Fun little gizmo...

[ZX-12R]

A friend of mine came to me with an idea to build a device that would make it look like your wheel was standing still regardless of how fast you are going. I've had the idea before but his interest inspired me to throw together some simple electronics to accomplish it. To my surprise it ended up working very well so I took a video of it in action. In the video it appears that light source is flickering but it is only a limitation of the camera I used to capture it (still camera with video mode). The image is perfectly smooth if you see the actual setup. For the video I had it synchronized to my rear sprocket. I brought the bike up to 80 mph and back down. I tested it as far as 120 mph and it still works without any trouble at all.

A short clip of its performance

See what happens when an engineer gets bored?

[ZX-12R]

Forgot to mention, it has 2 channels so you can sync your front and rear wheels. I have matte black wheels so it does not look that great, but when used with chrome wheels or any lighter color rims, the results are impressive.

A friend of mine volunteered to do a burnout with the gizmo hooked up and it looks sweet! I wish I had my camera for that!

[OreoGaborio]

bling bling, yo

jk. looks cool & is more work than i could do

[ZX-12R]

Funny thing is I don't want it on my bike. I'm not into all the bling bling associated with standing next to my scooter. The only reason I made it was for my friend who wanted one and to see if I could actually do it.

I was actually surprised that it was able to maintain syncronization at 120 mph!

[ssg]

I'm not much into bling, but as far as home grown technogeekery that is cool as hell...good work

What did you do to help it keep timing? opto electronics using chain spacing as a gauge? or something in the driveline existing that you tapped off of?

I never really thought of it for M/C wheels but have considered what it would be like to double-flash spinners and the like in the darker hours of the day.
..uhh, nevermind the description I have won't make sense, but think when you look at a wheel on the highway under sodium halide lamps and can see the wheel almost spinning "backwards", and you're on the right path. Except my weird thought was to have it emulate source lighting energy and color, to almost appear spinning backwards slowly as it rolls at speed.

I swear I'm sober too

[ZX-12R]

No opto electronics in this setup although the way I designed it, you could easily just substitute an optointerrupter for the sensor portion. I'm using a hall effect sensor to detect small disk magnets I attached to the rear sprocket.

The rest of the components are discrete logic so all it can do is synchronize with the wheel. A future version might include some intelligence so you could make the wheel look like it is spinning forward or backward regardless of speed.

[Nikon]

call the inventors channel thingy and get a patent then sell it on the 'bay...I bet you could do pretty well with it.

[benVFR]

This work like "hokeyspokes"?

I don't think they make em for motorcycle wheels but they make this device you can stick on bicycle wheels to do similar things.

Usually they use it to put a lit pattern over the wheel though... Like put your name glowing in the spokes, you could make it show the bike manufacturer logo, etc..

example:



edit: Ah I see you're using a strobe I assume, mounted on the swingarm. These things mount to the wheel itself.

[ZX-12R]

That is a pretty novel idea, but it is different than mine. The Hokey Spokes emit light from the wheel to make patterns. My design shines light onto the wheel. With some clever packaging design, my system could be practically unnoticeable .

[TheIglu]

Can it show boobies?

[TheIglu]

All ya need is a kanob to adjust the percentage of speed that the light flashes in relation to the wheel. If you can get a +/- 10% of the wheel rpm, then you could turn a dial to make the wheel appear to go forward or backward.

[ZX-12R]

Originally posted by TheIglu
Can it show boobies?

If you paint some boobies on your spokes and use this gadget, anyone riding next to you will be able to see the boobies clear as day regardless of your speed!

If you have enough spokes and spin the wheel at the right speed, you could put on a very short animation!

Originally posted by TheIglu
All ya need is a kanob to adjust the percentage of speed that the light flashes in relation to the wheel. If you can get a +/- 10% of the wheel rpm, then you could turn a dial to make the wheel appear to go forward or backward.

I thought about that but it would be difficult to do in its current form. I would have to switch from discrete logic to a small microcontroller of some sort. Certainly doable though. It just takes more time.

[TheIglu]

Do it....do it!!!

[ssg]

You do realize that if you do not take this further, someone else will - and your house on the hill will be occupied by some ideatheif.com sack of flesh.

Go forth and get yours

Altezza lights aren't my thing but damn do I wish I was the guy that thought of em first

[ZX-12R]

The guy I made it for has the resources to properly design packaging for the electronics and sensors. He also has buddies that are mold makers and another that is a patent lawyer. We have been talking about possibly bringing this to market. I'm sure it would go over big with the squidly crowd!

[ssg]

[i] I'm sure it would go over big with the squidly crowd! [/B]

Undoubtedly...there are a few directions you could take this in as well. But I'll save my inputs till you are ready to go somewhere with it, I'm a wordy bastard