EUC Alarm app: hear your Gotway/Begode wheel beeps!

[supercurio]

This app started with a story, a friend crashed: didn't hear the beeps!

In that case it was above 50 kph, on a Gotway MSP High Speed, riding seated and listening to music. The road transitioned to a slight uphill sent my friend sliding on the asphalt as the wheel was overpowered.
His software alarms? Didn't work. Too complicated to setup, too hard to fine-tune the parameters.
Fortunately, he was mostly unharmed thanks to his gear. Phew.

Ever heard this story before? In NYC there's even a place called cut-out tunnel famous for just that.

While looking for a solution to keep my friends safe, I found that @enaon identified that the wheel's real beeper status (also called 80% alarm) was transmitted over Bluetooth in some models. It seemed like a no-brainer to try the concept as an Android app. That was 2 months ago.

Some requirements that made sense

• No configuration needed
• Can be used with @Seba's EUC World / WheelLog / Begode app on the same phone
• Can be used with @enaon's eucWatch on your wrist
• Can be used with @Ilya Shkolnik's DarknessBot on your iPhone
• Lowest latency
• Low battery use (doesn't turn on GPS)
• Reliable
• Free and Opensource

Get the app here!

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=supercurio.eucalarm

Unique features

Resumes operation after crash/killed/reboot

While riding with EUC World on my Google Pixel 2, I noticed that software alarms were gone in various scenarios.

• After stopping to take HDR photos and videos, EUC World was stopped by the system to free resources. Then I was riding without software alarms for a while. It happens 1/3 of the rides.
• During winter, my phone tend to die and reboot after being used when its battery is cold. After reboot, the phone is locked and EUC World is not running

EUC Alarm app solves both issues:

• The app will restart and reconnect if it crashed or is killed to free resources
• In case the phone reboots, EUC Alarm app will be the first app to start, literally.
  If you happen to be riding for 1h with the screen locked after a reboot, and everything else on the phone is waiting for the unlock: no problem, you'll sill get the alarms.

Keeps Bluetooth Audio devices alive

EUC World has an option for that which is disable by default, although effective once found. EUC Alarm makes sure to keep Bluetooth audio devices to have safe defaults settings

Alarms start & stop instantly

The software alarms in of the other apps play sound for a certain duration, usually longer than the alarm condition itself which can be very short.
EUC Alarm app interrupts the alarm as soon as the wheel stops beeping. It's better if you ride the beeps, where you want a quick response - if you see what I mean.

Compatible with most wearables

EUC Alarm app emits a notification which can be picked up by all smart watch of fitness trackers.
Tested with Fitbit Charge 5 and Garmin Forerunner 645. There is some delay, but it works.

Wheel Proxy feature

In an effort of interoperability, compatibility with almost essentially all other apps and devices is provided.
So you can use whatever app or platform you'd like, you'll always hear your wheel alarms. Simple as that.
And if you're a data nerd, by enabling Wheel Proxy will be able to use both DarknessBot for its awesome graphs and EUC World for its fantastic tour recording with live sharing feature.

Loud alarms, mutes music

The software alarms from some apps are not that loud, and even on speaker might be missed when listening to music at discrete levels.
This app alarms are loud and will not be missed. In case the connection to the wheel is unstable, you'll be alerted of that as well: a must for reliability.

The sound design is also made to be noticeable and hopefully not too irritating.

Follow-connect auto connect

For convenience, the app connects automatically to any known wheel following the connection by another app.
That way, you don't need to launch WheelLog, then EUC Alarm, connect again. Just launch your usual app, that's it.
You will need however to disconnect at the end of the ride. The "Disconnect wheel" action is available for that.

Limitations

Only the Gotway/Begode mainboard made from mid-2020 support the functionality. Older ones don't give the beeper data.
It was tested successfully on (non exhaustive list): MSX 84V (with new board), MCM5 V2 (incredibly quiet beeper out of the box), MSP HT, MSP HS, RS HS, EX.N, Monster Sport V3.

The latency of bluetooth audio devices is typically between 250 ms to 400 ms. However this app reconfigures the audio subsystem optimally each time a new audio device is connected to get the lowest possible latency.

Other wheels: Inmotion and Kingsong are not supported yet. Veteran are not providing the beeper data but could with a firmware update.
The app can connect to Veteran Sherman, proxy, display and record its data however.

