This is just a posting of a mod I just came up with.
It has never been done(as far as I know) and will probably never be done :) (at least not by me :p )
anyway... One day not to long ago I looked at some advertisements on treadmills:
http://cn.made-in-china.com/china-products...(SH-A5506).html
they are sold very cheap, about 850dollars (probably cheaper in other countries)
it has motorized incline(15%) and motorized running track(up to 16km/hour).
I'm curious what communication is going between the panel and the running track.
I'm thinking it's only simple rs232 serial communication, witch mean that one could probably connect a computer to it and listen to the traffic.
anyway, what would be cool is to add a little comport/(or a usb connector with rs232 circuit) that one could just connect a little computer to.
like perhaps the asus EE.
then write up some small training software that would allow:
* you could write your own track, with different speeds and different incline, that will automatically be adjusted as you run the track
* when the track incline adjusts upwards, simulating a running up a hill, one could display a simulation on the pcscreen
* your own mp3 music played on different places, for example when running up the last hill, plays the... he he the rockymovie music
* add a little cardreader, one could save track efforts to a user with a card for each user
* different analyzes over time
* voice activated treadmill ?? he he
* etc etc.
the cheap treadmills does not have very advanced features.
but with a pc doing stuff, one could go totally nuts :p