Smart Bike Lights (Data Field) / Bike Lights Control (Widget)

I've made two open source CIQ applications to control ANT+ lights:

- Smart Bike Lights (data field): https://apps.garmin.com/en-US/apps/0d9fd828-c932-4470-9c37-fd2828881888

Configurator: https://maca88.github.io/SmartBikeLights/

- Bike Lights Control (widget): https://apps.garmin.com/en-US/apps/fa3c2332-76e3-4ba1-8528-32a0fd617ab1

Configurator: https://maca88.github.io/BikeLightsControl/

Smart Bike Lights features:
- Automatic light control (Smart mode) based on the configured filters (sunset, sunlight, speed, ...)
- Manual light control (only for Edge devices with a touch screen or devices with CIQ 3.2 and more than 32KB memory)
- Records lights modes that are displayed in Garmin Connect

Bike Lights Control features:
- Manual light control (available to all devices)

Both applications can be installed on the same device, which can be useful for low end devices (e.g. Edge 520) where "Bike Lights Control" can be used to change light modes manually and "Smart Bike Lights" for automatic light control.

Currently registered ANT+ lights:
- Bontrager Ion Pro RT
- Bontrager Ion 200 RT
- Bontrager Flare RT
- Garmin Varia RTL500
- Garmin Varia RTL510
- Garmin Varia RTL515
- Garmin Varia HL500
- Garmin Varia UT800

in case your ANT+ light is not on the list you can help by doing the following:

1. Install Bike Lights Control
2. Pair your bike light with your Garmin device
3. Open the widget:
- Edge with a touch screen: post which numbers are displayed on the buttons and what mode each button represents when pressed
- Other devices: Select the "Light modes" menu and post which numbers are displayed in the menu and what mode each menu item represents when selected

Example for Bontrager Ion Pro RT:

1 -> High steady beam
2 -> Medium steady beam
5 -> Low steady beam
63 -> Day flash
62 -> Night flash

There are some features that could be possible to add in the future, but would require Garmin to add them to the CIQ api. In case you are interested in any of the below features, consider upvoting their feature request thread:

1. Control lights based on the ambient light sensor available on some devices:
https://forums.garmin.com/developer/connect-iq/i/bug-reports/ambient-light-sensor-api-access

Top Replies

maca88 over 3 years ago in reply to oo0M0oo +4

Hi oo0M0oo,

This is the configuration for the desired behavior:

###0,73535488#2,2|RADAR:1:7:1I]-1]0|:1:0:1D=1##5,4:Varia 510|2,:-1,Off:0|1,Solid:4|1,Day Flash:7|1,Night Flash:6#B3122##3#0#0

but make sure…
maca88 over 3 years ago in reply to Prozorowicz +3

> Yes, I'd still rather have it as a widget

Ok, I will look into that and report when it will be published.

> using the Ion Pro lamp in auto mode and in parallel with your field does not remove…
maca88 over 3 years ago in reply to Prozorowicz +2

Prozorowicz said:
Add the ability to save several configuration files, one of which would of course be selectable for the currently used field

That is what I plan to do, but with such feature it will still…

All Replies

MaxR6 7 months ago in reply to maca88

Thx maca88
Great support!

MaxR6 7 months ago in reply to MaxR6

MaxR6 said:
#0,73413136::1#4,4!Start:1:0:0:0H=0!25kmh:1:3:0:0C}6.94444!35kmh:1:2:0:0C}9.72222!:1:4:0:0D=1###7,6:Varia 800:0:16777215!2,:-1,Off:0!1,High:2!1,Medium:3!1,Low:4!1,Night Flash:6!1,Day Flash:7##0::#1:0#13!2,0:123!#0#0#B4169#4##0#0

Hello maca88 In the settings mentioned above, the light mode is not changed at a speed of 35km/h. The setting remains at "Medium" or 25 km/h.
What could be the error?

maca88 7 months ago in reply to MaxR6

Your are right. The issue is that filter "25kmh" is activated at 25kmh and because there is no upper limit it will be also active for above 35kmh. To fix that you need to add an additional filter with the upper limit. Here is the corrected configuration:

#0,73413136::1#5,4!Start:1:0:0:0H=0!25kmh:2:3:0:0C}6.94444C[9.72222!35kmh:1:2:0:0C}9.72222!:1:4:0:0D=1###7,6:Varia 800:0:16777215!2,:-1,Off:0!1,High:2!1,Medium:3!1,Low:4!1,Night Flash:6!1,Day Flash:7##0::#1:0#13!2,0:123!#0#0#B4169#4##0#0

MaxR6 7 months ago in reply to maca88

I understand. Thank you very much.

MaxR6 7 months ago in reply to MaxR6

The battery symbol in the light icon displays five colour bars.
Do you have any influence on this or is it possible to adjust the colour change threshold?
Currently, the colour changes from green to red at 3 bars, when the battery level reaches 60%, which is still a fair amount away from critical. I find that slightly irritating.
My suggestion would be to change the colour to yellow at 2 bars and red at the last bar.

maca88 7 months ago in reply to MaxR6

MaxR6 said:
Do you have any influence on this or is it possible to adjust the colour change threshold?

Currently the battery bar colors cannot be configured, but it could be implemented.

MaxR6 said:
Currently, the colour changes from green to red at 3 bars

That is not correct. Battery with two and three bars are colored with orange, but I do agree that the color is very similar to red when looking on the device. The colors used for the battery bars (orange/red/green) are the same as the one used by the radar to display approaching vehicles (red -> fast vehicles, orange -> normal vehicles, green -> no vehicles).

MaxR6 said:
My suggestion would be to change the colour to yellow at 2 bars and red at the last bar.

I will try to make it configurable instead.

Jachym 7 months ago

Hello,

thank you for superb application! I have one feature request, although maybe slightly different from the main goal of the application. What about adding a way to turn on/off display backlight (for Garmin Edge) - based on filters? This is something that is normally hidden in 4-th level of menu and cannot be switched easily. During day, I do not want any backlight to save battery. After sunset, I need backlight to be always on. I was thinking this could be added as a new main section in configurator - Display configuration. Backlight is also a "light" anyway so it would somehow fit in...

I was looking for some app to handle backlight, but did not find any (at least not for Edge 840)...

Thanks,

Jachym

MaxR6 7 months ago in reply to maca88

maca88 said:
Battery with two and three bars are colored with orange, but I do agree that the color is very similar to red when looking on the device.

A fairly red "orange"

Thanks maca88 for your great support!

maca88 7 months ago in reply to Jachym

Hi,

I am not sure if this can be efficiently achieved by a CIQ application. There seems to be an API to control the backlight, but it says that the behavior may be different based on the device setting. I would need to test the API first to see how it behaves and if it is possible to achieve what you want, then I could implement it. Unfortunately, at the moment I don't have much time to work on new features, so it may take a while to be implemented.

MaxR6 7 months ago in reply to maca88

No problem, it's not that important.
However, it is commendable that you consistently assist the users here.