Speedometer Apps

Speedometer Apps: These days with newer technologies and features every day on your mobile phones, one astonishing thing that your phones can do is measure the speed of your car. In other words, measuring your speed precisely, and can be easily done today by speedometer apps. These devices are known as speedometers and can be useful in various ways. Read the full article to know about what a speedometer can do, how many types of speedometers are there, and which app to download.

Introduction

A speedometer at present is used in numerous ways just to calculate the ‘instantaneous’ speed of any moving object. Be it, a car, boat, motorcycle, or an airplane. In a boat, it is known as a pit log, whereas in an airplane, it is called airspeed indicator. This unique invention’s credit goes to Charles Babbage, who made the first speedometer hundreds of years ago for locomotives. Then the electric version of this speedometer invented by Josip Belusic in the 1880s. Josip originally named this device as velocimeter, but later it gained popularity by the name ‘speedometer.’ No one knows who is responsible for coining this term to date. Today you may have multiple ways to know the speed of the particular vehicle, but first, you need to know all types of speedometer available.

Types of speedometer

There can many types of speedometers, but here we tried to discuss all the major types of speed meters along with their operation.

Mechanical speedometer

When Charles Babbage made an early model of the speedometer, he did not patent it. Hence, in history, Otto Schultze bags the position of father of speedometer by patenting this device in its name. He patented this mechanical speedometer in 1902. This device had a rotating cable that was driven by gear linked to the transmission system of the vehicle. 

Whenever the car or bike is in ‘mobile’ state, the speedometer twists up the wire /cable that, in return, turns the whole speed meter mechanism. A tiny but permanent magnet is attached to this speedometer wire, starts interacting with an aluminum cup that is also known as speedcup. This speedcup is fixed with the shaft on the speedometer device. As soon as the field produced by the magnet starts rotating due to the rotation of magnets, the change in this field leads to the generation of eddy currents. These eddy currents, in return, also produce more magnetic field. Ultimately, there is an exertion of torque by the magnets on the speedcup. This torque leads to the movement of the pointer, and hence we see the instantaneous speed of the vehicle.

step wise process

• When you turn on the engine, the shaft turns to spin the wheels.Due to this mechanism, the speedometer cable also starts turning.
• The speedometer wire /cable spins the magnet along with it at the same speed.
• The magnet’s direction is always the same as that of the wire /cable, which is here taken as counterclockwise for reference.
• This all mechanical leads to the production of eddy current in the speedcup due to the rotating magnet. 
• These eddy currents move the speedcup in a counterclockwise direction. Understand this by imagining that the speedcup is aiming to catch the magnet.
• Hence they move in the same direction. At the same time, you need to understand that the magnet and the speedcup can not attach in any form.
• They just have air as the in-between medium. Then comes a hairspring that tightens and also restrains the speedcup so that it can turn very little.
• Now, as soon as the speedcup moves, it makes its pointer turn along with it that indicates the value of the instantaneous speed of the vehicle. 

Also, a major thing to focus on here is that it indicates the speed and not velocity. But these were mechanical speedometers which, if not working, can lead to problems. So, in that case, we also need to have ourselves handy in the speedometer. Therefore, we have some electrical speedometers as well.

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Electronic speedometer

These days, even cars are using electronic speedometers as the mechanic label speedometer is so outmoded. In models that have been derived from mechanic speedometers, a sensor that is used to sense rotation is attached to the shaft of the transmission system. This provides chain of electronic pulses whose frequency always corresponds to the driveshaft’s speed. Here we assume that the wheels of the car have traction fully.

The sensor placed on the shaft is a combination of multiple permanent magnets. Sometimes a metal disc placed between the magnet and a sensor to sense the magnetic field. In a few vehicles, the brand manufacturers prefer taking pulses from the ABS wheel sensors.

Another form of the speedometer is that it operates on the interaction between a precision watch and a pulsator, which is driven by the car’s transmission system. The precision watch pushes the speedometer pointer towards the zero.

Best speedometer apps available

GPS speedometer and odometer app

This app is one of the top apps available on the app store. The specialty of this app is that it works in offline mode as well. This is something different which you don’t see in any app. Well, this app promises to give 98% of accuracy while online and a bit less without an internet connection. Apart from the speed measurement, this app also provides the gauging of average speed, trip time, maximum speed, and distance. The GPS speedometer comes up with a normal display that shows you your speed. This app has two variants like the others, and one is the free version, the other is the paid version. The free version has ads in it, but the paid version asks for 1.1$ for an ad-free experience.

Download this app from this link

DigiHUD speedometer app

This app is a digital app as it says precisely digital heads up display. DigiHUD shows you minimal but most relevant information. As discussed above, the measurement of average speed, maximum speed, trip time, etc. also done through this app. Apart from all these, it also acts as an odometer and compass. The digiHUD also gives you two packs; one is free, and the other is a paid app that is about 1.49$. The only difference here is that this app does not give ads in any of the versions, which is a good thing. The paid version has many more features called pro features.

Download this app from the link

Drag racer car performance app

Drag racer app is a hundred percent free app to download from the app stores. This app is basically for racers. This app shows you not only the distance and speed but also a graph displaying acceleration. This also shows that in how much time you reached a particular speed. Drag racer also gives you the option to decide the unit of a distance you want the output to be, be in miles or kilometers. Talking about the connection, then you may face difficulty because of its requirement of GPS connectivity. Also, make sure you have permitted to the app’s GPS connection.

Download the app from this link

Speedview app

This is another amazing app for gauging speed whose rate is quite well in the app store. This app also gives you all insights into speed and distance and time, etc. Speedview also has the HUD to get a glance at all these important characteristics like it has different types of time. This app also gives you a graphical representation of these insights and also gives you another feature like a compass for locating the directions. But as like a usual app, it also has two versions, free and pro version, and the paid one gives you multiple new features. 

Download this app from the link

Ulysse speedometer app

This app defines itself. I mean, as different and unusual the name is, the app also appears to be the same. It has maximum features among all apps. Well, mostly, it has all those required features of statistics and average speed with the HUD. But apart from these things, it has additional features like a battery indicator, temperature indicator, and altimeter with a compass. This list is long and will satisfy almost all your needs from a speedometer. The only disadvantage of this app is that the free version includes advertisements. So if you want an ad-free experience, you will surely have to pay $1.99.

Download the app from this link

Conclusion

Speedometer Apps: Apart from all these apps, you need to understand a fundamental concept that is an error in the speedometer.

So basically, we all know in this world, there is nothing like perfect or accurate, and the same applies to speedometer as well. Mostly, typical speedometers have a tolerance of around +/-10%. This range is so because of the car design, as while using the speedometer, it doesn’t know the wheel size or precisely the tire diameter. Hence, for a precise reference, we take +/-10% as tolerance during calculations. In the electronic speedometers installed in the cars, the company manufacturers already calibrate the speedometer. This calibration gives you an output with an average error reading. It is to make sure that the device never indicates the speed value lesser; otherwise, it may create dangerous consequences.

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