi/

For developers, the Rasperri PI platform might be easier to use than the Adafruit Clue platform. Therefore I am asking the question: Does the Pyloton CircuitPython Cycling Computer software also run on a Rasperri PI?

[mikeysklar]

Thanks Peter. I had written that brainwave post years ago.

The Pyloton is based on CircuitPython and it uses libraries that for the most part would work with a Raspberry Pi. I would not recommend that particular project be done on a Pi as it is such a nice fit for the CLUE. If you really wanted to experiment with parts of it you can see how far you can go with loading the libraries or samples of code. Most of our projects are much less involved and move easily between embedded controllers and embedded computers.

[Peter_Gamma]

Thanks, Mikey. I am interested since a long time in the Pyloton Bike computer. But I was somehow frustrated about the possibilies to access heart rate or other sports sensor data from outside of the device.

There are several Rasperri ANT+ projects available, which can be easier used for this purpose. But if I had the choice, I would choose a BLE system, since it does not require an ANT+ stick. What is great about the Pyloton Bike computer is that it is so well documented. Thanks for the answer. Since I am a physiologist and not a computer engineer, I always was looking for an easier project to start with. But after checking many project on the web, the Pyloton still seems to be one of the most interesting of those.

Also the Rasperri PI Muse project is great. There are several Labstreaming Muse examples available in the web. But I am happy that there is a project from Adafruit with LabStreamingLaywer. Thanks for the great project..

[Peter_Gamma]

I found out that it is possible to stream sensor data from the Clue to a Rasperri PI to Adafruit IO with a Raspberry Pi bridge:

https://learn.adafruit.com/bluetooth-le ... e/overview

the Pyloton Open Source Bike computer runs on the Clue. This is the easier way than porting the software to the PI. Is it possible to stream the Pyloton sensor data to Adafruit IO on this path?

[mikeysklar]

@Peter_Gamma,

It looks like you did find a good guide to try the streaming of Pyloton --> Pi --> AIO

The Pi receives advertised BLE sensor data from the Feather and CLUE and then sends that data over WiFi or Ethernet to your Adafruit IO feed.

I'm not sure if you meant the last sentence of your post to be there as a question as it looks like that is exactly what htis guide does.

[Peter_Gamma]

Yes, the guide says it does exactly this. But the Pyloton has as far as I know no standard interface like LabstreamingLayer or MQTT. The Pyloton software needs to be connected to the Pyloton --> Pi --> AIO.

At first sight, the whole project looks difficult, but one has to work through it, and I think it can be made easier. What is great about this project is, that it already has three BLE profiles, heart rate, speed an cadence.

There are two ANT+ projects developed by PhDs. One PhD. ported the ANT+ stick to a Rasperri PI, one made an instruction to read power data from an ANT+ device, which can be modified for other purposes. Another PhD developed a device to sniff out BLE sensor data from a Peloton.

For the Adafruit BLE sports sensor project, no PhD is required, as far as I can see. It is great that there is already a path there to the Adafruit cloud. No MQTT interface developement necessary.

Most of the ANT+ sports sensor profiles are also available for BLE. Only some are missing, for instance bike radar. This is what I have learned from DC Rainmaker.

I think John Park did really a great job with this setup, which should be promoted. It can be connected to Adafruit software platforms from the beginning. This makes it easy to start with.

[Peter_Gamma]

I reviewed solutions to read out BLE sensor data from the Adafruit Pyloton, which I knew before I discovered this solution here today on my blog here:

https://petergamma.org/read-out-sensor- ... e-pyloton/

For several years, I was looking for a way to access sensor data from ANT+ and BLE sports sensors, which was quite frustrating, since none of them looked straightforward:

https://github.com/PeterGamma/Live-stre ... ensor-data

The Pyloton --> Pi --> AIO path looks much easier, and could solve this problem. When all the people who developed these different solutions in the past would work on a new project for BLE sports sensor streaming, a new community could emerge, and also simple people could become developers wo build their own open source sports devices.