Dave's Thoughts: 2011

So I wanted o upgrade my tail light so that inattentive drivers know I'm slowing down. The biggest problem I noticed on the Ninja 250 is that the standard light (single pod) doesn't have good contrast. Even though the bulb is powerful, I don't feel it suits safety very well.

It was dumb luck that I discovered a perfect MR16 LED bulb on Amazon for $13.

It's a 5W, 250lm bulb which after removing some plastic, it fits perfectly in the extra unused pods on the tail light.

Originally I was planning on having a dimmed light because the controller inside the bulb supports some dimming. Turned out I would have needed to develop more than what I wanted to. The single LED driver wouldn't have been able to power 6 LEDs (from 2 bulbs) on the 12V bike power.

You can see the 2 MR16 bulbs on the external pods. They fit (with removed lenses and rings) right where a bulb socket would have gone.

I decided to just have it completely off and then on when braking only.
Normal operation just has the standard running light.

With the brakes on it's a LOT better than just the center bulb only. The 2 pictures are taken a the same speed/aperture for good comparison.

Overall I'm very happy with the upgrade and feel a bit safer. The LEDs turn on almost .25s (or more) faster than the standard bulb. The LEDs also allow me to brake flash better to warn people following too close or just when I may be stopping/slowing "unexpectedly"

I've always been interested in FLIR technology and how to apply it. While I've never owned or used a FLIR directly I know the basic principles.

Basically, I'm sort of making a first generation version that uses a single point scanner (IR temperature) and panning across in a gridded fashion. While this is crude and only suited for slow changes in temperature over an area it works for what I have in mind - scanning a wall in cold weather.

This is how I'm planning on how to do things:

Arduino - The interface between the hardware and software. It will read from the serial command to either pan, tilt or read from the temperature sensor. The temperature sensor has a serial port built into it so I don't need to worry about that.

Processing (on the computer - actual program called "Processing") - I already have the grid plotted and functioning as well as the program controlling the pan and tilt function properly. The next thing is to get the code to read the temperature an apply to the grid. The grid is a color-coded grid, where blue is cold and red is hot (relative)

After spending a bit on the code and the hardware with my new soldering iron it works quite well!

The first image shows a crude setup of the sensor on a pan/tilt mount. I used an old DSL filter for the RJ45 connector to the sensor which makes quick disconnects easy. An old IDE connector on a pcb board for quick plugin to the arduino.

The next image shows what the sensor was pointing at. My cat like the laser dot as well where the sensor is point near :) For proof that it detect heat sources the supply is for my laptop and runs hot - about 95F. The picture is just about the area being scanned. Unfortunately the thermal sensor is very slow so the framerate in processing is 0.8 frames/second... YIKES!

This last picture is the dynamic map of the readings. You can clearly see the power brick light up in comparison to the surrounding area which is 70ish or less. I need to make a PDF export of the image when it reaches the corners!

Next is to make this a bit more... portable. I need to get the pan/tilt mount to be better built and have some type of system to manage the cables into a unit that requires a usb cable.

Updates:
I used a busted HDD case with spindle still on it as my turntable. With a few modifications with a drill-press it suits my needs. I also attached my tripod to the casing so that it can measure in an elevated position.

Here are some more close up shots of the micro processor with connections.