Tag Archives: Motorcycle helmet HUD

Motorcycle helmet HUD – 4

It’s been a while since I did any work on this project, but I pulled out the components the other day and started to look into the Bluetooth connection between the Raspberry Pi and the Feather 32u4 Bluefruit LE board.

It turns out to be complex and on the whole not very well explained how to make these devices talk to each other.  In the final analysis it’s not actually that hard – but you have to do a lot of reading and educate yourself about Bluetooth LE (low energy) before you can actually Make Stuff Happen (TM).

And when you do there are a few limitations that you have to get your head around – like very small data packets.  So no sending long strings for instance.  And then there’s Services and Characteristics and Notification.  Most documenation is far to low level.  Or, if it’s higher level, then it’s vague and poorly explained.

Anyway.  Two days later and I have absorbed – almost – enough Bluetooth LE lore to be able to start to do useful things.  I have achieved connection and data transfer and am working on creating a service that will ultimately allow the Raspberry Pi to send enough data to the Feather board that it will be able to work out how to update the Neopixel strip to correctly reflect current speed.

Progress is happening.

Motorcycle helmet HUD – 3

2016-08-23 08.26.00I may still be waiting for my 3D printer to arrive, but in the mean time, the components for my HUD were waiting in the mail box today!
It included a Rasberry Pi model 3 B, an Adafruit Feather Bluefruit (bluetooth enabled Feather development board) and some headers for the Bluefruit.

So now I’m ready to push forward with this project and get the electronics finalised.  Once the 3D printer arrives, then I can start working on housings for the electronics.  Lots to plan and lots to do!

 

Motorcycle helmet HUD – 2

Ok, today has been an interesting day for discoveries.  I was thinking about the limitations of having to have a wired connection between the helmet and main unit on the bike and it got me thinking about Bluetooth and wireless options.

The first thing I discovered (which I wasn’t aware of) is that basic Bluetooth modules (and slave and master pair) can be readily inserted in place of a serial connection between devices.  Unfortunately I don’t think that this would work in the case of driving the Neopixel LED strip that I am planning on using for speed display, but it did point me in the right direction.

What I found was the Adafruit Feather 32u4 Bluefruit LE Arduino development board:

https://www.adafruit.com/products/2829

It’s a fully functional Arduino single board computer with the following features:

  • Size: 51mm x 23mm x 8mm
  • USB powered
  • Built in lithium ion polymer battery charger (!)
  • Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy module
  • Heaps of GPIO pins

And it’s cheap (USD$30).  All of this makes it perfect for controlling the LED strip.  It’s small, batter powered, low power consumption, has Bluetooth for communication, and is perfect for controlling LEDs.

I have ordered one to play with and get a feel for Arduino (which I haven’t used before).  So my Raspberry Pi 3 B (which also has Bluetooth 4.0 support) should be able to talk directly to the Feather and issue commands about what light pattern to display.

This means that the helmet components just got more complex, but it should be worth the hassle to have a wire free connection.

Motorcycle helmet HUD – 1

This is an old project that I am finally getting back to, with the hope of completing.

I have ridden motorcycles for nearly twenty years, and being tall (6’2″) means that on all of the bikes that I have owned, the instrument cluster is out of my line of site – usually obscured by the chin guard of my helmet (and there is absolutely no way known that I will ever wear an open face helmet).

This is a problem, because it means that I have to frequently take my eyes off the road to check that I am not exceeding the speed limit – something ridiculously easy to do on a modern sports bike.

My solution, which I prototyped over a year ago uses a GPS receiver connected to a Raspberry Pi single board computer, and a stick of RGB LEDs to give a visual indication of speed in the rider’s peripheral vision, where each LED lit corresponds to a speed band (40 to 50kms, 50 to 60kms etc).  The prototype also has an LCD screen and a Raspberry Pi camera that down the track I want to use for automatic speed zone detection (using a convolutional neural network for speed sign identification) but that’s a bigger project for another time.

The prototype worked in stationary testing, but I never got the chance to do testing in a vehicle and the Raspberry Pi has since been scavenged for the Heat Recovery Ventilator project, so I really need to buy another one.

So this is a project that definitely needs to be revived.  I have been off the bike for a while, but did a long trip recently and got thinking about it again seeing all of the police on the road and really missing having cruise control!

Stay tuned.  More to come.