Smart compass navigation, “Beeline”

The Beeline I ordered via kick starter finally arrived!

Initially I heard that it would arrive around the last summer, so I kept waiting for over half a year indeed.

Then I kept waiting further because China has entered the Spring Festival.

I tried set up immediately, so I would like to write the impression of Beeline along with the procedure. I hope that it would be helpful for everyone.

What is Beeline?

Just to be sure, first of all, Beeline is a bicycle navigation called fuzzy navigation that shows only the direction and distance of the destination with electronic paper display.

Since understanding map may make riders distracted, it is good in terms of safety to just look at the arrows.

Beeline has been revealed!

Beeline comes with this box. Wow, it’s a stylish package. It is also important to know the purpose at a glance.

This is the back side. How to use is written in illustration. It describes “set your destination with a smartphone, attach the device to the bicycle, and then follow the arrows”.

I opened the box. The device is contained on the right side. On the left is a manual and a key holder for attaching Beeline to a bag etc etc.

Although it tends to overlook, there is a USB cable on the back of the main unit.

I took out the device. It is kind of charming that dust is on.

“Is this what I ordered?” I was in doubt, opening the cover of the rubber with a clatter, the LCD screen came out. relieved.

I will explain later on how to install it on a bicycle.

The main body can be removed from the cover. There is a input for inserting the USB cable.

“Circles” in the upper and lower, left and right of the screen are buttons, but there is no click feeling at all.

Power on!

Although it is written that pushing a button at first in the instruction manual, nothing reacted because there was no battery (lol)

First of all plug the USB cable in the same way as smartphone to charge.

Paring

When you press the button above, you will see a screen looking for a smartphone.

Install the smartphone application and search the device.

After finding the device, you will be asked if you wish to pair.

Something, firmware update has started.

After a while, the firmware update is completed.

The account setup screen will appear next. You can use your facebook account.

Operations

You can switch screens by pressing left and right buttons.

You can turn on the backlight by pressing and holding the bottom button for a long time.

When setting the destination with the smartphone application, the device starts to display the arrow.

If more than one destination is set, you can switch with the up and down button.

By pressing and holding the button on the top, you can finish navigation.

If the magnet mark appears, it seems that the calibration is not done well.

Set a destination

Set the destination on the screen that seems to be a map.

The destination was OK with Japanese input. Great!

Now the device starts to display the arrow, but the magnet mark has come out. It seems that calibration is not done. The arrow also points to a totally different place (crying)

Calibration

To do the calibration, first press and hold the right button. Then, since it switches to the calibration mode, turn it horizontally and turn the device.

Then, the dotted line part gradually becomes a solid line.

For the lower dotted line, rotate the device upright. The reason why the calibration was not done before was because we did not do this.

When the magnet mark is completed, the calibration is completed. It now shows the right direction.

How to attach to a bicycle

When attaching the lid of the case to the back side of the main body, it can be fixed in a band shape. In this way, attach it to the handlebar of the bicycle.

Turn off paring

I am using an iPhone, but when I cancel pairing from the application I could not reconnect successfully.

It is good to disable Bluetooth in the same way as switching to the in-flight mode etc. of the iPhone.

I think that this is a bug, so it would be better to improve it.

No power off operation required

Beeline’s device has no power-off operation. If you leave it for 30 seconds without being paired with the smartphone, it automatically goes to sleep. It is said that it will take more than a month now.

The upper right lights up in the backlight

When the backlight is lit, the upper right becomes brighter. This is because the light is attached to the upper right.

Touching the real thing, the first thing I understood

I completed setup in this way, but there are things I found only after touching the real thing.

Beeline is a navigator that always uses with a smartphone. I expected that the Beeline will continue to move alone because it is an electronic paper material that the battery lasts long.

Still Beeline is nice since its smart app can run background. The battery lasts longer than always displaying the screen with a map application.

From the waterproof point of view it seems better to power the smartphone than to feed the device.

I have not measured yet how much battery the battery actually has, but I began to think that it may be as it is now.

Summary

So it was a Beeline impression. It would be greatly appreciated if it was helpful. I like it!