Source code

https://github.com/supercurio/euc-alarm-demo (exact license TBD)

The app is written in Kotlin. Uses Jetpack compose for the UI, coroutines, flows, protobuf for the recordings.
It's designed to use a little resource as possible, release when unnecessary. In background mode, it can "run" forever with 0 impact on battery.

What's next

Following this release, you can expect a few bug fix if you find some.
Then the real follow-up is actually a wireless protocol to allow an ecosystem of safety accessories to develop.
That will connect directly to your wheel, like the EUC Speed Guardian but that works everywhere. Stay tuned for that.

One of the goals of this app is also to demo the usefulness of implementing this wheel alarms in all apps, not just this one.
So I'm happy to learn that @Seba is releasing this feature in EUC World soon. Hopefully DarknessBot will follow suit and many more riders will be safer.

Demo

@Freestyler filmed for @enaon and I a demo of the Proxy feature that I liked a lot, thanks you guys for that  

 

 

Edited November 20, 2021 by supercurio

[Tawpie]

@supercurio Really cool! I downloaded the app from play, but the github link comes up 404? Sadly, my Gotway is a mere MTen but the wheel proxy function is quite interesting!

[supercurio]

4 minutes ago, Tawpie said:

@supercurio Really cool! I downloaded the app from play, but the github link comes up 404? Sadly, my Gotway is a mere MTen but the wheel proxy function is quite interesting!

Good catch for the 404 on github, I forgot to make the repo public: fixed now thanks!

Possibly newer MTen3 have the capability. How's the stock beeper on it?
Hopefully louder than the MCM5 one.

[enaon]

Very nice @supercurio, I do not have a gotway, but do have a friend that did not hear the beeps, so I appreciate this app and the story behind it.
 

2 hours ago, supercurio said:

One of the goals of this app is also to demo the usefulness of implementing this wheel alarms in all apps, not just this one.
So I'm happy to learn that @Seba is releasing this feature in EUC World soon. Hopefully DarknessBot will follow suit and many more riders will be safer.

It must be one of those sync things, DarknessBot added the buzzer monitoring some days ago too, this is nice moment safety wise for gotways, one of the biggest issues becomes a thing of the past.

I like the idea of safety sensors intercommunicating, we need a protocol for euc accessories in general, it may be nice if you start a topic on that too so that we all can communicate needs and a base structure.    

well done

 

Edited November 20, 2021 by enaon

[Tawpie]

Repo is visible. My MTen was 'new' in the spring of 2021, it's a 67v 420Wh black one with a lift switch. Kind of a kludge probably.

It beeps loudly when it turns on and settings are changed but I did have it dump me (most likely overlean) and I didn't hear anything. The speed beep does work.

I connected Darkness bot to the proxy, that seems to work well and I can control the torch. Haven't tried anything else yet though.

Nice work!

[fbhb]

@supercurio I don't own a GotWay/Begode wheel anymore, but this is a fantastic option to greatly enhance the safety of the many GotWay/Begode owners out there! 

Very well done, exceptional work!  

[Rawnei]

Top notch description and very useful application, hearing the beeps is crucial and you're doing work that manufactures should have done.

[Bizra6ot]

@supercurio Thank's for your work great feature my friend 

@Seba In Eucworld when it will be implemented, would it be possible to combine this one with the previous safety margin? like this one beep 80% and your margin set 10% more for riding beeps  in the 80 to 90% range

[Freestyler]

I really appreciate your efforts in providing a safer euc riding experience.

Between my excitement and the inadequate beeper volume, I had an overlean accident within a day of my new wheel.

While I was still in the hospital, @enaon discovered the buzzer information from my wheel.

Looking back, It feels kinda stupid knowing that this could have been easily preventable.

So thank you both!

 

The app is really cool and the coexisting feature with other apps is really smart.

Add proxy support in the mix and now we can have multiple gadgets and feedback mechanisms.

The auto-connect feature is an extremely useful safety feature. We had a friend hearing the beeps and he was wondering where it came from. He had forgotten that he installed the app.

People make mistakes and forget things, we should dumb proof things wherever possible.

 

Also cool that you open sourced the project!

As a way to kick start the process I'll report you a small bug.

