Home again 8/23 Fri

A few days ago the idea of arriving home on Saturday was suggested. When looking over what we had planned and our normal dialy milage, it seemed like that would be easy. Turned out to be so easy, we arrived home on Friday by 1700. Even our wives seem to think that was a good thing.

Anne and I started watching another season of Canada's Worst Drivers (CWD). Mainly because I had a hard time finding episodes, until I found that "complete CWD series collection" linked in the last blog. One week after getting home we've now watched two seasons 8 & 12, and started season 1. The show does improve each season. So I'm looking forward to seeing the latest.

My seat, which Nate and I rebuilt a few weeks before our trip, was great. It's not perfect, but there is a spot that that does releave all the seat bone pressure. That's wonderful when you've spent so much time on a seat that your tushy is might tender. My seat was likely the most comfortable, without any extra cushions on top of it. In fact the Alaskan Leather's Sheepskin seemed to make it slightly worse. I think there is still room for improvement. Using the Low Seat cover squished down the foam more than necessary. Since I have a new Normal height seat cover that could be used instead. The rear portion of the seat ended up higher/harder than needed, so more can be shaved off that area. The cuts we placed in the top layer of foam allowed it to sag and separate into the trough cut below each seat bone. We only placed a 3 to 4 inch long cut where we though the center of the seat bone would hit the seat. That area turned out to be slightly forward of where I would like to sit. So slicing all the way to the rear of the seat should allow seat bone releaf anywhere I might like to sit. Currently when in "the spot" it feels like two hand palms cupped under by seat bones. Assuming that an illongated "cup" would feel just releaving to that pressure. There is a little inner thigh pressure that I suspect can be relieved with another cut in the top foam. A cut in that top foam layer a few inches parallel to the sides of the gas tank, lined up with my legs, should help relieve a little bit of pressure on the sensative thighs. Worst case we use Super77 foam glue and put it back to what it is now.

Another area selected for changes after this trip was Android Auto or an Android Tablet. Nate has Android Auto on his Africa Twin. Tucker added a Carpuride 7in screen that does AndroidAuto and CarPlay. He really like the CarPlay on a dedicated rugged bike screen. And I suspected that I might too. Nate had an 8in rugged Android tablet he moved over from his Strom. I wasn't sure which way I wanted to move next. My current Zumo XT was expected to be my last. As I figured there would be a rugged phone display option by the time I needed a new GPS. Is now the time to make the switch?

After returning home I bought a rugged Android Tablet and app software that could turn it into an Android Auto display. I figured that covered all the bases that I might like. Well after getting it and playing with it, Android Auto was simply not enough. It's slow and Android Auto apps do not have the same functionality as their Android App. But the tablet seemed to work well and was a decent Android device. Reviewing the alternatives I stumbled upon an Android Launcher called Agama that was designed to be a car head unit launcher. Loved that it has no build in apps, it just uses whatever android apps you like. I set it up with Power Amp for music and OSMand+ for mapping. Then found you could have four apps assigned to the buttons, so I added more. The interface looks great and is very pleasing and efficient to use while riding. The center of the screen has an automatic mode where it changes what is shown based on activities. Power up now shows my Ra logo, moving displays a speedometer, new music displays cover art, and upcoming turns have countdowns. When sitting still it shows a clock. Whle it doesn't have it's own apps, it does a nice job of integrating other apps into it's interface. Almost a week later I'm pretty happy with it.

In my first week home I have not worked more on my BL:E Tire Pressue graphing flutter app. But I have created a WSGI Python3 service to capture the online GET requests from the OSMand+ tracking plugin. OSMand Tracking plugin for Android has a place to define your own URL where a GET will be done for each tracking point. In addition to tracking locally on the phone/tablet performs an HTTP GET so the data can be tracked online as well. It even has a definable window to store missed GET requests until the online service is available. If set to 24 hours, it should work if you get connected at least once time each day. I wrote the backend service to collect data for one or more users. And some hooks to show the latest and track data for a user(s). So with a little more work I can offer realtime map tracking. With multiple users updating their positions. When a number of us are converging on a location that would be very cool web tool to have.