Velosynth annoys those around you as you ride
posted Jun 18th 2010 8:28am by Mike Szczysfiled under: digital audio hacks, transportation hacks

We’ve always put stock in ‘the quieter the better’ when it comes to road bikes. You’ll find this truth if you spend 100k on the back wheel of someone with a sqeaky rear derailleur. But apparently the folks at Effalo never learned this lesson as they’ve produced a bike computer that generates noise as you ride.
Perhaps it just takes some ingenuity to turn this into a beautiful music maker along the lines of the Force Trainer hack. No problem because the velosynth is a hackable design. The case was made with a vacuum form and inside you’ll find a bunch of small breadboards. The JeeNode, which is an Arduino/Xbee combination, serves as the heart of the device by taking speed and acceleration data from the bicycle wheel. From there it is passed on to various modules, Bob’s your uncle, and sound comes out. Check out their sales pitch after the break and if you’re starting to get some ideas about using this check out the open source info they’ve provided.
[Thanks Kristian]








They don’t give an example of what the dB level
or SPL of the audio output is. It better not be
obnoxious, if it is, what’s the purpose ? To piss
off people and risk getting shot ? wtf ? some of
us who live in residential neighborhoods want a
little peace and quiet. Not some annoying a-hole
with a boom-box, or pimped out stereo in a ricer,
blasting rap music – or synthesizer crap! again
what’s the purpose of this “hack” ? to just put
out noise and annoy everyone around you ???