Bicycle Brake and Turn Signals

Forum 2005-2010 (read only) General Exhibition
1

Hello everyone.

I just finished what I like to call B.L.T., or Bicycle Lighting Technology. B.L.T. is a safety device for night-time riding that displays brake lights as well as left and right turn signals on command. Here is a video:

Here is a photo of what's inside the bike:

I was really lucky because after wiring everything up it all worked on the first try. I don't have a multimeter or multiple colors of wire so it would have been very difficult to locate any shorts. I realize I could have consolidated various GND and 5V wires in order to not have 14 coming out of the seatpost, but it was late that I didn't want to try anything new.

The project uses 9 BlipTronics LEDs and a picoduino.

If you have a any questions please ask!
http://www.bliptronics.com/

I also received some advice from this thread, thanks!
http://www.arduino.cc/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1291110140

2

B.L.T., or Bicycle Lighting Technology

B.L.T., or making me hungry ;D

3

Excellent!

A lot more visible that standard bicycle lights!

Motorists - you may need to wear shades!

4

Great project! I hope the city cops won't ticket you for having lights brighter than theirs.

5

good job!

6

Good job! :wink: Like how you have done the quick release mecahanism.

Would be interesting to learn how you hooked up the "real world" parts of the bike. How does Arduino know when you have pulled each brake handle? Is there an integrated switch or a separate push button? And what switch did you use for the turn signal?

7

Really clean. Smart how you configured the lights and implemented the blinker all using one center mechanism.

8

I had a plan to do something similar to this with the 8x18 R/G matrix I have.

I'd also be interested to know what you used for sensing the brake.
How well is it sealed against the elements?

Mowcius

9

Very good project. Simple, usefull and well finished.
Congrats