Introduction
From time to time I have heard of or have been involved in conversations where a biker (bicyclist type) complains about having sore knees after riding, even if only on rides of fairly short distances (<10 miles). Not being a doctor, I can't make any professional medical pronouncements on this condition but I want to take a few minutes to share some experience I have on the subject. If it works for you, great, if not then "Big Disclaimer, yadda, yadda, yadda... ;-).
I have had sore knees in the past from running on hard surfaces and from many, many hours in the gym practicing and playing volleyball. Bicycling, walking and cross country skiing are now my preferred exercise modes primarily because they are very low impact. But when I first started logging a significant number of biking miles (15-16 years ago), I would occasionally come up with sore knees too. The resolution I quickly arrived at was pretty straightforward, primarily involving "fitting" of the bicycle to my body flavored with the addition of some understanding about the mechanics of how the body handles the motion and effort involved in propelling a bicycle. Please note that this article is primarily directed toward standard bicycle frames and not recumbent bicycles, although the main principles apply to both.
Background
There are 4 important elements to consider if you want to get the most out of your bicycle riding time while avoiding sore knees. These are:
1. Correct frame size for your leg length
2. Correct setting of the saddle position
3. Monitoring pedal cadence while riding
4. Monitoring your heart rate while riding
Follow The Steps
The first two items above comprise the elements of fitting the bicycle to the individual (you). Items 3 and 4 complement the (now) well fitted bicycle and rider, providing real time feedback to ensure the most efficient return on exercise time as well as providing awareness of proper pedaling effort... very important in terms of preventing injuries or chronic pain conditions from occurring. More detail is presented step by step below.
Step 1.
Taking the time and effort to get the proper frame size is crucial to everything that follows. I recommend that this be done with professional guidance at your Local Bike Shop. Generally, the longer the rider's legs, the bigger the frame that is required. As an example, for me at 5'10", the correct frame size (for my 2007 TriCross Sport bicycle) is 54cm. There is a fairly close correlation between frame size and overall height but I recommend paying attention to your inseam size (mine is 33"). At any rate, the variables here clearly lend themselves to "on the bike" measurement by someone that does this type of thing regularly.
Step 2.
Once the proper size bike is available be sure to take the time to ensure the proper saddle height. This is as important as step 1 and must never be neglected. To set the saddle height, first get the saddle in an approximately appropriate "fore-aft" position (don't worry too much about this yet). Then sit on the saddle (holding yourself up by a wall or the side of a car or with assistance from a companion) and, with normal riding shoes on, place the heel of your foot on either pedal with the pedal in its fully "extended down" position. If the leg can be just straightened completely (with no noticeable bend), you are set. If the leg is bent then the saddle is too low and must be raised. If the heel cannot comfortably reach the pedal with the leg fully extended then the saddle is too high and must be lowered. Adjust the saddle and check again until the height seems to be right. And be careful to ensure that the seat post is inserted within its proper (marked on the post) range.
It may be necessary to iterate the "up/down" and "fore/aft" a few times to get it right. Fore/aft saddle placement is best done by holding a string with a weight (use a large washer or a nut) against the outside base of the patella of the knee while sitting on the bike with the foot (not just the heel) properly placed on the pedal and the pedal in the fully forward (crank parallel to the ground) position. The string should exactly intersect the axle of the pedal. If it is forward of the pedal axle, the saddle must be moved back and if it is back of the pedal axle, the saddle must be moved forward. In either case, if saddle movement is required, the vertical position of the saddle should be re-checked to ensure that it is still correct. Some personal leeway is generally applied regarding fore/aft saddle position. Many riders prefer, for example, to set the saddle back just a little as they feel it adds more power to the pedaling stroke. If you feel you do need to deviate from the fore/aft positions outlined here, I recommend the rearward direction over moving the saddle forward as it implies less pressure on bent knee joints.
An interesting point about vertical saddle position is this: in order to make the most effective (and efficient) use of the legs, the rider should never be able to easily touch the ground with more than the tips of the toes when sitting on the saddle. This means that dismounting is accomplished by removing one foot (say the right one) from its pedal, standing on the other (the left) leg and then bending that supporting leg to lower the (right) foot to the ground... all the while braking in a coordinated fashion to complete the stop. It's my opinion that most sore knees happen to inexperienced riders who feel insecure if they are unable to put their feet down flatfooted on the ground while still sitting on the saddle. When a bike is set up in this fashion, as noted above, the saddle is set too low. The result will always be that the legs are not allowed to reach their full length (and maximum power) when pedaling and, I think, this is what strains the ligaments of the knee, causing the soreness.
Once steps 1 and 2 are completed to the rider's satisfaction, the importance of using the bicycle's gearing system properly moves front and center as the key to items 3 and 4. Items 3 and 4 complement each other and they are intimately joined by use of the mechanical advantages given by proper selection of the front and rear gears of the bike.
Step 3.
Monitoring pedal cadence (i.e., RPM of pedals) is relevant to both efficient use of the engine (the rider's body) driving the bicycle as well as the condition of the mechanical linkage (particularly the rider's knees) upon which power transmission to the pedals depends. It may be easiest to think of this in terms of how a car's engine and transmission interact. The principles are identical. For example, when driving a car with a standard transmission (say, 5 speeds) one starts off in the lowest (or 2nd lowest) gear. The reason is that there is more mechanical advantage in the lower gear and, although the top speed of the car might only be 15 or 20 mph in the low gear, extra power is provided to the wheels to get the mass of the vehicle moving. Without the gearing system, the car might require a 1000 horsepower engine to both "get started" as well as to cruise on the interstate. Efficiency would definitely suffer if this were the case.
