{"id":3910,"date":"2023-01-22T15:31:29","date_gmt":"2023-01-22T21:31:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jdewald.com\/design\/?p=3910"},"modified":"2023-03-28T20:19:52","modified_gmt":"2023-03-29T01:19:52","slug":"electronic-shifter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jdewald.com\/design\/electronic-shifter\/","title":{"rendered":"Electronic Shifter"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Yeh, that’s right. Electronic <\/strong>shifter: a touring bike with something battery powered : o<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"closeup
never miss a shift again<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Need<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

TLDR: thousands of shifts and 3 months of standby battery life for my non-destructive electronic shifter. If you love your vintage rig but want to add some precision (or just a bit of fun), keep on reading.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTable Of Contents\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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  1. The Need<\/a>
  2. Electronic Shifter: Ideate<\/a>
  3. Electronic Shifter: Design<\/a>
  4. Time to test<\/a>
  5. Code<\/a>
  6. Electronics<\/a>
  7. The Buttons<\/a>
  8. Mechanical Design<\/a>
  9. The Files<\/a>
  10. Final Thoughts<\/a><\/ol>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\n\n

    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Prototyping for the bar end shifters<\/a> required a lot of patience. It wasn\u2019t just about getting the look and feel of the shifters right (which, arguably I still haven\u2019t done) it was really about the user experience. I wanted my shifts to be fast, repeatable, and precise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Fast was probably the easiest to design for. There were a few iterations that tolerances were a little tight, and they could be pretty tough to move. I sheared a few of the first ones clean off. But as long as the detent wasn\u2019t too detent-y, the speed of the shift was only a matter of how quickly I could get to the bar ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Unless, of course, the precision of the gear-distance was off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    If the shifters weren\u2019t tuned to the cassette properly (and gear-to-gear distances differ by tenths of a mm) the shift would be jumpy, noisy, and it was possible that it wouldn\u2019t even complete. Annnnnd\u2026 well, this happened A LOT during prototyping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The noise, noise, noise!<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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    \"staged
    That. Is. Beautiful.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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    Here\u2019s, like, the full complaint: My touring bike is fully loaded with racks, panniers, water bottles, bladders, tools, pump, a lock, handlebar bag, saddle bag, frame bag\u2026.all with zippers, clasps, hardware, and the like. And I have systematically eliminated every single stray noise on that machine. If you have spent 80 miles a day for 60 straights days in a saddle, you have a lot of time to get annoyed. And few things in this world annoy me more than repetitive noises. Perhaps with the exception of repetitive AND preventable, noises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


    All of this color commentary to say that I really hate noisy shifting. I am a mechanical engineer (well, half of one anyway), and I should be able to tune my derailleur to perfection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    <\/mark><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

    Help Wanted: Precision<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    So that was part of the design process for the bar end shifters<\/a>. There was a lot trial and error and in situ testing at first, and every time I needed to make a change to the gear-distances it meant 6 more hours of printing because, you know, the distances are \u201chard-coded\u201d into the plastic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Well, that got old very quickly (Or very slowly, I guess, while I waited for the prints to finish so I could ride my bike).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    What I needed was a bench top actuator to measure cable pull per gear change so I could accurately model the distances in cad and print them out on the shifters. What I needed was precision. Precision, almost by definition, takes time. And if I was going to take the time to build it, well, I should just go the extra mile and turn that benchtop-actuator into a bike-mounted-actuator… because automation right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    So about halfway through the development of the bar end shifters I started to think about, and then work on, the upgraded solution, the holy grail: an electronic shifter. I mentioned this back in my first post<\/a>, and you can head back there for a bit of background, but I\u2019ll do my best to quickly sum up the lay of the land here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Existing Solutions<\/h3>\n\n\n\n