[Mark Fickett] finished his own interesting take on a bicycle computer. These wristwatch-sized devices normally mount to the handlebars and give feedback for current speed, trip distance, and many have options like cadence and heart rate. [Mark’s] has fewer features but it’s clean, simple, and does more than you’d think.
He used some denim to house the electronics which you can see mounted inside the frame of the bike. He’s chosen to use Lilypad components which are Arduino bits meant to be sewn into textiles. We’ve seen a Morse Code keyer using these components and this project is along the same lines. It reads wheel revolutions from a magnetic sensor mounted on the front fork. It has no LCD readout, but when you want to know how far you’ve traveled just press one button and the computer reads it back to in Morse Code played on a tiny piezo buzzer. This package hides one more nice option. Once you arrive home the trip data can be dumped onto a computer for easy graphing. Check out the video after the break to see these features in action.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yEmga_edk0&w=470]
[via Dangerous Prototypes]
morse code! how convenient! :D
its a great idea for all the blind cyclists in the world!
no offence, but this is stupid.
This is the best use of a lilypad arduino, and its all wrong.
A circuit board you can sew into clothes?
Hell no, lets sew it into a bike!
Should we protect it from rain and stuff?
Hell no, it says you can wash it, so it should be fine!
So should we make a circuit board and put components and stuff on it?
Hell no, lets just sew a big ugly fabric thing on the bike that gets in the way of the water bottle.
So your going to sew the lilypad onto the fabric?
Hell no, lets sew a whole load of crocodile clips on the fabric, then just clip it in, that way we only need to hold 7 crocodile clips down at the same time to take the board out!
Oh snap, the sensor wire is kind of long, should we cut it shorter?
Hell no! lets just bundle it up, ugly style!
Why morse code?
so people think i’m a spy.
“tiny piezo buzzer” – nope.
Why are people so obsessed with bike things? oh wow look how far i cycled to the store and back past the train station! my life is complete now that i know the exact distance and graphed it.
What do you do print it out and send it to your friends? no, i bet you save it and never look at it again and then just delete it.
I guess its better than wasting your life like i’m doing right now. kudos.
nice ramble pff, but i agree. i really dont see the point of the morsecode stuff. and if you just want a logger you could make it tiny and invisible inside the handle bar or under the saddle etc.
also the fabric stuff seems to make shifting a bit less convenient (it gets in the way).
@pff
None taken, actually. But we’re clearly seeing different goals for the project.
Why a LilyPad cyclocomputer? Because I had it, and I wanted to make something that wasn’t a blinking LED, and the real cyclocomputer’s battery was dead. Time to explore. (Making forts in the woods is totally inefficient, too.)
Should we protect it from stuff? Should we sew this sewable computer onto the cloth? No; let’s just go full-bore into new territory and figure it out as we go along, rather than get mired down in the details; but even so, let’s not permenantly commit our $20 toy to a project that might not work out. (Actually, since the clips are sewn on to flexible fabric, you can put them on/off one at a time.)
It does get in the way of the water bottle (but it happens I almost never use that). But, @Swankie, I did design it with that curved section specifically so it doesn’t get in the way of the shifters.
And why Morse code? Because I already know it – again, just fun, and working with what’s on hand. (LCD and knowledge of wiring it up to an Arduino? No and no. Buzzer from scrap electronics and knowledge of Morse? Check, check. Braille too, while we’re at it.)
And man – data is awesome, any way you slice it.
That will great mobility vehicle for the blind