In terms of the bicycle rider, and the issue of sore knees, efficient transmission of the rider's muscle power to the pedals means that extreme stress on the knee ligaments is avoided by proper gear selection. In other words, riding in "too high" a gear at slow speeds will put strain on the knee joint. So gear down as appropriate to how fast you wish to ride. While there's generally no additional strain involved with "spinning" pedals too fast (i.e. too low a gear when traveling at relative high speed), riders almost naturally seem to shift up (as well they should) when that occurs.
Step 4.
As promised, this step ties in to the 3 preceding elements by allowing the rider to monitor the condition of the "engine" (you... and your heart) in various states of gearing and effort expenditure during a ride. Pedaling cadence, gearing and the rider's heart rate (or amount of effort being put into the ride) are intimately related. If you don't know your aerobic exercise range of heart rate, please take the time to find out what it is (google will do a good job helping you learn this) and be aware of the numbers as you will use them regularly if you follow the precepts presented here. My range is from 125 to 150 beats per minute (bpm). A heart rate below the low value means the body is not being as efficient as it could be at, for example, burning fat... or at utilizing the carbohydrate produced energy of the body to get the best speed for the least amount of effort. The goal is to maximize the amount of time spent in your aerobic zone. To this end it's useful to use a heart rate monitor (HRM) on the bicycle.
Putting It All Together
With a properly fitted bicycle, monitoring one's heart rate to keep it in your aerobic zone while simultaneously keeping tabs on pedaling cadence for a preferred value (for me, 80-90 rpm feels right) will give the rider the best riding performance and least stress on the knees. For example, if, in my case, my heart rate drops to 110 and my cadence is 95, it's time to shift up to a higher gear. That will make my heart (or me as the "engine") speed up as I work closer to my body's maximum efficiency regime. So I might shift (back rings) from 6th to 7th. Whereupon I will immediately notice the cadence dropping (to, say, 85) and my heart rate should increase (to, say, 120). In this case, I'd probably shift up again to 8 and put more effort into pedaling to get my heart rate up to about 130 and keep the cadence at around 85. Well, I think you get the idea.
Conversely, if my heart rate should go significantly about 150 (my maximum for aerobic exercise), I'd probably adapt by shifting to a lower gear, reducing the pedaling effort... and see the heart rate drop to, say 140. Meanwhile, I'd keep paying some attention to the cadence so that it leveled off again at the (favorite) 85 rpm rate.
A quick word of caution: be sure to maintain your concentration on riding safely and with due attention to people and other bikers on the trail or to traffic around you if on the road. As always, riding should be an enjoyable experience. Hopefully this article will be useful to those that have been trying to solve sore knee problems when bicycling. Feel free to comment.
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Friday, July 29, 2011
Washington Insanity
While I don't usually comment on the events in our nation's capital, this is one time that I feel compelled to do so. One reason is that my son is in the process of moving and has just received an offer on the house he's selling. But the buyer hasn't finalized yet and it's *very* likely that the buyer's financing costs are going to go up. At this point, that is likely regardless of whether or not our (less than astute) politicians raise the government's debt ceiling. The reason is that the U.S.'s credit rating is certainly going to be downgraded by the other 2 (of 3) rating agencies and credit across the country will be going up. Yes, that includes borrowing costs for us, the taxpayers.
Everyone out there, blame *both* Republicans and Democrats. Republicans for the budgetary mess they've generated during the Bush administration (2 unfunded wars plus the $1 trillion unfunded prescription drug program) and Democrats for being just as liable in going along with deregulation (or "looking the other way") steps regarding the mortgage backed securities fraud being perpetrated by Wall Street since at least the Clinton administration. Additionally, Democrats seem to almost never see a tax they would like to add.
Proclivity to tax and spend by Democrats, coupled with the Tea Party anti-tax fanaticism and overall consuming greed of conservatives has meant that there are no longer enough moderate voices to pass legislation, important or not, that is meaningful and rational and very necessary to the welfare and progress of our country. The answer has been clear... we need to let the Bush tax cuts expire and also cut spending in rational and appropriate ways. We then need to reform our tax code with an eye to letting all contribute appropriately (some kind of "flat" tax algorithm). If any of this happens now, at the 11th hour, it will be in spite of the Tea Party but, and note this carefully, it is already too late to prevent a fairly decent negative shock to our economy (just what we need, I know) in the form of 1-2% increases in interest rates across the board.
As Bush's administration unfolded I took no joy in knowing that I (a lifelong Republican at that point) did not vote for him either time. Or that I finally dropped my Republican party affiliation in Iowa and became an Independent. I still vote for the person I think will do the best job, but it's hard to see anyone in Washington doing that right now. All I can say is... what a bunch of losers we have there. And it's us, the voters, that are to blame. So what are we going to do about it?
Everyone out there, blame *both* Republicans and Democrats. Republicans for the budgetary mess they've generated during the Bush administration (2 unfunded wars plus the $1 trillion unfunded prescription drug program) and Democrats for being just as liable in going along with deregulation (or "looking the other way") steps regarding the mortgage backed securities fraud being perpetrated by Wall Street since at least the Clinton administration. Additionally, Democrats seem to almost never see a tax they would like to add.
Proclivity to tax and spend by Democrats, coupled with the Tea Party anti-tax fanaticism and overall consuming greed of conservatives has meant that there are no longer enough moderate voices to pass legislation, important or not, that is meaningful and rational and very necessary to the welfare and progress of our country. The answer has been clear... we need to let the Bush tax cuts expire and also cut spending in rational and appropriate ways. We then need to reform our tax code with an eye to letting all contribute appropriately (some kind of "flat" tax algorithm). If any of this happens now, at the 11th hour, it will be in spite of the Tea Party but, and note this carefully, it is already too late to prevent a fairly decent negative shock to our economy (just what we need, I know) in the form of 1-2% increases in interest rates across the board.
