Bike Boys - Automatic Bike Safety Lights ECE342-W22

3D Printing
Arduino
PCB
Automation
Accelerometer
Junior Design

The project being presented is an automatic brake and turn signal indicator for a bike. The brake lights flash and increase in brightness as the user comes closer to a complete stop. The turn signals automatically turn off within 15 ft of completing a turn. This device is intended to be used on a bicycle whilst on the road with motor vehicles. It should be noted that the lights used for indication and braking are visible up to 40ft with an output of at least 800 lumens. We implemented three 18650 batteries in series for a 12V rechargeable system. The system can be charged using both wall power and solar pannels. I will note that the solar panels must be disconnected in order to use the device properly and is merely a means to charge the batteries when the system is not in use. We insured the safety and reliability of the 18650 batteries by incorporating a battery management system (BMS). All logic was handled with the Arduino Nano. Our most notable accomplishment was incorporating LED's specified for automotive use by controlling mosfets with the arduino nano and incorporating an accelerometer to determine when it was appropriate to automatically turn off the turn signals. Our main challenge was incorporating the accelerometer to automatically turn off the turn signals. We agreed that an improvement that can be made for the future can be implementing the solar pannels more seamlessly as the user must disconnect it to use the device.

1 Lifts 

Artifacts

Name Description
Automatic Turn Signals This video shows the turn signals automatically turning off after 5 seconds from when the bike starts moving forward.   Link
Automatic Brake Lights This video shows the brake lights increasing with speed and brightness(though brightness is hard to tell in video) also increasing with speed. As the bike system slows down both the flash rate and the brightness increase. Once the system begins to move forward, the lights will turn off until braking occurs again   Link
Executive Project Summary This document includes a brief summary on the problems we were given, approach we used, key takeaways we learned, and timeline for this project.   Download
Project Summary This video contains an overview of the project, challenges, and achievements from over the course of the project's development.   Link