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TECH NEWS
Skylock solar powered lock seeks funding
Is this this future of bicycle locks? The Skylock is a solar powered lock packed with technology, including Bluetooth and WiFi so you can lock and unlock it from your smartphone, and the ability to alert its owner if somebody is trying to steal your bike.
You don’t need any keys or a good memory with this lock, Skylock uses Bluetooth 4.0 so you can use a smartphone app to lock and unlock it. You can even use Auto-Unlock so when you get close to your locked up bike it will automatically unlock, just like the latest cars with keyless entry. Don’t worry, if your phone battery goes flat because you’ve been playing Angry Birds too much, there is a backup combination lock.
Accelerometers are used to alert its owner if somebody is tampering with the lock. To do that you connect the Skylock to a local WiFi network, so you can stay connected to it at all times. Even if you’re 10 floors up in your office. The sensitivity of the accelerometer can be adjusted so the slightest movement doesn’t set it off.
The other neat trick the Accelerometers can be used for is to alert for help if you have a crash while riding. They respond to the impact and if you don’t do anything within a certain time period the Skylock can send for help.
And that’s why it’s solar powered, so the battery powering the Bluetooth and WiFi connectivity doesn’t go flat. The solar panel is arranged on the outside of the lock and charges the internal battery. According to their claims it only needs one hour of sunlight to power it for a week. Could be tricky in the British winter mind. Which is why it’s just as well they’ve thought about that, and added a USB port so you can charge it from the mains or your computer.
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Sounds good doesn’t it? We’re impressed. You can’t buy it just yet though, they’re currently seeking crowd funding to the tune of $50,000, but provided they meet their goal they will be shipping in early 2015. You can pre-order one now for $139 for a limited time, after which it rises to $249. You’re going to have to factor in shipping costs of course.
Check it out at http://skylock.cc/
David worked on the road.cc tech team from 2012-2020. Previously he was editor of Bikemagic.com and before that staff writer at RCUK. He's a seasoned cyclist of all disciplines, from road to mountain biking, touring to cyclo-cross, he only wishes he had time to ride them all. He's mildly competitive, though he'll never admit it, and is a frequent road racer but is too lazy to do really well. He currently resides in the Cotswolds, and you can now find him over on his own YouTube channel David Arthur - Just Ride Bikes.
Latest Comments
- wtjs 7 min 30 sec ago
Almost certainly not prosecuted because the driver had agreed to hand in their licence and never drive again...
- jaymack 12 min 10 sec ago
I'm reminded of King Leonidas's comment at Thermopylae "...if".
- Dnnnnnn 1 hour 3 min ago
Those who have no connection with the area shouldn't be heeded - but the views of those who use a road as a means of getting from A to B, even if...
- pockstone 7 min 40 sec ago
Casting is completed for the remake of Scorsese's 'Last temptation of Christ':
- brooksby 3 hours 41 min ago
Police investigate tractor that created ‘devastating’ wave in flooded UK town...
- mdavidford 4 hours 24 min ago
There's a few places clustered either end of the road that might potentially have CCTV (a few shops, garage, Orange Hall, surgery), but a much...
- joules1975 4 hours 28 min ago
Fair enough, but to describe the tool required for the lockrings as 'niche' when its a readily available in various forms from dozens of...
- Secret_squirrel 5 hours 22 min ago
Disappointed that the not even in the land of the free do they shoot or jail bike thieves.
- S.E. 9 hours 59 min ago
That made me think of that "Hot Fuzz" comedy movie... so many truths in it.
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7 comments
Hmm.. I think that does actually have a couple of redeeming features.
But this:
is basically useless. How often do you lock up your bike within range of an open-access public wifi network? Personally I'd rather it just had a pay-as-you-go SIM card in it.
Agreed, it needs to be on a mobile network. Just hoping that you are in range of a suitable WiFi network is not going to cut it.
Also, as already pointed out, if you leave your bike some distance away from where you are going, like at the train station or even on the street when you work on the 20th floor of a high-rise the idea that you would rush back to your bike if anyone moved it etc. might be a bit far-fetched. Even if you were in the supermarket with a trolley full of shopping do you want to have to abandon it and rush out of the shop because someone knocked your bike when locking their bike up next to it?
There are some really good ideas in this product but to me the execution is not quite right. Maybe it will develop into a great product.
Well this wouldn't go anywhere near any of my bikes until it earns the Steve Gibson seal of approval.
I'd rather just have a remote vibration/proximity alarm and use my own locks.
If anyone wants to Kickstart a simple device that can be hidden in the seat post or stem, I'm in. Forget all the smartphone/wifi stuff, just use the unlicensed 433Mhz band for a range of a few hundred meters. That's fine for most shop stops, locked up in the garage or outside the office.
If you leave a bike further away than that, such as at the railway station, you wouldn't be able to return to it in time anyway.
I know you can buy alarms that do exactly that for motorbikes and have wondered why no one has produced one for bikes.
I would be more interested if they had used Kickstarter, which at least has a track record (I've funded several "bikey" projects on KS, all of which came to fruition).
Instead, you get to pay NOW, up front, and the disclaimers took so long to read I fell asleep.
Not this one. But good luck.
I like this even though I don't have a smart phone. Is that sad or what?
Wow.
At first i thought, solution to a problem that doesn't exist, I'm happy with my big dumb chain.
Then I read this -
"SKYLOCK MAKES
BIKE SHARING EASY
Skylock lets you share the location and access to your bike with anyone in your trusted network. With Skylock, you can create and setup your own bike share system. "
So corporate bikeshare / pool bikes would be easy to set up. A bit of a dream of mine, as when lazy colleagues say "but I don't have a bike (to ride the 2km to the meeting)", I always wish we had a pool of bikes waiting to go.