As Bush's administration unfolded I took no joy in knowing that I (a lifelong Republican at that point) did not vote for him either time. Or that I finally dropped my Republican party affiliation in Iowa and became an Independent. I still vote for the person I think will do the best job, but it's hard to see anyone in Washington doing that right now. All I can say is... what a bunch of losers we have there. And it's us, the voters, that are to blame. So what are we going to do about it?
Friday, July 15, 2011
Minnesota's Budget Crisis Ends... Cheers!
Interesting to note that the Minnesota legislature (and Governor Dayton) rather quickly (after such a long period of disagreement and non-compromising stands) came up with a solution to the budget crisis that has shut the state down for several weeks. Interesting because it seems that the real mover was the fact that it wouldn't be very long before no more beer would be available in the state due to the lack of official government business license sales. That was very clearly enough to get things going and a resolution appeared in short order. It would seem that timely resolution of the Minnesota budget issues would've been assured, in tandem with tremendous angst avoidance, if the legislative session was scheduled to end on St. Patrick's Day.
We can only hope that the President and the (so-called) leaders of Congress decide that they too need to share a beer...
We can only hope that the President and the (so-called) leaders of Congress decide that they too need to share a beer...
Monday, January 10, 2011
Droid 2 Global and Rapid Car Charger on Garmin Friction Mount
Being both a long time GPS development engineer (now retired) as well as a commercial GPS user, I've used the Garmin Friction (or "bean bag") mount in my car for many years. It's reliable, easy to move out of sight and great for moving to an alternate vehicle whenever that need arises. Additionally, for California driving in particular, using the bean bag mount is a good alternative to mounting the GPS device to the windshield--illegal in that state.
With the advent of smart phones and their very useful, somewhat sophisticated GPS navigation capabilities, I finally did buy one ... a Droid 2 Global. The GPS driven goal of using this phone was to be able to attach it to my Garmin friction mount, for the reasons given above.
Some online research led me to the Motorola Car Mount and Rapid Car Charger device for the Droid 2. This product works as is for the Droid 2 Global and there are different models for other phones (such as Droid X). So I had part of my answer but hadn't yet found a connection device that would let me hook it up to the bean bag mount.
Enter ProClipUSA and their "2 Prong (Dual T) Adapter Plate with Tilt Swivel" (P/N 215199). Coupled with their P/N 215049, the "Angled extension plate for use with the Garmin Friction mount", I felt that I finally had the answer I was looking for. In the process of researching and exchanging emails to get to this point, however, I became aware that there were concerns and issues with mounting the phone into the Car Mount and Rapid Car Charger while the phone was still in its case. Most of the comments ended in hints that the only case(s) that would fit were produced by Motorola (big surprise, eh?). But my new phone was already fitted with a Seidio Innocase. I like this case because it gives the phone a great feel, it is very easy to "get a grip" on and, bottom line, I'm loath to give it up. But moving forward on the "GPS mounted in the car" front might mean I'd have to give the case up ... if it just totally wouldn't work. Time would tell the story and I'll show you what I did and how all the parts go together in the rest of this article.
This is the Motorola Car Mount and Rapid Car Charger--the installation of which is the subject of this article. Note the phone power (micro-USB) connector extending up from near the bottom, just left of center. The phone must insert smoothly over this power connector.
This picture shows the rear view of the Motorola Car Mount and Rapid Car Charger (which I'll call the "Car Mount" from this point on). Note the micro-USB power connect plugin on the lower left. This is where power from the (included) 12V car "cigarette lighter" cable is received by the car mount. The center section contains the dual "T" mounting slots and this is what must be adapted to the Garmin Friction mount.
Here is the ProClipUSA dual "T" adapter (P/N 215199) already attached to the Angled Extension plate (P/N 215049). In this configuration, it is capable of swiveling, turning and it is ready to install directly into the Garmin Friction mount. Note the dual tabs and, returning to the previous picture, it's easy to see how they fit into the Car Mount.
Note the closeup detail here of the left interior corner of the Car Mount. In particular, notice the small lip that extends in from the inner edge. The purpose of this lip is to provide "in and out" horizontal support to keep the mounted phone in place on the Car Mount. We'll go into more detail later on why this is an issue for phone cases.
This is the Droid 2 "insert" for the car mount. Being a well designed device, the Car Mount allows for the Droid 2 (or Droid 2 Global) to be inserted with or without having a case attached. This insert uses up the extra space that a case would normally use just "in case" you'd like to use your phone without the case. If the insert was not present the phone would not be stable in the mount and would essentially be held in place by the power connector only. That would be a non-workable design. Just pop in the insert and the phone fits perfectly.
This shows the "no case" adapter insert being slid into place on the car mount.
And, finally, this shows the Car Mount with the Droid 2 insert adapter fully installed. The difference with and without the insert is subtle but can easily be seen by comparing this to the 1st picture of this article (which shows the Car Mount *without* the Droid 2 insert). Note that the Car Mount comes with the insert installed so it must be removed to work with a phone that remains in its case. Also, there is a second insert supplied that allows using the original Droid phone (although I cannot comment on how it works as I don't have that phone to test it with). For this project, we are not interested in using the Droid 2 insert since it's best to mount the phone while it remains in its regular case, so we remove it.
This is the Garmin Friction mount. It has a bit of heft to it and is coupled with a non-skid bottom surface so that it does a very good job of staying wherever it is placed on your dash. While this unit is specifically from Garmin, similar (and compatible) mounts may be purchased from 3rd party vendors at such stores as Target.
Here is the ProClip mount (pictured earlier) attached to the Garmin Friction mount. It is now clear that all we need to accomplish is to successfully attach the Car Mount to the "dual T" mounting tabs on the ProClip and we'll be most of the way there.
