Hammerhead Karoo computer tweaks

[JhnBssll]

When I paid for the device I knew it was a slight risk. There were a few delays, I ended up waiting around 4 months for mine but those that had bought in earlier had to wait a lot longer, some up to a year. To counter this the early adopters paid less, ibthink mine was about £260, and after initial software issues they opened the returns window up to 90 days. This gave me plenty of time to use it, discover it's limitation decide whether I thought it was worth continuing with. Overall I'm glad I did, it's a fab little thing and does things the wahoo and garmins can't. The screen is also far superior to anything else.

I went out this afternoon and ran the standard apps on-screen with media player in the background, it used about 15% battery in around 90 minutes so it's still around 10% an hour. The AfterShokz Trekz Air headphones were a revelation; there were times i couldnt hear the music due to wind noise but overall they were excellent and didnt seem to detract from my awareness of approaching vehicles or hazards. I think they'll be perfect on the commute and lone rides

I'm hoping to go out again on new years day on a longer ride - I'll plot a new route and use OsmAnd to guide me around

 

[JhnBssll]

I tested OsmAnd navigation out today. I started a ride in the standard Karoo software and left it running in the background to record the ride data then opened the media player, whatsapp and dropbox. I used whatsapp for the live tracking function so my wife could see my location when she fancied checking my progress. I had copied a .gpx of my route in dropbox and once selected it automatically downloaded and opened in OsmAnd. A few taps of the touchscreen later and the navigation started with additional audio cues via the headphones. I had previously set OsmAnd to turn the screen on near junctions so I turned the screen off to see if it worked.

The first 26 miles were fabulous; OsmAnd's mapping and audio cues were great, and it turns the screen on and off in plenty of time for the next instruction. The audio cues automatically reduce the media volume before announcing the instructions so it all seems to integrate quite nicely. It's a bit of a faff to get between OsmAnd and the karoo data screens - I'm hoping a coming software update will bring the karoo's own mapping capabilities closer to these third party apps so I can revert back to using the standard features.

Calls and tracking worked fine - I suffered a mechanical and had to call for rescue but my wife could see exactly where I was and call me while I slowly cycled towards our arranged rendezvous point to check I was ok. I was very impressed with the call clarity over the headphones, and she said I was perfectly audible at the other end too so the microphone seems to be good too.

Battery wise I finished on 75% after getting home and uploading all the data to strava, so again around 10% drain per hour. At that rate I'd be able to ride 150 miles on one charge with all connectivity and features running

Overall a succesful outing, even if I didn't make it the full planned distance and my wife missed a bit of Bridget Jones Diary

 

[DisjointedReality]

When I paid for the device I knew it was a slight risk. There were a few delays, I ended up waiting around 4 months for mine but those that had bought in earlier had to wait a lot longer, some up to a year. To counter this the early adopters paid less, ibthink mine was about £260, and after initial software issues they opened the returns window up to 90 days. This gave me plenty of time to use it, discover it's limitation decide whether I thought it was worth continuing with. Overall I'm glad I did, it's a fab little thing and does things the wahoo and garmins can't. The screen is also far superior to anything else.

I went out this afternoon and ran the standard apps on-screen with media player in the background, it used about 15% battery in around 90 minutes so it's still around 10% an hour. The AfterShokz Trekz Air headphones were a revelation; there were times i couldnt hear the music due to wind noise but overall they were excellent and didnt seem to detract from my awareness of approaching vehicles or hazards. I think they'll be perfect on the commute and lone rides

I'm hoping to go out again on new years day on a longer ride - I'll plot a new route and use OsmAnd to guide me around

I'm finding your work with the Hammerhead Karoo very interesting. Also I just wanted to post my full agreement with your comments relating to the AfterShokz Trekz headphones. I've had a pair of Trekz Titanium since shortly after they were launched and they are excellent. Yes, wind noise is an issue at times, but it's a small price to pay for being able to hear the outside world and listen to music, podcasts, audiobooks, and make and accept phone calls and receive notifications whilst riding. I just pause the audio when the wind noise is a problem.

 

[JhnBssll]

I'm finding your work with the Hammerhead Karoo very interesting. Also I just wanted to post my full agreement with your comments relating to the AfterShokz Trekz headphones. I've had a pair of Trekz Titanium since shortly after they were launched and they are excellent. Yes, wind noise is an issue at times, but it's a small price to pay for being able to hear the outside world and listen to music, podcasts, audiobooks, and make and accept phone calls and receive notifications whilst riding. I just pause the audio when the wind noise is a problem.

