Passing Distance

[fossyant]

You win first prize for the most stuff you can fit to a bike - not minimalist is it.......

Let us know how it works...

 

[PrettyboyTim]

It worked pretty well on the way in today. It does need some form of audio output, though.

 

[magnatom]

It worked pretty well on the way in today. It does need some form of audio output, though.

What sort of distances are you experiencing? What was the closest? What is your reference point (i.e. centre of bike, handlebars etc)? What is the meaning of life....Oops, one question too far!

 

[PrettyboyTim]

Currently I've calibrated it to deduct the width of the handlebars from the measured distance. This would be a pretty accurate measure if a car was exactly parallel with me. However, as the sensor is at the back of the bike and the handlebars are at the front, the reading won't always exactly reflect reality.

I didn't get a reading for the closest pass I had, largely because it was a cab squeezing past me on the left as I wated to turn right!

The closest anyone overtook me by I think was about two feet, and the closest a car came (on the right) was one foot, but that was one coming in the opposite direction where the road was very thin. In that instance though we were both travelling very slowly.

 

[Riding in Circles]

I think I am easier going than most, I always say if it doesn't hit me it doesn't harm me, it may be that riding a trike I don't wobble so it feels less of an issue.

 

[Carwash]

Could it activate the Airzound at a pre-programmed distance ?

Might give the rider himself a start if he's not expecting it! Could be dangerous.

 

[magnatom]

Currently I've calibrated it to deduct the width of the handlebars from the measured distance. This would be a pretty accurate measure if a car was exactly parallel with me. However, as the sensor is at the back of the bike and the handlebars are at the front, the reading won't always exactly reflect reality.

I didn't get a reading for the closest pass I had, largely because it was a cab squeezing past me on the left as I wated to turn right!

The closest anyone overtook me by I think was about two feet, and the closest a car came (on the right) was one foot, but that was one coming in the opposite direction where the road was very thin. In that instance though we were both travelling very slowly.

I'd definitely be up for making one of these if I had a point by point set of instructions.

However, if I had something like this I would probably store all of the electronics in my rucksack, with just the cable (which would pull out in the case of an accident of course!) and the ultrasound sensor on the bike (can you get weatherproof sensors?

It would need to have a clock which would time each measurement and would store that information (along with the distance of each pass) on a solid state memory card. A new file would be written for each pass, so that in the case of an incident the data would already be written to the card and should survive.

Of course if you are hit by a car it would be pretty obvious how close they passed!!

Good work Tim!!

 

[PrettyboyTim]

I'd definitely be up for making one of these if I had a point by point set of instructions.

Well, I have put some information on my site, but it's not quite at the point-by-point stage yet ;-)

If anyone else did fancy making one though, there is probably enough information on the site to get you going as long as you:

a) Can do a bit of rudimentary soldering
Can program a bit of C
c) Are prepared to fill in a few blanks and do a little experimenting on your own

The best way to start off would be to get hold of the arduino prototyping board and get yourself to a position where you're happy making it blink LEDs on and off, that kind of thing. After that you could grab the LCD panel and the range sensor and get them interfacing with the arduino as well.

The best thing to do is to mock up the circuit first with some solderless breadboard, which will work for testing but may fall apart when it gets bumped around on your bike. The only soldering needed if you take the solderless breadboard route is soldering a few header pins onto the range sensor and lcd board, which is very straightforward. Once you've done that, you can plug them straight in to the breadboard.

I'm a complete novice when it comes to electronics; however I am a programmer so I found this digitial microelectronics stuff fairly straightforward. Certainly arduino is a fantastic way to get into microprocessors - it's very straightforward as long as you're happy programming in C.

 

[magnatom]

I've done a little bit of c programming in the past (C++ if I remember correctly) but it was very rudimentary. I remember getting all confused over pointers, and having a quick glance at your code it looks like your a big pointer fan!

As part of my training for medical physics I actually did a 6 month placement in Electronics. There I learned to program a voice recognition microprocessor board with the aim of testing its capabilities of controlling a wheelchair through voice commands (95% reliability, but not good enough!). I did a bit of breadboarding then, but that was waaaay waaaaaaay back (1995 I think) so I have completely forgotten how to do it. Never soldered.

I'll think about it........

 

[Fnaar]

However, if I had something like this I would probably store all of the electronics in my rucksack, with just the cable (which would pull out in the case of an accident of course!) and the ultrasound sensor on the bike (can you get weatherproof sensors?

Just don't go catching any public transport if you need to carry your kit around off the bike!
Looks fascinating... just wish I had the wherewithall to even think of doing something like that!

 

[Arch]

The best thing to do is to mock up the circuit first with some solderless breadboard, which will work for testing but may fall apart when it gets bumped around on your bike.

My breadboard has some crumbs on it, but it's definitely solderless, is that Ok?

 

[PrettyboyTim]

My breadboard has some crumbs on it, but it's definitely solderless, is that Ok?

As long as it has a 2.54mm pitch, that should be fine ;-)