And so we have it. All the critical components (sans power) together in one spot with the exception of the Droid 2 Global phone itself. At this point, it's probably best if I elaborate on an earlier comment regarding concerns about using "whatever case" one would like to use on the phone, and not having to remove that case just to mount the phone in the Car Mount. Alas, I found, at first blush, that my Seidio Innocase would not "fit" into the car mount. The next picture, however, illustrates my solution to this problem.
This is a picture of the backside portion of my Seidio Innocase. For orientation purposes, the right (near vertical) edge is the bottom of the case. So the corner seen here is the lower right, looking from the front. What I did is quite simple and I think most people should have an easy time repeating it. Look closely and you can see that the edge at the top (which is the right-hand side of the case) looks fairly rough ... like it has been filed down. And so it has. After using a small, fine file to take out about 1/2 inch on both the lower right and lower left vertical sections of the case, it was able to slip past the "holding tabs" in the Car Mount and let the phone mate perfectly with the power connector. Check below for more detail pictures.
Here is a closeup of the Seidio Innocase, filed down per the previous paragraph. Note how the minor bit of filing allows it to slide down behind the Car Mount's "hold in" tabs. This is the only trick to getting this case to work and I suspect the same technique will be just as effective for other cases that might not fit the Car Mount when first tried.
And here is a picture of the Seidio Innocase for the Droid 2 Global successfully installed in the Car Mount. The small amount of filing done was in two spots that did not involve the case's "hold on" tabs for the phone and it had absolutely no functional effect on the case. The filing is also virtually impossible to see with the case attached to the phone. And, of course, it works!
Here is a closeup from the right rear of the Car Mount showing the connected power cord (from the vehicle power adapter).
Here is the completed project with the Droid 2 Global phone in the Car Mount and displaying the Motorola supplied application that automatically runs when the phone senses that it is connected to the Car Mount. The sharp eyed amongst you may notice that the hold down arm at the top of the mount has not yet been pushed down onto the phone (but see the next, and final, picture for that).
This final picture shows the completed project with phone installed and ready to be taken out to the car and plugged in. And it works well.
To summarize, the parts for this are available at ProClipUSA.com (P/N 215199 and 215049) and, among other places, Amazon.com for the Motorola Car Mount and Rapid Car Charger. The Garmin Friction mount is available at numerous locations online and locally at stores like Target, WalMart, etc. This project specifically involved installation of the Droid 2 Global with a Seidio Innocase but it also works for the Droid 2. I strongly suspect that it will work for the Droid X (given the proper Car Mount model) and the corresponding Seidio Innocase but perhaps someone who actually implements this for the Droid X would be willing to comment on the success of their effort. I'm also confident that other cases will be able to be made to work but you have to look at them to see what specifically blocks them from mounting in order to determine that. And, of course, there appear to be one or more Motorola cases that are designed to work with this setup without additional modification.
I hope this has been useful to you and feel free to comment. Thanks!
With the advent of smart phones and their very useful, somewhat sophisticated GPS navigation capabilities, I finally did buy one ... a Droid 2 Global. The GPS driven goal of using this phone was to be able to attach it to my Garmin friction mount, for the reasons given above.
Some online research led me to the Motorola Car Mount and Rapid Car Charger device for the Droid 2. This product works as is for the Droid 2 Global and there are different models for other phones (such as Droid X). So I had part of my answer but hadn't yet found a connection device that would let me hook it up to the bean bag mount.
Enter ProClipUSA and their "2 Prong (Dual T) Adapter Plate with Tilt Swivel" (P/N 215199). Coupled with their P/N 215049, the "Angled extension plate for use with the Garmin Friction mount", I felt that I finally had the answer I was looking for. In the process of researching and exchanging emails to get to this point, however, I became aware that there were concerns and issues with mounting the phone into the Car Mount and Rapid Car Charger while the phone was still in its case. Most of the comments ended in hints that the only case(s) that would fit were produced by Motorola (big surprise, eh?). But my new phone was already fitted with a Seidio Innocase. I like this case because it gives the phone a great feel, it is very easy to "get a grip" on and, bottom line, I'm loath to give it up. But moving forward on the "GPS mounted in the car" front might mean I'd have to give the case up ... if it just totally wouldn't work. Time would tell the story and I'll show you what I did and how all the parts go together in the rest of this article.
This is the Motorola Car Mount and Rapid Car Charger--the installation of which is the subject of this article. Note the phone power (micro-USB) connector extending up from near the bottom, just left of center. The phone must insert smoothly over this power connector.
This picture shows the rear view of the Motorola Car Mount and Rapid Car Charger (which I'll call the "Car Mount" from this point on). Note the micro-USB power connect plugin on the lower left. This is where power from the (included) 12V car "cigarette lighter" cable is received by the car mount. The center section contains the dual "T" mounting slots and this is what must be adapted to the Garmin Friction mount.
Here is the ProClipUSA dual "T" adapter (P/N 215199) already attached to the Angled Extension plate (P/N 215049). In this configuration, it is capable of swiveling, turning and it is ready to install directly into the Garmin Friction mount. Note the dual tabs and, returning to the previous picture, it's easy to see how they fit into the Car Mount.
Note the closeup detail here of the left interior corner of the Car Mount. In particular, notice the small lip that extends in from the inner edge. The purpose of this lip is to provide "in and out" horizontal support to keep the mounted phone in place on the Car Mount. We'll go into more detail later on why this is an issue for phone cases.
This is the Droid 2 "insert" for the car mount. Being a well designed device, the Car Mount allows for the Droid 2 (or Droid 2 Global) to be inserted with or without having a case attached. This insert uses up the extra space that a case would normally use just "in case" you'd like to use your phone without the case. If the insert was not present the phone would not be stable in the mount and would essentially be held in place by the power connector only. That would be a non-workable design. Just pop in the insert and the phone fits perfectly.
