SBC Data Logger
One of my major projects at Specialized has been building out the engineering team's internal data acquisition system. Due to intellectual property rights and confidentiality, I can't share too many details about any one project, though I can give a brief overview of one I enjoyed in particular and continue to work on -- the SBC Data Logger. Designing and building everything from scratch including the PCB , enclosure, firmware, data processing infrastructure and more was a huge lift. I have been incredibly fortunate to work with and learn from my colleagues and mentors Andrew LaNoue and Marcel Keyser on this and surrounding projects.
The Problem
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We need way to evaluate product and correlate subjective rider feedback with objective metrics
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Commercial systems are expensive, hard to use, clunky, and impossible for non-engineers to use
The Solution
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Cheap, scalable, highly capable, and easy to use data logger that can be deployed across engineering teams, factory race teams, and non-engineering product groups within the company
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Design the entire data acquisition and analysis infrastructure, optimized for our use cases
Dialing in the Specialized Factory Race Team's bikes, you can barely notice the logger and potentiometers
With the system coming in at just over 200 grams, our Factory Race Team not only worked with us during training to dial in their suspension setups, but actually raced with the system. It is the first time I am aware of an racer running a telemetry system for a world cup cross country race.
Beyond supporting our race teams, we use the system for engineering development. Being able to measure physical phenomenon, analyze them with quantitative techniques, and correlate those results with rider impressions allows us to extensively evaluate our prototypes, our existing product, and competitor product. We are able to apply rigorous engineering analysis to drive design decisions that historically have been made on a more qualitative basis.
Various prototypes
Importing data
Sleek potentiometer setup