We’re lucky to have a treadmill at home. It’s simple – speed and incline controls, going up to a maximum of 15% gradient, and not many other features. It’s not a smart treadmill. In other words it’s not able connect to smart devices or integrate with online platforms such as Zwift or Strava.
I find our treadmill very useful for those bad weather days, or when I am short on time. It’s also great to reduce the impact my body takes from running outside.
However, I’m a total nerd for stats and smart integrations. I didn’t want to replace the entire treadmill for a newer one that comes with these integrations built-in. Besides the prohibitive cost and fact that there is nothing else wrong with our treadmill, there are other issues with buying an all-in-one smart treadmill.
The biggest concern I have is that buying a treadmill that is built to work with an online platform effectively locks you in to that service. Let’s say you buy a Peloton Tread. Not only do you fork out money for the hardware itself, they also try to sell you annual membership to their platform to ‘unlock’ more features of the hardware.
I’m not a fan of this vendor lock-in. I prefer to have freedom to get my stats from running through the platforms I choose to publish them to. I would not be happy having my treadmill’s features only work if I pay a subscription for them. In fact I find this model ludicrous!
BMW and Mercedes caught a lot of flack for trying to get owners to pay a subscription to use heated seats in their car! I’m not sure if this is actually the case now, but this trend toward subscriptions for just about everything.
I see this model that treadmill and smart exercise equipment companies are starting to use as form of enshittification.
Creating a smart treadmill with the Runn Smart Treadmill Sensor
Anyway, cutting back to the point , a couple of years ago a friend recommended I try the North Pole Engineering Runn Smart Treadmill Sensor. It’s a small sensor that you attach to the side of the treadmill next to the belt.
The next step is to attach a few small stickers at different intervals on the edge of the treadmill belt. These are placed where the sensor has visibility onto the belt edge.
Using the app you install on your phone, you then start the treadmill at low speed and calibrate the sensor. Calibration is done for both speed and incline by following the in-app prompts, adjusting the treadmill as it tells you.
Once this process is complete, you now get stats for any other device you own via ANT+ or bluetooth connection.
I have the sensor connected directly to my Garmin Smartwatch. Then, I use a small ANT+ USB dongle in my laptop that has the Zwift app installed. (I use Zwift for treadmill workouts on my laptop).
The really cool part about getting the Runn Smart Treadmill Sensor connected to my laptop and Zwift is that I can start a ‘free run’ in Zwift and get accurate hill / elevation statistics into my workout allowing to track elevation stats. The speed and cadence stats are also fed into Zwift.
Testing the stats
To test, I have set a very specific speed and incline setting on the treadmill. Running for a set amount of time allows me to calculate what my total elevation run should be.
I then compare that to the stats shown in Zwift by the Runn Sensor and they’re very close. This gave me confidence the sensor is doing a good job of tracking elevation gain. The speed shown from the sensor closely tracks what the treadmill’s belt is set to.
Upgrading an old treadmill
It’s a great choice if you’re looking to level up your simple treadmill at home. You’re not tied into any specific treadmill or online platform either.
Now for the next question – how can I upgrade our treadmill to support running down hill or adjust sideways camber? 🤪
Brilliant! 🙌
I’m totally with you! I can’t wrap my head around people paying so much for a Peloton subscription after already shelling out for the treadmill. Ridiculous! And thanks for the enshittification link – that was an eye-opener.
The Runn Sensor is such a smart workaround: simple, flexible, and no unnecessary lock-ins. I especially appreciate that you tested its accuracy.
I have a feeling your brain is already engineering a DIY downhill solution… can’t wait to see what you come up with! 😄
If I didn’t have a day job and started getting bored, I would certainly be building some sort of contraption capable of pivoting the treadmill around. Now I wonder if the Runn sensor can measure negative gradient and would it track downhill too 😄