This shows the "no case" adapter insert being slid into place on the car mount.
And, finally, this shows the Car Mount with the Droid 2 insert adapter fully installed. The difference with and without the insert is subtle but can easily be seen by comparing this to the 1st picture of this article (which shows the Car Mount *without* the Droid 2 insert). Note that the Car Mount comes with the insert installed so it must be removed to work with a phone that remains in its case. Also, there is a second insert supplied that allows using the original Droid phone (although I cannot comment on how it works as I don't have that phone to test it with). For this project, we are not interested in using the Droid 2 insert since it's best to mount the phone while it remains in its regular case, so we remove it.
This is the Garmin Friction mount. It has a bit of heft to it and is coupled with a non-skid bottom surface so that it does a very good job of staying wherever it is placed on your dash. While this unit is specifically from Garmin, similar (and compatible) mounts may be purchased from 3rd party vendors at such stores as Target.
Here is the ProClip mount (pictured earlier) attached to the Garmin Friction mount. It is now clear that all we need to accomplish is to successfully attach the Car Mount to the "dual T" mounting tabs on the ProClip and we'll be most of the way there.
And so we have it. All the critical components (sans power) together in one spot with the exception of the Droid 2 Global phone itself. At this point, it's probably best if I elaborate on an earlier comment regarding concerns about using "whatever case" one would like to use on the phone, and not having to remove that case just to mount the phone in the Car Mount. Alas, I found, at first blush, that my Seidio Innocase would not "fit" into the car mount. The next picture, however, illustrates my solution to this problem.
This is a picture of the backside portion of my Seidio Innocase. For orientation purposes, the right (near vertical) edge is the bottom of the case. So the corner seen here is the lower right, looking from the front. What I did is quite simple and I think most people should have an easy time repeating it. Look closely and you can see that the edge at the top (which is the right-hand side of the case) looks fairly rough ... like it has been filed down. And so it has. After using a small, fine file to take out about 1/2 inch on both the lower right and lower left vertical sections of the case, it was able to slip past the "holding tabs" in the Car Mount and let the phone mate perfectly with the power connector. Check below for more detail pictures.
Here is a closeup of the Seidio Innocase, filed down per the previous paragraph. Note how the minor bit of filing allows it to slide down behind the Car Mount's "hold in" tabs. This is the only trick to getting this case to work and I suspect the same technique will be just as effective for other cases that might not fit the Car Mount when first tried.
And here is a picture of the Seidio Innocase for the Droid 2 Global successfully installed in the Car Mount. The small amount of filing done was in two spots that did not involve the case's "hold on" tabs for the phone and it had absolutely no functional effect on the case. The filing is also virtually impossible to see with the case attached to the phone. And, of course, it works!
Here is a closeup from the right rear of the Car Mount showing the connected power cord (from the vehicle power adapter).
Here is the completed project with the Droid 2 Global phone in the Car Mount and displaying the Motorola supplied application that automatically runs when the phone senses that it is connected to the Car Mount. The sharp eyed amongst you may notice that the hold down arm at the top of the mount has not yet been pushed down onto the phone (but see the next, and final, picture for that).
This final picture shows the completed project with phone installed and ready to be taken out to the car and plugged in. And it works well.
To summarize, the parts for this are available at ProClipUSA.com (P/N 215199 and 215049) and, among other places, Amazon.com for the Motorola Car Mount and Rapid Car Charger. The Garmin Friction mount is available at numerous locations online and locally at stores like Target, WalMart, etc. This project specifically involved installation of the Droid 2 Global with a Seidio Innocase but it also works for the Droid 2. I strongly suspect that it will work for the Droid X (given the proper Car Mount model) and the corresponding Seidio Innocase but perhaps someone who actually implements this for the Droid X would be willing to comment on the success of their effort. I'm also confident that other cases will be able to be made to work but you have to look at them to see what specifically blocks them from mounting in order to determine that. And, of course, there appear to be one or more Motorola cases that are designed to work with this setup without additional modification.
I hope this has been useful to you and feel free to comment. Thanks!
Saturday, January 8, 2011
DSL/Phone Wiring
Starting off the New Year right is one of my priorities in life. For me, that often means implementing a fun project, typically involving technology and/or something around the house, car, bicycle or all of the above. This year was no exception and I decided that it was time to put together all the parts I had accumulated over the past several months to update my telephone wiring. To be clear, this is *not* about ripping out all the wiring behind the walls in my house. It's just to improve the "visible" stuff in the unfinished basement utility room area. There were 4 primary goals for this project:
1. Clean up the spider web phone wiring mess just inside the house.
2. Directly connect a DSL jack to Telco Network Interface Device (NID).
3. Implement whole house phone line surge protection.
4. Clean up the alarm system phone line connection.
In addition to these enumerated goals, a side benefit was to gain knowledge and experience about proper wiring supplies, techniques and equipment.
It helps to understand the solutions if the specific problem areas are described in more detail. The following paragraphs will do this ... check them out to see if you may have some of the same issues or concerns about "doing it right" (or at least "doing it better than it was").
POTS (Plain Old Telephone System) Wiring
As was common in the mid 90's when this house was built, standard 4 wire (Red, Green, Yellow, Black) telephone cable was installed. Not very resistant to cross talk and capable of generating quite a bit of noise, I was uncomfortable with using it for my DSL connection to the Telco (Qwest, in this case) NID outside the house. The inside wiring was done in the "Star" configuration where each wire pair was connected to the NID and then run directly to a room (or area) of the house. In the destination area, it might be hooked up in series (daisy chained) but the star technique still allowed for isolation of connection problems to a small number of phone jacks. Good idea, but it felt like a better idea to bring a single line into the house (and see the DSL section, below) for a very short distance, subsequently distributing it via multiple cables to the various rooms.
