The concept of using a sensor laden helmet is nothing new. My first thoughts of this type of bike helmet were brought about by the QuickFire sensor lab last quarter. The smart helmet term is something coined to describe a helmet that has sensors on it. Truth be told, wearing a helmet is fundamentally the smart thing to do. I can attest since bomping my noggin at the skate park with my son. Actually, I’ve known that fact for much…
The process of creating scaled 3D models in SketchUp is time consuming. It took me an hour to create one component, the lowly 2×16 parallel LCD. I had to finally give up trying to draw one of the pinouts, the software rendered it incorrectly each time I went to edit it. This took most of my time, correcting mistakes the software was creating. I felt like it was in a wrestling match and the rules of the game where in…
There are a few projects that I want to incorporate the Arduino micro controller. Most of my projects have been developed using the Uno board. This board has worked well and I’ve grown to rely on it. There is one challenge that I face using the Uno, it’s size. Although it’s small, it’s not compact enough for some of my projects. Fortunately, they do make them smaller, much smaller. I was able to source a Pro Mini from Sparkfun for…
When I was working on the Planet Bike tail light, I had designed a custom PCB and had it manufactured using ExpressPCB. I had etched my own boards before. This was a big improvement from that experience. I initially tried to use proto board and ended up damaging the components while I assembled them. I would have spent more time doing it any other way. While brainstorming ideas about a case design, I thought something 3D should already be available. …