In my mcm5 v2, when going forward the speed shows a negative sign. (and no sign when going backwards)

[EUC Custom Power-Pads]

7 hours ago, supercurio said:

that the wheel's real beeper status (also called 80% alarm) was transmitted over Bluetooth in some models

It's so ridiculous that Gotway apparently didn't know this themselves and didn't implement this so important feature into the Begode App, even though everyone has been asking for this for years.

This is what happens when Gotway/Begode apparently has no idea of the matter and has the control boards produced by other idiots who have no idea of EUCs. 

 

Thank you so much François 

Bugs?

- Auto-connect doesn't work on my Galaxy Note 10+

- once proxy is activated, it can't be deactivated, because after restarting the app, proxy is activated again. After wipe data it's deactivated. 

Edited November 20, 2021 by EUC Custom Power-Pads

[Freestyler]

Begode app shows the 80% (buzzer info) with a red warning ("High power,dangerous"), but no auditory feedback.

Also, while co-developing support (with @enaon) for the InMotion v11 on the euc watch (prior to the gotway finding), we found the information for the buzzer as well (with different states).

So inmotion support would also be great @supercurio! (At least for V11 & V12)

Edited November 20, 2021 by Freestyler

[supercurio]

4 hours ago, enaon said:

Very nice @supercurio, I do not have a gotway, but do have a friend that did not hear the beeps, so I appreciate this app and the story behind it.
 

It must be one of those sync things, DarknessBot added the buzzer monitoring some days ago too, this is nice moment safety wise for gotways, one of the biggest issues becomes a thing of the past.

I like the idea of safety sensors intercommunicating, we need a protocol for euc accessories in general, it may be nice if you start a topic on that too so that we all can communicate needs and a base structure.    

well done

Thanks so much @enaon for sharing the finding and encouragement during the development!
Happy that DarknessBot added the feature as well, do you know if it is a free feature, enabled by default?
Safety in general is not solved quite yet with Gotway wheels, but riding safety got a healthy boost. Let's make sure that these overlean stories become a thing of the past.

@Jason McNeil has his hands full already at the moment, but maybe he or other distributors can help lobby Leaperkim next to add beeper status over Bluetooth like Gotway did.
There's room for that left in their Bluetooth data packets.

Yes, it feels now like it'll be a good time to start designing this standard protocol as a community effort.
Then I will write a reference implementation for it as it grows in my apps so accessories makers have a platform to rely on until the wheel themselves provide this capability.
 

3 hours ago, Tawpie said:

Repo is visible. My MTen was 'new' in the spring of 2021, it's a 67v 420Wh black one with a lift switch. Kind of a kludge probably.

It beeps loudly when it turns on and settings are changed but I did have it dump me (most likely overlean) and I didn't hear anything. The speed beep does work.
I connected Darkness bot to the proxy, that seems to work well and I can control the torch. Haven't tried anything else yet though.

 

Sorry to hear the MTen3 dumped you as well. It's possible that the OEM didn't configure the safety margin correctly on this model: should definitely have beeped.
Let's see if other MTen3 owners report their model has the beeper data.

By the way guys, how to test: lift freespin is an easy way.

1 hour ago, Bizra6ot said:

@supercurio Thank's for your work great feature my friend 

@Seba In Eucworld when it will be implemented, would it be possible to combine this one with the previous safety margin? like this one beep 80% and your margin set 10% more for riding beeps  in the 80 to 90% range

Cheers!

I don't know the details of the EUC World implementation, but my assumption is that you'll be able to combine it with other triggers.

I think that using the EUC Alarm app is still worth it however thanks to

• its extra robustness features (always resume function where EUC World might be gone)
• a different beep type, which you know you must not ignore

I noticed that I tend to ignore software alarms because I know they're not spot on, but absolutely respect the wheel's beeps.
A problem with that is that you train yourself to ignore beeps in some situations and when they all sound the same that might be fatal when this time, the trigger was the one that must not be ignored.

Fortunately, you can enable and use everything at the same time 

Later, with the standardised wireless protocol one of the goals is to configure the wheel itself to beep at a user-configurable safety margin.

8 minutes ago, Freestyler said:

I really appreciate your efforts in providing a safer euc riding experience.

Between my excitement and the inadequate beeper volume, I had an overlean accident within a day of my new wheel.

While I was still in the hospital, @enaon discovered the buzzer information from my wheel.

Looking back, It feels kinda stupid knowing that this could have been easily preventable.

So thank you both!