DSL
The aDSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) 7Mbps connection had been working OK but there were occasional times (confirmed by Qwest technical support) when somewhat high "dropped bit" rates were encountered. Not knowing the source of this, it felt important to do the best possible job of eliminating local house wiring as an issue. For this reason, and in tandem with the goal to bring a single cable set in from the NID, 4-UTP (Unshielded Twisted Pair) Cat 5E cable was chosen to bring the connection in to the house. While good cable alone doesn't make for a good connection (connectors, jacks, proximity to power and noise carrying lines and installation technique are all contributors), using the correct cable *is* a key requirement for a good, solid connection and it's a straightforward thing to do. The idea was to run as directly as possible from the NID to a jack specifically used only for connecting to the DSL modem.
The "normal" DSL setup for a residence is usually done on the cheap and often consists only of connecting Telco supplied low pass filters to all the active "phone" connections to keep the high frequency DSL signal noise out of voice conversations and prevent the low frequency (voice and DC) signals from attenuating the DSL signal. Not wanting to put a filter on each phone in the house, the original wiring job fed the input lines to a pair of DSL filters before distribution to the rest of the house (with the DSL line running directly out to the NID). These small filters, however, are not designed to operate this way and may be overloaded, depending on the number of phones in the house that simultaneously ring. The alternative chosen was to implement what's called a DSL-POTS splitter. This device is mounted (depending on its specific design) at the NID or just inside the building and it filters and splits the input line's signal into its voice and DSL components. It does cost a bit ($35 or so for this one) but it provides a relatively cheap and elegant alternative to appending a filter to each phone. In this case, the Wilcom PS-15-I3S (mounts inside the residence) xDSL-POTS splitter was chosen and two were installed to allow for possible future easy movement of the DSL connection to Line 2 (from the standard Line 1) as well as the option to have 2 independent DSL lines active simultaneously. Another benefit is the redundancy factor--for single line DSL, should one of the splitters fail, it would be a very quick procedure to switch to the other, avoiding more than minimal down time.
Surge Protection
Similar to the issue (see above) regarding DSL/voice filters, the proliferation of phone line surge protection devices was something that needed addressing. Another good argument for bringing a single set of wires into the house from Telco, the idea was to run them through a surge protection device *before* distribution through the rest of the house phone wiring. The device chosen to accomplish this was the Open House ChannelPlus Telephone Entry Module (model H611). The H611 is designed to mount in a service center enclosure box (Open House model H318 used here) and provide surge protection for up to 4 incoming Tip/Ring pairs. In addition, it provides an RJ-31X jack to allow line seizure capability for an alarm system. Since the DSL line bypasses the voice line surge protection provided by the H611, a separate, surge protection device (TrippLite's Traveler 100Bt) was added at the DSL jack to protect the DSL modem (and downstream devices). Simple, effective (it is hoped) and now the whole house is protected from some degree of line surge without having to incorporate multiple surge protection devices.
Alarm System
While the alarm system (Rokonet Wisdom) was a DIY home project, it works very well and is designed to seize the phone line to call out to user programmed phone numbers (ostensibly to an alarm monitoring service but, for this system, just my cell phone). In order to do this, the alarm system must be connected as the first "phone" in system and the RJ-31X jack is designed to make that easy to do. The challenge here was to take out the old 4 wire cable connecting the alarm system and connect it to the H611's RJ-31X jack with standard (3-UTP) 24 gauge twisted pair wiring.
In summary, the problems above were to be addressed and the implementation accomplished is described below. Pictures of the detailed connections in the H318 Service Center Enclosure tell the story.
This picture shows the white H318 Service Center Enclosure box mounted in its final location between two wall studs in the basement utility room. The two black components mounted near the top of the box are the Wilcom PS-15-I3S DSL-POTS splitters for Line 1 and Line 2, respectively. The horizontal rectangular unit below the splitters is the H611 Telephone Entry Module. The blue Cat 5E cable entering the Enclosure at the top left side carries the Line 1 and Line 2 wires from the Telco Network Interface Device outside the house. The other blue Cat 5E cable exits the Enclosure at the top right side and goes directly to the DSL modem wall jack.
The leftmost white cable (on the H611) is a Cat 3 UTP from the "Phone" outputs of the two splitters and it connects via the H611's 110 punchdown connector for (input from the CO) Tip and Ring on Lines 1 and 2.
The middle white cable is another Cat 3 UTP connected to the H611's RJ-31X connector and it runs to the alarm system in the upstairs entryway to the house.
The rightmost white cable leaving the H611 consists of the surge protected Line 1 and Line 2 outputs from the H611 and it runs up and to the left of the Enclosure where it connects to the rest of the house's phone wiring.
Finally, the green wire running horizontally across the top of the Enclosure is simply a 10 gauge ground wire.
This is a closeup of the Open House H611 Telephone Entry Module. Here you can see (from left to right) the 110 connector for lines 1-4 (note that lines 1 and 2 are connected), the RJ-45 telephone disconnect plug, the RJ-31X alarm connector (at the bottom) and the house telephone output on the right side with Line 1 and Line 2 connected via the RJ-45 plug (which is connected in parallel to the alternative output 110 connector). For maximum connection flexibility, RJ-45/RJ-11 plugs were used wherever the option was available. Note the "Surge Warning" lights associated with each of up to 4 telephone lines that the H611 might be protecting. Each line is protected to 50 Joules and 4000 Amps. If the surge level is high enough, surge protection will be lost and the surge event will be shown as an illuminated LED associated with the appropriate line(s). Repair or replacement of the H611 module would then be required. Regarding connecting wires to the 110 connector--be sure to invest in a 110 punch down tool for this task. The 110 is a fairly sophisticated Insulation Displacement Connection (IDC) system and trying to get by with, for example, a screwdriver and/or needle nose pliers is unlikely to seat the wire properly, resulting in damaged contacts and possible future failure of the connected phone line(s). Finally, the module's RJ-45 jacks are wired to the TIA T568A standard.
