Arduino Powered Bicycle Direction Indicator Lights With 3D Printed Parts

Hey guys in this instructables i will show you how i made these Indicator lights that go well with any bicycle and in some cases for the motorcycle too.

One simple question that will get struck on your mind when you see this project is WHATS SPECIAL WITH THIS INDICATOR?

There are multiple factors that makes this indicator light stand apart from the other indicators available in the market

Have you ever seen a bicycle indicator sensitive to directions? Well this indicator automatically detects the left/right direction and mainly the pattern of light can be programmed also the brightness of light and sensitivity rate can also be adjusted as per your needs

In simple words let me give you a quick overview of this project, This is a gyro powered direction indicator that can be used in your bicycle and it is powered by arduino and programmable LED strips, You can change the color and movement of LED light individually and the most interesting part is when you turn the bicycle left/right this indicator automatically shows eft/right direction

Why you need adjustments? Imagine you are on a trial on the mountain and here responsiveness is the key, it is difficult to manually press the right and left button when you making any turns, automating this will give you an extra relief and save lots of energy.

Other factor here is when something makes your life easier why not adapt to it! This is the beauty of technology it solves common problems that will look simple but upon solving makes a great impact.

With this being said let us head over to building this project, Dont miss to check out the video tutorial given at the end steps of this instructables, If you have any such ideas feel free to share in the comments section and also if you made this let me know i will be happy.

Below is the list of materials that you will need to build this project

Arduino Nano got from here

WS2812B Led strips

MPU 6050 sensor module

Jumper wires

Breadboard for prototyping

3D printer

PLA filament(color of your choice)

Slicing software

Programming cable

Soldering Iron and Hot glue gun

Arduino IDE

Power bank

Bicycle

The circuit here is very straightforward, we have 2 parts here

One is the WS2812B strip and the other is the MPU 6050 sensor also called as gyro sensor

To indicate the directions i will use 2 led strip with 4 led on each strip, These are the connections

ARGB LED Strip: connections

Both the +5V from the strip is connected to the 5V power supply on the board

GND from both the strip is connect to GND on the Arduino nano

Data In or Din from one strip is connected to a digital pin 6 on the Arduino and the other Din to D7 of Nano

Gyro Sensor or MPU6050 connections

VCC and Gnd is Connect to 5V on the Arduino and Gnd

SCL pin is connect to A5 on the Arduino and SDA is connected to A4 on the Arduino

After these connections are complete you can head over to uploading the codes, and this is very simple

Copy and paste the program on your IDE, Here you need 2 library one is the gyro library and the other is neopixel

Install this and upload the code and now the circuit is ready for testing, You can change the colors and timing on the code as per your needs

Now after the program is in the nano and when you power it up with USB this is what happens, i will give you an overview of the technicals that run behind this.

MPU6050 accelerometer and gyroscope sensor are used to detect the orientation. The sensor reads the tilt of the device on the x-axis. When the device is tilted to the left, the first four LEDs on both ARGB LED strips light up indicating a left turn. Likewise, when the device is tilted to the right, the last four LEDs on both strips light up in , indicating a right tilt.

Here the Arduino processes the data from the MPU6050 and controls the LED strip lights accordingly, and we are using this as an indicator.

I would recommend to use number of LED in LED strips to 8 maximum since more than that the power required to work will be more and the sensor might not work properly.

You also can simplify this circuit with a Simple small PCB, Complete your electronic projects in the best way from PCBWay

They are raining great offers since their 10th anniversary is live enter now

Why them? They have provided me with the best PCB and The quality is just amazing compared to other providers in the market, They also have Color PCB printing Try it out.

Don't have a 3d printer? You can get the best 3d printing service here

Check Here for Rigid-flex Pcbs with this your circuit becomes flexible! I have added the images to this step kindly check.

A revolutionary solution that combines the best of both rigid and flexible circuitry to elevate your electronic projects to new heights.

With their expertise in advanced manufacturing techniques, they offer a seamless integration of rigid and flexible components, ensuring enhanced reliability, durability, and space-saving benefits.

For the cover or the case i will be using 3d printing parts, I designed them on the Tinkercad and sliced on a cura slicer.

I will be using red, Blue and white PLA filament to print the parts, there is no need of rafts or supports at the time of print as there are no overhanging parts involved in the model.

After you have the 3d printed parts ready, do a basic cleaning like webbing so that it will not effect the circuits later.

If you have difficulty in accessing the 3d printer, you can use any local or online 3d printing service providers for printing the parts, after we have all the parts ready we can head over to its actual purpose

This is the interesting part for me, I can see that the messy electronics are consolidated inside a small frame.

I have made this in the hard way, The jumper cables that I used were hard and not flexible but anyways i applied some force and was finally able to make that fit inside the 3d printed cases.

If you have difficulty I recommend using shorter length jumpers they occupy less space and are flexible compared to what I used.

Start by gluing the gyro sensor first, here you need to glue it on a 0 degree angle because these are sensitive to movements and the initial leveling should be perfect for making this work properly.

Use a decent amount of hot glue wherever necessary and double check if all the wires are secured because after everything is inside the case it is difficult to open circuit again.

Using this is very simple, Its like a plug and play device all you have to do is connect this to your powerbank via the USB cable and you are ready to go.

First you have to secure this on your bicycle, use zipties or elastic bands for this purpose, then connect the power supply using powerbank.

Now you can ride your bicycle and whenever you take a turn this indicator lights up their arrows and show the read riders which direction you are headed to( obviously it will be left or right)

Open the program and make some changes to the colors or the speed of led light glow or the sensitivity of the gyro.

That is all for now, there are multiple options to take this project to the next level and if you have any ideas feel free to leave your suggestions in the discussion box, Thanks for reading and happy making

Are you missing something? Then i suggest you to have a look at this detailed tutorial video that also has testing

I don't have bicycle so I added this indicator to my old motorcycle and the results remain the same.

If you still have any questions ask in the comments, Happy building this :)