Yes there's countless examples of crashes when either: new rider or new wheel.

At this this time you know that it triggered a chain of events that will help many avoid the same fate!

8 minutes ago, Freestyler said:

The app is really cool and the coexisting feature with other apps is really smart.

Add proxy support in the mix and now we can have multiple gadgets and feedback mechanisms.

The auto-connect feature is an extremely useful safety feature. We had a friend hearing the beeps and he was wondering where it came from. He had forgotten that he installed the app.

People make mistakes and forget things, we should dumb proof things wherever possible.

Agree, safety mechanisms have to be fool-proof and configured optimally by default.
When trying to understand what happened to my friend who crashed, he had alarms in EUC World for phase amp current, except now these values were unsuitable as calculations were based on estimated battery current.

8 minutes ago, Freestyler said:

Also cool that you open sourced the project!

As a way to kick start the process I'll report you a small bug.

In my mcm5 v2, when going forward the speed shows a negative sign. (and no sign when going backwards)

Now I understand why the default is to reverse the value: on some wheels they put the motor forward, some other backwards, and then it's not accounted for in the firmware.
Alright then! Thanks for the report, I'll add a switch.

[supercurio]

24 minutes ago, EUC Custom Power-Pads said:

It's so ridiculous that Gotway apparently didn't know this themselves and didn't implement this so important feature into the Begode App, even though everyone has been asking for this for years.

This is what happens when Gotway/Begode apparently has no idea of the matter and has the control boards produced by other idiots who have no idea of EUCs. 

Yes like @Freestyler showed, they added support for it in their app, it can show on video overlays even.
However why no enhanced alarm? Odd prioritisation isn't it.

24 minutes ago, EUC Custom Power-Pads said:

Thank you so much François 

Bugs?

- Auto-connect doesn't work on my Galaxy Note 10+

- once proxy is activated, it can't be deactivated, because after restarting the app, proxy is activated again. After wipe data it's deactivated. 

Yay bug reports!

- For auto-connect to work, the app needs to have been connected at least once to the wheel before. (Just in case your test was before that). Then it also needs to be active (visible in the notification shade) and not stopped.
- Thanks I'll check the proxy enabling logic.

Will check with you by chat directly on the follow-connect, it's an important one.

11 minutes ago, Freestyler said:

Also, while co-developing support (with @enaon) for the InMotion v11 on the euc watch (prior to the gotway finding), we found the information for the buzzer as well (with different states).

Yes new Inmotion calculate an "Inverter load" which gives a great way to offer configurable alarms at a defined safety margin %.
Support for more wheels coming next.

For obvious reasons, Begode ones were the first target (also because other apps didn't support the capability at the time)

[supercurio]

@EUC Custom Power-Pads bug fixed regarding Wheel Proxy activation: version 1.0.1 uploaded, will soon be deployed on the Play Store. 

[Freestyler]

46 minutes ago, supercurio said:

Now I understand why the default is to reverse the value: on some wheels they put the motor forward, some other backwards, and then it's not accounted for in the firmware.
Alright then! Thanks for the report, I'll add a switch.

In order to simplify the app, i think the absolute value should be enough!

Otherwise If in the future you add speed alarms, then that's another thing people can mess up! (either by not using the switch, or riding the wheel backwards)

Edited November 20, 2021 by Freestyler

[Lefteris]

Way to go guys! Keep it up! 

It's great when the community gathers up together to make things a reality.

[Mrd777]

10 hours ago, supercurio said:

Can be used with @Ilya Shkolnik's DarknessBot on your iPhone

Obviously we can’t use this on our iPhones … (yet?)

[supercurio]

1 hour ago, Mrd777 said:

Obviously we can’t use this on our iPhones … (yet?)

If you have both an Android phone and an iPhone, then you can have both connected to the wheel by using the Wheel Proxy feature, like that:

DarknessBot (iPhone) <-> EUC Alarm (Android) <-> Wheel.

And since you can run both EUC World and EUC Alarms on the Android phone it opens new possibilities, like if you'd like to compare DarknessBot and EUC World range estimate and battery % algorithms.

A bit of a niche case but eh, now you can 

Or like @Freestylershowed in his video, to enjoy EUC World support of the Pebble Watch while using an iPhone and DarknessBot primarily.

[Tawpie]

4 hours ago, Mrd777 said:

Obviously we can’t use this on our iPhones … (yet?)