The H611 module connects to the Service Enclosure with metal tabs in the back designed to fit the vertical columns of device mounting holes in the Enclosure.
This picture shows the Wilcom xDSL-POTS splitters mounted and connected in the Service Enclosure. The two units are facing each other to allow use of the RJ connections while minimizing the wire length needed as Line 1 and Line 2 are broken out from their respective cables to be sent to the individual signal splitter devices. The splitter on the left handles Line 1, the one on the right handles Line 2. Since these devices are not designed to mount directly into the Enclosure's pre-drilled holes, Velcro was used to attach them and to give some additional flexibility regarding precise location.
Testing
Integrity of the wiring was verified by inspection and by alternating the Line 1 supplied DSL signal between both the Line 1 and Line 2 splitters. Given this setup utilizing the RJ plug connections, line swapping to accomplish this test was trivial. Additionally, although this residence does not currently have regular POTS service from Qwest, a Phone Labs Dock-N-Talk was attached at the Network Interface Device to provide Tip and Ring in parallel with the DSL signal from the Telco. The phones and alarm system in the house were successful at dialing out. But full confidence in the alarm's line seizure capability will not be achieved until such time as regular Telco service can be used to verify it. Most DIYer's working on this kind of project probably have regular Telco phone service so that test is something that will normally be easily accomplished and it should not be neglected.
Finally, the new Service Enclosure all buttoned up and operating as planned. Much neater looking than the random wires that were floating around in the basement. For future reference, all device documentation as well as a rough schematic and URL reference to this blog are included in an envelope inside the Service Enclosure.
It is hoped that the information presented here is useful to others that may be mulling over the issues of telephone line surge protection, DSL/POTS performance and possible problems with handling an alarm system's dialing requirements. Again, this is just what one individual did and there may be better solutions ... but perhaps it's a good starting point.
All comments are welcome and please don't be put off because comments are reviewed before appearing in the article.
1. Clean up the spider web phone wiring mess just inside the house.
2. Directly connect a DSL jack to Telco Network Interface Device (NID).
3. Implement whole house phone line surge protection.
4. Clean up the alarm system phone line connection.
In addition to these enumerated goals, a side benefit was to gain knowledge and experience about proper wiring supplies, techniques and equipment.
It helps to understand the solutions if the specific problem areas are described in more detail. The following paragraphs will do this ... check them out to see if you may have some of the same issues or concerns about "doing it right" (or at least "doing it better than it was"
POTS (Plain Old Telephone System) Wiring
As was common in the mid 90's when this house was built, standard 4 wire (Red, Green, Yellow, Black) telephone cable was installed. Not very resistant to cross talk and capable of generating quite a bit of noise, I was uncomfortable with using it for my DSL connection to the Telco (Qwest, in this case) NID outside the house. The inside wiring was done in the "Star" configuration where each wire pair was connected to the NID and then run directly to a room (or area) of the house. In the destination area, it might be hooked up in series (daisy chained) but the star technique still allowed for isolation of connection problems to a small number of phone jacks. Good idea, but it felt like a better idea to bring a single line into the house (and see the DSL section, below) for a very short distance, subsequently distributing it via multiple cables to the various rooms.
DSL
The aDSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) 7Mbps connection had been working OK but there were occasional times (confirmed by Qwest technical support) when somewhat high "dropped bit" rates were encountered. Not knowing the source of this, it felt important to do the best possible job of eliminating local house wiring as an issue. For this reason, and in tandem with the goal to bring a single cable set in from the NID, 4-UTP (Unshielded Twisted Pair) Cat 5E cable was chosen to bring the connection in to the house. While good cable alone doesn't make for a good connection (connectors, jacks, proximity to power and noise carrying lines and installation technique are all contributors), using the correct cable *is* a key requirement for a good, solid connection and it's a straightforward thing to do. The idea was to run as directly as possible from the NID to a jack specifically used only for connecting to the DSL modem.
The "normal" DSL setup for a residence is usually done on the cheap and often consists only of connecting Telco supplied low pass filters to all the active "phone" connections to keep the high frequency DSL signal noise out of voice conversations and prevent the low frequency (voice and DC) signals from attenuating the DSL signal. Not wanting to put a filter on each phone in the house, the original wiring job fed the input lines to a pair of DSL filters before distribution to the rest of the house (with the DSL line running directly out to the NID). These small filters, however, are not designed to operate this way and may be overloaded, depending on the number of phones in the house that simultaneously ring. The alternative chosen was to implement what's called a DSL-POTS splitter. This device is mounted (depending on its specific design) at the NID or just inside the building and it filters and splits the input line's signal into its voice and DSL components. It does cost a bit ($35 or so for this one) but it provides a relatively cheap and elegant alternative to appending a filter to each phone. In this case, the Wilcom PS-15-I3S (mounts inside the residence) xDSL-POTS splitter was chosen and two were installed to allow for possible future easy movement of the DSL connection to Line 2 (from the standard Line 1) as well as the option to have 2 independent DSL lines active simultaneously. Another benefit is the redundancy factor--for single line DSL, should one of the splitters fail, it would be a very quick procedure to switch to the other, avoiding more than minimal down time.
