SignalQuest – Collaborator
In 2014, Whiterock Exercise approached SignalQuest with the idea of using small, easily deployable position sensors that could be attached to exercise machines with magnets or cable ties, rather than relying on permanently mounted encoders or custom mechanical assemblies. Mark Nathe and the SignalQuest team spent considerable time exploring the concept with us, sending multiple sensor variants to evaluate and helping determine whether the approach could be made practical.
The first series of sensors we received that year were not viable for our requirements. The sampling rate was too low, and endpoint accuracy varied too much for reliable repetition analysis and user guiding. Even so, they proved useful for early demonstrations, as the ability to simply mount a sensor with magnets made initial Rep Builder testing fast and flexible.
By 2017, Mark provided updated firmware that increased the sampling rate on sensors we already owned. With that improvement, the hardware became workable for Rep Builder.
Additional progress came in 2023 when SignalQuest released advanced firmware enabling in field calibration and improved internal algorithms, substantially enhancing turnaround accuracy on exercise equipment. From that point, we entered a long, systematic optimization effort.
To refine the firmware, we collaborated closely with SignalQuest using a dedicated testing rig built specifically for this purpose. The rig included a precision reference lever designed by Travis Myers, incorporating an optical absolute encoder as the measurement standard. A LabVIEW virtual instrument was developed by Whiterock Exercise, enabling synchronized acquisition of data from the optical reference encoder and the SignalQuest sensors. This setup allowed us to run thousands of comparison tests, repeatedly measuring the sensors against the reference system to identify drift, latency characteristics, accuracy limits, and optimal parameter settings.
The process evolved into a structured, iterative engineering cycle. SignalQuest would release firmware adjustments, we would conduct new rounds of testing, analyze the resulting datasets, and report detailed findings. Mark and his team remained consistently patient and highly engaged throughout the entire process, responding to every dataset we provided and progressively refining the system’s performance.
At the end of 2024, and completed in 2025, additional usability improvements came from Travis Myers, who designed a 3D printable cradle that allows a SignalQuest sensor to be removed and reattached without the tedious process of unscrewing magnets or re mounting magnets onto the sensor before placing it back on the machine. The cradle stays permanently installed on the equipment, while the sensor can be swapped or removed for calibration using nothing more than a cable tie. Although these mounts took a long time to design, prototype, print, and prepare, they meaningfully reduce handling effort, streamline setup, and improve day to day convenience.
Nearly a decade after the first discussion, a mature magnet mounted position sensor exists, shaped through SignalQuest’s firmware development, Travis’s mechanical design, full software integration, and extensive testing. The result is a lightweight, rapidly deployable, and reliable position tracking method that has become an integral component of the ecosystem.