A cheap Android (you can get new ones for 100USD) is my solution. You get all the Android-only goodness and don’t run your iPhone battery down. Or you can keep your actual phone in a protected place so there’s less chance of smashing it in a crash.

[EMA]

Nice work

[psEUCdonym]

Hi, @supercurio I have a little issue with EUC Alarm + EUC World + Veteran Sherman + EucWatch (Samsung Galaxy S20 ultra)  whenever EW is connected to VS and then EA connects, I cant play music from my Bluethoot headset device, if EA is deactivated, play function works again, could it be related to bridge function? 

[supercurio]

Hi @Mauricio!

EUC Alarm outputs a silent track to prevent Bluetooth audio devices to shutdown for power saving when nothing is played - which would lead to missed alerts.
However in your case I understand that it's not a critical function as I understand that you're using EUC Alarm for its Wheel Proxy feature.

Then when an alarm is triggered, everything else is muted to make sure that it's heard. That's what I can think of so far.
A few questions to help troubleshooting:

• What happens if you press the "Toggle Alert" button?
• Which music app do yo use to play music? Is any other app making sound also silent?  - like YouTube or web browser
• If you turn off the wheel in this situation, do you get the "Connection Loss" alert? (music ducked to 50% volume, alert every 4s)
• Is it the same without bluetooth headset connected - using only the phone's speaker?

Thanks for reporting the issue!

[psEUCdonym]

42 minutes ago, supercurio said:

Hi @Mauricio!

EUC Alarm outputs a silent track to prevent Bluetooth audio devices to shutdown for power saving when nothing is played - which would lead to missed alerts.
However in your case I understand that it's not a critical function as I understand that you're using EUC Alarm for its Wheel Proxy feature.

Then when an alarm is triggered, everything else is muted to make sure that it's heard. That's what I can think of so far.
A few questions to help troubleshooting:

• What happens if you press the "Toggle Alert" button?
• Which music app do yo use to play music? Is any other app making sound also silent?  - like YouTube or web browser
• If you turn off the wheel in this situation, do you get the "Connection Loss" alert? (music ducked to 50% volume, alert every 4s)
• Is it the same without bluetooth headset connected - using only the phone's speaker?

Thanks for reporting the issue!

- What happens if you press the "Toggle Alert" button?

   EA beeps until pressed again

 

-  Which music app do yo use to play music? Is any other app making sound also silent? 

    I am using Samsung Music app with downloaded mp3 files, however if I use my Garmin Fenix to control music, everithing is ok, but with intercom, only stop, or.

    volume up/down work, play function is not

 

-  If you turn off the wheel in this situation, do you get the "Connection Loss" alert?

    Yes

 

 - Is it the same without bluetooth headset connected - using only the phone's speaker?

   Yes, lost connection alert plays with or without Bluetooth

 

[Freestyler]

Hello @supercurio!

I have few things to suggest / request for the app!

 

1) Please bring the follow-connect option back. It's annoying to open 2 apps, instead of euc alarm always be there for me. (also something that people might forget)

I understand that some people might not want that behavior, so maybe you could add it as a toggle? (follow-connect on/off) It can always be disabled by force-closing the app anyway.

 

2) When connection with wheel is lost, the app triggers an audio & vibration alert. If I press disconnect from the notification, the sound stops, but the vibration never stops.

If I open the app (or disconnect from within app in the first place), the vibration stops. 

 

Another good thing to know is that the alarm is also triggered by low voltage. (Below 10-15% battery)

The wheel beeper is constantly buzzing, but at the user specified volume and not the max volume like the 80% speed alarm.

[supercurio]

Hi @Freestyler!

1/ The follow-connection capability is still here.
For it to function reliably (which is crucial for the purpose of the app), the app has to show a notification. It uses no resource other than room in the notification share tho.

However there's room for improvement here and I'm thinking about adding an option to make the "service running" a separate notification, which can be hidden forever in the settings and therefore would not take space in the notifications.
Garmin and Fitbit provide such facility in their companion apps and it's a good approach.

Until then, simply leave EUC Alarm open instead of closing it manually. It'll automatically connect whenever EUC World does.

Please confirm it works for you 

2/ Ah, that's a bug! Vibration should stop as well. Thanks for reporting, I'll investigate

3/ Interesting, can you describe in more details the behaviour with low battery beeps?