eBike Integration

[JanZen]

Hey,

I tried to connect my Orbea Rise M -> Shimano EN-EW100 as a sensor (ebike) in my Karoo 2. I already submitted a ticket at hammerhead, while waiting for the response I noticed something which I need to clarify and maybe someone here can help me out. The EN-EW100 is submitting information over BT, even if it's also capable of submitting/receiving information over ANT+. I verified this using the E-Tube App and BT Scanner. I also can get a connection to my Steps over Ki2 and the sideloaded E-Tube Ride apk.

- As far as I understand the documentation (https://support.hammerhead.io/hc/en-us/ ... ntegration), the ebike integration only works with ANT+? Can somebody verify this?
- Could this be the reason that I can't see the EN-EW100 as a BL sensor (cause it's kind of blacklisted)
- Are there plans to have ebike integrations working over BT?
- Is there kind of a workaround or somebody out there who already successfully integrated a steps system?

Cheers
Jan

[Modelaero]

As far as I understand it, the e-bike integration requires your bike to transmit Ant+ LEV protocol which, again, I understand is different from the Ant+ sensors protocol. There is a link somewhere on the HH site that should enable you to check your Orbea’s sensor outputs and whether they are compatible.

I’m going through the evaluation process on my Specialized Vado 3 which does have Ant+ LEV but HH are currently incorrectly interpreting the motor and rider power data and the K2 is reading nonsense at higher power levels.

Also, I’m really irritated by the slowly changing bar graph that takes an age to register and settle after a change of assistance level. It seems pointless and it obscures the screen, whereas other apps like Mission Control and BLEvo register correctly and immediately. As I am constantly changing assist levels for brief periods this is pretty much a killer for me. It makes the whole thing unpleasant to use.

Anyone else seeing this?

[Modelaero]

Did you see this page on the Orbea Ant+ LEV limitations?
https://www.orbea.com/gb-en/gear/access ... oc-ant-lev

[JanZen]

@Madelaero - many thanks for your input. Meanwhile I received an answer to my ticket:

Thanks for reaching out to us.

Sorry for the inconvenience caused to you. Let me clarify this to you.

Shimano EP8 motor support connectivity over ANT PRIVATE which is NOT the standard protocol. e-Bikes that supports ANT+ LEV profile are the only ones that is currently compatible with Karoo 2. This is the reason why it is not detected by Karoo 2..

For complete details, please see: Karoo 2 - E-Bike Integration

We agree that supporting the e-Bikes over Bluetooth could be a valuable enhancement for us to add as it currently supports only ANT+ LEV profile.

As support team, we are doing our best to share these sentiments from the community to the Product team. Your feedback is enormously valuable to us and we always value those who are keen to give us their feedback. I have added your vote for this improvement request while forwarding it to the Product team. Sorry that I do not have a timeline to share with you at this given time.

So in conclusion, what I (or we Shimano / Orbea Riders) really need is the BT based e-bike implementation.

I’m going through the evaluation process on my Specialized Vado 3 which does have Ant+ LEV but HH are currently incorrectly interpreting the motor and rider power data and the K2 is reading nonsense at higher power levels.

I think the developers need some time to fiddle out some things as the whole e-bike implementation was deployed in 03/2023. It can be related to things like wrong variable types, wrong interpreted floats etc.

Also, I’m really irritated by the slowly changing bar graph that takes an age to register and settle after a change of assistance level. It seems pointless and it obscures the screen, whereas other apps like Mission Control and BLEvo register correctly and immediately. As I am constantly changing assist levels for brief periods this is pretty much a killer for me. It makes the whole thing unpleasant to use.

I am not too familiar with Levo, even if my buddy is riding a Turbo Levo... As far as I can see, those apps are using BT as 99% of all mobile phones doesn't support ANT without a dongle. So far, the communication with Mission Control and BLEvo must happen over BT. It implies that the ANT+ LEV communication is kind of slow or the implementation isn't profiled yet and there are some bottlenecks. Maybe it would make sense to focus more on the BT implementation as it seems also possible to set values over BT (f.e. over the Shimano E-Tube app).

Cheers
Jan

[JanZen]

Did you see this page on the Orbea Ant+ LEV limitations?
https://www.orbea.com/gb-en/gear/access ... oc-ant-lev

This is related to the Mahle X35 system. The Orbea Rise M is a Shimano EP8-RS based bike. Anyway, many thanks again.

[Modelaero]

The latest software and firmware updates to the K2 are still not working with ebike integration on my K2 and Vado 3. I now get halfway reasonable power readings of rider and motor power on 25/100 ECO setting and EXACTLY 1:1 rider/motor power on TRAIL with assist set to 50/100 and no motor power at all on TURBO with assist setting 100/100.

How long is it going to take to get this sorted? Not only can you not rely at all on the readings, but that stupid yellow banner and the long integration time is still a pain in the backside and extremely irritating. What does it do? What is it for? Why does it have to be displayed? Also, why does it take so long for the K2 to register a change in assist setting?

It's very frustrating...