Motivation:

While there are many bike computers with the capability to navigate by map, these are often proprietary and quite expensive. As a challenge i've decided to create one myself.

Design requirements:

The "BikeNav" should have the following:

• good battery life
• excellent daylight visibility
• enough storage to provide navigation over large areas

What is not as important:

• frame rate (navigation for cycling and pedestrian use, update every 20-30s is fine)
• form factor (does not need to be slim or very light since it primarily goes on a bike)

Sourcing parts:

I've decided to employ an E-Paper screen for its energy efficiency and daylight visibility. After some research i landed on the CrowPanel ESP32 3.7” E-paper HMI Display which offered not only a decent sized E-Paper screen but also an esp32-s3 chip with 8mb PSRAM, battery charger and a TF-card slot. A perfectly suited candidate for my endeavour.
The only thing missing would be a GPS module, a battery and an enclosure.

Parts list:

• CrowPanel ESP32 3.7” E-paper HMI Display
• ublox NEO-6M GPS receiver + antenna
• 2X generic 18650 batteries + holder
• 3D printed custom enclosure
• miscellaneous 2.5M screws, heat set inserts, nuts and spacers
• power switch and some wires for connection

Enclosure design:

The enclosure is designed in 3 parts:
An inner skeleton the components are mounted onto (blue), a top shell (green) and a bottom shell (yellow).
The bottom shell has some mounting holes for various mounting options.

The enclosure was printed in white PETG for better heat resistance in direct sunlight and overall durability.



EDIT: sadly, this post got corrupted mid edit. I will try to rewrite the rest when i get to it