I now use them on every solo ride and my opinion hasn't changed, certainly worth the money

I made a minor breakthrough with the Karoo last night - I had long been trying to find out how to use my smart watch as a heart rate sensor so I can have heart rate data for my commutes when I don't want to wear my chest strap. Last night I discovered an app for WearOS called "Heart for Bluetooth" which does just this - it turns an android smart watch in to a discoverable heart rate sensor allowing you to pair it with a device I havent tried it out in the wild yet but I got it all set up and working in a few minutes yesterday evening; could be useful for owners of other brands of computer too

 

[Gmann]

I've had my Karoo for about 10 months now. It's a great little device but the software isn't yet exploiting the full potential of the hardware so I've followed in the wake of a growing number of users by making some personalisations I've not done anything new or creative, just followed their instructions but thought I'd share my progress none the less

Here's the Karoo alongside the bone conducting headphones I intend to try out over the coming days with a view to using on the commute in the new year.

View attachment 444181

What you can see on the display in that picture is the Karoo's main menu from which you can start a ride, view previous acitivities, pair sensors etc.

Karoo is basically an android device, running Android 6.0, and whilst it is fairly well sealed off from the outside world it is possible to sideload applications to it from a PC or Mac via USB. I've spent the last few days experimenting and have got to a stage where I'm ready to try it out in the wild with my new settings So now, with a swipe in from the left you are greeted with this newly installed overlay menu:

View attachment 444179

This gives direct links to the new bits I've added, namely NovaLauncher (essentially a new main menu), firefox, a media player, whatsapp, dropbox and the OsmAnd mapping app. If you tap the first item, NovaLauncher, it takes you to the new launcher screen...

View attachment 444178

...and it instantly looks a little more like the Android we all know and love Here's BlackPlayer, the media player I have installed. This involved changing the USB debugging mode to allow me to view the contents of the device in order to transfer some media files across to its 9GB inbuilt storage...

View attachment 444177

... and here is OsmAnd which I'm sure a fair few of you will be familiar with, it's a great mapping utility and allows the use of GPX overlays to create turn by turn navigation cues which are displayed as well as audio cues via bluetooth. The standard Karoo mapping software is ok but the turn by turn routing is a little buggy and it doesnt have audio cues as yet.

View attachment 444176

I've added the firefox browser to allow me to quickly find and download new GPX files if needed, and obviously view the CycleChat forum...

View attachment 444175

And I've loaded WhatsApp so wifey can call me over the bluetooth headphones while I'm out and about, and track me if needed.

View attachment 444174

This all runs in parallel with the standard functions so it'll still display speed, cadence and all the standard features while I'm on the move, with the option of accessing these new features via the new overlay menu if needed

Irritatingly they have blocked google play services amongst other things so you can't add new apps from google play, or run any apps that require your google login to function. That aside, technically I guess you could sideload anything you wanted

The real brilliance is you don't have to do anything 'bad' to the device to achieve this and a simple factory reset will take it completely back to standard if there are any problems in the future A few people have rooted their device and gone further than this with the customisation but a) I'm not capable of doing that and b) it's irreversible so if you brick the device its an expensive error

Anyway, just thought I'd share what's been keeping me entertained for the last few days All ready to go for the new year commute now with new out front mount added to the commuter

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Hi JhnBssll , just joined the forum here and recently got a Hammerhead Karoo and really interested in your post and was wondering if you have any more instructions on how to do what you described on your Karoo?
Thanks.

 

[JhnBssll]

Hi JhnBssll , just joined the forum here and recently got a Hammerhead Karoo and really interested in your post and was wondering if you have any more instructions on how to do what you described on your Karoo?
Thanks.

Hi Gmann, I would recommend you join the unofficial Karoo user forums and have a look around, that's where I got the ideas from

https://www.karoousers.org/index.php

Essentially you need to install the android debug bridge (adb) on a PC or Mac which allows you to push apps to the device via a USB connection. It took me a while to get going but it's relatively straightforward when you know what you're doing

 

[Gmann]

Hi Gmann, I would recommend you join the unofficial Karoo user forums and have a look around, that's where I got the ideas from

https://www.karoousers.org/index.php

Essentially you need to install the android debug bridge (adb) on a PC or Mac which allows you to push apps to the device via a USB connection. It took me a while to get going but it's relatively straightforward when you know what you're doing

Magic JhnBssll, appriciate the advice.