A latest Fox wi-fi dropper publish patent software takes sensible mountain bike know-how to a brand new stage of integration. Envisioning a world the place nearly every part in your bike is electronically managed, Fox is engaged on a wi-fi dropper publish that connects to their next-gen Stay Valve suspension, syncs to your electronic-shift drivetrain, pairs to all the present sensors in your bike & physique, and even provides a couple of extra new ones, too. The tip aim appears to be multi-system automation – whether or not linked to GPS place information, to your reside energy output and heartrate ranges, and even reacting to your voice instructions…
Plus, this new dropper would add sensible user-customizable drop level, along with basic infinite-adjust drops!
A wise Fox Wi-fi Dropper in growth for years
We’ve seen Fox’s wi-fi dropper seatpost patent purposes for greater than a decade (the earliest one I bear in mind dated again to 2013). And the core idea and visuals haven’t actually modified in any respect since then – a dropper publish that might be mechanically or electronically actuated, and doubtlessly linked to a number of methods in your bike. However in these 10+ years, what has actually modified is an increasing number of electronics on mountain bikes, smarter management methods, and extra prospects for built-in and automatic controls.
Among the wildest controls that Fox might come up, now appear way more believable in our minds – like a voice-activated dropper publish or perhaps a dropper that learns from previous rides and robotically drops your saddle as you strategy a descent.
So what do we all know?
This latest Fox wi-fi dropper patent that they filed earlier this yr (and was simply printed this summer time US20240182131A1) apparently focuses extra on computerized shifting than it does on the dropper itself. However Fox’s core wi-fi dropper tech already acquired patent safety in February of this yr. That merely exhibits a dropper with an digital solenoid (365) inside the bottom to open and shut the valves that enable the dropper to go up and down. It exhibits potential antennas (1402A&B) on the dropper collar & seatpost head to speak with a distant, and energy connectors (1404A&B) that may draw energy from inner or exterior batteries.
What I believe this means? Fox’s upcoming wi-fi dropper publish is just about dialed-in. And now they dive deeper into the automated controls themselves.
Infinite AND stepped drops
What’s distinctive that we all know in regards to the wi-fi dropper from these patent filings is that Fox is proposing a dropper publish that’s each infinitely adjustable and capable of be dropped to set heights. The fascinating factor there, is that the tech to have infinite & stepped drops will not be particular to digital droppers, however might work on a mechanical dropper publish too. That’s as a result of they’ve two separate pairs of valves and launch circuits inside to activate both mode (see 530 A&B and 535 A&B in Fig. 10-13, beneath). So the two modes might be managed individually with two levers, a single 2-stage lever, or with sequential inputs to an digital lever.
Particularly on an digital dropper, due to an inner place sensor the rider might pre-program their ultimate drop factors. Perhaps you want your publish absolutely prolonged for climbing however simply 2cm dropped for rolling trails? Even pre-setting higher and decrease stops might enable a motorcycle producer or the tip person to restrict total journey, or restrict full top-out top. For instance, the end-user might set their saddle top with an digital cease. And so they might set how far they need to publish to go down at most drop. That will even enable producers to place the identical most size dropper in all bikes, no matter dimension, and nonetheless let the client simply customise their ultimate place on the bike.
Inside this wi-fi dropper publish, the Fox patent additionally describes how the place sensors pair to digital actuators to feather the 4 valves that open & shut to permit vertical dropper motion. That lets them sluggish the dropper because it reaches the specified journey set-point for smoother motion and correct stops at any level within the journey. So no top-out or bottom-out clunks… or overshooting the preset journey limits.
Dropper paired to every part digital
A giant a part of the newest Fox Stay Valve patent that we reported on final yr, was how way more linked it plans to be. And the way smarter additionally means extra energetic. Now, we count on the upcoming Fox wi-fi dropper publish goes to get in on the sensible occasion, too. These newest patent docs described a dropper intently synced with digital shifting and digital suspension damping controllers.
And automatic controls appear to be their greatest function. Nonetheless don’t fear, there’s clear description of on-the-fly adjustability and a brief pause in computerized controls every time the rider makes a handbook override enter. Nevertheless it appears to be like like Fox envisions dropper publish place, suspension compression damping (and in some way spring fee), and kit choice – all robotically managed.
And automatic Fox wi-fi dropper management from all sensors
The Fox resolution sees a central processing unit and controller amassing information from pace, cadence, energy meter, rider coronary heart fee, GPS location, vertical acceleration, and inclination sensors. And crunching that information to ensure your bike is at all times within the optimum setting. Additionally they describe a voice activation system the place you would converse instructions to drop or increase your saddle to a predetermined top, of drop/increase it absolutely. And there’s descriptions of a display, indicator LEDs, and even audible alerts (beeps?) that might verify what mode or place your dropper publish is in.
“…the seat publish is actuated by a controller designed for receiving and analyzing enter related to a bicycle owner’s coronary heart fee in addition to the bicycle owner’s GPS coordinates. For instance, if the controller receives enter that describes the bicycle owner’s coronary heart fee as being decrease than a given preprogrammed threshold whereas using, then the controller might sign to the seat publish to maneuver up or down, inflicting the bicycle owner’s work fee and coronary heart fee to extend or lower. In one other instance, if the controller receives enter that describes the bicycle owner’s GPS coordinates as being such that the bicycle owner is nearly to reach at terrain having a steep descent, the controller might trigger the seat publish to decrease in preparation for the descent.
…[or] following a pre-mapped route, for instance, predetermined seat publish top and/or gear choices, or suspension settings could be embedded within the route map and the controller can sign the seat publish top changer and kit changer to vary to the situation acceptable seat publish top and/or shift to the situation acceptable gear robotically.”
To us this all sounds fairly wild.
However, Fox has been engaged on a lot of this tech since a minimum of 2012 – earlier than XTR took mountain bikes digital with Di2 in 2014, lengthy earlier than SRAM pushed MTB wi-fi with AXS in 2019, or when Fox made Stay Valve digital suspension controls actual the summer time earlier.
So possibly it’s not as far-fetched because it sounds?
RideFox.com