Surge Protection
Similar to the issue (see above) regarding DSL/voice filters, the proliferation of phone line surge protection devices was something that needed addressing. Another good argument for bringing a single set of wires into the house from Telco, the idea was to run them through a surge protection device *before* distribution through the rest of the house phone wiring. The device chosen to accomplish this was the Open House ChannelPlus Telephone Entry Module (model H611). The H611 is designed to mount in a service center enclosure box (Open House model H318 used here) and provide surge protection for up to 4 incoming Tip/Ring pairs. In addition, it provides an RJ-31X jack to allow line seizure capability for an alarm system. Since the DSL line bypasses the voice line surge protection provided by the H611, a separate, surge protection device (TrippLite's Traveler 100Bt) was added at the DSL jack to protect the DSL modem (and downstream devices). Simple, effective (it is hoped) and now the whole house is protected from some degree of line surge without having to incorporate multiple surge protection devices.
Alarm System
While the alarm system (Rokonet Wisdom) was a DIY home project, it works very well and is designed to seize the phone line to call out to user programmed phone numbers (ostensibly to an alarm monitoring service but, for this system, just my cell phone). In order to do this, the alarm system must be connected as the first "phone" in system and the RJ-31X jack is designed to make that easy to do. The challenge here was to take out the old 4 wire cable connecting the alarm system and connect it to the H611's RJ-31X jack with standard (3-UTP) 24 gauge twisted pair wiring.
In summary, the problems above were to be addressed and the implementation accomplished is described below. Pictures of the detailed connections in the H318 Service Center Enclosure tell the story.
This picture shows the white H318 Service Center Enclosure box mounted in its final location between two wall studs in the basement utility room. The two black components mounted near the top of the box are the Wilcom PS-15-I3S DSL-POTS splitters for Line 1 and Line 2, respectively. The horizontal rectangular unit below the splitters is the H611 Telephone Entry Module. The blue Cat 5E cable entering the Enclosure at the top left side carries the Line 1 and Line 2 wires from the Telco Network Interface Device outside the house. The other blue Cat 5E cable exits the Enclosure at the top right side and goes directly to the DSL modem wall jack.
The leftmost white cable (on the H611) is a Cat 3 UTP from the "Phone" outputs of the two splitters and it connects via the H611's 110 punchdown connector for (input from the CO) Tip and Ring on Lines 1 and 2.
The middle white cable is another Cat 3 UTP connected to the H611's RJ-31X connector and it runs to the alarm system in the upstairs entryway to the house.
The rightmost white cable leaving the H611 consists of the surge protected Line 1 and Line 2 outputs from the H611 and it runs up and to the left of the Enclosure where it connects to the rest of the house's phone wiring.
Finally, the green wire running horizontally across the top of the Enclosure is simply a 10 gauge ground wire.
This is a closeup of the Open House H611 Telephone Entry Module. Here you can see (from left to right) the 110 connector for lines 1-4 (note that lines 1 and 2 are connected), the RJ-45 telephone disconnect plug, the RJ-31X alarm connector (at the bottom) and the house telephone output on the right side with Line 1 and Line 2 connected via the RJ-45 plug (which is connected in parallel to the alternative output 110 connector). For maximum connection flexibility, RJ-45/RJ-11 plugs were used wherever the option was available. Note the "Surge Warning" lights associated with each of up to 4 telephone lines that the H611 might be protecting. Each line is protected to 50 Joules and 4000 Amps. If the surge level is high enough, surge protection will be lost and the surge event will be shown as an illuminated LED associated with the appropriate line(s). Repair or replacement of the H611 module would then be required. Regarding connecting wires to the 110 connector--be sure to invest in a 110 punch down tool for this task. The 110 is a fairly sophisticated Insulation Displacement Connection (IDC) system and trying to get by with, for example, a screwdriver and/or needle nose pliers is unlikely to seat the wire properly, resulting in damaged contacts and possible future failure of the connected phone line(s). Finally, the module's RJ-45 jacks are wired to the TIA T568A standard.
The H611 module connects to the Service Enclosure with metal tabs in the back designed to fit the vertical columns of device mounting holes in the Enclosure.
This picture shows the Wilcom xDSL-POTS splitters mounted and connected in the Service Enclosure. The two units are facing each other to allow use of the RJ connections while minimizing the wire length needed as Line 1 and Line 2 are broken out from their respective cables to be sent to the individual signal splitter devices. The splitter on the left handles Line 1, the one on the right handles Line 2. Since these devices are not designed to mount directly into the Enclosure's pre-drilled holes, Velcro was used to attach them and to give some additional flexibility regarding precise location.
Testing
Integrity of the wiring was verified by inspection and by alternating the Line 1 supplied DSL signal between both the Line 1 and Line 2 splitters. Given this setup utilizing the RJ plug connections, line swapping to accomplish this test was trivial. Additionally, although this residence does not currently have regular POTS service from Qwest, a Phone Labs Dock-N-Talk was attached at the Network Interface Device to provide Tip and Ring in parallel with the DSL signal from the Telco. The phones and alarm system in the house were successful at dialing out. But full confidence in the alarm's line seizure capability will not be achieved until such time as regular Telco service can be used to verify it. Most DIYer's working on this kind of project probably have regular Telco phone service so that test is something that will normally be easily accomplished and it should not be neglected.
Finally, the new Service Enclosure all buttoned up and operating as planned. Much neater looking than the random wires that were floating around in the basement. For future reference, all device documentation as well as a rough schematic and URL reference to this blog are included in an envelope inside the Service Enclosure.
It is hoped that the information presented here is useful to others that may be mulling over the issues of telephone line surge protection, DSL/POTS performance and possible problems with handling an alarm system's dialing requirements. Again, this is just what one individual did and there may be better solutions ... but perhaps it's a good starting point.
All comments are welcome and please don't be put off because comments are reviewed before appearing in the article.
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