This is a simple NodeJS application that connects to a home rowing machine and creates charts & games that can be accessed by any web browser.
It currently supports the WaterRower (with the S4 module), but other machines could work. (The app can run on hardware as small as a Raspberry Pi and connects to the WaterRower's S4 with a USB cable.)
There are two modes: Head-to-head competition and Real-time Charting
You can compete in one of three modes:
- Marathon - See how far you can row
- Time Trial - See how far you can row in a preset length of time (1, 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 40 & 60 minute options)
- Distance Trial - Show how fast you can row a preset distance (100m, 500m, 1km, 2km, 5km, 6km & 10km options)
If you can pick another rower's previous record or go against your own personal best, then you'll go side-by-side seeing who can row farther. Or you can go solo & be the only one on the river. The system measures & reports in realtime your current speed (in knots) and the total distance you've traveled.
Logbooks are kept & provided, per rower, to track total distance, race mode, maximum speed, and number of sessions in last 7 days, last 30 days and all-time.
If you're not feeling like a competition, you can watch up to 6 different metrics at the same-time and watch your trendlines over the course of your current session.
- Distance in meters
- Average time for a pull
- Average time for a whole stroke
- Stroke Count
- Total Distance in MPH
Watch your speed and distance against a competitor! Go side-by-side, seeing if you're outpacing them or need to catch up. Also the speed of the water changes related to your owner personal pace.
If you're not feeling competitive and love a screen full of charts, then the realtime charts (powered by Chart.js) will let you select the metrics you want to see & trace your progress over the course of a row.
Do multiple people use your rower? Great! Select who you are, and select who you want to row against! You can race against their best record or try to outdo your personal best!!
Pick from doing a marathon, a time trial or a distance trial. Race against a past record of yourself, a competitor, or just row alone!
Using the great Avataaars library, you can customize your rower to fit your style.
The application runs as npm start. Then the experience is available at http://localhost:8080 (or the IP of the device, if you're going headless).
If you create a .env file in the root directory, some features you can control:
| Key | Purpose |
|---|---|
| PORT | By default 8080. Remember that lower ports might require root. |
| SESSION_SECRET | Basic housekeeping for cookie-managed sessions. |
| FAKE_ROWER | If you're developing and not connected to a rower, this does fake measurements. |
| SAVE_FAKE_RESULTS | If you're using FAKE_ROWER and want race results saved to the database, set this. |
After you've installed Node, then just download this package and run npm install.
This application has only been tested on Linux. That said, the only complicated piece is using SerialPort, and that's been thoroughly tested on Windows and Mac.
If you follow the Installing SerialPort documentation, that'll cover the nuances to get this to run.
You'll also want to make sure the user running this app has read & write permissions to the rowing machine's USB port (such as /dev/ttyACM0).
The app is also capable of being imported as a node_module, which is because I'm hoping this can work as an Electron standalone eventually.
The decision was made to exclude any "just add this service" scripts to this project. There are many great articles that tell you how to configure your script to run automatically at boot. Some recommendations are:
- https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-set-up-a-node-js-application-for-production-on-ubuntu-20-04
- https://www.linuxuprising.com/2018/04/how-to-install-and-configure-nodejs-and.html
See the page on the wiki.
- https://github.com/olympum/waterrower-ble/ (inspiration for this package)
- https://www.nohrd.com/uk/we-row/